How Much To Take To Thailand

[ShellLWhite]

Hi, a friend and myself are looking to travel to Thailand in 2014. We want to see and do as much as possible staying for three/four months. Does anyone have any recommendations on how much we should be saving? I know it's quite cheap living and can be done on a budget but we want to enjoy being there obviously with a realistic amount to spend!! Thank you in advance

[smokie36]

As much as possible! Minimum £1000 a month.

Someone else will say half that probably next post though.

[Sydneycraig]

Backpacking - $500us pm

Luxury - $100kus pm+

Or anywhere between ...

[cuddleypete]

Hi there depends on what you are going to do

ie travel around sightseeing

eating out a lot

sports

do the bar seen

drinking a lot

luxuary hotels

etc etc

i would say depends on what you are doing but 1000 a month would be good better to have to much than not enough

[Richie23]

Bit of a how long is a piece of string question. All depends on what you want to do? Hit the girlie bars and you'll need a small fortune. Island hopping can add up too. Cple hundred U.S just for a internal flight is not unheard of, but catch a bus or train and it's completely different. 5 star hotels or basic accom? Figure out what you want to do and then do another post, or just take whatever you can and just go for it and learn bit by bit as each day goes by. Sorry couldn't be any more helpful. I also see you are talking about 2014, so plenty of time to research and plan your trip. Enjoy!

Edited December 8, 2012 by Richie23

[JeffreyMcCollum]

When I first started going to Thailand I budgeted $100 a day

The longer I stayed here, the less it cost, but I was in my home and not hotels, I was usuing my motorbike and not renting,

[craigt3365]

Yes, a very subjective question. You can fairly easily find a place to sleep for $15 a night or so. It will be bare bones, but it's a place to sleep. Street food can be had for around $10 a day or so, if you eat like a Thai and don't eat any western food. Transport is not cheap, so if you travel around a lot, even via public transportation, it can add up.

Entry to tourist sites can add up also. Some are free, some are not.

Make sure you have decent insurance also. Most don't cover riding on a scooter. Quite a few stories here about people who got banged up and ended up in the hospital with a big bill at the end. You might not be able to leave here until it's paid. So be prepared. Best if you have relatives who can wire you some emergency money just in case.

I'd say the minimum would be $1200/month or so. You might be able to get by on less, but it would be very frugal living. And forget the beer. When I first came here, I spent more per day on beer than I did on my hotel room at times!!

Have a blast!!

[pomchop]

The OP leaves more questions than answers:

1. will you share a room or want two singles?

Most everywhere in thailand you can always find a very basic room for 300 baht or less. So if you share it's 5 usd a day. Do you require A/C or is a fan ok? Private bath or share bath. Accommodations in thailand can be dirt cheap if you go with the very basic rooms with no amenities.

2. What/where will you eat.

If you eat like a thai you can have a nice plate of noodles or fried rice etc for less than one usd most anywhere in thailand. You could easily eat for $5 a day IF you stay away from western food, buy fruits etc in the markets etc. But if you insist on a/c restaurants serving western food in tourist areas like phuket it will get pricey...and forget about buying any imported foods like cheese

3. Bars? Girls? Massage? ETC

If you partake of the girls your budget will quickly escalate big time. Figure the price of companionship for a night can very quickly get to 2000 baht or so....A massage every day will be about 200 baht...beers will vary from about a dollar bought in stores or a few happy hours to as much as 5 or more in go go bars....but there are still many local thai bars where you can sit and drink big beers for a couple of bucks. If you are a young backpacker type there will be a LOT of young backpacker gals around looking to party and lots of "bungalow parties"...

4. How will you get around?

Bus fares are dirt cheap all over thaiand as are trains. If you want to fly figure very roughly 50-70 usd per flight on air asia or similar. Most every part of thaialnd has local buses or songtaeows for a few baht to get you most anywhere...but figuring out what goes where is not so easy..if you are totally flexible and don't need much comfort transport is very cheap.

5. what time of year will you viist? peak season i.e. nov to april will be more expensive hotels than off season...off season you will get better rooms for less money...

6. Where will you go? Bangkok and phuket will be considerably more expensive than say Chiang Mai or pattaya (assuming no girls). If you plan to go to places like phi phi island or ko samui it is going to cost considerably more than going somewhere like chiang rai..the more tourists around usually the more expensive.

7. You really do need to do some research on your own and answer some basic questions to come up with realistic budget. Some can do ok on 20 usd a day or even less..others would struggle on $100 a day.

good luck

[phuketrichard]

i will add to this;

First, are u all sharing a room? You can find great deals in Essan ( north Eastern Thailand) for under $20/night, and even here in Phuket u can find air con rooms for under $25/night in the high season.

U can eat very well street food or thai style restaurants everywhere( I Live in Phuket) for $2-5/meal.

How will u travel, Bus /Flying where will u go?

Bangkok to Phuket is about 800 baht by bus while u can get a flight for under $70

Do u drink?? Like girls? want to take one back to ur room? All adds to the price.I

would say take as much as u have with a reserve back u can access via an atm card but expect to average $50/day including room/travel/food additional expenses

If u stay in one place will cost ya less . A month on Ko Phayam off of Ranong will cost ya less than $500/month

Plus by 2014!!! my god, ur planning early :-)

Edited December 9, 2012 by phuketrichard

[craigt3365]

Pomchop: my problem with street food is the small portions. I can get noodle soup for under a dollar, but I always need 2 to get "somewhat" filled up! And I'm not a big guy.

