Things to Do

The Museum Star 2025 awards have just been launched by the National Discovery Museum Institute to spotlight the venues that truly shine. The winners were chosen not just for their collections, but for their overall vibe – from excellent service to a truly unique and welcoming experience for guests. Only 10 pioneering Bangkok institutions made the inaugural list, giving them a well-deserved badge of excellence. Consider your next cultural outing sorted.  Here are 10 award-winning spots to check out now.

Pride month may have closed its curtains, but the city’s cultural pulse shows no sign of slowing. June left us full – of installations, declarations, all the shades that make identity less of a statement and more of a spectrum. But if you thought it ended there, think again. July arrives with a quiet sprawl of exhibitions that ask different questions: about memory, language, loss and the shape of play. Still running is Lost in DOMLAND, Udom Taephanich’s gentle rebellion against the slow disappearance of silliness. It's not comedy, not quite tragedy either – more like a stage whisper from your younger self, reminding you that make-believe was once second nature. That monsters made of cardboard were just as real as the ones we now carry in our heads. Another good one, the Yuyuan Lantern Festival casts Bangkok in a softer light – literally. A first for the city, this chapter of China’s legendary spectacle reimagines ancient creatures from the Shan Hai Jing, their stories pulsing through illuminated paper forms. It’s part folklore, part fever dream. And if you're looking to trade fantasy for abstraction, Calligraphic Abstraction at Bangkok Kunsthalle offers Tang Chang’s trembling lines that blur scripture and spirit, proof that sometimes meaning lives in the unreadable. Then there’s The Shattered World, part of the James H. W. Thompson Foundation’s 50th anniversary programme – an ambitious, multi-site excavation of the Cold War’s lingering ghosts, stretching across the BACC, Jim Thompson Art Centre, the House Museum and William Warren Library. With works by 13 collectives, it doesn’t tidy history – it unsettles it. So yes, Pride flags have come down. But art? Art keeps asking. Keeps answering, and sometimes, just holds the silence in between. Stay one step ahead and map out your plans with our round-up of the best things to do in Bangkok. Get ahead of the game and start planning your month with our list of top things to do this July. Whether you're a regular gallery-goer or just art-curious, these are Bangkok’s best spots to live the art life From alleyway masterpieces to paint-splashed corners you might walk past without noticing, here are our top spots to see street art.  

June rolls in like a rush of neon, sequins and unapologetic joy – Pride is back, loud and proud. But this year carries a weight beyond the usual glitter and dancefloor confessions. Thailand marks its first legal recognition of same-sex marriage, a milestone decades in the making and a quiet revolution writ large across the city’s streets. Over 200,000 people will flood Bangkok, a tidal wave of colour and defiance, each step a statement, each flag a banner of hard-won freedom. The parade isn’t just a party – it’s a procession of resilience, love and history colliding in the most spectacular way. Photograph: Bangkok Pride From the wildest drag to the quietest moments of solidarity, this celebration stretches beyond surface-level exuberance. It’s the culmination of years spent fighting for recognition, for rights, for a space to simply exist without compromise. Bangkok’s roads become a runway of belonging, a stage for every story, every identity, every fierce truth. More than just a date on the calendar, this Pride is a declaration that love – unfiltered, untamed, in all its forms – finally has a home here. While the Bangkok Pride parade remains the highlight, the city hums with other LGBTQ+ events both before and after, making sure the celebration stretches well beyond a single day. So read on – there’s much more to discover. Photograph: Bangkok Pride When is Bangkok Pride? On Sunday June 1, Bangkok’s Pride parade returns to Rama I Road, transforming the city’s commercial spine into a living, glittering declaration. From 2pm-10pm, the theme ‘Born This Way’ will unfold not as slogan but insistence – a celebration of identity worn loud and without apology. The route begins at the National Stadium and ends at Ratchaprasong Intersection, cutting through Bangkok’s shopping district beneath a canopy of over 200 metres of rainbow and identity flags. It’s not subtle. It’s not meant to be. Expect drag queens, dancers, families, elders – all part of a procession that refuses to be quiet. Bangkok doesn’t just host Pride. It remixes it. Tradition and rebellion share the pavement, temples peer over sequinned shoulders. Photograph: Bangkok Pride How to take part in Pride in Bangkok 2025 Applications are now open for groups wanting to march in the official Pride parade right here. An event of this scale doesn’t materialise from sheer goodwill. It runs on the shoulders of hundreds willing to give time, energy and the occasional weekend to something that matters. Behind the sequins and sound systems are volunteers handling everything from fundraising and retail wrangling to artist coordination and logistics. On the day itself, over a thousand stewards will help steer the chaos into something resembling choreography – visibility needs structure, after all. Photograph: Bangkok Pride Bangkok Pride lineup From 11am-2.30pm, participants arrive, register, transform themselves, then line up by colour, a human rainbow waiting to move. At 2.30pm, there’s a brief opening – less ceremony, more ignition. By 3pm, the formation begins. What was once a gathering becomes a parade. Between 4pm and 4.30pm, the march officially sets off, winding its way towards Central World over the next few hours. Along the route, stages offer quick bursts of performance. At 6pm, the big acts begin. Possibly mor lam, possibly something else entirely. For the full lineup, visit Bangkok Pride here. Photograph: Bangkok Pride

