Rattanakosin (Old City)

Things to know

• Dress code is real and enforced at the Grand Palace: shoulders and knees covered, no see-through fabric, no ripped jeans, no crop tops, closed or strapped shoes. Free sarongs are lent at the gate; stalls outside sell cover-ups at 200–400 THB. Wat Pho and the other temples are more relaxed but still expect covered shoulders and knees.
• Ignore anyone on the street who tells you the Grand Palace, Wat Pho or Wat Arun is 'closed today for a ceremony' and offers a tuk-tuk tour instead. This is the district's oldest scam and it is still running daily at the palace gates. Walk to the official ticket window and check for yourself.
• Go early. Gates at the Grand Palace open at 8:30am and the tour-bus wave lands around 9:30. The temperature difference between 8am and 1pm on an unshaded palace courtyard is the difference between a good morning and a miserable one.
• There is no metro station in the historic core. The MRT Blue Line's Sanam Chai station serves the southern end (Wat Pho, Museum of Siam) and is the only rail option; otherwise use the Chao Phraya Express Boat — piers Tha Tien (Wat Pho), Tha Chang (Grand Palace) and Tha Phra Chan — or walk.
• Cash still rules the shophouses. Thipsamai, most street stalls and many of the old dessert shops are cash-only or card-averse; the temples take cash for tickets. Pull baht before you cross the moat.
• Most of the district's famous eating shops keep short, old-fashioned hours — Sae Phun closes at 2pm, K. Panich at 6pm, Krua-style lunch shops shut mid-afternoon — and several close one fixed day a week. Check the day before you build a plan around a specific bowl.
• The whole island shuts down early. Kitchens stop between 9 and 10pm, rooftop bars close around 11pm, and the streets are genuinely quiet after that. This is not a nightlife neighbourhood.
• Royal ceremonies close things without warning. Sanam Luang and parts of Ratchadamnoen are periodically fenced off for state events, and the Grand Palace occasionally shuts sections for official functions. Nothing is announced far in advance — build in a fallback.
• Wat Arun sits directly across the river on the Thonburi bank, not on Rattanakosin itself. The two-minute cross-river ferry from Tha Tien pier runs until early evening for a few baht — which is also why the Tha Tien rooftops have the view they do.
• Temple ticket prices are foreigner-tiered and have crept up: budget 500 THB for the Grand Palace, 300 THB for Wat Pho, 100 THB for the Golden Mount, 200 THB for the National Museum.