Just another Thailand budget question.

Hi guys, my friends and I are planning a two-month trip to Thailand next summer, and after crunching my own numbers and researching online, I am lost as to what the costs will be.

I budgeted 20 canadian dollars a day for myself, staying at dorm-style hostels, eating street food, and no expensive day trips (eg scuba or few days going to Ankor Wat in Cambodia), and only a little alcohol (joys of being a lighweight...less money!). So in total for 60 days, $1200 dollars. I also used an online estimate for Thailand, and it rounded to about 25,000 THB ($800 CAD). I am a little worried, however, about transportation after reading other posts.

Does 1200 seem reasonable for the budget backpacking I'm planning on doing? I feel this may be too little after reading other posts on here.

Our family of ten stayed in Thailand in 2008 on US$70 a day (obviously we were sharing accomodation but we all had to eat, and while we all squished into two tuktuks, we did have to buy train tickets for each individual) The total got bumped up a little when we did a trek in Chiang Mai.

I tend to average about $35 USD a day in Thailand, but I travel to lots of places and towns and transportation takes a bite out of my budget. But seriously - you're going to be near some of the most amazing things on Earth (like Angkor Wat, or snorkeling and diving on the Thai islands) and you're NOT going to go?! Don't be one of those backpackers who locks themselves in some dingy, windowless room somewhere and brags about how little money they're spending. Thailand is an amazing place - budget some more money and go see and do all sorts of new and interesting things. Otherwise, what's the point?

938961 wrote:Hi guys, my friends and I are planning a two-month trip to Thailand next summer, and after crunching my own numbers and researching online, I am lost as to what the costs will be.

I budgeted 20 canadian dollars a day for myself, staying at dorm-style hostels, eating street food, and no expensive day trips (eg scuba or few days going to Ankor Wat in Cambodia), and only a little alcohol (joys of being a lighweight...less money!). So in total for 60 days, $1200 dollars. I also used an online estimate for Thailand, and it rounded to about 25,000 THB ($800 CAD). I am a little worried, however, about transportation after reading other posts.

Does 1200 seem reasonable for the budget backpacking I'm planning on doing? I feel this may be too little after reading other posts on here.

I think you ought to do one of two things - shorten the trip so you have more spending money per day or have more money available from the start.

Can you do it for $20 a day - maybe but you won't always be able to find cheap accommodation. There are more cheap hotels and cheap guest houses than hostels in Thailand; once you leave Bangkok you don't find that many hostels. There is more security for your personal items when you have a private room. Are you guys or gals or mixed? Women usually require a little more hot water and security then men do.

Sleeping on the street or beaches like a common bum may be okay for Thai citizens but not acceptable for tourists who are supposed to have enough money to see them through their holiday in Thailand.

For the trip of a lifetime you ought to have more money with you or available from ATM's or travelers checks. You can use ATM's in Thailand with debit cards or credit cards for cash. You do have to notify your bank that you will be overseas. There is a 150 baht ATM fee to use an ATM in Bangkok so take out the maximum you can.

Eating street food always seems the way to go for some people who want to save money. But you get sick of it pretty fast! You may even get sick - sick too! You have to be selective where you eat. You can survive on fried rice in many places, rough price is 35 baht to 70 baht per dish depending on where you eat.

Transportation is cheap in Thailand but it does eat into your funds. You do have to pay for a visa for Cambodia too. Entry to Thailand by air will give you a free 30 day Visa Exempt stamp in your passport with Canadian passport. This means you can stay for 30 days for free. But if you leave Thailand that amount of time stops. When you arrive again you can receive another free 30 days if you FLY in but if you enter by land you only get 15 days - so plan accordingly. If you purchase a 60 day visa ahead of time in Canada that visa will stop when you leave Thailand too. So plan your trip to Cambodia when your arrival back in Thailand will give you enough time to meet your flight home and not be an overstay.
http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2482.php?id=2490

Normal stuff to do - get passports! Travelers checks are easy to cash in Thailand, easiest place in Asia probably. In Canada you may be able to find a credit union who will issue them for free! But you must be a member. I use travelers checks all the time in Thailand, they even get a hair more in exchange than cash when you exchange for baht. The fee to cash a travelers check is 33 baht, but compared to 150 baht per ATM withdrawal for the same amount of money it is cheap!

Maybe a shorter trip allowing you to have more cash available, or save up and have more cash available will make your trip a little nicer.

At least you have a while to make plans or work harder to save money.

Good luck.

Great info, thanks so much everyone! It is myself, one boy, and one girl. I think we will share a private room (is unisex allowed in Thailand?) as this may be cheaper and easier to find than hostels. Thanks for the visa info also, I may change it to four weeks in Thailand and two weeks in Cambodia.
And I do have a year to save, so I will take your advice and budget for 35 a day. Thanks all!

938961 wrote:Great info, thanks so much everyone! It is myself, one boy, and one girl. I think we will share a private room (is unisex allowed in Thailand?) as this may be cheaper and easier to find than hostels. Thanks for the visa info also, I may change it to four weeks in Thailand and two weeks in Cambodia.
And I do have a year to save, so I will take your advice and budget for 35 a day. Thanks all!

Yep, more money and maybe a shorter stay would work out okay.

As far as checking into a hotel with your girlfriend it should be okay unless she looks underage.

Good luck.

Don't be scared of street food. It's the only thing we ate in our eight months in Asia and we did no get sick of it. There is huge variety - much more than just friend rice. And if you are getting off the beaten track it's even cheaper than in the tourist centres.

Don't be scared of cheap guesthouses either. We stayed in the cheapest of cheap places and in 15 months on the road there was only one place that we refused to do a second night in (could not sleep with rats, especially when some of the kids were bunking down on the floor!) We found that the worse the room, the more time we spent out and about looking around, wandering. Nice rooms were conducive to NOT going out!

Then again, everyone has different levels of comfort. But if you can rough it, you really can travel on less than the online calculators suggest.