Thailand is most likely one of the top backpacking destinations in the world. It’s affordable, the people are friendly, and it’s exotic enough to be exciting. There are plenty of ways to travel through Thailand with a barebones wallet, but I’m going to offer a very lax budget here. You get a lot more for your money than in the vast majority of Europe, so it’s worth spending the extra dollar to make sure you don’t miss out.
Plus who doesn’t like seeing elephants?
| Category | Expected Cost per Day |
| Alcohol | $3.00 |
| Entertainment | $6.00 |
| Food | $8.50 |
| Living | $1.00 |
| Lodging | $10.00 |
| Travel | $8.50 |
| Grand Total | $37.00 |
Table 1. Expected cost per day for a month long trip
Alcohol
Well no budget guide would be complete without planning for the raucous nightlife Thailand has to offer. There’s luxury bars in Bangkok, backpacker hangouts in Chiang Mai and relaxed beach bars throughout the southern islands. Prices will vary drastically throughout the countries and types of venues. The higher side of things should cost you no more than ฿150 ($4.80) for a beer at a swanky club, but really should fall around ฿60 ($1.92) a beer.
The best way to save money is to pick up your beer from a convenience store, with a giant 22 oz. bottle of Chang beer going for ฿55 ($1.76). And if you’re going to be even more frugal (and brave), you can buy yourself a bottle of Thai Whiskey. This bottle is as strong as any spirit, tastes twice as bad, and will give you a hangover three times worse than normal. You know it’s bad when your Thai friends questioned your terrible purchase. But hey, you can get a whole bottle for ฿65 ($2.08) so that’s enough of a reason for me.
Quality advertising. Though I don’t think I’ll go…
Entertainment
There’s so many different things you can do throughout your journey in Thailand, but let’s go over a must do for everyone: a Thai Massage. I’ve never gotten pampered in my life, but once I experienced a stranger’s hands softly caressing my cheeks and feet, I knew that I had witnessed the face of God.
There’s all sorts of varying quality of massages and locations you can go to, but if you find a standard massage parlor, you can expect to pay ฿300 ($9.61) for one whole hour! With that price, you can easily go multiple times throughout the trip and end up more limber than an underage Chinese gymnast at the Olympics.
There’s also quite a few high quality massage parlors. These offer a whole relaxing ambiance, complete with calming music, beautiful rooms, sweet incense, and tasty food. It’s essentially a massive pampering experience that’s worth a try if you can spare the cash. These start at ฿1000 ($32) but are still a great deal and worth trying once.
If we switch over to more exciting tourist adventures, national park entrance fees, whether they are ruins or waterfalls, go for around ฿100 ($3.20). Even the most famous temple in Thailand, Wat Po in Bangkok, costs ฿100. Fortunately, all the other temples are free!
Small half day tours usually go between ฿700 – ฿1000 ($22 – $32). This price usually covers things like boating trips, cooking classes and city tours. This budget, however, only accounts for one or two of these tours as I maintain that self-guided adventures allow you to be more frugal and independent.
Also not massage related, diving in the southern islands can be a great deal
Food
Once again, I am not going to recommend cooking and self-catering. The food here is affordable enough and so great that you can easily eat out on a daily basis. Even in the heart of Bangkok, you can find Pad Thai for ฿40 ($1.28) a plate. Most street food dishes go for around this price and are ridiculously delicious. Plus you’ll never run out of options with the sheer variety of street food.
If you feel like changing it up and actually sitting in a restaurant, a decent meal and drink will cost ฿150 – ฿200 ($4.80 – $6.40). This isn’t a bad way to spend your food budget since not all Thai dishes are so easily available in the street. Dishes like Tom Yum or a flavorful green curry are easier to find in restaurants and can be of a better quality.
Snacks are another great way to try the local cuisine. You can find egg rolls, fried dough, and these-random-dishes-that-I-have-no-clue-what’s-inside-them can go as low as ฿20 ($0.64). Delicacies like mango sticky rice and larger dishes are a bit more expensive and average around ฿60 ($1.92). A particular favorite of mine (and became almost a daily expense) are smoothies. While the prices can vary based on how touristy the store is, you can always find a small stand selling a fruit loaded smoothie for ฿30 – ฿40 ($0.96 – $1.28).
This Tom Yum flavored ramen at 7 eleven is seriously good. You won’t regret it
Living
It’s going to be hot, sticky, and if you’re going to the islands, sandy. So you’re going run through clothes quick. Don’t worry about doing laundry every week and just pay the ฿30 – ฿40 ($0.96 – $1.28) a kilogram to have your hostel or the adjacent laundromat do your laundry for you.
Lodging
With all the backpackers passing through, Thailand has a huge number of accommodations to choose from. My optimum allowance for accommodations is ฿300 ($9.61) a day. My friends easily found hostels much cheaper or much more expensive than this. But for $10 a day, you get to enjoy hostels that are extremely high quality with a wonderful social atmosphere. Any more expensive and it has less return on your investment, and if it’s any cheaper, you’re missing out on some great hostel experiences.
This is the lobby of one of the hostels which also doubled as an awesome restaurant.
Travel
Long distance bus and train tickets in Thailand can range from ฿500 – ฿700 ($16 – $22) depending on your travel distance. I recommend taking one land trip from Bangkok to the north or the south and then a plane ticket to zip to the other side. This isn’t the most economical way to travel, but I’d gladly spend ฿2000 ($64) to save over a full day of bus/train travel.
Other notable traveling costs will be a motorbike rental, which should cost ฿200 ($6.40) for a whole day in most cities. Gas is not included with that price. Public transportation in Bangkok is also negligible at around ฿30 ($0.96) a skytrain trip. Short taxi jaunts in any major town rarely cost more than ฿100 ($3.20) a trip so that’s also a minor cost if you have someone to split with.
My Costs
Well my costs are significantly higher than what I proposed. After being a peasant for so many months in Europe, I decided to live a little bit on the high side. I checked into a couple of hotels in my travel-weary state, joined in too many alcohol-fueled nights, and had far too many massages. And I also included my plane ticket expenses from Europe in my budget.
| Category | Cost per Day |
| Alcohol | $4.91 |
| Entertainment | $8.37 |
| Food | $8.56 |
| Living | $1.71 |
| Lodging | $13.75 |
| Travel | $19.79 |
| Grand Total | $57.08 |
Table 2. Actual cost per day over a month
For $37 a day, you can have a similar experience to me and not miss out on any of the excitement. I know a month sounds like a long time to spend in a country but with the plethora of things to do in Thailand, you’ll find that a month is barely enough time to scratch the surface of this country.
| Category | Total Running Cost per Day |
| Alcohol | $4.49 |
| Entertainment | $5.29 |
| Food | $12.16 |
| Living | $1.82 |
| Lodging | $18.96 |
| Travel | $10.38 |
| Grand Total | $53.10 |
Table 3. Running total after 147 days of traveling.
Until next time.