The Royal Grand Palace is on every Bangkok itinerary, arguably the city's number one tourist attraction! The huge complex which has housed Thai royalty for centuries has golden temples, a few museums & beautiful gardens for you to explore.
Just keep these 3 things in mind to make your visit to Bangkok's Grand Palace even more spectacular & tourist trap free 👇🏼
What you wear matters
Unless you want to be paying for clothing at the door, your dress code for a day visiting religious in Thailand should be planned. Bangkok's Royal Palace is no different!
ladies, you must cover your shoulders, no big scarves/sarongs covering your shoulders will be accepted (I unfortunately learned this the hard way), so wear long sleeves or a jacket
Knees must be covered for both ladies & men, so no shorts
Don't miss this overlooked activity
Tickets for non-Thai nationals to Bangkok's Grand Palace are 500 THB/pp. The good thing is that this ticket is inclusive of more than just the main Palace grounds.
One of the activities, is the masked dance show. Show times are a few times a day, so I would recommend either doing this activity first or last during your visit to the palace.
The performance takes place at a proper theatre about 10 min drive from Bangkok's Grand Palace, to which you can take the free open-air shuttle bus. Staff assemble groups before showtimes and will help you find the bus.
You’ll be driven to Bangkok’s Royal Theatre for a 30 min live dance performance, which aims to educate the audience on Thai culture through the different forms of dance, costume and music originating throughout region's of Thailand.
There's even a live orchestra, so don't miss this!
Watch out for these scams
If you've done your research, you'll know about the scam with tuk-tuk driver's defer tourists from entering the Palace, telling them it's "closed."
This season (spring 2022) you'll unfortunately also hear things like the Palace is only open to Thai people right now and opens to foreigners at 3pm. It sounds so reasonable, I almost fell for it! This was later even more funny, as we discovered that Bangkok's Grand Palace actually CLOSES at 3.30 :)
No matter what you get told, always walk right up to the final entrance door to check yourself.
As always, happy exploring!
Barbora
