Day Trip to Khao Yai National Park from Bangkok

Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

Fresh air, waterfalls, wildlife and a very muddy hike.

A hike in Khao Yai National Park had been on my must-see list for a while.

It was no volcano hike in Guatemala or four-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Just a 4 km mini hike through the Thai forest. But don’t let the 4 km fool you. The day itself was massive!

Why Khao Yai?

Khao Yai means “big mountain” in Thai.

Established in 1962 as Thailand’s first national park, it covers more than 2,200 square kilometres and is home to elephants, gibbons, monkeys, deer and hundreds of species of birds.

It’s also part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an ASEAN Heritage Park.

Getting to Khao Yai from Bangkok

We’d been talking about visiting Khao Yai for ages, but not having a car in Bangkok makes it a little tricky.

Our original plan was to spend a couple of nights there, stay at one of the beautiful hotels around the area and organise a guided tour of the park. Check out some of the beautiful hotel options here.

Then I found a one-day Khao Yai tour on GetYourGuide and thought, let’s just do that.

It was an early start.

5:30 am alarm. Grab to MBK. Meet the tour by 7 am.

It took around three hours to get from Bangkok to the national park and then almost another hour winding our way through the park to the start of the hike.

It had poured for almost the entire drive from Bangkok.

Thankfully, the rain stopped as we entered the park, but the trail was wet, muddy and super slippery.

Hiking Khao Yai Trail 3

We hiked Trail 3, also known as the Km 33 – Nong Phak Chi Tower trail.

It’s around 4 km, takes about two hours and needs to be done with a guide or park ranger.

The trail starts in thick forest before eventually opening out onto grasslands and the Nong Phak Chi Observation Tower.

We were very unprepared.

We didn’t have proper hiking boots, which I would highly recommend, especially in the wet season. We managed in our sneakers, but they were covered in mud by the end and our feet were soaked.

And then there were the leeches.

Lots of them!!

Invest in the leech socks available at the information centre. At 70 THB, they were money well spent.

Before starting the hike, our tour guide covered our shoes, socks, legs and pretty much our entire bodies in mosquito spray.

Then every 15 minutes or so, we stopped to check our legs and shoes for leeches and flick off the ones trying to make their way up.

Thankfully, none of them attempting the journey from our shoes to our legs managed to get any blood!

Into the Forest

Despite the mud and the leeches, I loved the hike.

There is something so peaceful and refreshing about being out in nature, and it was exactly what I needed.

The forest is incredible. There are huge trees, some of the tallest I’ve seen, with vines and other vegetation growing around and almost swallowing them.

As you walk through the forest, you can hear monkeys and birds somewhere deep in the trees around you.

Eventually, you leave the forest and walk across the open grasslands towards Nong Phak Chi Observation Tower.

The tower overlooks a salt lick and waterhole where animals frequently gather.

I was hoping we might see elephants.

Unfortunately, no elephants.

But I did see and smell plenty of elephant poo, so they were definitely around somewhere.

Just not today!

From the tower, we followed the red dirt path back to the parking area to find our tour van and some much-needed cold water.

A Quick Lunch Stop

There are six restaurants and four drink kiosks scattered throughout Khao Yai National Park, and we stopped at one for a quick lunch.

Simple Thai food, served quickly and reasonably priced.

Exactly what we needed after the hike.

Deer at Lam Ta Khong Campground

After lunch, we stopped at Lam Ta Khong Campground, a large open grassland beside the river and surrounded by forest.

The area is home to otters, monkeys and gibbons, and deer can often be seen wandering through the campground.

We were lucky enough to see a few deer grazing when we arrived, so we stopped for a few moments just to watch them.

There is something so peaceful about seeing deer up close. Their delicate frame and graceful movements almost made the world pause for a minute.

Haew Suwat Waterfall

Before starting the journey back to Bangkok, we had one final stop: Haew Suwat Waterfall.

The waterfall drops around 20 metres from the cliff into the basin below and, after all the rain, it was fierce, fast and beautiful to see.

There’s a viewing point near the car park where you can see the waterfall from above, or you can take the steep stairs down to see the basin and waterfall from below.

Then it was back into the van for the long drive home.

Khao Yai Entrance Fee & Opening Hours

When we visited, Khao Yai National Park was open every day from 6 am to 6 pm.

Entrance for foreign adults was 400 THB per person.

Is a Khao Yai Day Trip from Bangkok Worth It?

For us, yes.

This tour allowed us to visit Khao Yai in one day from Bangkok without having to organise our own transport or guide.

But it was a long day.

We spent around eight hours in the van for only a few hours actually exploring the park.

Would I still do it?

Yep.

We returned home muddy and exhausted, but getting out of the city for the day was exactly what I needed.

I love Bangkok, but sometimes you just need some fresh air, no phone reception for a few hours and some time in the forest.

It reminded me how good being out in nature makes me feel.

Message me if you have any questions or want to know more!

Stay strong, stay travelling, and keep the adventure alive. 🏋️‍♀️✈️🌏

Travel, move, repeat.

Mi-Ree 🧡