Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore: Bangkok to Singapore overland

1. Day 1: Arrive in Bangkok

   Suvarnabhumi (BKK) or Don Mueang (DMK) airport to your hotel in Bangkok

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Bangkok
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Bangkok, at Suvarnabhumi (BKK) or Don Mueang (DMK), in time for the evening briefing: plan to land by about 3 pm (the latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary). Before you fly, fill in the Thailand Digital Arrival Card online; we send the link with your documents. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall and takes you to a central hotel, where you can rest, swim or wander out to the nearest street stalls. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the fortnight ahead: three countries, two border crossings, one long train ride, and how the days are paced so that every base has a free afternoon or evening. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner of Thai dishes at a local restaurant.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Suvarnabhumi (BKK) or Don Mueang (DMK)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   

2. Day 2: The Grand Palace at opening, Wat Pho and the canals

   Bangkok's old city on foot, by river ferry and by longtail boat, then Chinatown

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Bangkok
   Day 2 details

   We are at the gates of the Grand Palace when they open at 8:30 am, ahead of most tour coaches, to see the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred image in Thailand, and the palace halls begun in 1782 when Bangkok became the capital. Shoulders and knees must be covered here, and your guide checks before we leave the hotel. A short walk south brings us to Wat Pho and its 46-metre reclining Buddha, gilded from head to foot, with mother-of-pearl inlaid in the soles. We cross the Chao Phraya by ferry to Wat Arun, then board a longtail boat into the canals of Thonburi, where wooden houses stand on stilts over the water. Lunch is your choice by the river, and the hottest hours of the afternoon are free at the hotel. In the evening we walk Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, eating our way along the street-food stalls with your guide.

   Included

   • The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha from opening time
   • Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha
   • River ferry to Wat Arun
   • Longtail boat through the Thonburi canals
   • Street-food dinner walk in Chinatown (Yaowarat)

   Optional experiences

   • Thai massage at the massage school in the grounds of Wat Pho

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 3 to 4 hours on foot in the morning heat. Covered shoulders and knees are required at the Grand Palace and the temples.

3. Day 3: South by train to Surat Thani

   Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal in Bangkok by train to Surat Thani

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Surat Thani
   Day 3 details

   Today the trip goes overland in earnest. After an early breakfast we drive to Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, Bangkok's main long-distance station, and board the daytime express south to Surat Thani, about 650 km and roughly nine hours on the rails. That is far longer than our usual four hours a day on the road, which is why we take the train: the road south is the same distance, and the train gives you a reserved air-conditioned seat, room to walk about and your guide beside you instead of a day in a van. The line runs past salt pans, coconut groves and fishing towns, with the hills of the Burmese border to the west and the Gulf of Thailand a few kilometres to the east. Lunch is included, served on board or packed from the station. We reach Phun Phin, the station for Surat Thani, in the late afternoon, and a short transfer takes us to our hotel in town.

   Included

   • Transfer to Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal
   • Reserved air-conditioned seats on the daytime express train to Surat Thani
   • Lunch, on board or packed from the station
   • Transfer from Phun Phin station to your hotel

   Easier option: If you would rather not spend the day on the train, fly from Bangkok to Surat Thani (about an hour) for a supplement, and a driver brings you to the hotel to meet the group.

   Free time: Evening free in Surat Thani

   Activity: About nine hours on the train. The timetable is confirmed with your final itinerary.

4. Day 4: Cheow Lan Lake, then the Krabi coast

   Surat Thani to Cheow Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park, then Ao Nang in Krabi

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ao Nang (Krabi)
   Day 4 details

   We leave at 8 am for the Ratchaprapha Dam, about 80 km and an hour and a half west, to be on Cheow Lan Lake by mid-morning, before the midday heat. The lake formed behind the dam, finished in 1987, and fills the valleys of Khao Sok National Park, part of the largest block of rainforest left in southern Thailand. A longtail boat takes us out between limestone karsts that rise straight from the green water, often with mist still hanging on them in the morning. Watch the trees for macaques, dusky langurs and hornbills. Water levels permitting, we land for a short walk to a cave near the shore, then stop for lunch at a floating raft-house, with time to swim or paddle a kayak off the deck. In the early afternoon we drive about 170 km, roughly two and three-quarter hours, south-west to Ao Nang, the beach town on the Krabi coast, arriving in time to watch the sun go down behind the islands. That makes about four and a quarter hours of road today, a little over our usual cap, broken in two by the lake and lunch.

