Table of Contents
Cost of Travel in Thailand
Table of Contents
A trip to Thailand can be as cheap or as expensive as you want. Because there are plenty of options that you can choose to fit your budget. You can stay in a guesthouse for a few hundred baht or a royal suite for a few hundred thousand baht. Eating cheap street food or luxury fine dining, you make the call.
Thailand has everything to suit every budget, which means the cost of travel in Thailand can vary a lot depending on your travel style.
However, I don’t want to make this post too complicated. Therefore, I’ll just define the type of traveler by looking at the budget: Tight Budget, Flexible Budget and Big Budget.
- Tight Budget
You aim to save money while visiting places and spend the least amount of money possible. You are on the lookout for a low-cost hotel and meal. To stick to the budget, you’ll probably have to give up some comfort.
- Flexible Budget
You still want some level of comfort, so you will have some extra cash to spend a little more on things that make you happy.
- Big Budget
You are willing to pay more for upmarket and luxurious experiences. You anticipate a high degree of comfort, service, and quality in order to make your journey unique, private, and aesthetically pleasing.
How much does a trip to Thailand cost per day?
The Thailand trip cost will be broken down into accommodation, food, mobile internet package, and transportation to give you an idea of what to expect in terms of basic spending per day. And the estimated cost prices are based on living in Bangkok because the cost of living in Bangkok can also reflect other tourist provinces such as Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Phuket, and Samui, which most of you are likely to visit.
***However, the below costs don’t yet include interprovincial cost, activity cost, and shopping cost, since these costs can be much different base on your travel style.
Accommodation Price
In Bangkok and big cities in Thailand, there are numerous accommodation options. It can be very cheap to a super expensive price depending on the room and surrounding neighborhood. Also, the day of your stay, such as a weekday rate is typically cheaper than the weekend rate and holiday rate.
Hostel
For a hostel in Bangkok, the average cost is around 250 – 600 baht per person. However, some lovely and cozy hostels also offer various room types, which the price could be over 800 baht per person.
Mid-range hotel
I recommend 3-star or mid-range hotels to individuals who desire a private room and bathroom. The nightly rates range from 1400 – 2500 baht. However, most hotel costs in Bangkok already include two adults per room. So, for a couple traveling together, the typical cost per person at a 3-star hotel is 700-1250 baht.
Luxury hotel
For luxury 5-star hotels, the rate can be super expensive. For example, a night at The Mandarin Oriental, a legendary 145-year-old hotel, will cost you over 12,000 baht! This hotel is exceptional. The majority of 4 or 5-star hotels will charge around 2600 – 5000 baht per night for two persons. Which means about 1300 – 2500 baht per person.
In addition, if you search for hotels on Agoda, the app states that “the Gold Star ratings are provided by the property to reflect the comfort, facilities and amenities you can expect”. As a result, I believe the star does not really reflect how magnificent the hotels are because the hotels rank the star for themselves.
Food Price
Thai food is one of the most popular foods in the world and most of you have probably eaten some of dishes, such as Tom Yuk Goong, Som Tam, Pad Thai, Pad Krapow, for example.
Street Food
Eating out in Thailand is relatively cheap, particularly eating at street carts and open-air shophouse restaurants. The average cost of a basic Thai menu like Pad Thai and Pad Krapow is about 40 – 50 baht per dish or 60-70 baht if you order seafood, shrimp or squid.
However, Thai portions is typically small, so you probably need an extra dish or some snack during the day. That means the least cost of eating at a street food restaurant in Bangkok is approximately 200 – 300 baht per person per day.
Casual Dining
If you eat in a food court in shopping malls like Siam Paragon or Central World, the basic menu is more expensive than street carts. It costs you between 70 and 100 baht per dish.
Alternatively, if eating out in a casual dining restaurant such as MK (the best Thai suki), Bar B Q Plaza (most popular Thai barbecue), Rosniyom (tasty Thai cuisines), the average cost per person would be around 250 – 350 baht.
As a result, the daily food expenditure will be between 400 and 800 baht per person.
