One of the great things about heading off on holiday to Thailand is how far your spending money goes while you’re away. With a restaurant meal and a couple of drinks coming in at as little as a fiver, straying from your resort to sample local flavours is as affordable as it is enjoyable.
The local currency is the Thai baht (THB). You can use ATMs for cash withdrawals but it’s worth noting that there is a surcharge of between 200-300 baht per transaction (about £4.50-£6.50), so be sure to take out the maximum permitted amount per visit. If you like to plan ahead and prepare currency before you go, you can order currency straight to your door here, or to collect through your local TUI shop. Traveller’s cheques are also widely accepted and good to have as back-up. To give you a helping hand with organising your holiday cash, here’s a guide to the prices you can expect to find in Thailand…
Dining out
A meal at a casual restaurant in Thailand will be anything from 200THB to 400THB – that’s about £4.50 to £9.10, in UK terms. You’ll be able to enjoy the lower end of pricing at local family restaurants and night markets scattered across Thailand, but you’ll be paying a premium for your usual restaurant scenario! So prepare for a little price variation wherever you go. If you’re planning to eat a restaurant meal for lunch and dinner every day, allow around £100 per week per person, or put £200 aside if you’re heading off on holiday for a fortnight.
Street food is a consistently cheap way to experience the best of Thailand’s globally popular cuisine, with a substantial serving of pad Thai or fragrant massaman curry costing 50-150THB per helping. For about £2, you’ll get a truly Thai dining experience and get to see the dish prepared in front of you. Do this twice a day and you’ll only be spending around £30 per week on meals – leaving plenty of cash for activities and adventures.
Our Thailand holiday packages include breakfast as part of your stay, as well as featuring All Inclusive choices where you won’t need to pay extra for any meals at all. If you’re keen to enjoy the sun and sands of Thailand but want to enjoy the flavour of home while you’re away then don’t worry, as Thai resorts are used to catering for western diets too. Even in smaller destinations you can now find popular favourites like pizza and burgers if you want to take a break from Asian cuisine. These usually cost more than local food if you’re at a restaurant or Thai night market, but if you’re travelling All Inclusive then there’s no extra charge.
The price of drinks
A night out on the town in Thailand is considerably cheaper than one in the UK! You’ll find that most bars sell drinks by the bucket as well as the glass! Bearing this in mind, remember to drink responsibly so you don’t end up with a serious holiday hangover.
All inclusive Thailand holidays will include some drinks as part of your package, but when you head off to local venues for some proper Thai nightlife you’ll want to take the equivalent of around £20 per night, depending on how much you plan to drink.
Tap water isn’t safe to drink in Thailand, but you can pick up a one-litre bottle of mineral water from any store for 10-14BHT – about 23p-32p. Buy it in a bar and you might pay 20-50THB, so many people prefer to stock up in the daytime and take a bottle out in their bag.
When it comes to alcohol, a bottle or pint of local beer is usually 50-100THB while wine is classed as a premium product, expect to pay upwards of 1000THB for a bottle (£22.75). Cocktails are made strong, and can usually be bought for 150-250THB per cocktail (£3.40-£5.60), much cheaper than the UK and other holiday counterparts.
Extra activities
Once you’ve put aside £100 per week for food and around £20 for each night that you plan to head out, it’s time to think about what other things you might need some handy cash for.
Visiting cultural sites like temples is often free, though some of the more famous pagodas like Bangkok’s Wat Arun and Wat Pho cost 100THB to enter or a self guided tour with audio, can cost as little as 300THB (£7). Tuk-tuk tours can be obtained for as little as 50THB (£1.10) – per hour, but it’s customary and polite to tip your driver as a thank you for their services.
As well for Full Moon parties, you can pay a 200THB entry fee for the evening, which is a super affordable option for entertainment in the evenings. For a more lavish excursion, £20 per person is a common price for things like small boat tours and guided snorkelling experiences.
So, how much should I take?
For most people, £200-300 per week is more than enough spending money to have an amazing time in Thailand. If you’re great at budgeting and love to sample street food, £100 per week may be enough – but if you want to really indulge and try as many extra experiences as possible, allow twice this amount so that you don’t need to keep counting your cash at the end of each day.
If you’re booking All Inclusive and know that all of your meals and most drinks are already taken care of, then you only need to budget for the additional activities that take your fancy.
Will you be spending your Thailand trip basking on the sand, or splashing out on adventures? Whatever you prefer, we’ll help you get there for less. Take a look at our Thailand holiday deals and find out how much you can SAVE with Holiday Hypermarket.
*Prices correct at the time blog was published and are subject to availability. T&C’s apply.
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