Travel to Thailand in the Summer

[zeitgenosse]

Hi folks, I'm sure many of you are tired of this topic already, but I would still like to give this a shot.

 

I have an temporary remote work opportunity from July to September, and I want to spend that time in Thailand. I know it's not a good time because of COVID, and I understand if you judge me, but I do not want that opportunity to pass without at least trying.

 

I will be fully vacinnated and my flight is scheduled for 06.07 from Vienna to Bangkok. I would not mind rescheduling the arrival city, if Bangkok is currently not a good idea because of COVID (I've heard that the Thai government is opening up some areas as quarantine-free zones?).

 

And this is where I ask for your advice, I'm overwhelmed by the information out there. As I understand it, I will have to quarantine and I can only quarantine in a special ASQ-Hotel. I will also need a special visa, private insurance and some other documents.

Can you maybe point me to a thread here or a website that can help me with correctly identifying all the things that I need to do? Or should I just contact my local embassy?

Is this even feasible, or am I wasting my energy?

Can you maybe give me a breakdown of the costs of the quarantine? I've heard that the ASQ-Hotels are very expensive.

 

Thank you! Again, you probably get this kind of question a lot, so I appreciate any response.

 

 

[Alldar]

Hi,

it is funny coincidence, as my plan is very similar to yours. I also plan to go to Thailand from July till September and I will be also departing from Vienna. ????

 

Regarding your questions, cheapest ASQ hotels are about 35000 THB for 14-day quarantine (which in reality it is 15 nights/16days). Currently all visitors must go through 14-day quarantine. Will see if the quarantine rules will change till then.

 

I am still counting on that the Phuket will open from July for vaccinated tourists without any quarantine. If that would happen you can fly to Phuket instead of BKK and you would avoid the costly ASQ.

 

For 3 months you should be able to go with tourists visa (60 days + 30 days extension). STV is too complicated to obtain and it is not worth it.

 

Feel free to drop me a private message if you want to discuss further.

[2 is 1]

Nice , now TAT need only 34999998 more tourist before 2022! Maybe they know how counting ?!

[zeitgenosse]

Thanks for your answer and the tip with Phuket Alldar, that's a great help. Fingers crossed that this plan goes well for the both of us!

Can you maybe share your battle plan in regards to how and when you plan on booking an ASQ Hotel? I will try to change my arrival destination to the Phuket airport and hope for the best, but I guess it would suck to book an ASQ Hotel last minute.

 

Also did you have any troubles getting your visa and insurance, or is that still a WIP for you? Thanks for your help, it's great speaking to someone with such a similar plan!

 

[Alldar]

No problem. I haven't booked anything yet. My plan is to book everything cancellable as I cannot be sure if the Phuket model will be started or not. I will apply for a visa in about next 2 weeks, that should be quite easy to get. More difficult will be to get COE.

 

Regarding the ASQ, I don't plan to book it, as I mentioned I hope that the Phuket sandbox model will start from 1st of July. In that case since vaccinated people don't have to be quarantined, I think one should be able to book any hotel. But that is just my assumption, they didn't announce any details about the Phuket model yet.

 

My flight will probably be with Emirates, where Covid-19 insurance is automatically included with the ticket (multi-risk travel insurance). You can find more info here: https://c.ekstatic.net/ecl/documents/before-you-fly/multi-risk-travel-insurance-faqs.pdf

 

In other case I would just pick the cheapest insurance from some Thai insurance company.

 

 

 

 

[zeitgenosse]

Thanks for the tip with Emirates, that's awesome! And that insurance is enough to enter Thailand? Yeah, I guess getting the COE will be tough, considering you need to share the quarantine facility with the embassy. I plan on contacting the embassy in the coming week, and I will update this thread if I have new information on that. Would appreciate if you could do that too. ????

 

E: The weird thing is, the Thai Consulate in Salzburg says on their website that VISA-free entry is possible currently. But how does that make sense with the COE?

Edited May 16, 2021 by zeitgenosse

[The Hammer2021]

It has to  be specific  Thai insurance companies

[Alldar]

2 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

It has to  be specific  Thai insurance companies

As far as I know it does not need to be from Thai insurance company for normal tourist visa, but it must cover Covid-19 and the insurance must specifically mention that in the cover letter. Not many insurance companies fulfill that, but Emirates does. Where you get the information that it has to be from Thai insurance company?

 

1 hour ago, zeitgenosse said:

E: The weird thing is, the Thai Consulate in Salzburg says on their website that VISA-free entry is possible currently. But how does that make sense with the COE?

By VISA-free entry I think they mean visa exempt entry, where you will just get stamp in your passport when you arrive. But you still need COE before entry (which means ASQ) and visa exempt entry is only for 45 days (it used to be 30 days but they added 15 due to ASQ).

