Erawan Waterfall Tours from Bangkok and Kanchanaburi
20 tours read one by one, from under 60 to more than 120 EUR. Four are shared at typically 60 to 120 EUR, sixteen are private at typically 120 to 250. The 300 THB park fee is not always in the price.
The cheapest Erawan waterfall tour from Bangkok on this page costs under 60 EUR for a shared 12-hour day. The dearest private one costs more than 120 EUR. Between them sit 18 other listings, and most of the gap comes down to who drives and what else fits into the day: 13 of the 20 titles also name the River Kwai bridge, the Death Railway or Hellfire Pass, so the waterfall is one stop among several. The park is in Kanchanaburi province, about 65 km from Kanchanaburi town according to yourthaiguide.com (Wikipedia says about 50), and a long way further from Bangkok. This page covers the park, the rules at the gate, what the tours include, and how to go without one. The chart further down shows how little the price says about which kind of day you are buying. For the other Thai falls and the best months across the country, see the Thailand page.
A note on the name. The park takes it from Erawan, the three-headed elephant of Hindu myth. The Erawan Museum in Samut Prakan, at the edge of Bangkok, shares it, has no waterfall and nothing to swim in, and twelve listings for it were left out of this catalog. None is on this page. Every tour below goes to Kanchanaburi province, and most of them also stop at the bridge over the River Kwai.
Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Mae Klong Railway Market and Erawan Falls Day Trip
Motor boat and train rides, admission to Erawan and travel accident insurance come with a private licensed guide, in a standard vehicle or a luxury VIP van.
Erawan Falls Day Tour from Bangkok with Hotel Pickup, Fruit and Soi Rambuttri Option
Hotel pickup, entrance fees, an English-speaking guide, water and fruit are included, with Soi Rambuttri as the alternative meeting point. All sales are final.
Erawan Falls, Don Rak War Cemetery and River Kwai Bridge Day Trip by Private Car
A 7:00 AM hotel pickup in a private air-conditioned car, with fuel, parking and tolls covered; lunch is not included. Back at the hotel around 6:30 PM.
Erawan Falls, Hellfire Pass and Death Railway Train Day Tour from Kanchanaburi
Starts and ends on Maenamkwai Road in Kanchanaburi; lunch, a life jacket, a towel and all fees and taxes are included, with guiding in Thai and English.
Erawan Falls, JEATH Museum and Kwai Bridge Group Day Trip from Bangkok
Group day from Bangkok leaving between 6:30 and 7:15, with an English-speaking guide, JEATH Museum and park entry fees paid, and up to 15 travelers per booking.
Erawan Falls, Srinakarin Lake and Train Ride Day Tour from Kanchanaburi
Pickup is from Kanchanaburi hotels, and the train ride, park entry fee and drinking water are included. Meals are paid separately and groups top out at nine.
Flexible Small-Group Erawan Falls and Tham Krasae Day Tour with a Local Guide
Customizable within the day's schedule, with a Thai- or English-speaking local guide; lunch, bottled water and all fees and taxes are covered in the price.
Private All-Inclusive Erawan Falls, Long-Tail Boat and River Kwai Day Tour
Pickup at 7:00 AM and back around 6:30 PM, with a long-tail boat ride and JEATH museum; lunch, water and entrance fees included. English or Mandarin guide.
Private Day Trip from Bangkok: Erawan Falls, Rescued Elephants and Kwai Bridge
Lunch, bottled water and all entrance fees come with this private 12-hour day, which adds a visit to rescued elephants to the falls, the railway and the bridge.
Private Day Trip from Bangkok: Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Kwai Bridge and Erawan
Private 7:00 AM transfer from a Bangkok hotel with a licensed English-speaking guide, water and insurance, returning around 6:00 to 6:30 PM; sales are final.
Private Erawan Falls and Rescued Elephant Visit from Bangkok, Lunch Included
Private day with an English-speaking driver, lunch, bottled water, expressway fees and every entrance fee covered. Specialized infant seats are available.
