Park rangers stop traffic for a wild elephant to cross the road at Khao Yai National Park.
If you get tired of Bangkok’s noise and traffic, there’s a quiet nature escape just a few hours away—Khao Yai National Park. This 2,206 square kilometer park is famous for wild elephants, gibbons, hornbills, stunning waterfalls and trekking. With over 280 bird species, avian enthusiasts worldwide flock to the park for prime birdwatching. In 1962, the area became Thailand’s first national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005.
Even though I’ve lived and worked in Thailand off and on for over a decade, this spot wasn’t on my radar despite being so close to Bangkok. It was such a fantastic wilderness getaway and a wonderful surprise.
If you are short on time, book a day trip from Bangkok. If you have a night or two to spare, I recommend spending a few nights in the area. I booked a tour through Greenleaf Guesthouse & Tours, which I highly recommend. For more details, check out my review of the tours and accommodation below.
Keep reading for all the details about what to do, where to stay and how to get to Khao Yai National Park.
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Plan Your Trip
Why Go: Jungle waterfall treks and epic wildlife sightings, including wild elephants & gibbons
How to Get There: Take a day trip from Bangkok or take the 3.5-hour train to Pak Chong, the gateway to the area, and book a day tour through Greenleaf Tours.
How to Get to Khao Yai National Park from Bangkok
Hikers wearing tick socks trekking along the trails with a guide at Khao Yai National Park.
If you don’t have time to spend the night near Khao Yai, then I recommend a day trip from Bangkok.
If you have more time, you can easily get to the area with public transport, but you will have to spend at least one night if you want to do a full-day tour. It’s a roughly 3.5-hour drive from Bangkok.
To get to Khao Yai National Park via public transport, you’ll need to get to the city of Pak Chong by train, bus or minivan. You can easily arrange for a pickup upon arrival from your accommodation. I took the train, and I recommend it.
The train leaves Bangkok from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Train Station and stops at Don Mueang and Ayutthaya stations. The cost is $4-5 USD for the roughly 3.5-hour trip. You can book directly through the SRT D-Ticket app (official State Railway of Thailand app) or 12go.asia.
There are five trains from Bangkok to Pak Chong:
- Train #21 (Depart 6:10, arrive 8:43)
- Train #135 (depart 7:10, arrive 10:43)
- Train #71 (Depart 10:35, Arrive 13:17)
- Train #139 (Depart 19:25, Arrive 22:33)
- Train #23 (Depart 21:05, Arrive 23.58)
Trains are always late, so if you plan to do a half-day tour when you arrive, make sure to get one of the earlier trains (#21 or #135). Trains have both air conditioning and cheaper fan sections. (I did air conditioning,
and it was fine.)
If you want to do a full-day tour, you will be back in time to catch the last train for Bangkok.
There are four trains from Pak Chong to Bangkok:
- Train #24 (Depart 1:41, Arrive 4:50)
(This is a 24-hour clock, so very early in the morning) - Train #140 (Depart 3:12, Arrive 6:50)
(This is a 24-hour clock, so very early in the morning) - Train #72 (Depart 11:18, Arrive 14:10)
- Train #22 (Depart 19:48, Arrive 22:15)
Buses from Bangkok (NakhonChai 21) will depart from the Mo Chit Bus Station but will not drop you in the center of Pak Chong. Instead, you’ll be dropped at the Tesco Lotus in Pakchong, seven kilometers away. Mini vans will also leave from the Mo Chit Bus Station for Pak Chong.
When is the best time to visit Khao Yai National Park?
January is one of the colder months in Khao Yai but not as green since the trees lose their leaves, which you can see in this photo.
The park is open year-round from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with an average temperature of 21 degrees Celsius. The hottest part of the year is from March until May, when temperatures range from 26-27 degrees. (The trees make it cooler than other parts of the country.) The rainy season is from June until September, when waterfalls are gushing, and the vegetation is the lushest. Temperatures can drop to 10 degrees during the coolest part of the year, from December to January, with blue skies.
I visited in January, and it was still hot in the day but cold at night. For me, the ideal time to visit would have been in October and November right after the rainy season, when the forest is still lush. You must watch out for ticks in the dry season and leeches during the wet season. Tours will give you socks to wear to help with both. Pack a good bug spray.
Things to do in Khao Yai National Park
Left: The 25-meter tall Haew Suwat Waterfall Right: A hornbill at Lam Ta Khong Campground.
The park’s daily entrance fee for foreigners is 400 baht for adults and 200 baht for children. Day tours include the park entrance in the tour fee.
Trekking
There are seven nature trails ranging from 1.2 to 8 kilometers with a hiking time from 45 minutes to six hours. The trails are clearly marked with numbers but need to be started early in the day due to the heat. The official website says that Trails 1-5 and 7 can be started from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., but you must start on Trail 6 no later than 10 a.m. Guides are required for Trails 3 to 6.
Birdwatching
The park is home to 282 species of resident and migratory birds from across the globe. You’ll see some epic camera lenses around the park. I shot with a 70-200mm, and it wasn’t enough for most of the wildlife. A longer lens would have been more helpful.
Visitors can rent camping equipment in Khao Yai National Park.
Camping
Lam Ta Khong Campground and Khao Rom Viewpoint Campground are the only two campgrounds in Khao Yai National Park. Lam Ta Khong Campground was a great place for wildlife sighting. It’s where I got my best hornbill photos. There were a ton of wildlife photographers camped out there as well. You need to find your own transportation to camp. The park rents camping equipment from tents to sleeping bags. Facilities include showers, electricity, a restaurant and coffee shop.
Stargazing
During the cool season from November to March, the sky is very clear and perfect for stargazing. The campground and other open meadows are excellent locations.
