Train with a local coach to learn Muay Thai fundamentals—stance, guard, and footwork—before practicing striking combinations on pads. Build timing and technique in a friendly gym environment where determination counts more than experience.

Discover why Thailand’s national sport blends discipline, ritual, and explosive movement. Expect sweat, smiles, and a confidence boost. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, subject to availability.

Zip through Chiang Mai by Vespa, riding pillion with experienced drivers down lantern-lit lanes. Make tasty stops to sample Northern Thai street food—think khao soi and sai ua—and meet the vendors keeping family recipes alive.

Between bites, cruise past vibrant murals and historic gates like Tha Phae. Wrap the evening with live music in the market district and sweet treats. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, subject to availability.

Roll up your sleeves for a hands-on Thai cooking class. Crush aromatics in a mortar and pestle, stir-fry noodles to wok-kissed perfection, and master curries by balancing sweet, sour, salty and spicy elements.

Guided by a local chef, prepare classics such as pad thai or green curry—often with regional twists like northern herbs. Savor your creations and take home recipes to recreate Thailand’s flavors. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Meet rescued herds at an ethical elephant sanctuary dedicated to welfare, not performance. Observe gentle giants during feeding and river splashes, learn individual histories, and understand why there’s no riding, no shows—just respectful distance and care.

Founded to rehabilitate animals from logging and tourism, the park also shelters cats, dogs, and water buffalo. Gain insight into Thailand’s changing relationship with elephants and how your visit directly supports ongoing rescue efforts.

Explore a solemn chapter of history at the Death Railway Museum and Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, before walking the iconic Bridge on the River Kwai. Exhibits, personal stories, and rows of white headstones bring human scale to one of Southeast Asia’s most significant wartime sites.

Learn how the Thailand–Burma Railway was built by forced labor and Allied POWs in 1942–43. Hear about survival and loss, and take a moment to pause for photos and reflection amid the quiet river scenery.

Unplug in nature at a floating jungle raft hotel reached by long-tail boat. By night, candle-lit rooms and bamboo walkways glow against the dark river; by day, step from your deck to jump straight into the river or watch kingfishers flit along the forested banks.

Set on the River Kwai amid Mon communities and tangled rainforest, this stay captures Thailand’s quieter rhythms. Wake to birdsong and mist over the water, a serene counterpoint to the bustle of the cities.

Cool off at the seven-tiered Erawan Falls, where limestone terraces tumble into emerald pools. Swim beneath jungle canopies, scramble smooth boulders, or follow jungle trails between cascades for wide-angle photos and refreshing dips.

Named for the mythical three-headed elephant, the top tier is said to resemble its pale head. Look for butterflies drifting over turquoise water and shafts of light catching the spray as you explore one of Thailand’s most beloved national parks.

Pedal through the former Siamese capital, tracing quiet lanes between UNESCO-listed Ayutthaya temples. Glide past weathered prang spires and bell-shaped chedis as saffron-robed monks and local vendors share the island-city streets.

Hear how Ayutthaya flourished from the 14th to 18th centuries before its fall to the Burmese. Highlights often include Wat Mahathat’s Buddha head in tree roots and palatial ruins like Wat Phra Si Sanphet—living history layered with incense, brickwork, and river breezes.

• 6 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Dinner (D)
• 2 Lunch (L)

• Bangkok: A modular trip means fellow travellers will join and leave at various locations. There’ll be some goodbyes, sure, but there’ll also be plenty of hellos with new like-minded travellers.

• Bangkok: Nose around the gilded Royal Palace, then travel like a local: floating down the Rivers. 
• Kanchanaburi: A sombre slice of history. See the Death Railway Museum, WWII Cemetery and the famous Bridge itself. 
• Kanchanaburi: Candle-lit rooms.In the middle of the jungle. And lots of delicious local food to devour. It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Oh, and you can even jump in the river directly from your room! IKR.
• Kanchanaburi: Cool off in emerald pools, shower under a waterfall and get your step count up. All in a day’s work.
• Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya: Golden temples, a giant reclining Buddha and so many incredible sights to see. Try not to fall off your bike in shock!
• Chiang Mai: Meet these gentle giants (plus rescued rabbits, cats and water buffalo) at this Elephant Nature Park – a kind-hearted elephant sanctuary. 

Contiki

Discover Bangkok’s royal heart on a guided visit to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, where dazzling gilded chedis frame the revered Emerald Buddha. Wander ceremonial courtyards and cloisters as your guide reveals court traditions and architectural flourishes from the palace complex founded in 1782.

Travel like a local along the Chao Phraya River, watching long-tail boats weave past stilted homes and warehouses. From the water, view the spires of Wat Arun and the modern skyline beyond, a vivid snapshot of the city’s layered identity.