Private Erawan Falls, Bamboo Rafting and Death Railway Day Tour from Bangkok
Hotel pickup in central Bangkok, a Thai lunch and an English-speaking local guide in a private air-conditioned car, on a day that also includes bamboo rafting.
Private Erawan Falls, Death Railway Train Ride and Muang Mallika Tour from Bangkok
Private van from Bangkok with an English-speaking guide, a train ticket, lunch at a local restaurant and travel accident insurance for up to nine travelers.
Private Erawan Falls, River Kwai Boat Ride and Bridge Day Tour from Bangkok
Leaves at 7:00 AM with a private guide, car and boat, simple Thai lunch, admission and accident insurance all included. Pickup is from city-center hotels.
Private Erawan Falls, Wat Tham Khao Pun and Long-Tail Boat Day Tour, VIP Van Option
Hotel pickup in downtown Bangkok, admission to three sites, a 45-minute long-tail boat ride and travel accident insurance for each traveler are all included.
Private Erawan Falls, Wat Tham Phu Wa and Wat Tham Sua Temple Day Trip from Bangkok
A private, unhurried day that pairs three hours at Erawan with cave and hilltop temples; licensed guide, insurance, fuel, tolls and admissions are covered.
Private Hellfire Pass, Death Railway Walk and Erawan Falls Day Tour from Bangkok
Hellfire Pass museum and walking trail, the Tham Krasae railway walk and Erawan Falls on one private day; lunch, water and all fees and taxes are included.
Private Kanchanaburi Day Tour from Bangkok: JEATH Museum, River Kwai and Erawan
A 7 AM hotel pickup in a private air-conditioned car with an English-speaking guide, a Thai lunch and all entrance fees, returning to the hotel at day's end.
Small-Group Erawan Falls, Skywalk and Kwai Bridge Day Tour from Bangkok
TripGuru small-group day from Bangkok with hotel pickup or an MBK meeting point; the Skywalk and park entry fees are paid separately. Maximum 9 per booking.
Small-Group Erawan Falls, Tham Krasae Cave and Death Railway Train from Bangkok
Group of up to 13 meets at BTS Wongwian Yai, Asia Hotel, Korean Town or Khaosan; lunch is included but park entry and the train ticket are paid extra.
Ratings collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
Where Erawan is, and what the park is
Erawan National Park is in Kanchanaburi province, in western Thailand near the Myanmar border. It was declared on 19 June 1975, the twelfth national park in the country, and covers 550 km² of limestone hills in the Tenasserim range, rising to 996 m. The waterfall most people mean is a seven-step staircase of pools, with roughly 1.5 km of path beside it. The park counted 519,235 visitors in fiscal 2024, about 1,400 a day on average, which is worth remembering when a tour description promises you a quiet swim.
Distances shape the day. One listing puts the drive from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi at 2.5 hours. The visitor guide at yourthaiguide.com puts the falls 65 km from the town, 1 hour 15 by road. That is 3 hours 45 minutes each way. On a 12-hour tour about 7.5 hours go on the road, and the waterfall, the bridge and lunch share what is left.
What an Erawan waterfall tour from Bangkok puts around the falls
Thirteen of the 20 titles name the River Kwai bridge, the Death Railway or Hellfire Pass. Two sell a stop at a rescued-elephant center that the listing does not name. The pairing makes sense on the map: Kanchanaburi town and its bridge sit on the way to the park, and an operator selling a 12-hour day has to fill the hours. It also means you should decide what you came for. If it is the swim, count the hours you will really have at the pools. If it is the war history, the waterfall is a pleasant afternoon at the end of it.
