The kingdom of Thailand, also known as the pearl of southeast Asia, owes its status as the most recognized and traveled part of the southeast Asian region due to the need-to-be-seen-to-be-believed sceneries their tropical beaches and jungles can offer.
True paradise-like views present themselves at every tourist spot you’ll find (and there are many), so glorious is the sight that the region is a regular for Hollywood movies. To help find your way around this Eden in the East, here are the best travel books about Thailand.
#1 A Geek in Thailand: Discovering the Land of Golden Buddhas, Pad Thai and Kickboxing
Personal Recommendation: I recently spent three weeks in Thailand with my wife and I cannot recommend this book enough. It’s a great 101 overview of the history and culture of Thailand but it’s not just an overview book.
It also recommends some really cool lesser-known things to do and check out in all different regions of the country. It’s only 160 pages and you can skip around the book based on what you’re interested in.
I read it before our trip and kept coming back to it while we were traveling around Thailand to check out Houton’s recommendations in each city.
#2 Backpacker’s Travel Guide To Southeast & Northeast Asia
Personal Recommendation: The most important thing I should point out is that it is a digital book – which gives it a lot more dimension than a traditional book, including videos, links, etc.
#3 Lonely Planet Thailand (Travel Guide)
Personal Recommendation: As a frequent traveller to Thailand, I have built up quite a collection of travel books at this point. Despite the size of my ‘Thai library’ one stands out – ‘Lonely Planet Thailand’.
This publication covers every ancient site, activity and attraction from Chiang Mai in the North to the lower Gulf area. It simply does not miss a trick. This is a must read for anyone looking for a great all in one publication ahead of their first visit to this amazing country.
#4 Lonely Planet – Thailand (2018 Edition)
Personal Recommendation: This book is my favorite book because it covers Thailand in such depth. Unlike many other books, it covers every region of Thailand in a good depth. It’s the same amount of coverage of all the regions, not just the popular tourist regions. It’s easy to follow and covers the many different sites to see and restaurant recommendations. My favorite part of this book was the extensive coverage and extreme detail about Ko Lanta.
#5 Lonely Planet Bangkok (Travel Guide)
Personal Recommendation: This is similar to the book above, but just about Bangkok. I used this book the most when going through my three day stay in Bangkok. It is broken up by neighborhood which makes planning a trip very easy. It’s helped me understand which accommodations made the most to stay in. It also had lots of maps and lots of restaurant recommendations. The maps were the best feature of this book – it was super useful and would recommend it to anyone visiting Bangkok.
#6 Thailand: The Solo Girl’s Travel Guide
Personal Recommendation: I’m not traveling solo, but this book was great. It had great reviews, but was still and easy, quick read and gave me the nitty gritty information. While it doesn’t go into extreme depth, it has basic info about sites, areas and transportation.
The best part is that it’s super blunt and doesn’t sugar coat anything. It’s very straight forward and a real-talk review of different hotels and restaurants. Unlike other books, it actually tells mentioned things that aren’t worth doing which was nice. I imagine this would be a great book for women traveling alone based on some of the content.
The recommendations of products and books within this article where sourced from industry experts. Their names and websites are listed below.
Cameron Papp from Tour Rader
Charlie from BackpackersTravelGuides
Ollie Smith from ExpertSure
Jenny Terry from Everyday Points and Miles
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