Night Safari
The park offers two timings for a one-hour night safari at 7 and 8 p.m. Book at the visitors center before 6 p.m. The safari is a 10 km drive on a high-bed pickup truck with high-powered flashlights to look for samba deer, Malayn porcupine, large Indian civets, Asian palm civets, wild elephants, owls and nightjars. You will need your own transport or to arrange transport to get to the park to join these tours.
Review of Greenleaf Tour Guesthouse at
Khao Yai National Park
The 300 baht/night rooms at Greenleaf Guesthouse & Tour are simple but clean.
Greenleaf Tour Guesthouse & Food
I absolutely loved Greenleaf Tour and can’t recommend them enough. I was skeptical at first because their website looks like it’s from 1995. (You can’t book through Booking.com or other websites.) I emailed, and they sent an overwhelming amount of helpful information on everything from transport to lodging. You can book both a tour by itself or a tour along with a room at the guesthouse.
For logistical reasons and cost, I booked both through them. I did the 1.5-day tour and spent two nights. I visited in January when the weather was cold. Due to this, I was concerned because the rooms only had cold showers. I tried to find a hotel with hot water nearby, but it was not cost effective since every hotel nearby seems to use them for tours anyway. They seem to be a monopoly in the area or the only tour company.
Greenleaf provided free pickup and drop off at the train station, while other hotels charged for it (minimum 200 baht each way), which was a big plus. It was only a short drive from the station. Free pickup and drop off is only included when you book the full-day tour.
You can’t miss the elephant sign (left) outside Greenleaf Tour and the budget-friendly Thai food.
The property is gigantic—an open-air restaurant with yummy Thai food with great prices (60-80 baht) sits at the front. Breakfast only costs 50 baht. They have 19 rooms with a double bed for 300 baht/night with ensuite bathrooms. The rooms don’t have air conditioning or hot water. Since I visited in January when it was cold, I didn’t care about the air conditioning, but cold water was a concern. There was a fan in the room, so I was fine. Each room had a table outside on the shaded shared porch. The other guests were a wide variety of ages ranging from 20-something backpackers and retirement-age trekkers.
The Thai-style rooms were very basic but spotless. I slept well and enjoyed my time. I think I even had to ask for an extra blanket at night because it was cold!
Khao Yai National Park Tour Options
A gibbon along the trails at Khao Yai National Park.
Greenleaf Tour offers a half-day (500 baht) and a full-day tour (1,500 baht). I did both tours in January. Only the full-day tour goes into the national park. Payment is cash only.
The half-day tour (15:00 – 19:30) includes a visit to an underground cave, swimming in a natural spring and watching swarms of bats leave another cave for their nighttime escapades. You can’t swim in the waterfalls inside the park, so I assume that’s why they take you swimming on the half-day tour.
The full-day tour explores Khao Yai National Park and focuses heavily on wildlife. We saw hornbills, macaques, gibbons, wild elephants, vipers in trees,
porcupines and countless other bird species on our forest treks. We had a tasty lunch in the park that we had preordered and visited the 25-meter tall Haew Suwat Waterfall. Wildlife sightings are not guaranteed, but we had two epic wild elephant sightings back-to-back.
On one of the hikes, we saw a 500-year-old Strangler Fig tree. Both tours were in songthaews, a traditional form of transport consisting of pickup trucks with rows of seats in the back. They gave us tick socks to wear for trekking since ticks are common in the cold season. (In the hot season, you need the same socks for the small forest leeches.)
We spotted some porcupines just as we were leaving Khao Yai National Park.
To be honest, I didn’t care much for the half-day tour because I’ve seen a lot of caves, and it was too cold to swim (for me!). The bats emergence from the cave was pretty cool, though. I had low expectations for the next day for the full-day tour, but it was phenomenal. The amount of wildlife sightings and photo ops inside the park was amazing. The guides were lovely and helpful for both tours. They had spotting scopes that were helpful for wildlife sightings and even took photos of the animals through the scope with our phones for us. This was extremely helpful for the birds.
Private tours are about 5,000 baht. This price was quoted to me by Greenleaf and multiple hotels I reached out to. Night safaris can be arranged through the park before 6 p.m. daily, but you need to find your own transport to the park or stay in the park.
A girl I met on the full-day tour ended up staying in the park and booking tours with rangers the following night. She didn’t have a great experience as the rangers didn’t speak English and walked too quickly. She went back to Greenleaf for a second day tour and said it better than staying in the park!
Where to Stay: Khao Yai National Park Hotels
Lam Ta Khong Campground is a great place to stay for birdwatchers.
You can stay inside the park, but you’ll need your own transportation. Contact the park’s office to book one of the two campsites and a series of lodges across four zones. For more details, check out the park’s website.
Budget travelers should stay at Greenleaf Tours Guesthouse if they don’t mind the cold water and lack of air conditioning. If you are looking for nicer hotels outside the park with hot showers and air conditioning, Greenleaf Tour recommends the following. (Read reviews before booking. Prices range from $25 to $200 based on property and season.)
- Moo Si Yard HomeStay (Highly rated)
- Khaoyai Cottage
- Plern Pitch Residence
- Le Monte
- Mont Blanc Basecamp (close to “Ban Tha Chang Natural Spring Water”)
- Mont Blanc Glamping
- Hotel MYS Khao Yai (Fancy & highly rated)
- The Jungle House (jungle atmosphere)
- Lala Mukha Tent Resort (Gorgeous scenery)
- San Guesthouse and Tour KhaoYai (located by park entrance)
- Fortune DPlus
- Hotel Labaris (Stunning property)
- Tressure Inn KhaoYai
- Lacol Khao Yai (Part of Chatrium Collection)
- no.17@KhaoYai
