The festivals worth planning a trip around are Songkran (13–15 April, nationwide water festival), Loy Krathong and Yi Peng (November full moon, lanterns in Chiang Mai), the vegetarian festival in Phuket (October), and the Golden Mount fair in Bangkok (November). Only Songkran has fixed dates; the rest follow the lunar calendar and shift each year.
The short version
- Songkran: fixed, 13–15 April, and it shuts down transport nationwide.
- Loy Krathong / Yi Peng: November full moon, dates shift — Chiang Mai is the place.
- Phuket Vegetarian Festival: nine days in October, dates by the Chinese lunar calendar.
- Royal Ploughing Ceremony, Visakha Bucha and Ok Phansa are public holidays: alcohol sales restricted.
Fixed dates you can build a trip around
Only four festivals fall on the same day every year. New Year (1 January) is a public holiday but not a Thai festival in any meaningful sense. Songkran, 13–15 April, is the big one — the Thai New Year, celebrated with three days of water fights, temple rituals and the largest domestic travel movement of the year.
The other fixed dates are Chakri Day (6 April), Coronation Day (4 May) and the King's birthday on 28 July, which is also Father's Day. They matter for planning rather than for spectacle: government offices close, and alcohol sales are restricted on some of them.
Lunar dates: the ones that move
Most Thai festivals follow the lunar calendar, which means they shift by up to a month each year. Visakha Bucha (the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death) falls on the full moon of the sixth lunar month, usually in May. Asalha Bucha and Khao Phansa (the start of Buddhist Lent) fall in July. Ok Phansa, the end of Lent, is in October.
Loy Krathong is the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, usually November — the date most people plan around. In Chiang Mai it overlaps with Yi Peng, when thousands of sky lanterns are released. Both are published a year ahead by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and hotel prices in Chiang Mai double for those three days.
The regional ones worth travelling for
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival runs for nine days in October and is unlike anything else in the country: processions of mah song (spirit mediums) piercing their cheeks with everything from skewers to garden tools, while the whole island goes vegetarian. It is genuinely shocking and entirely sincere — dress modestly, keep out of the procession's path, and do not use flash.
The Golden Mount fair in Bangkok runs for a week in November, when the temple's relic chedi is opened to visitors and the hill is covered in stalls and lanterns. It is free, local, and far less crowded than the headline festivals.
In the north-east, Bun Bang Fai — the rocket festival — takes place in May in Yasothon and around. Villages build large bamboo rockets and fire them to ask for rain; the launch sites are not a place to stand close.
How to plan around them
Three practical rules. First, book accommodation two to three months ahead for Songkran, Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai and the Phuket vegetarian festival — those are the three that fill. Second, expect transport to be disrupted on 13–14 April and around the lunar new year; internal flights sell out and roads north out of Bangkok jam for a day.
Third, check whether the festival closes things you came for. Temples close parts of their grounds during ceremonies, national parks stay open, and alcohol sales stop for 24 hours on Visakha Bucha, Asalha Bucha and Makha Bucha — including in bars and supermarkets.
