Thailand Travel Expenses

Thinking back on our Thailand travels will evoke images of sandals, sunscreen, and sand. Most people might imagine themselves running away to a tropical island one day (or at least wishing they could) and we pretty much did just that for a whole month. There were never any important sites to see or museums to visit. There was only the beach and we spent days on end walking through the sand and swimming in the ocean. 

While not as picturesque as others, Klong Nin Beach on Koh Lanta was one of my favorites out of all the beaches we visited. The best $5 we spent in Thailand was on the green beach mat in this photo. We took it with us everywhere.

Our itinerary through Thailand might have been quite confusing based on the blog posts, with everything beginning with Koh 'Whatever', but 'koh' is Thai for 'island', so we were essentially just island hopping our way through Thailand. We departed Singapore on a flight to Phuket, southern Thailand’s main tourist hub, and worked our way south. Inexpensive ferries and speed boats got us from one island to the next. We continued island hopping into Malaysia, at which point we worked our way back into Thailand, making sure to get our new 30-day Thai visas, with a week-long stop in Koh Phangan before finishing our trip up in Bangkok.

Our trip around southern Thailand and Malaysia. We started in (1) Phuket and worked our way through (2) Koh Phi Phi, (3) KohLanta, (4) Koh Muk, and (5) Koh Lipe. We then crossed the border into Malaysia for stops in (6) Langkawi and (7) George Town (Penang). From Malaysia we returned to Thailand by train up to Surat Thani where we took a boat to (8) Koh Phangan. From Koh Phangan we backtracked to Surat Thani to catch a flight to Bangkok (north of map area).

We were in Thailand during high season, so while that probably meant there were more people around it also meant that the weather was as close to perfect that it was going to get. It was insanely hot, but that’s to be expected. I think the entire time we were in Thailand it might have only rained once. We couldn’t have asked for better beach weather.

We were indulging in so much Thai curry that we were beginning to worry about our heath by the end of the trip. All that coconut milk couldn't be good for you, but it sure is delicious.

Like our first time in Thailand five years ago, we again found it to be a very easy country to navigate. English is widely spoken in the tourist areas and most accommodation and transportation needs can be arranged in advance online. The food is more than agreeable. We’re big fans of Thai food and thoroughly enjoyed all the dining opportunities. Great coffee, fruit smoothies, and cheap beer are everywhere, as are inexpensive Thai massages.

One of our many standard hotel rooms. Most hotels we stayed at didn't exactly leave lasting memories, but they were always affordable. This accommodation near Kata Beach on Phuket was $25 a night.

Thailand has an enormous network of 7-Eleven stores (literally one every street corner in cities) so anything needed was never far away. Most are also open 24-hours a day. In Thailand, 7-Eleven is not just a convenience store. It’s much more than that. They may be small, but you could live out of one if you needed to. You can grab prepared meals, snacks, drinking water, iced cappuccinos, SIM cards, alcohol, sun screen, and anything else you would ever possibly need. They are a ubiquitous fixture of any trip to Thailand. They also have a fool-proof strategy to attract customers: air conditioning. There might not be air conditioning anywhere else on the island, but 7-Eleven is guaranteed to have it. And the temperature is set to arctic chill. It’s worked many times on us. We’d escaped the oppressive heat by ducking into a 7-Eleven to cool off for a few minutes. We would also inevitably leave with something in our hands, a drink or snack or whatever, even though that wasn’t our intention when entering the store.

Ferries of all sizes and speeds crisscross the Andaman Sea and connect all the Thai islands.

Thailand was a very affordable destination for us. During our 45 days in Thailand we spent an average of $85 a day. This was our second least expensive destination after Malaysia. We didn't travel very far in Thailand, spending almost all our time in the south, and this helped keep our transportation costs down. The island-hopping ferries were never very expensive, and we found a great deal on a ferry/bus/flight combination to get us from Koh Phangan to Bangkok. We had plans to visit northern Thailand, but they were cut short when we learned that it was burning season and there were severe air quality warnings in place across most of northern Thailand. Instead, we decided to get a head start on our China adventures and bought a flight to Hong Kong.

We found beautiful beaches everywhere. This one was on Koh Muk.

Accommodations: We found all our accommodations through various hotel booking websites. Even when we tried to book and pay hotels directly, they often just told us to go online. Most of our island accommodations were in bungalows, with or without air conditioning. Most also had the Asian-style bathroom without a separate shower space. Our cheapest accommodation was on Koh Muk for only $9 a night while our most expensive was on Koh Phi Phi where we payed $51 a night.

Restaurants: Food was cheap and delicious. It was a pleasure to go out and eat Thai food all the time. Lunch or dinner for the two of us would usually cost around $10-12. When we were in more built up tourist locations, we’d take advantage of the international cuisine options too.

Transportation: We spent a lot of time on boats. Otherwise, our largest expenses were flying to Phuket from Singapore for $180 and then a boat/bus/flight combination to get from Koh Phangan to Bangkok for $102. Various forms of transportation were used to get around on the islands.

Drinks: Everything from fruit smoothies, milk teas, coffee, and beer. A big beer from 7-Eleven ran around $2 and then went up from there if you order one anywhere else. We eventually learned to stop ordering beers from the beach bars and instead picked them up from 7-Eleven and took them to the beach ourselves.

Grocery: Agh, sunscreen! It costs a fortune in Thailand. Within four weeks we had spent over $125 on sunscreen. We should have brought more of the cheap sunscreen from Australia with us. Otherwise, we were usually buying drinking water, snacks, and breakfast from 7-Eleven.

Tourism: We rented beach chairs, snorkeling equipment, and scooters. We also got a couple Thai massages (only $9 an hour), and spent some money on our new age activities in Koh Phangan (yoga, sound healing, ecstatic dance, etc.).

Other: We got a SIM card, laundered our clothes, and bought an electrical adapter. We also picked up a new electric shaver in Bangkok. And unfortunately, Travis lost a 1000 Baht bill at the Full Moon Party (~$30) which we’re including as an expense. ☹

Cheers from the beach! At least our expensive sunscreen went to good use. Neither one of us seemed to tan. If we didn't get a tan after a month on the beach, it's never going to happen.