Ayutthaya was the capital of Siam for 417 years and by around 1700 it may have been the largest city in the world, with a population estimated at up to a million, built on an island at the meeting of three rivers and traded with by the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Japanese and Persians, who all had quarters here. In April 1767 a Burmese army took it after a fourteen month siege, burned it, melted the gold off the Buddhas and carried off tens of thousands of people. The court moved downriver and eventually to Bangkok, and the city was never rebuilt.
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What remains is a field of brick prangs, headless Buddhas and temple platforms across an island you can cycle in a day, listed by UNESCO in 1991. It is ninety minutes north of Bangkok by train for very little money. Pack for heat and for a dress code that applies even to ruins, because these are still consecrated religious sites.
What Makes Ayutthaya Different to Pack For
Central plains heat with no shade
The hot season from March to May runs 26°C to 37°C and regularly exceeds 40°C. The rainy season, June to October, is humid with afternoon downpours and the rivers can flood; Ayutthaya was badly inundated in 2011. November to February is the window, at 20°C to 32°C.
The temple sites are open brick with almost no trees. A merino wool base layer for women handles days of heavy sweat without souring, which in this climate is the practical problem.
The dress code applies at ruins
These are active religious sites and Thailand enforces temple dress: shoulders and knees covered. Sarongs can be rented at the main temples, but arriving covered is easier and cooler than it sounds, since long loose cotton beats bare skin in this sun.
The Buddha head rule
Photographs that place a person above or level with a Buddha image are offensive in Thailand, and at Wat Mahathat, where a stone Buddha head is grown into the roots of a bodhi tree, there are signs instructing visitors to crouch so their head is lower than it. Guards enforce this. Never climb on a Buddha image or pose with an arm around one.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Ayutthaya Packing List
Footwear
Slip on shoes with a sole. You will take them off at the working temples and walk on hot brick and gravel at the ruins, so something easy and something that protects. Thick socks help on sun heated stone.
If you are cycling the island, which is the best way to see it, something you can pedal in.
Clothing
Long, loose, light coloured and covering. Long trousers or a long skirt and a sleeved top is both the dress code and the coolest thing to wear in this sun. A scarf, which covers shoulders instantly at a temple entrance and is the most useful single item.
For the heat
A wide brim sun hat, high factor sunscreen and a large refillable bottle. Rehydration salts for March to May, when this heat is dangerous rather than uncomfortable. The ruins have no shade at all and midday here puts visitors in difficulty.
For the rain
A packable rain jacket from June to October, when afternoon storms are heavy and brief and the brick gets slippery.
Practical
Cash in baht for the site tickets, which are individual or a combined pass. Mosquito repellent, since the rivers breed them and dengue is present. A bicycle, hired near the station for very little, or a tuk tuk by the hour.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Wat Mahathat
The Buddha head in the tree roots is here, along with rows of headless seated Buddhas, decapitated when the Burmese stripped the gold and by later looters.
Practically: crouch for the photograph at the Buddha head, which is signposted and enforced, and do not sit or climb on anything. Fully exposed. Go at opening or in the last hour.
Wat Chaiwatthanaram
A Khmer influenced complex of 1630 on the river bank west of the island, with a central prang and eight chedis, and the most photogenic of the sites, particularly lit at night.
Practically: open brick, no shade, and it faces west so late afternoon is the light. Thai visitors often hire historical costume to be photographed here, which is encouraged and is a genuinely enjoyable thing to join in with.
Wat Phra Si Sanphet and the palace
Three restored chedis holding the ashes of kings, on the site of the royal palace, which was the model for the temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok. A standing Buddha here was sixteen metres tall and covered in around 170 kilograms of gold, which the Burmese melted.
Practically: the most visited site and the one with some shade at the edges. Combined ticket.
Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon and the reclining Buddha
A working monastery with a large chedi you can climb and rows of seated Buddhas in saffron cloth, plus a reclining Buddha outside.
Practically: active temple, so stricter dress and shoes off in the halls. The chedi steps are steep and hot.
