Hiring a Long-Tail Boat on Chao Praya River – Bangkok Canals

Hiring a Longtail Boat in Bangkok is a fairly easy. Most piers along the river have a few long boat drivers waiting for tourists. The Government has published prices for Long Boat Hire but these are slightly negotiable. It is 2000 Baht for 1 hour or 3000 Baht for 2 hours. The Long Tail boats will have life jackets on board which it is recommend you wear during your boat trip. If you just want to do a short trip, say across the river, then you’ll need to negotiate a price. You will find tours available to book online that for a 2 hour longtail Boat tour you can book for 1550 Baht.

Even if you are not staying by the river, most respectable hotels in Bangkok have Tuk-tuk / car drivers out the front hunting for tourist dollars. Tell them you want to go down to the river piers. At every pier their are boat drivers sitting around.

There are many popular sights along the Chao Praya River to stop at including the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, Chinatown, Asiatique night market.

If you want to make your own way to a pier, popular piers with Longtail Boats avilable are Sathorn Bridge Pier (next to Saphan Taksin BTS Station), Phra Arthit Pier (close to Khaosan Road) or Tha Chang Pier (close the Grand Palace).

Recommend Long Boat Trips in Bangkok

Golden Buddha – the largest Golden Buddha in Bangkok is located on the opposite side of the river to the 5 most popular areas of Bangkok to stay in. There is a canal off from the Chao Praya River at Wat Arun which will take you down to Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple – Note* The Buddha Statue is having restorations done, so currently in October 2024, the entire statue is covered in scaffolding. Read more about The Restoration work at Big Buddha Bangkok.

I hired a Long Tail Boat from Sathorn Pier to go to Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen – Big Buddha. They asked for 2000 for the round trip would take 2 hours including 30 minutes getting off the boat at the temple. I agreed and paid the 2000 Baht. The boat driver seemed to drive very slow down the river and then even slower to go up the canal, which was quite nice to take in the life along the canal. Very interesting. There are many temples and shrines along the same canal as the Big Buddha. Going slowly it took about 50 minutes to get there, including going thru a canal lock, waiting for the water level to lower to the canal depth (probably about 10 minutes).

I spent about 20 minutes at the temple, then asked the boat driver to gun it back to Sathorn Pier. He let it rip down the canal, slowed as we passed over boats, then ripped down the river. It probably took 20 minutes to get back, including another canal lock to get back on the river.