Photo: Maxithai (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio tour that circles the island of Ayutthaya by car, stopping at the temples and foreign quarters outside its rivers. It begins at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, whose great chedi King Naresuan ordered in 1592 as the memorial of his victory over the Burmese crown prince, and Wat Phanan Choeng, dated to 1324, older than the capital, with its colossal gilded Buddha. At the river junction on the island's south-eastern corner stands Phet Fort, and beyond it the foreign quarters: Baan Hollanda on the Dutch East India Company's trading post, the Japanese Village and the Portuguese settlement. On the west and north come Wat Phutthaisawan, commissioned in 1353, St Joseph's Church at the site of the French Catholic mission, Wat Kasattrathirat, Wat Tha Ka Rong beside its old dockyard, Wat Phu Khao Thong, whose chedi the Burmese king Bayinnaung began after taking Ayutthaya in 1569, and the tree-bound gate of Wat Phra Ngam. The tour ends at Wat Na Phra Men, Wat Choeng Tha, the royal Elephant Kraal, Wat Pradu Songtham with its murals of 1862, Wat Kudi Dao and Wat Maheyong, east of the island.
18 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 417 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 8 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Phet Fort, Baan Hollanda, Japanese Village, Portuguese Village.
Wat Phutthaisawan, St Joseph's Church, Wat Kasattrathirat, Wat Tha Ka Rong, Wat Phu Khao Thong, Wat Phra Ngam, Wat Na Phra Men, Wat Choeng Tha, Elephant Kraal.
Wat Pradu Songtham, Wat Kudi Dao, Wat Maheyong.
The monastery whose great chedi King Naresuan ordered in 1592 as the memorial of his victory over the Burmese crown prince.
The temple where the Pa Sak meets the Chao Phraya, dated to 1324, before Ayutthaya was founded, with a gilded Buddha about 19 metres high.
The memorial on the site of the Japanese settlement on the east bank of the Chao Phraya, south of the island.
The yellow Romanesque church at the site of the French Catholic missionaries' principal mission station, opposite the old capital.
The great chedi in the fields outside the island, begun by the Burmese king Bayinnaung to mark his capture of Ayutthaya in 1569.
The royal enclosure where wild elephants, a critical resource for the kingdom, were captured and inspected.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 18 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 18 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Ayutthaya Beyond the Island — Temples and Foreign Quarters, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
18 narration points, including Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, Wat Phanan Choeng, Phet Fort, Baan Hollanda and Japanese Village. That is about 25 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~5 hours with the drives total, but you walk at your own pace. 18 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.