   Included

   • Khao Sok National Park entry
   • Longtail boat on Cheow Lan Lake
   • Short cave walk, water levels permitting
   • Lunch at a floating raft-house, with time to swim or kayak

   Easier option: Stay on the raft-house deck while the others walk to the cave.

   More active option: Kayak along the karst walls before lunch.

   Free time: Evening free in Ao Nang

   Activity: The cave path can be muddy and wet; bring sandals with a good grip.

   

5. Day 5: The Phi Phi islands by early boat

   Ao Nang by speedboat to the Phi Phi islands and back

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ao Nang (Krabi)
   Day 5 details

   Most day boats to Phi Phi leave mid-morning, so we go early, at about 7:30 am, by speedboat from the Ao Nang coast, roughly an hour across the Andaman Sea. The islands are part of a national park, and their limestone cliffs drop straight into clear water. We slow into Pileh Lagoon on Phi Phi Leh, almost enclosed by rock walls, and pass the Viking Cave, where swiftlet nests are still collected. Maya Bay, the beach from the film The Beach, is visited on foot only: swimming is not allowed there, and the bay closes every year in August and September so the reef can recover. Then there is proper time to snorkel over coral at two stops, not ten minutes at each, before a sit-down lunch on Phi Phi Don. We are back in Ao Nang by mid-afternoon, with the rest of the day free on the beach or in town.

   Included

   • Speedboat to the Phi Phi islands, leaving early
   • Pileh Lagoon and the Viking Cave from the boat
   • Maya Bay on foot, when open
   • Snorkelling at two stops, with masks and fins
   • National park fees
   • Sit-down lunch on Phi Phi Don

   Easier option: Skip the boat and spend the day on the beach at Ao Nang, or take a longtail to Railay and Phra Nang beach at your own pace.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The crossing can be bumpy. If the sea is too rough, the captain cancels and we take a longtail to the islands closer to Ao Nang instead.

   

6. Day 6: Across the border to Penang

   Ao Nang to Hat Yai by road, by train via Padang Besar to Butterworth, then the ferry to George Town

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in George Town (Penang)
   Day 6 details

   The longest travel day, and the one other trips cover by public bus. Ao Nang to George Town is about 500 km, too far for one day on the road, so we split it between our vehicle and two trains. We leave at 7:30 am, earlier than usual because the afternoon train from Hat Yai sets the day, and drive about four hours south through rubber plantations and Trang province to Hat Yai, the largest city in southern Thailand, for a sit-down lunch. From Hat Yai a short train runs to Padang Besar on the border, where Thai exit and Malaysian entry are both handled inside the station, so there is no walk across a road frontier with your bags. Fill in the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card before today; your guide reminds you. Clocks go forward an hour. A Malaysian electric train then takes us south to Butterworth in under two hours, and the ferry across the channel brings us into George Town in the evening, with dinner your choice at the hawker stalls.

   Included

   • Drive from Ao Nang to Hat Yai
   • Sit-down lunch in Hat Yai
   • Train from Hat Yai to Padang Besar, with border formalities in the station
   • Electric train from Padang Besar to Butterworth
   • Ferry to George Town

   Activity: A long day on the move, about 11 hours door to door, with the driving broken by lunch and two train rides. Timetables are confirmed with your final itinerary.

7. Day 7: George Town on foot and Penang Hill

   George Town's heritage streets and clan jetties, then Penang Hill

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in George Town (Penang)
   Day 7 details

   George Town was founded by the British East India Company in 1786, and its old centre, listed by UNESCO in 2008 together with Melaka, is a grid of shophouses, temples, mosques and clan halls built by settlers from China, India, Sumatra and Europe. We start at 8 am, while the streets are cool and the coffee shops are serving breakfast noodles. Walk past St George's Church and the Kapitan Keling Mosque to Khoo Kongsi, the clan house of the Khoo family, its carved and gilded hall hidden behind a square of terraced houses. Your guide points out the wall murals and the iron-rod caricatures that tell the town's history, then we finish on the Chew Jetty, a village of wooden houses on stilts over the water. The afternoon is free. Late in the day we ride the funicular up Penang Hill for the view across the strait at sunset, then eat at a hawker centre with your guide.

   Included

   • Heritage walk with your guide: St George's Church, the Kapitan Keling Mosque, the street art and the Chew Jetty
   • Khoo Kongsi clan house
   • Van to the lower station and the Penang Hill funicular at sunset
   • Hawker centre dinner with your guide

   Optional experiences

   • Trishaw ride around the old town
   • Pinang Peranakan Mansion

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot in the morning, on flat streets.