| Listing | Price band | Hours | Starts | Park fee and extras | Lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TripGuru Thailand, shared: Erawan, River Kwai, Skywalk | 30 to 60 EUR | 12 | Bangkok, MBK Center or hotel | Park 300 THB and Skywalk 60 THB are extra | At your own expense |
| Click2GoThailand, small group: Erawan, Death Railway | 60 to 120 EUR | 12 | Bangkok meeting points from 6:10 am | Park 300 THB and the 100 THB train ticket are extra | Included |
| Paddle and More Travel: Erawan, Hellfire Pass, train | 60 to 120 EUR | 9.5 | Kanchanaburi | All fees included | Included |
| TripGuru Thailand from Kanchanaburi: Erawan, train | 60 to 120 EUR | 8 | Kanchanaburi | Park fee and train included | Not included |
| Idaytrip, private: Erawan, elephant care, Death Railway | 120 to 250 EUR | 12 | Bangkok | All entrance fees included | Included |
Read the "not included" lines before you compare prices. The cheapest tour, under 60 EUR, and the Kanchanaburi one, in the 60 to 120 EUR band, look a step apart, but the second pays the 300 THB gate and the train itself, and it starts where you already are. If you plan to sleep in Kanchanaburi anyway, the two tours that start there skip the 2.5-hour drive from Bangkok in each direction, which makes the 60 to 120 EUR band the best money on this page.
Swimming and the rules at the gate
Seven tiers, and how far you walk
The pools sit one above the other, each with its own small fall. The site thainationalparks.com, a private information site, lists levels one to six as reachable on paths and walkways and the seventh as a scramble. Swimming is allowed. Food is not allowed beyond the second level, and bottles carry a 20 THB deposit.
How far you go decides how much time you need. Listings say "up to seven tiers", but they leave you the rest of the afternoon at most. If the top matters, ask how many hours the operator gives you at the park. Visitors are not admitted after 15:30 and the park closes around 16:30.
| Item | What the site gives |
|---|---|
| Foreign adult | 300 THB |
| Foreign child, 3 to 14 | 150 THB (June 2026) |
| Payment | Cash |
| Hours | About 8:00 to 16:30, no entry after 15:30 |
| Food | Not allowed beyond level 2 |
| Bottles | 20 THB deposit |
| Swimming | Allowed |
Going without a tour
You can do Erawan alone, and the claim that it needs a tour is wrong. Bus 81 leaves Bangkok's Southern Terminal for Kanchanaburi at 95 THB in second class or 110 THB in first, in about 2 hours. A train from Thonburi at 07:50 or 13:55 is the other option. From Kanchanaburi, bus 8170 runs to the park for 60 THB in about 1.5 hours. Add the 300 THB gate and the round trip comes to roughly 610 to 640 THB, well under half of the cheapest tour at any recent exchange rate.
| Leg | Fare | Time | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, bus 81 | 95 THB (2nd class), 110 THB (1st) | About 2 hours | From the Southern Terminal. Trains from Thonburi at 07:50 and 13:55 |
| Kanchanaburi to Erawan, bus 8170 | 60 THB | About 1.5 hours | Departures 8:00, 9:40, 11:00, 13:00, 16:00 (15:00 on Saturday and Sunday) and 17:40. Returns between 5:20 and 16:30 |
| Park entry | 300 THB | Foreign adult. No entry after 15:30 | |
| Whole chain, one way | About 5 h 50 min | Rome2rio estimate |
What it costs you is time. Leave Bangkok at 6 am and the Rome2rio figure puts you at the gate around noon, with the last bus back at 16:30 dropping you in Bangkok close to 10 pm. That is our arithmetic, not a timetable. The practical way to do it alone is to sleep in Kanchanaburi the night before.
The fee, the bus and the 15:30 cutoff are the three numbers that decide whether Erawan works on your own.
Closures, floods and the best month
Limestone steps and what rain does to them
Each step is a ledge of limestone with a pool below it, and the water crosses the ledge in a sheet or in several threads depending on the rain. In the picture the flow is moderate. After heavy rain the upper levels can be shut: Thai press reported that in October 2017 only the first two levels were open and swimming was banned.
The other trouble comes in the dry months. Fires and fine dust can close the park, as they did for about a day in April 2026. November to January is the cool season. Rain drops to 45 mm in November and under 10 mm in December and January at the Kanchanaburi weather station. We found no source that gives the flow of the falls.
