{"id":49123,"date":"2026-04-15T13:51:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-family-and-i-visited-bangkok-for-the-first-time-the-trip-was-amazing-but-it-wouldve-been-better-if-we-avoided-these-5-mistakes\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:51:42","slug":"my-family-and-i-visited-bangkok-for-the-first-time-the-trip-was-amazing-but-it-wouldve-been-better-if-we-avoided-these-5-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-family-and-i-visited-bangkok-for-the-first-time-the-trip-was-amazing-but-it-wouldve-been-better-if-we-avoided-these-5-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"My family and I visited Bangkok for the first time. The trip was amazing, but it would&#8217;ve been better if we avoided these 5 mistakes."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/67ed90d363d72727e19901f6?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A wide shot of Wat Arun Temple at sunset in Bangkok.\"\/><figcaption>I wish my family and I had avoided these five mistakes while visiting Bangkok for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Guitar photographer\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>My family and I visited Bangkok for the first time and made a few key mistakes along the way.<\/li>\n<li>We definitely misjudged how the heat would affect us and should&#039;ve structured our days differently.<\/li>\n<li>I also wish we&#039;d allocated enough time to explore Thailand&#039;s beautiful islands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last year, my family and I spent four days traveling around Bangkok for winter break.<\/p>\n<p>We stayed in the Siam Square neighborhood, also known as the shopping district, and thoroughly enjoyed tasting the street food and exploring the Buddhist temples.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back, however, our trip could&#039;ve been even better if we&#039;d avoided these five simple mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>We misjudged the heat.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/67f0061ab8b41a9673fcaf0d?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A photo from a bridge in Bangkok.\"\/><figcaption>My family and I were not prepared for the heat in Bangkok.<\/p>\n<p>Amrita Bhasin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>During our trip, temperatures stayed at or above 96 degrees Fahrenheit. As Northern Californians used to temperatures closer to 55 to 75 degrees during the winter months, we weren&#039;t prepared for the extreme heat.<\/p>\n<p>We ended up having to travel back to the hotel midday to rest and recharge, which we don&#039;t typically need to do on trips. Looking back, I wish I had prioritized building more breaks into the day to help avoid heat exhaustion.<\/p>\n<p>For those traveling at a similar time of year, I&#039;d recommend wearing loose clothing such as elephant pants, which are popular throughout Thailand because they&#039;re comfortable and appropriate for temples where you need to cover up.<\/p>\n<p>I wish we&#039;d known how long we&#039;d have to wait for ride-hailing transportation.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/67f0006d5d203112923e1d1d?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A shot of a road in Bangkok&#039;s Talat Noi neighborhood.\"\/><figcaption>Wait times for ride-hailing apps were upward of 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Amrita Bhasin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While preparing for the trip, I saw many tour guides recommended using ride-hailing apps such as Grab, an alternative to Uber.<\/p>\n<p>When we arrivedin Thailand, however, we learned it could take upward of 30 minutes to get a ride, especially in crowded tourist areas.<\/p>\n<p>So, we took advantage of Grab&#039;s ride-schedule feature to plan all our trips to the temples and attractions ahead of time.<\/p>\n<p>However, scheduling rides provided less flexibility because we had a timed itinerary to adhere to. Still, I appreciated the assurance that we wouldn&#039;t be stuck waiting for a car.<\/p>\n<p>We spent too much time in malls.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/67ed94a0b8b41a9673fc779f?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Trinkets and scarves on a stand at a mall in Bangkok.\"\/><figcaption>I wish we would&#039;ve spent less time at the mall.<\/p>\n<p>Amrita Bhasin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our hotel was in the shopping district, so we inevitably wandered around the malls quite a bit. They were great for taking a break from the heat, and the decor and plant markets were impressive.<\/p>\n<p>However, it was too easy to spend an excessive amount of time there and miss out on other parts of the city.<\/p>\n<p>I wish we&#039;d allocated enough time to explore Thailand&#039;s beautiful islands.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/67ed945d63d72727e199030c?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A wide shot of the Phi Phi Islands, complete with mountains covered in greenery, beaches, and resorts.\"\/><figcaption>Next time, I would like to explore the Phi Phi Islands.<\/p>\n<p>Dmitry Rukhlenko\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Next time I return to Thailand, I&#039;d like to spend a few days exploring islands such as Koh Samui and Koh Phi Phi.<\/p>\n<p>It would&#039;ve been nice to experience a tropical beach destination on what was otherwise a city vacation.<\/p>\n<p>We tried to pack too much into a day.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/67f006bb5d203112923e1ea4?format=jpeg\" alt=\"The Royal Pavilion in Bangkok.\"\/><figcaption>We learned that visiting more than two attractions in a day was a stretch.<\/p>\n<p>Amrita Bhasin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There are so many temples and sites to visit in Bangkok, and some are more elaborate and time-consuming than others.<\/p>\n<p>We spent the first day following an itinerary we&#039;d planned ourselves, and we thought doing a few activities each day would be perfect.<\/p>\n<p>But we soon found that visiting more than two sites was both difficult and stressful because we didn&#039;t have enough time to explore everything, learn about the history, and take pictures.<\/p>\n<p>So, the following day, we only picked two temples to visit, which was a much more satisfying choice.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story was originally published on April 7, 2025, and most recently updated on April 15, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wish my family and I had avoided these five mistakes while visiting Bangkok for the first time. Guitar photographer\/Shutterstock My family and I visited Bangkok for the first time and made a few key mistakes along the way. We definitely misjudged how the heat would affect us and should&#039;ve structured our days differently. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-49123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}