Sukhothai & Si Satchanalai UNESCO World Heritage Day Tour

Itinerary

Pick up from your hotel lobby and depart to Sukhothai Town (4½ hour drive) along picturesque mountain roads. Arrive at Si Satchanalai Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991, home to exquisite 13th-century Sukhothai-style temples set along the Yom River in a cosmologically-aligned layout of temple complexes, city walls, rivers, and forest.

Visit Wat Chang Lom, whose main chedi in Sri Lankan style rests on a base ringed by 39 elephant sculptures, followed by Wat Chedi Jet Thaeo, a large compound of seven rows of chedis reflecting Sri Lankan, Bagan, and Srivijaya art styles, and Wat Nang Phaya, whose laterite-block viharn is decorated with intricate early Ayutthaya-period stucco work.

Lunch is provided at a local restaurant.

Continue to Sukhothai Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991 and the birthplace of the first independent Thai kingdom, showcasing beautifully preserved ruins of temples, Buddha statues, and royal palaces.

Visit the King Ramkhamhaeng Monument, a bronze statue of the king seated on the Phra Thaen Manangkhasila Asana throne with an account of his life inscribed at its base, and Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai’s largest temple, with its signature lotus-bud-shaped main chedi and ruined viharn.

Continue to Wat Si Sawai, once a Hindu shrine later converted into a Buddhist monastery and marked by three prangs enclosed within laterite walls, and Wat Traphang Ngoen, known for its square pedestal, main sanctuary, and standing Buddha image, with a viharn in front and a moated ubosot to the east.

Visit Wat Sa Si, famed for its Sinhalese-style chedi built on an island in Traphang Trakuan Pond, its large viharn housing a stucco Buddha image, and nine chedis of varying sizes to the south, followed by Wat Sorasak, whose inscription referencing the Ayutthaya-era noble rank of “Augya” confirms Sukhothai was once under Ayutthaya’s control.

Conclude at Wat Si Chum, home to a square mondop housing a monumental seated Buddha image measuring 11.3 meters knee to knee, and Wat Phra Phai Luang, a former Khmer-Hindu shrine later converted into a Buddhist monastery and encircled by a moat. Afterwards, return to Chiang Mai in the late evening.