Erawan in dates
Dates from Wikipedia's entry for the park and from Thai press reports.
The origins
-
19 June 1975
Declared a national park
The twelfth in Thailand, in force the day after publication in the Royal Gazette.
The growth
-
October 2017
High water limits the park
Khaosod reported that only the first two levels were open and swimming was banned.
Today
-
Fiscal 2024
519,235 visitors
Wikipedia's list gives the count for the fiscal year, about 1,400 a day on average.
-
21 April 2026
Closed for fire haze
Tourism and camping were suspended at 13:00 because of fires and PM2.5 dust, and reopened on 22 April.
The closures we found were short and had natural causes. In 2018 a spokesman for the national parks department told Thai PBS that Erawan is among the falls it announces as closed every rainy season. We found no closure notice for 2026, and thainationalparks.com says the park is open daily all year. Check the park's own notices the week you travel, especially in the rainy season, and book a listing with free cancellation: every Viator listing we opened offers it up to 24 hours before departure.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
How the 20 listings compare
The four shared tours sit at roughly 30 to 120 EUR and the private ones at roughly 60 to 250 EUR. Fifteen of the 16 private tours are priced per person, like the shared seats, so the listed price is for one traveler. One, the flexible small-group Erawan Falls and Tham Krasae day, in the 120 to 250 EUR band, quotes one price for the whole group; the listings we opened allow groups of 9 or 15.
The ratings argue for spending a little. The two largest shared tours have near-identical titles: one costs under 60 EUR and scores 4.4 on 463 reviews, the other costs a little more, in the 60 to 120 EUR band, and scores 4.9 on 389. Three operators hold 77% of all reviews on the page, and the other 14 share the rest. The 5.0 scores rest on 5 to 101 reviews.
Choosing, and the mistakes to avoid
Pick the start first: a tour from Bangkok is a long van ride with a waterfall in it, and one from Kanchanaburi is a short ride. Then check the inclusions, because the gate fee, the train ticket and lunch can each be extra. Reach the park well before 15:30. Do not book on the name alone: a listing that says Erawan and means the museum is a different day.
Questions about Erawan waterfall tours
Can I visit Erawan without a tour?
Yes. Bus 81 from Bangkok's Southern Terminal to Kanchanaburi costs 95 to 110 THB, and bus 8170 from Kanchanaburi to the park costs 60 THB. With the 300 THB gate fee the round trip is roughly 610 to 640 THB. The chain takes about 5 hours 50 minutes each way, so sleeping in Kanchanaburi helps.
Is the park fee included in a tour price?
It depends on the listing. The two cheapest shared tours we opened, in the under 60 and 60 to 120 EUR bands, list the 300 THB fee as extra. The tour from Kanchanaburi and the private day include it. Read the "not included" line before you compare.
When is the best time to visit?
The private site thainationalparks.com gives rain from May to October, heaviest in September and October and a bit into November, and says the rest of the year is quite dry, with cooler weather from November to January. At the Kanchanaburi weather station the least rain falls from December to February. We found no source that gives the flow of the falls. Fires and dust can close the park in the hot season: it shut for about a day on 21 April 2026.
How many levels can I reach?
There are seven. The private site thainationalparks.com describes levels one to six as reachable on paths and walkways and the seventh as a scramble. Swimming is allowed and food is not allowed beyond level 2. How far you get depends on how long your tour leaves you before the 15:30 cutoff.
Is the Erawan Museum the same place?
No. The Erawan Museum is in Samut Prakan at the edge of Bangkok and has no waterfall. The waterfall is in Erawan National Park in Kanchanaburi province. Before you book, check that the listing names Kanchanaburi and the park, rather than the word Erawan alone.
Comparing Erawan with the rest of Thailand?
The Thailand page sets Erawan against Chiang Mai, Tak and Khao Yai on fees, distance and season.
Data verified on . Tours, prices and ratings read from 20 listings on 22 October 2026. Park facts from Wikipedia and thainationalparks.com (June 2026); closures from Thai press.