8. Day 8: Ipoh, then up to the Cameron Highlands

   George Town over the Penang Bridge to Ipoh, then up to the Cameron Highlands

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Cameron Highlands
   Day 8 details

   We cross the 13.5 km Penang Bridge to the mainland after breakfast and drive about two hours south on the North-South Expressway to Ipoh, a tin-mining town whose old quarter is lined with colonial-era shophouses and coffee shops. Lunch is in the old town, where the dishes to try are white coffee and bean sprout chicken, and there is time for a short walk past the railway station and the murals. From Ipoh the road climbs through the forest by Simpang Pulai to the Cameron Highlands, about 1,500 m up, where the air is cool enough for a jumper after the coast. In the late afternoon we walk the rows of a tea estate on the slopes above Brinchang and drink tea on a terrace looking over the valley. Tonight is a single night in Tanah Rata, the small main town, with dinner on your own at one of its restaurants.

   Included

   • Lunch in Ipoh old town
   • Short walk in Ipoh's old quarter
   • Tea estate walk and tasting above Brinchang

   Free time: Evening free in Tanah Rata

   Activity: Nights in the highlands are cool, often around 15 °C; bring a warm layer.

9. Day 9: The Mossy Forest, Batu Caves and Kuala Lumpur

   Cameron Highlands to the Mossy Forest, then down to Batu Caves and Kuala Lumpur

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kuala Lumpur
   Day 9 details

   Early, before the cloud lifts, a 4x4 takes us up the narrow road towards Gunung Brinchang to the Mossy Forest, a high cloud forest where the trunks and branches are wrapped in moss, ferns and pitcher plants. A short boardwalk loops through it, cool and dripping; if it is closed for repairs, as it has been at times, we walk a trail through the forest lower down instead. Back at the hotel by mid-morning, we drive down through Tapah to the expressway, about three hours to Batu Caves on the northern edge of Kuala Lumpur. After lunch nearby, climb the 272 painted steps past the gold statue of Lord Murugan into the great limestone cavern of the Hindu temple, with macaques on the railings. Kuala Lumpur is about twenty minutes further on, and we check into our central hotel in the late afternoon, with the evening free.

   Included

   • 4x4 to the Mossy Forest and its boardwalk
   • Lunch near Batu Caves
   • Batu Caves and the Temple Cave

   Easier option: Stay at the foot of Batu Caves and see the smaller shrines at ground level instead of climbing the 272 steps.

   Free time: Evening free in Kuala Lumpur

   Activity: Batu Caves asks for covered knees; sarongs can be borrowed or hired at the foot of the steps.

10. Day 10: Kuala Lumpur: the old town and the Petronas Towers

    Merdeka Square, Chinatown and the Islamic Arts Museum, then the Petronas Twin Towers

    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Kuala Lumpur
    Day 10 details

    We start in the old colonial core while it is cool. Merdeka Square is where Malaya's independence was proclaimed on 31 August 1957, faced by the Moorish-style Sultan Abdul Samad Building with its copper domes. A few steps away, Masjid Jamek stands where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet, the muddy confluence that gave Kuala Lumpur its name. We walk on into Chinatown, past the Sri Mahamariamman Temple and the stalls of Petaling Street, then drive to the Islamic Arts Museum for its Quran manuscripts, textiles and models of mosques from across the Muslim world. Lunch is your choice, and the afternoon is free for the hotel pool or the shops of Bukit Bintang. At the time slot we have booked, we go up the Petronas Twin Towers, 452 m high, to cross the skybridge between them and look down from the 86th-floor observation deck as the city lights come on. Jalan Alor's food street is close by for dinner.

    Included

    • Old Kuala Lumpur with your guide: Merdeka Square, the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Masjid Jamek and Chinatown
    • Islamic Arts Museum
    • Petronas Twin Towers skybridge and observation deck, at a booked time

    Optional experiences

    • Menara KL Tower observation deck
    • A Malaysian cooking class

    Free time: Afternoon and evening free

    Activity: The Petronas Towers close on Mondays, so departures are planned to keep this day off a Monday.

11. Day 11: South to Melaka

    Kuala Lumpur to Melaka

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Melaka
    Day 11 details

    A slower morning, then two hours down the expressway to Melaka, in time for lunch on your own in the old town. From the 15th century this was the seat of a sultanate that controlled the Strait of Malacca, until the Portuguese took it in 1511, the Dutch in 1641 and the British after them. In the afternoon, once the sun is lower, your guide walks you round the red buildings of Dutch Square, the Stadthuys and Christ Church, up St Paul's Hill to the roofless church at the top, and down past the Porta de Santiago, the last gate of the Portuguese fortress of A Famosa. We end the day with a Nyonya dinner, the Peranakan cooking that blends Chinese and Malay traditions. From Friday to Sunday, the Jonker Walk night market fills the main street of Chinatown afterwards, and the riverside paths are lit for an evening walk.