Fine Dining
For people who enjoy seafood meals, there are several well-known restaurants that provide fresh ingredients and the best flavors. I definitely recommend Somboon Seafood and Laemcharoen Seafood because they have numerous locations and are easy to find. Both restaurants have branches in the Siam district, which can be reached by BTS sky train from Siam station (Siam Paragon, Siam Square One) or Chit Lom station (Central World).
Of course, the meal is much more expensive than eating at a food court or street vendor. For example, deep-fried seabass with aromatic sweet fish sauce costs 550 baht, while fried curry crab costs 800 baht. As a result, the roughly cost per person per meal at this type of restaurant is between 800 to 1200 baht.
Even if you have a large budget, you probably won’t eat seafood dishes like this for three meals in a row, right? You should still try some Thai street food because it’s one of the reasons travelers go to Thailand: affordable cuisine with wonderful flavor. As a result, the daily food expense would be around 1500 – 2500 baht per person.
Mobile Internet Package
In Thailand, there are three major service providers: AIS, DTAC, and TrueMove. In Thailand, they have a market share of approximately 97%
Prepaid SIM cards for travelers are commonly available with a package of data and validity of 5 days, 8 days, or 15 days, for example. Please keep in mind that while purchasing a SIM card in Thailand, you must present your passport.
All three internet providers offer the same rate of the packages, 8 days 299 baht, 15 days 599 baht, but might have a little difference in data usage and max speed. You can get the SIM at Suvarnarnabhumi Airport, Don Muang Airport, 7-Eleven, Family Mart, for instance.
If you want to get a SIM card from a convenience store, 7-Eleven has over 12,000 branches across Thailand, but the shop only offers TrueMove and DTAC. Go to Family Mart if you want AIS.
So which is better, AIS, DTAC, or TrueMove?
AIS is my advice. Because it provides the best coverage and speed in cities, rural areas, islands, mountains, beaches, and national parks.
However, I use DTAC, and I use it for over 10 years already, because it matches my lifestyle in Bangkok. I appreciate the discount coupons that are available in almost every shop in Thailand, movie ticket, milk tea, ice cream, food, dessert, and other benefits have kept me faithful to the brand for over a decade.
However, when it comes to the signal coverage area, I admit that AIS is the best. My girlfriend uses AIS, therefore when we travel around Thailand and go to the countryside using Google Maps, DTAC sometimes loses signal, and I have to switch to AIS instead. So, I strongly recommend AIS for foreigners since I am confident you will visit many sites in Thailand.
Back to the cost of the mobile internet package, let’s assume a traveler spends a one-week vacation in Thailand that means you would purchase the package 8 days 299 baht. So the average mobile internet costs each day is about 40 baht.
Transportation Cost
The cost of transportation is determined by how far and how frequently you travel in a day, as well as the type of transportation you use. There are six major transportation types in Bangkok.
The transportation cost depends on how far and how often you travel in a day and what kind of transport you use. In Bangkok, there are six main transportation options
- BTS (skytrain): The lowest fare is 16 baht each ride, and the highest is 44 baht (exclude the extension line outer Bangkok). A One-Day Pass with unlimited rides is 140 baht.
- MRT (subway): The lowest fare is 17 baht each ride, and the highest is 70 baht. There is no One-Day Pass available.
- ARL (airport rail link): This is mostly used for traveling from and to Suvarnabhumi Airport which costs 45 baht per ride.
- Taxi meter: Start at 35 baht. The fare gradually goes up by 2 baht at a time by measuring distance and time.
- Songthaew: The cost will range between 10 to 50 baht depending on distance and city.
- Motorbike rental: The daily rental fee is 200 – 300 baht.
Therefore, taking BTS may not be the cheapest option because Taxi meter rate in Thailand is fairly cheap and the car can fit up to four passengers.
In Bangkok and other major cities, I would estimate that the average cost of travel each day per person is between 100 – 300 baht. However, this cost excludes interprovincial travel.
Click here for BTS route map, MRT route map, ARL route map