The foreign quarters
Ayutthaya at its height was a cosmopolitan trading city and the foreign communities lived in their own settlements outside the walls. The Portuguese quarter, established around 1540, has an excavated church of San Petro with skeletons left in situ in the burial ground. The Japanese village, whose community numbered well over a thousand and included Christian refugees from persecution at home, has a small museum. There was a Dutch settlement, a French one, and a Persian presence at court.
Constantine Phaulkon, a Greek adventurer, rose to become the effective chief minister of Siam in the 1680s before being executed in a coup against French influence.
Practically: these sites are across the river from the main island, quiet, and almost never visited. They take a tuk tuk or a bike and half a morning, and they explain why this city mattered far more than the ruins alone suggest.
The rivers and Bang Pa In
Boat trips circle the island past riverside temples, and Bang Pa In, the royal summer palace twenty minutes south, is an odd and lovely mixture of Thai, Chinese and European buildings in a garden.
Practically: Bang Pa In enforces dress strictly and provides wraps. The boat is shaded, which makes it a good middle of the day option.
What Not to Bring
Leave shorts and vests, which will not get you in. Leave any intention of climbing on ruins or posing with Buddha images.
Leave the middle of the day for a boat or a museum. Leave the assumption that a day trip from Bangkok does it justice; staying a night lets you see Chaiwatthanaram at sunset and the sites at opening.
Essential Resources for Women in Ayutthaya
Emergency numbers in Thailand: 191 is the police, 1669 the ambulance and emergency medical service, and 199 the fire service. The Tourist Police are on 1155 with English speaking operators, which is the number to use as a visitor.
Tourist support: Thailand's Tourist Police operate on 1155 and the Tourism Authority of Thailand has an Ayutthaya office near the historical park. A stolen passport needs a police report before the embassy can issue a replacement.
US Embassy and consulate: the embassy is in Bangkok at 95 Wireless Road, telephone +66 2 205 4000, at th.usembassy.gov, around ninety minutes away, which makes Ayutthaya among the most convenient places in Thailand for consular help. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital is the public facility and there are private hospitals in the town, with Bangkok's excellent international hospitals ninety minutes away. Thai private healthcare is good and billed up front, so travel insurance is necessary.
Official health authority: the Thai Ministry of Public Health at moph.go.th.
US State Department travel advisory for Thailand: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Thailand: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, which carries specific advice about motorbike hire and about respecting the monarchy and Buddhist images, the latter being directly relevant here.
Official tourism authority: the Tourism Authority of Thailand at tourismthailand.org for the historical park opening hours, the combined ticket and the evening illumination schedule.
Solo women safety assessment: Ayutthaya is easy and safe for a woman travelling alone. It is a provincial town rather than a resort, the historical park is open and busy with Thai families and school groups as much as with foreign visitors, the atmosphere is unhurried, and eating alone at a night market stall is completely normal. Violent crime against visitors is rare and harassment is uncommon. Petty theft is at a low level, mainly around the station and the bus stops. Cycling around the island alone is entirely ordinary and is what most independent visitors do. Two things are worth knowing. The first is legal rather than physical: Thailand takes disrespect toward Buddhist images seriously, and there are lese majeste and religious offence laws with real consequences, so the instruction to crouch below the Buddha head and not to pose with images is not a cultural nicety to be weighed up. Tattoos of the Buddha on visible skin have caused people problems at temples. The second is heat, which is the actual danger here: the ruins are open brick with no shade, temperatures in April routinely pass 40°C, and heat exhaustion among visitors cycling between sites at midday is the commonest medical problem in the town. Start at seven, stop at eleven, take a boat or a museum in the afternoon, and drink far more than feels necessary. Roads around the island carry fast traffic and cycling them requires attention.
Reading On
Ayutthaya is the easiest great historical site to reach in Thailand and the one most visitors compress into a rushed day from Bangkok. The Thailand travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country and covers the regions, the seasons and the transport, and the Thailand packing list for women covers a multi region trip. South, the Bangkok travel guide for women covers the capital ninety minutes away. North, the Chiang Mai travel guide for women, the Chiang Rai travel guide for women and the Pai packing list for women cover the mountains. On the coasts, the Ao Nang packing list for women covers Krabi, the Phuket travel guide for women the Andaman and the Koh Samui travel guide for women the gulf. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino outperforms cotton at 40°C under a covered dress code, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
