Try showing the sunflower fields pictures to your friends and let them guess where is it located. I’ve tried many times, bet you you’ll get Peru, Amsterdam, France.
I remember the first time a friend of mine showed me a picture of the sunflower fields in Thailand, you got be kidding me, this is not Thailand. Since then I’ve always wanted to go but I just couldn’t find a reason to visit Bangkok. When my friends and I planned for a Bangkok trip in January, I knew I had to convince them to go. They were up for it, including the fact that we had to take a 3-hour train ride.
Thank you God, because my instinct was telling me to call up a local driver to just compare the prices to go to Lopburi by a private car-considering theres four of us. Well well well who would’ve thought, the driver laughed at me in Malay (he can’t speak english but Malay yes) that the Lopburi flowers were already GONE by the time I get there. His exact words were “its bunga sudah hitam worr”. I can already imagine the look I will have in my face if we had went all the way and see black flowers. Not funny.
Here is what you need to know before visiting the sunflower fields near Bangkok
Blooms from November to January
Yeapppppp! The flowers blooms in the cooler months of the year, be sure to plan your trip accordingly. Although there is a three month window for you to visit, best to visit in December.
It is not just located in Lopburi
I would say Lopburi province is the most common and famous, probably because Lopburi is a town in itself, known for their monkeys and a handful of touristy sites to visit. and they do have pretty mountains in the background.
Lopburi peaks in December and there is train excursion that goes there where the train stops in the middle of the field where everyone can get off-looks pretty cool to me but by what I’ve heard it sells out fast so you better be quick!
If you are visiting in January, best to visit Khao Yai in the Saraburi province. It is about 3 hours drive from Don Mueng Airport, and this was the trip I took.
You have 15 days before the flowers are harvested
This was something new to me. Samad, our local driver told me that there are lots of farm around the province but you must know which to go to, as a farm only lasts for about 15 days, before the flowers are harvested. While one farm is only at the early stage of blooming, another is reaching its end.
So because of this, my advice is to get a private hire instead of going by train, as you would end up going in circles finding farms that are in bloom.
There are more than just sunflowers
Best part about getting your own private driver is you can tell him specifically of the places you want to visit, or you can let him bring you around (whichever rocks your boat).
Be sure to google up things to do or places to visit of the district you are headed to because there are just so much more than just sunflowers! Khao Yai is stunning, however I only managed to squeeze in a winery visit before our 6 am flight was kicking in. Along the way I did see tons of beautiful places that you can visit too such as the Hobbiton (don’t have to go all the way to new zealand for that), Primo Plazza (that looks like Italy) and there is just so many hip villas. Talk to your driver prior to the trip so he could plan up an itinerary for you.
