Skip to content
ThailandHQ

Festival

Songkranสงกรานต์

The Thai new year — three official days of temple visits, family duty and the largest water fight on earth

Next
13–15 April 2027
13–15 April 2027
Where
Nationwide, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya, Khon Kaen
Public holiday
Yes
Alcohol sales
Normal

In short

Songkran is Thailand's traditional new year, marked on 13–15 April regardless of the lunar calendar. The religious core is gentle: pouring scented water over Buddha images and over the hands of elders, cleaning the house, returning to the family home. The public version is a nationwide water fight that shuts down whole streets, and it is also the deadliest week of the Thai year on the roads.

Songkran on Si Lom Road in Bangkok seen from above at night: the closed road packed with people carrying water pistols, pink-canopied stalls and pavement vendors selling more water guns, and the wet red and orange crossing markings shining under the streetlights.
Chainwit. / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Go if

  • Anyone who genuinely enjoys crowds, heat and being soaked for eight hours a day
  • Photographers, if you have a waterproof housing and low expectations about your gear
  • Seeing the quiet version — dawn merit-making at a neighbourhood temple, before the water starts
  • Chiang Mai, which does the most complete job of both the ritual and the party

Be aware

  • The roads. The 2026 seven-day campaign recorded 242 deaths and 1,242 crashes nationwide
  • Domestic flights, trains and hotels sell out four to eight weeks ahead and prices roughly double
  • Everything closes: banks, government offices, many clinics, a lot of restaurants
  • You will be soaked whether or not you are participating. Carrying a laptop is a mistake
  • Ice water, high-pressure guns and talc smeared on faces are all common and all unpleasant

Songkran is two festivals wearing the same name. One is a quiet family observance built around water as a symbol of cleansing and respect. The other is a three-day national water fight of genuinely startling scale. You can attend either, but you cannot avoid the second one — if you are outdoors in a Thai town on 13 April, you are in it.

When to book, and what it costs#

Songkran is the single biggest domestic travel week of the Thai year, bigger than New Year. Around eight to ten million Thais move between cities, mostly from Bangkok back to the provinces. That has a predictable effect on prices.

Book domestic flights and long-distance trains six to eight weeks out. Fares on the Bangkok–Chiang Mai and Bangkok–Khon Kaen routes commonly run two to three times the shoulder-season price, and second-class sleeper berths north are effectively gone by mid-March. Hotels in Chiang Mai's Old City and along Bangkok's Silom and Khao San corridors apply festival rates with three- or four-night minimums.

If you are already in Thailand and not travelling, the opposite logic applies: Bangkok empties out. Sukhumvit is quieter than at any other point in the year, taxis are easy outside the water zones, and the good restaurants that stay open are bookable.

Where to actually be#

  • Chiang Mai Old City moat — the most complete version. The moat itself is the ammunition supply, which is why the fighting is continuous and the water is not clean. Tha Phae Gate is the centre of gravity.
  • Silom Road, Bangkok — closed to traffic and turned into a several-kilometre linear water fight. Dense, loud, and the easiest to reach by rail. Enter from Sala Daeng or Chong Nonsi and expect a slow shuffle.
  • Khao San Road, Bangkok — the most concentrated and the most aggressive. Small enough that you are shoulder to shoulder for its entire length.
  • Wat Pho, Wat Suthat, or any neighbourhood temple at 07:00 — the other Songkran. Merit-making, bathing Buddha images, sand stupas in the courtyard. Almost no water fighting before mid-morning.
  • Phra Pradaeng, Samut Prakan — the Mon community holds its Songkran the following weekend, with a much stronger emphasis on procession and costume than on soaking strangers.

What to wear and carry#

Quick-drying synthetics, sandals with a heel strap, and nothing you mind losing. Loose white shirts are traditional and become transparent; a lot of people regret them by lunchtime. Sunglasses matter more than you would think — hoses and pressurised guns are aimed at faces.

Put your phone in a sealed dry bag, not a zip-lock. Take one card and a small amount of cash in a second sealed bag. Leave your passport in the hotel safe. Motorbike hire during Songkran is a bad idea even for confident riders; the combination of wet roads, water thrown at moving vehicles and widespread drink-driving is exactly what the casualty figures describe.

Common questions

Can I opt out of the water fight?

Partly. Water is generally not thrown at monks, the very elderly, babies, or people clearly carrying something fragile, and a firm smile and a raised hand is usually respected. But there is no reliable way to cross Silom or the Chiang Mai moat dry, and pretending otherwise leads to ruined electronics. Plan routes that avoid the closed zones, or travel before 10:00.

Are the banks and government offices really shut?

Yes. Banks, immigration, land offices and most government services close for the three official days and often the adjacent in-lieu day. Do not schedule a 90-day report, a visa extension or a property transfer anywhere near 13–15 April.

Is alcohol banned during Songkran?

No. Songkran is not one of the Buddhist holy days that carry an alcohol sales ban. Normal rules apply — retail sales between 11:00 and midnight, with hotels, licensed entertainment venues and international airport terminals exempt.

Is it worth flying in specifically for it?

Only if the water fight itself is the point. It is not a subtle cultural experience and it is expensive to attend. If you want the ritual side — the processions, the temple mornings, the Lanna dress — Chiang Mai in the first half of the week delivers that, and you can leave before the moat becomes impassable.

Dates

Fixed at 13–15 April every year, with an in-lieu day if any of the three falls at a weekend. In practice the country slows from around 10 April and does not fully restart until the 17th or 18th; Chiang Mai runs a longer programme, and some Isaan towns celebrate a day or two later than Bangkok.

  • 13–15 April 2026Monday to Wednesday. Chiang Mai ran an extended programme from 11 to 19 April.
  • 13–15 April 2027Tuesday to Thursday.

Sources

What’s on

Calendar →

← The full Thailand calendar