Ayutthaya entrance fee, hours and dress: which temples to see

The Ayutthaya entrance fee is not a single number, and the park's own notices explain why. The Fine Arts Department lists a foreign visitor at THB 80 each for a single ticket, or THB 300 at the flat rate, while a Thai visitor pays THB 10 or THB 40.^1,6 Its press notice repeats the same figures in English for the park's events.⁷

That makes the fee per monument rather than per park, which is how most visitors use it: you pay at the temple you enter. The park looks after over 300 historical sites around the island, so the ticket you buy is a ticket to one of many, and not a key to the whole city.⁸ Several sites, including some working temples, sit outside the paid group.

Opening hours are the other half of the answer. Gates are open every day from 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM, the department says, so a full day of temples fits inside one opening.³ The ticket booths follow the temples they serve, so arrive early and allow time at the booth if you plan to buy the combined ticket and visit several monuments in the same day.

Wat Mahathat is the picture most people have in mind: the Buddha head cradled by the roots and branches of a Bodhi tree.²² TAT says it is one of the city's most important temples and the oldest, started around 1374, and that you can still find remains of centuries-old murals.²⁴ The provincial tourism office lists it as open every day from 08:00 to 18:00, on Chi Kun Road next to Wat Ratburana.^19,25

Wat Phra Si Sanphet stands a short distance away on Naresuan Road, beside the Phra Mongkhon Bophit pantheon.²⁶ As the royal palace's own temple it had no living quarters for monks, only a ceremonial hall, and its three big Ceylonese-style pagodas were each built on a separate occasion.^23,27 TAT adds that it used to stand in the palace grounds and that Bangkok's Temple of the Emerald Buddha took it as the pattern.²⁸

Wat Lokaya Sutharam is the reclining Buddha stop. The provincial office gives its length as 42 metres, the biggest reclining Buddha on the city island, with its head resting on a lotus, and a pagoda of around 30 metres nearby.^15,17 Because it sits in the open, visitors can see it at any time, which makes it easy to fit around the rest of the day.

Ayutthaya's ruins are open-air, but the dress rules are not casual. Dress is the other price of entry. The tour listing says no shorts, tight pants, sportswear, sandals or sleeveless shirts, and puts the price of pants or a scarf at about 100 THB. Another listing asks for no bare shoulders and no bare knees on its temple-visit options.

Bang Pa-in Palace is stricter. The provincial office says visitors may not wear sleeveless tops, skirts too short to cover the knees, tights (leggings) or slippers without heel straps; jeans that are not torn are allowed, and the palace lends wrap-around skirts and shirts to those who need them.^5,33 Its gates stay open from 08:00 to 16:00 daily.²¹

If your trip also takes in the Grand Palace in Bangkok, the rules there are longer: the palace bans sleeveless shirts, vests, short or see-through tops, short pants, torn or tight pants, bike pants, mini skirts and sleeping suits, and charges foreigners THB 500, including Wat Phra Kaew.^34,35 The safest plan is a light long-sleeved shirt and loose long trousers for the whole day.