Step Inside a Working Palace at the Heart of Rattanakosin
You cross Na Phra Lan Road, pass through the high whitewashed castellated walls, and the noise of the street falls away. This is the Grand Palace — a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok, and the official residence of the Kings of Siam, and later Thailand, since 1782. It is not one structure but many: halls, pavilions and throne buildings set around open lawns, gardens and courtyards, divided into the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Outer Court, the Middle Court, the Inner Court and the Siwalai Gardens quarter. The asymmetry and the mix of styles come from more than two hundred years of additions and rebuilding by successive kings. It remains a working palace, with royal offices still inside, and several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within its walls every year.
See the Emerald Buddha and the Halls of the Middle Court
Within the palace grounds is Wat Phra Kaew, the most sacred Buddhist temple of Thailand. It is not a single building, nor does it house living space for monks; instead it is a collection of highly decorated holy buildings and monuments. One of them shelters the Emerald Buddha — despite its small size, the most sacred Buddha image in Thailand. The image has three different costumes, one for each season: summer, rainy season and winter.
In the Middle Court you walk among the state apartments and ceremonial throne halls, including the Phra Maha Monthien Buildings, the Phra Maha Prasat Buildings and the Chakri Maha Prasat Buildings. Look for the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall in particular: it was built mostly in an Italian neoclassical style but carries a traditional Thai roof, one of the most interesting European-influenced buildings in the city. Two museums also sit on the grounds — the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, in the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building, and the Arts of the Kingdom Museum, which displays works by artisans of the Queen Sirikit Institute preserved as national treasures.
Make a Full Morning or Afternoon of It
The palace has an immense size, so expect to spend at least a full morning or afternoon there. Come with that time budgeted rather than squeezing it between other stops; the courtyards and decorated buildings reward a slow pass rather than a hurried one. Because it is a working palace as well as a museum, parts of the complex are only partially open to the public, and access to the separate courts is defined by law and tradition — the Inner Court, for instance, was historically reserved for women.
If your timing allows, December 5, the former King's birthday and Father's Day, is when the Grand Palace is elaborately decorated and illuminated. Whenever you visit, keep your entry ticket: it gives free entry to the Bang Pa-In Palace in Bang Pa-In. (It no longer covers the Dusit Palace, which has been closed to the public since 2017.)
Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the Old City on Foot
The palace sits on Rattanakosin Island, the historic core known as the Old City, bordered by Sanam Luang and Na Phra Lan Road to the north and the Chao Phraya River to the west. Wat Pho lies just to the south, home to the world's largest reclining Buddha image and a famed massage school. From there you can take the ferry across the Chao Phraya to Thonburi for Wat Arun, whose main structure is surrounded by four smaller prangs and decorated with colourful broken Chinese porcelain pieces — look closely if you climb it. Back on Rattanakosin, the Golden Mount, Wat Suthat and Wat Ratchanaddaram are among the other major temples within reach. Sanam Luang, the field to the north of the palace, hosts ceremonies through the year, including Songkran celebrations in mid-April where the Phra Phuttha Sihing image is displayed and bathed by devotees.
Start by clearing a morning or an afternoon in your plans — the palace asks for that much of you, and gives back a walled city within a city, still in use, still ceremonial, still the heart of Rattanakosin.