Which one to choose in Bangkok
Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) vs Wat Traimit (Temple of the Golden Buddha)
Two temples in Bangkok. Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) has 46 tickets and tours to book; Wat Traimit (Temple of the Golden Buddha) has 2 tickets and tours to book. The table and the two notes below put them side by side; the full pages have what to see, the ticket and the timing for each.
Bangkok, Thailand
Wat Arun stands on the Thonburi bank of the Chao Phraya, opposite Wat Pho, and most people simply take the cross-river ferry from Tha Tien pier and buy a ticket at the gate. Thai nationals enter free; foreign visitors pay a small fee. No advance booking is needed, which makes the independent visit the obvious choice if you only want to see the temple itself.
Organised options fall into a few groups. The commonest are half-day or full-day guided walks around the old city that include the Grand Palace and Wat Pho and end with the ferry to Wat Arun; check whether the entry tickets are part of the price.
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Bangkok, Thailand
Wat Traimit stands at the eastern gateway of Bangkok's Chinatown, close to Hua Lamphong station, and its single great attraction is the solid gold Buddha on the top floor of a white marble pavilion. The temple grounds are free to enter; a modest ticket is sold at the foot of the pavilion for the Golden Buddha hall, and a separate small fee covers the Chinatown heritage exhibition on the floors below. There are no queues worth booking ahead for.
Two kinds of tour include the temple. The first is a classic shared half-day temple circuit from a central Bangkok hotel, which adds Wat Pho with its reclining Buddha and the Marble Temple, Wat Benchamabophit;
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