[The Hammer2021]

2 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

take it from the Hammer as he seems to know everything  /s

Er I certainly don't  know everything  or claim to know everything  but I believe that the use of certaim Thai insurance companies is a requirement and thought this has been discussed and confirmed elsewhere on this forum. Perhaps  someone  could clarify this issue for us.

[Alldar]

Well, according to Thai embassy's website in Austria, you don't need the insurance to be from Thais insurance company for a tourist visa, it is just advised.

Quote

• Health insurance policy (or "confirmation letter" issued by the insurance company) in English which expressly covers treatment and medical expenses in relation to COVID-19, with a minimum coverage of 100,000 USD. Travellers are advised to purchase their health insurance which meets Thailand's entry criteria here: http://covid19.tgia.org/

Source: https://www.thaiembassy.at/en/coe.html

 

It is required however for STV to be from Thai insurance company and maybe for some other visa types as well.

[zeitgenosse]

8 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

Seems we are all in the same boat as Im trying to get there in July from the USA...would be willing to stay in Phuket for the 7 days if I can bounce up north to CNX

Good luck to you too! It's definitely a stressful situation with all the uncertainty involved. I will try and contact the consulate soon, maybe I will get some helpful information out of them.

[Poet]

By this summer, Thailand is likely skip the sandbox and allow easy entry for verifiably vaccinated visitors from countries with less than 100 active cases per million population, which is the "zero covid" level that seems to kick in once a country has fully-vaccinated over half its population with an effective vaccine (i.e. not Sinovac).

Currently, Austria has fully-vaccinated 12% of its population and has 1,000 active cases per million. That is actually pretty good.

By July, you should have access to the EU's green certificate, far more Austrians should be fully-vaccinated and, hopefully, active cases will be below 100 per million.

For reference, Israel has had their verification scheme since February, has fully-vaccinated 60% of its population, and has 74 active cases per million. Thailand could start allowing planeloads of fully-vaccinated Israelis into the country today at practically zero risk to the people of Thailand.

The UK has already launched their vaccination verification scheme, has fully-vaccinated 30% of its population, and has 673 active cases per million.

France, like Austria, will have access to the EU's green certificate scheme by July, and has fully vaccinated 13% of its population, but has a worrying 9,495 active cases per million.

The USA has not yet organized a verification system at the federal level but individual states may be doing so. They have fully-vaccinated 37% of their population but still have an astonishing 17,868 active cases per million.

India has fully-vaccinated only 3% of its population, so, sadly, it may be sometime before Indian tourists regain easy entry to Thailand. China's vaccination campaign is also going poorly, a cause of deep regret for those of us who value the opportunity to strike up friendships with Chinese visitors in Thailand.

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Poet

[Alldar]

3 hours ago, Poet said:

By this summer, Thailand is likely skip the sandbox and allow easy entry for verifiably vaccinated visitors from countries with less than 100 active cases per million population, which is the "zero covid" level that seems to kick in once a country has fully-vaccinated over half its population with an effective vaccine (i.e. not Sinovac).

 

Where you found this information, Poet? That is insane, we won't be near that by July. If this is true Thailand will just make it clear that they don't want tourists and they should go elsewhere.

[Poet]

45 minutes ago, Alldar said:

Where you found this information, Poet? That is insane, we won't be near that by July.

Please define which country you mean when you say "we".
 

45 minutes ago, Alldar said:

If this is true Thailand will just make it clear that they don't want tourists and they should go elsewhere.

You might misunderstand. I am saying that there will be a massive relaxation of Thailand's current plan and a speeding up of the current timeframe, based upon the reality that tourists from countries with successful vaccine roll-outs pose no biological threat to the unvaccinated population of Thailand.

This means that Thailand can dispense with tests, special paperwork, quarantine, mandatory insurance, and all the other constrictions that will prevent the return of mass tourism.

The target of 100 active cases per million is refered to as "Zero Covid" by Singapore and South Korea. It means a level of Covid low enough to be insignificant.

Currently, about 50 countries are technically "Zero Covid", but only Israel got there by means of vaccination and that is the important consideration for tourism destination countries such as Thailand. Luckily, several other countries with successful vaccine roll-outs, including the UK, are on course to achieve "Zero Covid" once they achieve Israel's current level of vaccination, probably by June.

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Poet

[Alldar]

19 minutes ago, Poet said:

Please define which country you mean when you say "we".

 

Any country in Europe (except maybe UK)? At the moment on average there is about 12% of people fully vaccinated in Europe. There won't be 50% of people fully vaccinated anywhere in Europe by July. Also the vaccinattion rate is starting to decline in many countries. Many people are still hesitating about the vaccination.

