Travel and food in King Naresuan’s footsteps

An old market that has long served the Hua Ro community, close enough to Chandra Kasem Palace to walk between the two. Today the Crown Property Bureau manages the market, and in 2025 the municipality and the province launched a project to improve the landscape of Khlong Maha Chai around the market and turn it into a community-based tourism spot. A good place to stop for breakfast before visiting the Front Palace.

The owner started selling noodles from a boat at the age of 17 and kept at it for more than 50 years before moving ashore to open a shop. The tom yum–style broth comes with minced pork, red roast pork or fish balls, topped with ground peanuts. The shop is listed in the MICHELIN Guide Thailand 2026 and takes cash only.

A beef-noodle shop whose owner started selling around 1961 and moved to the current roadside spot around 1977. You can choose stewed beef, tendon, offal and beef balls. It is in the MICHELIN Guide 2026; at lunchtime you may have to queue, and it takes cash only.

A lunchtime favourite of Ayutthaya locals for more than 50 years. The MICHELIN Guide notes that the shop goes through about 100 kg of meatballs a day. There is both blanched fresh beef and stewed beef, and condiments such as the chilli vinegar are made in-house as well. It is in the MICHELIN Guide 2026.

A family boat-noodle shop now in its third generation, which has been selling for more than five decades. It received a Bib Gourmand in the MICHELIN Guide Thailand 2026. The bowls are small, so people usually order several each. There is parking, it takes cash only, and it is not far from Wat Mahathat.

Shredded-chicken noodles in tom yum broth, with tender chicken, and you can add braised chicken feet. Good for breakfast or lunch. It received a Bib Gourmand in the MICHELIN Guide 2026. The shop is on the north side of Khlong Mueang, not far from Wat Na Phra Men.

Widely believed to be the birthplace of King Naresuan in 1555, and his residence when he governed Phitsanulok. The remains of its building foundations were rediscovered in 1992 during the construction of a school building. The Fine Arts Department declared it an archaeological site in 1994, and the school moved out in 2005 to make way for restoration. Today a history centre and a shrine to King Naresuan stand on the same grounds. (Information from 2026 says the history centre is open Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00–16:00; hours may change.)

Around 1913 the ruins of an old chedi were found here, and Prince Damrong Rajanubhab suggested that they were connected with the elephant-duel war of 1593. A new chedi was later built over the old ruins, together with a statue of the king on his war elephant, and opened in 1959. The Don Chedi Memorial Fair is held here every year; the 67th fair opened on 18 January 2026. The actual location of the battlefield, however, is still debated.

Another place that some have proposed as the possible site of the elephant-duel battle, about 85 km southwest of the monument in Suphan Buri. The Fine Arts Department excavated here in 1982 and found human skeletons, elephant bones and swords, but in 1988 the department stated that the chedi here dates from the Dvaravati period. Today there is a memorial that opened in 2003, so visitors get to see the other side of the debate over where the battle was fought.

A mountain pass on the Thai–Myanmar border that was the main invasion route between the two kingdoms in the Ayutthaya period. Hanthawaddy's armies used it from the war of 1548, in which Queen Suriyothai, King Naresuan's grandmother, was killed, and the Siamese also used it to march their own armies out. The memorial in Phanom Thuan district was likewise built with reference to the 400th anniversary of King Naresuan leading his army through this pass to attack Burma. The pass is right on the border, so check the current situation and the border-crossing regulations before you travel.

A border district in the north of Chiang Mai province that many believe is connected with Mueang Hang, where King Naresuan died in 1605 while marching his army towards Ava. The area has several ancient sites that local people believe are linked to him. However, the location of Mueang Hang is still debated: some think it lay in Myanmar's Shan State, and some records mention Mueang Fang instead.