Thailand - $153.02
We visited Thailand over two separate trips in 2024, for a total of just over 15 days in the country, and spent just over $2,300 or $153.02 per day. On the surface this is great news for our total travel budget, we’re way below our per day spending goal of $194! However, there were some quirks for our time in Thailand that may have skewed this number lower. The most important thing to note is that our first segment in Thailand was for a wedding which (in this case) meant much of our food and lodging costs were covered. When isolating only our second visit we were still pretty nearly on budget, going over by about $0.50 per day, with much of the overrun coming from our busy activity schedule.
Our largest category of spending in Thailand was Food, where we spent an average of $48.91 per day eating and drinking our way through many very, very tasty meals. Thailand is world-famous for its cuisine, so it’s no surprise that we occasionally had to indulge in some terrific restaurants and Michelin-guide street vendors across the country. Beyond food, Thailand is also known for its nightlife, so we did spend some of our budget at bars. Thailand was definitely the most boozy country so far! While we certainly don’t regret spending any of the money we did on food and drink, you could easily save a lot of money by eating more street food or going to more off the beaten path spots.
Our second largest category of spending was Lodging, averaging $60.81 during our second stint in Thailand. Again, traveling in the low-season allowed us to save a lot of money on accommodation and helped us afford to stay at a great hotel in Chiang Mai, alongside some good options in Chiang Rai and Bangkok. One lesson we learned in Thailand is that sometimes booking one of the nicer hostels can actually make for a nicer trip than staying at a mid-range hotel. While hotels in South East Asia may seem “cheap”, the quality and level of care in hostels is significantly higher than “cheap” hotels in the US or Europe.
Activities took a proportionally larger than normal bite out of our budget in Thailand, but each one was totally worth it. We averaged almost $24 on various activities each day, but this includes a private snorkeling tour in Phuket, watching Muay Thai ringside in Chiang Mai, and visiting many of the most spectacular temples in Bangkok. Each activity was a new experience for us and fit right into our expectations for this year around the globe.
We spent about $309 on Flights while in Thailand, including a terrifying small plane ride from Lao to Chiang Mai, as well as our hop down from Chiang Rai to Bangkok. We did pay almost $2,000 for our initial flight from the US to Phuket to begin our trip, but that expense has already been accounted for in our pre-departure spending. Had we included that cost here it would have meant an unrealistic look at our daily spending, jumping it up to almost $300 per day.
We had about $320 of Miscellaneous spending in Thailand, mostly cash we can’t account for, but also including laundry services, phone bills, and pharmacy runs (yes, Thailand got us a bit). Additionally we spent just over $8.50 per day on Other Transportation costs, mainly consisting of Grab and Tuk Tuk journeys, as well as one cheap bus ride from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. Finally, we spent about $30 during our time in Thailand on Rental Vehicles & Gas, consisting entirely of moped rental days while in the north of the country. We opted for two wheels here to reach various temples and waterfalls outside of town without having to pay a higher price to hire a tuk tuk driver for the day.