Cycling Ayutthaya's Ruins: A Half-Day Route Through 400 Years

The ancient capital is flat, compact, and perfect on two wheels — here's the loop locals recommend.

Ayutthaya is flat, the ruins sit close together, and the island is small enough that a bicycle beats a car by a wide margin. You park it against a brick wall that has stood since the 1400s and walk in. No queue, no car park, nobody waiting in a van with the engine running.

A bike costs 40 to 60 baht for the day. That is the cheapest good decision available in Thai tourism.

Getting there first

Ayutthaya Historical Park is the ruined island capital of the Ayutthaya kingdom, about 80 km north of Bangkok, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1991.

The train is the right way in. The commuter service from Krung Thep Aphiwat runs six times on weekdays from about 05:15 and four times at weekends from about 09:05, and the fare to Ayutthaya is capped at 50 baht. An hour and a bit, air-conditioned, and it drops you a ferry ride from the island.

That ferry across the river from the station puts you on the eastern edge. Rent your bike on whichever side you land — shops cluster around the station and along the guesthouse strip on the island, and the prices are the same.

Take a bike with working brakes and check the tyres before you ride off. The roads inside the historical park are smooth; the shortcuts between temples are not always paved, and a flat tyre two kilometres from a shop in April heat is a bad afternoon.

The loop, in the order that works

Start early. Before nine the light is soft, the brick is not yet radiating heat back at you, and the coaches have not arrived from Bangkok.

Wat Mahathat comes first, because the Buddha head held in the roots of a banyan tree is the single most photographed object in the city and it gets crowded fast. Crouch to photograph it — your head must not sit higher than the Buddha's, and staff will remind you if you forget. The reason so many images here have no heads is not the one most guides give.

Wat Ratchaburana is next, west along the road, and it is the one nobody expects to like most. You climb down a near-vertical stair into the crypt beneath the prang. It is narrow, hot, and holds faded murals that have survived down there since the fifteenth century.

Wat Phra Si Sanphet was the royal temple of the old palace, and its three restored chedis in a row are the shape most people picture when they think of Ayutthaya.

Wat Lokayasutharam, a short ride further west, holds a 37-metre reclining Buddha out in the open with no building around it at all. It is free, it takes ten minutes, and it is the one most day trips skip.

Finish across the river at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, which faces west and is comfortably the best of the lot in late afternoon light.

What it costs

The combined ticket covers Wat Mahathat, Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Maheyong. If you are doing four or more of those it pays for itself; if you are doing three it does not, and buying singles is fine.

Bring cash in small notes. Not every gate has change for a thousand and the queue behind you will notice.

Riding it without suffering

There is very little shade between sites. Carry more water than you think you need, start before the heat, and take the middle of the day off entirely — this is what the two o'clock cafe break was invented for, and skipping it is how people end a day trip lying down.

Traffic on the main roads is real traffic, not a park path. Ride on the left, keep to the edge, and be careful at the roundabouts where the coaches turn wide.

Honest note on timing: in green season the park is at its best — grass rather than dust, and the brick reads darker and richer — but a downpour on an unshaded bicycle is a real event. Sukhothai in the same months handles rain better because it has trees.