Our cycling route through Thailand

The map above shows the route we cycled through Thailand. We entered Thailand its eastern border with Camboida and exited in the south into Malaysia.

The roads in Thailand are in excellent condition, much like the countries preceding it. The majority of roads have a big shoulder for motorbikes and bicycles and some rural roads even have dedicated bicycle lanes.

Upon first entering Thailand from Cambodia the roads were very pleasant, plenty of space and very little traffic. However as we got closer to Bangkok, the traffic volume steadily increased.

The roads into and out of Bangkok are immense, once you’re between 50 and 15 miles from central Bangkok you’re presented with massive 10+ lane highways, thankfully these are split up quite nicely which makes cycling a little bit safer.

These massive roads usually have a “left section”, in which the speed limit is quite low and a “right section” in which the speed is much higher. Due to the variable speed limits most of the traffic opts for the right section and when cycling you’re left with just the buses and traffic entering or exiting that road.

When you get about 15 miles from the centre of Bangkok you join the city roads, these are not quite so friendly as there’s no bike lane and all of the traffic is fighting it out for any available space.

Despite the high volume of traffic we didn’t find cycling through Bangkok to be too bad, there are constant traffic lights which makes progress very slow but on the up side it keeps the traffic moving quite slow too so you’re not being constantly overtaken and cut-up by speeding traffic.

Once you’re south of Bangkok you start getting options for taking rural roads, we really enjoyed these roads as the traffic was much lighter and the scenery was much more enjoyable too.

You still find yourself back on the big highways from time to time as the rural roads eventually lead you back there, but almost all of these highways had a nice big shoulder for bikes and bicycles.

The road-side facilities in Thailand as excellent, maybe even the best we’ve ever experienced. You can find well equipped petrol/service stations along all of the big highways and on all roads 7-Elevens are frequent.

The petrol/service stations almost always have toilets, groceries and often restaurants too. Many also have big chain restaurants like Burger king and KFC. Although less frequent, some also have a hotel/motel too.

The frequency of grocery stores like 7-Eleven makes cycling in Thailand much easier, you have regular access to food, cold drinks and ice machines!

One thing we loved in Thailand is that you can get loads of hot meals for 7-Eleven and they were cheap! I won’t lie, I ate far too many ham and cheese toasties while in Thailand!

The route we took through Thailand was incredibly flat and we were able to cover some big distances without too much effort, however the really challenge of cycling in Thailand is the heat.

The high humidity makes it very difficult to be outside for long periods of time and makes staying hydrated nearly impossible. We found that it was best to be on our bikes and cycling by around 6am so that we could try and finish our days cycling before 1pm, although the temperature started to really ramp up around 10am and was unbearable by 2pm.

In southern Thailand we took the ferry from Phuket to Phi Phi and then from Phi Phi to Krabi. These two routes have the option of taking either a speed boat or a ferry. The ferry allows you to take you bicycle for an extra fee (about 50 baht each).

If you'd like to take a closer look at our route or use it for your plans you can download the .kml file using the button below. For PC users you can view this file type in "Google Earth Pro", available here: google.com/earth/versions/, for Android users we recommend maps.me and for iPhone users we also recommend maps.me.

Daily Cycling Activity

Below is a breakdown of our daily cycling activity, you can see our exact route and final destination each day using the map at the top of the page.