 

This surely does not sound like relaxation of rules to me.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Alldar
update

[Poet]

22 minutes ago, Alldar said:

Any country in Europe (except maybe UK)? At the moment on average there is about 12% of people fully vaccinated in Europe. There won't be 50% of people fully vaccinated anywhere in Europe by July.

Oh, yes, obviously, the EU countries are not going to reach that level until 2022, that goes without saying. All other advanced countries, however, will achieve it this year.

 

22 minutes ago, Alldar said:

Also the vaccinattion rate is starting to decline in many countries. Many people are still hesitating about the vaccination.

Vaccine hesitancy is not really going to be an issue once the airlines ban unvaccinated passengers. Even on this forum, most of the people dramatically swearing that they will never take will quietly nip off and get their shots once they realize how limited their life will be without it.

There are plenty of stubborn people in Israel, and some will never take a vaccine, but a big enough majority have, big enough to allow the active cases to plummet below the "Zero Covid" level. The same will happen in every country that does the same.
 

22 minutes ago, Alldar said:

This surely does not sound like relaxation of rules to me.

It's a relaxation because all you need is to be verifiably vaccinated. You won't need a CoE, bank minimums, PCR tests, medical statements, useless insurance, $4k and 14 days wasted in quarantine, EVERY TIME YOU ENTER THAILAND. The same simple vaccination will be your ticket into every other country too.

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Poet

[Alldar]

14 minutes ago, Poet said:

It's a relaxation because all you need is to be verifiably vaccinated. You won't need a CoE, bank minimums, PCR tests, medical statements, useless insurance, $4k and 14 days wasted in quarantine, EVERY TIME YOU ENTER THAILAND. The same simple vaccination will be your ticket into every other country too.

 

Well yeah that's true, once your country reaches that level of vaccination, it will be beneficial. Problem is that one cannot influence when his/her country will reach that level, and even when a country reaches 50% of fully vaccinated population, that does not necessarily mean that they will have the zero-covid level.

 

But from short-term perspective, if they drop the Phuket sandbox model, it is NOT a relaxation. All those things you mentioned were quite doable, biggest problem was the ASQ which was supposed to be dropped. Now they are telling me I either have to wait at least few more months, or continue with the ASQ.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Alldar
typo

[Poet]

42 minutes ago, Alldar said:

Well yeah that's true, once your country reaches that level of vaccination, it will be beneficial. Problem is that one cannot influence when his/her country will reach that level,

Over the next few years, as the citizens of various countries look back upon this experience, they will demand certain changes in how they are governed. In the case of EU countries, it is likely that citizens will demand that certain crucial responsibilities, such as vaccine procurement, are delegated back to their own governments rather than the EU bureaucracy.
 

42 minutes ago, Alldar said:

even when a country reaches 50% of fully vaccinated population, that does not necessarily mean that they will have the zero-covid level.

I think it does. Almost all populations now have a significant minority of people who have natural immunity from having recovered from infection. When you add to that the artificial vaccine immunity of over half the population, you close off so many nodes of transmission that the virus can no longer spread through the population as a whole.

Bear in mind, the infection burns out quite quickly in each individual. If, during the two weeks you are infected, the majority of the people you interact with are either vaccinated or previously infected, you are likely to be a dead-end for the virus.

 

42 minutes ago, Alldar said:

But from short-term perspective, if they drop the Phuket sandbox model, it is NOT a relaxation. All those things you mentioned were quite doable, biggest problem was the ASQ which was supposed to be dropped. Now they are telling me I either have to wait at least few more months, or continue with the ASQ.

They were doable for someone very eager to get back into Thailand but they were a show-stopper for mass tourism. If they want to get back to 40 million tourists anytime this decade, they need to get back to the pre-Covid tourist visa system or, even better, the pre-coup tourist visa system.

The Phuket sandbox was poorly thought out and based on presumptions that were unlikely to survive the rapid changes wrought by a global pandemic. It is entirely possible that you could book and pay thousands for an ASQ only for the government to suddenly decide that even that it too risky.

The only change to Coronavirus rules that can survive a weak government and a now hysterical population is one based on something solid. The affect of mass vaccination, both on individuals and on countries, is solid. Once you have major tourist-providing countries such as the UK in the same position as Israel is in today - vaccination, verification, "Zero Covid" - the political equation within Thailand and every other tourism-dependent country changes completely. All those countries will RUSH to allow planeloads of vaccinated tourists from those countries in.

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Poet

[thai006]

i plan to do the same but in November hope i get more Chance 

[sezze]

4 hours ago, Poet said:

Oh, yes, obviously, the EU countries are not going to reach that level until 2022, that goes without saying. All other advanced countries, however, will achieve it this year.