June arrives like a glitch in the system – a month stitched together by celebration and resistance, identity and exception. It’s the kind of moment where art feels less like decoration and more like a way of breathing.  In Bangkok, art isn’t confined to white cubes or gallery walls. It spills, glitches and stares back. The galleries don’t sleep. The warehouses flicker with light. You’ll find exhibitions in places that feel vaguely illegal and performances that seem like they’ve been dreamt up at 3am by someone who hasn't blinked in days. And maybe that’s enough: to witness, to feel, to not look away. Because art, like identity, was never meant to be tidy. Remember Lost in DOMLAND? That surrealist maze of desire and disorientation that made you feel like you'd stumbled into someone else's subconscious? Or A Cage of Fragile Heart, where tenderness became performance, and vulnerability was something to wear, not hide? That same raw energy pulses through this month’s line-up – less polished, more honest. And while Attack on Titan Final Exhibition gave us collapsing walls and the weight of legacy, and Hit the Road carved out moments of quiet rebellion, June doesn’t look back so much as it fragments forward. It isn’t neat. It doesn’t try to be. Instead, it offers a series of entry points – some loud, others almost imperceptible – into questions of selfhood, memory and what it means to be seen. There’s no single narrative, no tidy moral. Just flashes of truth, stitched together by artists who are less interested in answers than they are in asking the questions we keep avoiding. So, if you’re looking for something comfortable, you might want to sit this one out. But if you're ready to feel slightly unmoored in the best possible way, June’s waiting. Make time to wander through these exhibitions – and while you're out, take in the rest of what Bangkok has lined up this weekend. Below, you’ll find all of the free art and photography exhibitions happening in the city right now, but that’s not everything: don’t miss out on the things to do on the weekend right here. Enjoy! Stay one step ahead and map out your plans with our round-up of the best things to do in Bangkok.   Get ahead of the game and start planning your month with our list of top things to do this June. Whether you're a regular gallery-goer or just art-curious, these are Bangkok’s best spots to live the art life From alleyway masterpieces to paint-splashed corners you might walk past without noticing, here are our top spots to see street art.

If you're the sort of person who slows down at a half-painted wall or feels personally attacked by a good curation, Bangkok will keep you busy. The city’s art scene isn’t just thriving – it’s sprawling, unpredictable and, at times, gloriously chaotic. From white-cube galleries tucked inside half-renovated shopfronts to sprawling museum halls and street corners where murals seem to bloom overnight, there’s no singular way to experience it all – and frankly, no point in trying. Alongside permanent collections and galleries are artist-run spaces and community-led studios with more personality than polish, where work is hung with nails, not pretension. Add to that a packed calendar of temporary exhibitions – changing faster than most people can update their weekend plans – and you’ll find yourself wandering into corners of the city you didn’t know existed, just to catch a film screening or a giant sculpture on Sanam Luang. And yes, it’s a lot. Too much, maybe. But that’s hardly a complaint. If anything, it's a reminder that Bangkok’s cultural life isn’t waiting for permission – it’s already happening, with or without you. We’re just here to help you keep up. Make time to wander through these exhibitions – and while you're out, take in the rest of what Bangkok has lined up this weekend. Below, you’ll find all of the free art and photography exhibitions happening in the city right now, but that’s not everything: don’t miss out on the things to do on the weekend right here. Enjoy. Stay one step ahead and map out your plans with our round-up of the best things to do in Bangkok. Get ahead of the game and start planning your month with our list of top things to do this May. Whether you're a regular gallery-goer or just art-curious, these are Bangkok’s best spots to live the art life From alleyway masterpieces to paint-splashed corners you might walk past without noticing, here are our top spots to see street art.

