AraiWa · Know · Weather & seasons
Songkran in Thailand — what actually changes
What this means
Songkran is Thai New Year — officially April 13–15, in practice several days of the country partly shutting down and partly turning into a nationwide water fight. Whether that is the best week of your year or the one you should route around depends entirely on what you came for. This guide is about the practical layer: what closes, what gets crowded, what gets soaked, and how to decide with your own plans in mind.
Last reviewed · AraiWa editorial
Decision helper
Quick decision
Decide your relationship with the water fight first: join it and plan nothing else for those days, or avoid the main streets between roughly midday and dark — half measures are how phones and moods get ruined.
What changes your plan
Any travel day inside the holiday window changes your plan: intercity transport sells out days ahead, roads are at their most dangerous of the year, and offices and many businesses close around the official dates.
Common mistake
Scheduling visa runs, embassy visits or anything involving government offices for Songkran week — official Thailand is closed, and the backlog eats the days after too.
Local-style move
Waterproof phone pouch bought in advance, valuables left at home, cash in a zip bag — and greeting the soaking with a smile, because 'staying dry downtown' is not on the menu.
The shape of the holiday
The official public holidays are April 13–15, but Songkran behaves like a longer window: many people travel to their home provinces beforehand, celebrations in some cities start early or run late, and the working rhythm resumes properly the following week. In Bangkok, some neighbourhoods empty out as residents leave, while the celebration hotspots fill with visitors.
What closes and what doesn't
- Government offices, immigration and standalone bank branches close on the official holidays — bank counters inside malls often stay open — so plan any paperwork around the window, not into it.
- Malls, chain stores, hospitals and most tourist-facing businesses stay open, often with reduced hours on the peak days.
- Small family businesses may close for several days as staff travel home — your favourite local restaurant being shut for a week is normal.
- Street-level daily life in celebration zones is dominated by the water fight from late morning to evening.
The water fight, honestly described
In celebration areas, everyone on the street is a participant — there is no opt-out lane. Water comes from buckets, hoses and water guns, sometimes iced, and in many places white clay paste gets smeared on faces. It is overwhelmingly good-natured, and it is also genuinely everywhere: walking to dinner through a celebration street means arriving soaked. Elderly people, monks and babies are traditionally left dry; a foreigner walking with luggage often gets mercy, but not reliably.
- Waterproof pouches for phones and cash are sold everywhere before the holiday — buying one is the single highest-value baht you will spend that week.
- Plan indoor days for anything that must stay dry: laptops, cameras, documents.
- If you want the celebration at its biggest, the famous zones in Bangkok and Chiang Mai deliver; if you want quiet, some islands and rural areas celebrate lightly — research your specific destination.
- Eyes and ears: water in the face from a passing pickup is part of the deal on open streets — sunglasses help more than you'd think.
Transport and the road-safety reality
Songkran week is Thailand's heaviest travel period and statistically its most dangerous time on the roads — the holiday casualty tolls are reported nationally every year. Intercity buses, trains and flights around the window book out days in advance, and city traffic near celebration zones crawls. If you ride a scooter, this is the week to park it: wet roads, water thrown at riders and holiday drink-driving stack the odds badly.
Songkran sits at the hot end of the year, just before the rains build — how the seasons fit together is in the rainy season guide. For getting around Bangkok when half the streets are wet, see Bangkok transport basics, and for what's actually on in the city, Bangkok events on AraiWa.
Sources & further reading
Found something outdated or confusing? Send a note.