 

In Belgium we expect to get every 18+ person 1st vaccine shot by 11 or 12 july . At the moment the rate of vaccination all over EU is rising , due to rising vaccine numbers.  We got by far most vaccines from Pfizer , which has a 5 week window for the 2nd shot , meaning all 18+ can get their vaccine by the end of August . That there is some doubt in some persons , i do agree , but by far the most people do want it . At the moment 35% of population is partially vaccinated , and on a website where you can ask for "faster/leftovers" of vaccines , there is 1 million people subscribing to it ( im sure there is already quite a amount of overlap of people already vaccinated , but still on this website , but still ...) . Im getting my 1st shot of Pfizer tomorrow , and every member of my family i know except a few 20-35y olds , did get their 1st shot ( or got their appointment) or are fully vaccinated already. Saying that EU countries wont reach that lvl by 2022 is simply not true . Yes EU started slow , due to lack of vaccines , but we are catching up fast now . 

[Poet]

14 hours ago, sezze said:

Im getting my 1st shot of Pfizer tomorrow

That's wonderful, congratulations. Many of us on this forum would like to be in your shoes.
 

14 hours ago, sezze said:

and every member of my family i know except a few 20-35y olds , did get their 1st shot ( or got their appointment) or are fully vaccinated already. Saying that EU countries wont reach that lvl by 2022 is simply not true .

I would not wish to diminish your personal experience but, for what we are discussing, statistics are better. Also, for the most important part of the travel equation - actual reduction in active cases to "zero covid" levels - we only look at the number of people who are fully-vaccinated. Until people actually return for their 2nd jab, we have no guarantee that they actually will.

Today, Belgium has fully-vaccinated 12% of it's population, which is slightly below France and slightly above Germany. It is far behind not only the UK, at 30%, which, obviously, was able to avoid the EU bureaucracy, but also Hungary, at 29%, which, like Belgium, is part of the EU but decided to ignore the dictates from Brussels and source some additional vaccines from Russia.

The most important metric, however, is the level of active cases. Vaccination helps, but there are also other factors such as culture, diversity, border permeability etc. Remember, to be accepted without quarantine by countries such as Thailand, those fully-vaccinated tourists need to come from a country with extremely low background levels of infections, preferably "zero covid" (100 or less actives cases per million population).

Some EU countries, despite the same low levels of vaccination as Belgium (~12% fully-vaccinated) are moving in the right direction on active cases per million: Malta 289, Monaco 405, Slovakia 782, Romania 831, Austria 979 - anything under a thousand suggests that they will find it relatively easy to achieve "zero covid" by the time half their populations are fully-vaccinated later in 2021.

Other EU countries are in real trouble on active cases: Lithuania 7,649, Finland 7,835, Belgium 8,382, France 9,495, and The Netherlands 11,979.

Obviously, as the number of fully-vaccinated citizens increases, the number of active cases should fall, but I believe that, as restrictions on movement within the EU are eased, it is going to be very hard for most EU countries to get down to the "Zero Covid" until at least 2022.

Due to the way that EU conducts visa diplomacy, it is likely that most tourism-destination countries, such as Thailand, will wait until the entire EU achieves "Zero Covid" rather than extend an invitation to some EU countries but not others.
 

15 hours ago, sezze said:

Yes EU started slow , due to lack of vaccines , but we are catching up fast now .

Yes, clearly, momentum is finally gathering, but do not underestimate how much the start of a race matters. Realistically, being many months behind, there is now way to actually catch up. Hopeful, when all of this is behind us, this woeful experience will spark productive discussions within EU countries about the nature of their arrangement with the bureaucracy.

 

[sezze]

1 hour ago, Poet said:

 

Yes, clearly, momentum is finally gathering, but do not underestimate how much the start of a race matters. Realistically, being many months behind, there is now way to actually catch up. Hopeful, when all of this is behind us, this woeful experience will spark productive discussions within EU countries about the nature of their arrangement with the bureaucracy.

 

Bureaucracy ending ... forget it , its only getting more and more , unfortunate .

And the numbers are dropping fast here now , we might not reach the zero risk , but i don't think it matters , since the 0 risk imho will not happen as long as the virus doesn't mutate itself to 0 risk ( aka common cold virus , which are just about all other corona virus ) . Will Thailand stay closed for all those countries , i highly doubt it , especially if they see low numbers and travel within Europe happening in summer all over . Thailand certainly wants the same tourists , they know they in a difficult situation , due to lack of vaccines and "high" amount of cases , but they will do anything to get the country open for the October sandbox thing .

[thai006]

I will have my 2 shot of Pfizer next week lol