This May, the hot and grimy streets of Bangkok will transform into a rousing parade of vintage and custom motorcycles, mounted by an inspired mashup of leather and tweed, boots and bustiers, grinding asphalt together with a commitment to vital causes. Once again, The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride returns to Thailand’s capital, combining style, camaraderie and a common mission. Motorcycling enthusiast Mark Hawwa founded the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride in Sydney, Australia in 2012, and it has since grown into a worldwide phenomenon. Inspired by an image of Don Draper from Mad Men – straddling a classic 1957 Matchless G3LS while impeccably suited – Hawwa created a themed event that in the intervening years has both reshaped the image of motorcyclists and raised awareness for prostate cancer and men's mental health. Today, DGR unites more than 500,000 riders across 900 cities in 121 countries, and has raised over USD $50 million for men’s health through its charity partner, Movember. Bangkok, which hosted its first DGR in 2016, has become a key city on the global DGR map. This year’s ride on Sunday, May 18, 2025, is shaping up to be its most impressive yet.

  April has arrived, marking the official start of summer. With the city’s parks and streets taking on new life, the cultural scene is also awakening. Museums and galleries across the city are gearing up for exciting exhibition openings, offering fresh and inspiring experiences for art lovers. As the temperatures rise, why not seek refuge in a cool gallery or museum? Bangkok boasts a wealth of world-class art and photography exhibitions, all available to explore without spending a satang. From contemporary photography to traditional artwork, there’s a variety of free exhibitions on offer throughout the city this month. Set aside some time to explore these exhibitions, and while you're at it, discover everything else Bangkok has to offer this weekend.Below, you’ll find all of the free art and photography exhibitions happening in the city right now, but that’s not everything: don’t miss out on the things to do on the weekend right here. Enjoy. RECOMMENDED:  The best things to do in Bangkok The best things to do this weekend  Bangkok’s best spots to live the art life Top spots to see street art

An age-old saying amongst Bangkokians is that Thailand enjoys three seasons: ‘hot’, ‘bloody hot’, and ‘bloody hot and wet’! But have no fear, because as the months of ‘bloody hot’ start to kick in, we have a great suggestion for keeping your cool… water parks. You’ll find them dotted about the outskirts of town, close by in neighbouring provinces, and even on the roofs of city shopping malls. A fun option for kids and adults alike to beat the heat, here’s our pick of the best.    

You know that feeling when your nails are on point, and suddenly everything feels just right? Yeah, we get it. Whether you're all about monochrome colours, minimalist design, cartoon stickers or a neat and natural look, Bangkok has some fantastic nail salons in which to treat your talons. For the best in nail care and couture though, we suggest you get your claws these Time Out recommendations for a magical manicure.

It’s cool in Bangkok. Ok, not quite the sinking into a soft sofa and snuggling under blankets with a mug of hot chocolate kind of mid-winter cold, but certainly not the usual roasting heat and stifling humidity we are generally subject to. The climate in the capital is currently bright, breezy and fresh and set to stay that way into the early days of January. So, dig out that long-forgotten woolly jumper or duffle coat, slap on some moisturiser and lip balm and hit the streets for a refreshing take on ‘Baltic Bangkok’. Here are some ideas to get you chillin’.     RECOMMENDED: Bangkok’s best Christmas feasts this festive season The best things to do in Bangkok this weekend Bangkok Art Biennale 2024: your ultimate guide