    Included

    • Melaka heritage walk with your guide: Dutch Square, the Stadthuys, Christ Church, St Paul's Hill and the Porta de Santiago
    • Nyonya dinner

    Optional experiences

    • Melaka River cruise
    • Trishaw ride

    Free time: Morning free in Kuala Lumpur; early afternoon free in Melaka

12. Day 12: Melaka's Chinatown, then Singapore

    Melaka to Singapore

    • Drive about 4 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Singapore
    Day 12 details

    Early, before the heat and the day-trippers, we walk the quiet lanes of Melaka's Chinatown. Cheng Hoon Teng is the oldest working Chinese temple in Malaysia, and the same street holds a mosque and a Hindu temple side by side. At the Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum, a Peranakan family's townhouse kept with its carved screens, porcelain and heavy teak furniture, a guide explains how these Straits Chinese families lived. This is a long day: the museum, lunch, the drive and the border queue bring us to Singapore in the early evening. After an early lunch we drive about three and three-quarter hours south to the Singapore border, with a rest stop on the way and the border queue on top, crossing at the Second Link at Tuas or the Johor Causeway, whichever is moving better on the day. Fill in the SG Arrival Card online in the three days before. Our hotel is central, and the evening is free: walk along the Singapore River to Marina Bay, or take the MRT to a hawker centre for satay.

    Included

    • Morning walk in Melaka's Chinatown and Harmony Street
    • Cheng Hoon Teng temple
    • Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum
    • Lunch before leaving Melaka
    • Drive to Singapore in a vehicle cleared to cross the border

    Free time: Evening free in Singapore

    Activity: Border queues vary; at weekends and on public holidays the crossing can add an hour or more.

13. Day 13: Singapore: gardens and hawker centres

    The Botanic Gardens, Chinatown and Gardens by the Bay

    • By train
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Singapore
    Day 13 details

    We start at 7:30 am in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015, while joggers have the paths and the air is still cool, and visit the National Orchid Garden with its displays of more than a thousand species. Then across town to Chinatown and a hawker centre for an early lunch on your own: Singapore's hawker culture was added to UNESCO's list of intangible heritage in 2020, and your guide helps you order the dishes worth queuing for. Walk on through the shophouses of Chinatown, or take the MRT to Little India and Kampong Glam; the early afternoon is yours. In the late afternoon we go to Gardens by the Bay for its two cooled glasshouses, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest with its indoor waterfall. After the evening light and music show among the Supertrees, we sit down to a farewell dinner together.

    Included

    • Singapore Botanic Gardens and the National Orchid Garden
    • Hawker centre lunch with your guide's help (food on you)
    • Gardens by the Bay: the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest
    • The Supertree light show
    • Farewell dinner

    Optional experiences

    • Singapore River bumboat ride
    • Marina Bay Sands SkyPark observation deck

    Free time: Early afternoon free

14. Day 14: Depart from Singapore

    Your hotel in Singapore to Singapore Changi Airport (SIN)

    • Drive about 30 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 14 details

    The last morning is yours, with no early start. Have breakfast at the hotel, then walk to a coffee shop for a last plate of kaya toast with soft-boiled eggs, or take the MRT to anything you missed. If your flight leaves in the afternoon or evening, the hotel holds your bags after checkout. We drive you to Changi Airport, about 20 km and half an hour from the centre, at the time that suits your flight. Leave time for Jewel, the glass dome beside Terminal 1 with the Rain Vortex, an indoor waterfall about 40 m high, which you can visit before check-in. Your guide sees you to the airport and checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight home at any time today; for an early morning flight we leave the hotel before breakfast, and if you want to stay longer in Singapore we can book extra nights.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Singapore Changi Airport (SIN)

    Activity: Any flight time works; we time the transfer to your flight.

Wildlife and weather: The Andaman coast around Krabi and Phi Phi is calmest from November to April; from May to October the south-west monsoon brings rough seas and cancelled boats, and Maya Bay closes in August and September. Malaysia and Singapore get short tropical downpours in any month, so carry an umbrella. Watch for macaques, dusky langurs and hornbills at Cheow Lan Lake.

• Bangkok2 nights
• Surat Thani1 night
• Ao Nang (Krabi)2 nights
• George Town (Penang)2 nights
• Cameron Highlands1 night
• Kuala Lumpur2 nights
• Melaka1 night
• Singapore2 nights