Same with my local Thai restaurant. Great laab moo, but need 2 servings!!!

I traveled with a guy 10 years ago who lived on less than $400 a month. But his travels were in very out of the way places....and he tended to stay put for long periods of time.

[pomchop]

Pomchop: my problem with street food is the small portions. I can get noodle soup for under a dollar, but I always need 2 to get "somewhat" filled up! And I'm not a big guy.

Same with my local Thai restaurant. Great laab moo, but need 2 servings!!!

I traveled with a guy 10 years ago who lived on less than $400 a month. But his travels were in very out of the way places....and he tended to stay put for long periods of time.

Yes one serving might not be enough depending on size/appetite etc...but for sure if OP supplemented with some fruits from markets etc he could eat ok for not a lot of money. I just assume that OP is on young side and healthy and very flexible...but of course OP doesn't give enough info to get any intelligent answers....terms like "reasonable amount to spend" are so subjective as to be practically meaningless without knowing what they expect to get, where they go, etc etc. He could easily spend more for one night with a girl than it would cost for a shared hotel room for a few weeks. He could spend more on one western style meal in a ho hum restaurant than it would cost to eat lunch thai style for two or three weeks. One $70 flight or 5 or so long bus rides. Sleeper on train for 800 baht or a hard seat for 100 baht?

Thailand is truly a budget backpackers paradise and I would bet some of the more hard core old India type backpackers could live in thailand on less than $10 a day.

As a long time old backpacker who has travelled the world and most all of thailand i suspect i could figure it out for less than $20 a day ...but that would be cheapie fan rooms, riding buses, eating local style, no extras for girls/ massages, and watching beer expenses. Of course a newbie is going to likely spend more until they learn the ropes a bit...i remember once watching some backpackers eating a 20 baht banana pancake thinking great deal... but everytime the gal came by they wanted more coffee...not knowing that there are rarely free refills in thailand which is common in usa......so then the gal brings the check and each coffee is about 25 baht and each backpacker had four or five cups and were all pissed when they found out it wasn't free....so natually these idiots blame the waitress who cannot imagine why they are upset?..you order coffee i bring coffee....and of course newbies are much more likely to get scammed by a tuk tuk guy simply because they don't know how to say no or to be able to speak a bit of thai or know that when something sounds too good to be true it is usually not true. Most of todays backpackers also seem to overpack and end up with huge packs sometimes on back and ON FRONT which generally means they can't walk as far to find that good bungalow/hotel deal and end up spending more on transport....i never quite understood why they would want to lug a ton of crap around especially in warm weather thailand where you can have laundry done for a few baht and don't generally need a bunch of jackets ets....I went around the world for a full year carrying way way less stuff then some of the backpackers in thailand bring for a few weeks.

OP really needs to spend a bunch of time reading lonely planet or travelfish.org or other sites and THEN ask the questions to get better responses...

[craigt3365]

Too funny. I ended up getting one of those Vietnamese coffee makers as it got old spending 60-80B for a cup of instant 3-in-1! One trip to Mae Sai, not paying attention, I also had 2 cups. Breakfast ended up being more than my room for the night! But that was more than 10 years ago. I'm sure prices have increased a bunch since then....

[ShellLWhite]

Thanks everyone for your replies! All very helpful I have taken all comments on board.

I bought the Lonely Planet book some weeks back so I will be having a long read of it and also do as much research as possible on the net.

Not looking to stay in luxury accommodation, I do that when I go on holiday. This is an adventure! So thats one thing that hopefully wont take up much of the budget.

[MichaelJohn]

When I started coming to Thailand I used to say £50 per day - I always overspent!!! This did not include the hotel.

I had a girlfireind then too so yes, we were eating out and drinking but I wasn't paying bar fines :-)

Thailand is a country where the more you have the better you will enjoy it.

Enjoy your trip.

[SantiSuk]

If you are young (under 40 and personable/presentable) there is no way you will need to pay 2,000 baht a night for nookie! Just go to towns with big university populations and hang out in the bars/dance halls in the university areas. Bangkok, Chiang Mai and most of the larger towns have quite large university populations.

That's based on conversations I have had with younger falang around Ubon - I'd have to pay unfortunately .

[i'm married, so I pay way more than that, but in a less direct way ]

[pomchop]

If you are young (under 40 and personable/presentable) there is no way you will need to pay 2,000 baht a night for nookie! Just go to towns with big university populations and hang out in the bars/dance halls in the university areas. Bangkok, Chiang Mai and most of the larger towns have quite large university populations.

That's based on conversations I have had with younger falang around Ubon - I'd have to pay unfortunately .

Yeah right..just show up at a university and the knickers will start to fall. A good looking young guy can likely get laid for "free" most anywhere in the world IF he is willing to play the game. But a backpacking guy in Thailand would be much more likely to get "free" from some of the backpacking falang gals who often seem to be very available and are likely staying in the same guesthouses and traveling the same circuit. Contrary to what some seem to think "good" thai gals do not immediately jump into bed with every young falang who comes smiling. Possible? Yes. Probable? Depends on a zillion factors. Strings attached? Aren't there always a few?

Pay the girl? probabliltiy 100%. Strings attached? Not unless you allow it.

[i'm married, so I pay way more than that, but in a less direct way ]