Bangkok

Bangkok rewards a plan and punishes improvisation. The headline temples and palaces run a published foreigner rate, the traffic makes distance meaningless, and the river is faster than the roads for most of what you came to see. Hotels averaged 3,660 baht a night across the city in the second quarter of 2026, on 73 percent occupancy, and rates have softened rather than risen. What you actually pay depends far more on which area you pick than on which hotel: the cheapest rail-connected beds sit near 900 baht in Ratchada, the old town runs 1,200 to 3,000, and riverside rooms start around 8,300. Three days covers the main sights without rushing. One for the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun by boat, one for a market and a park, one for Ayutthaya or Chinatown and a museum. Almost nothing here needs booking more than a day ahead, which is the opposite of Tokyo or Rome.