Thailand Travel Budget: Exactly What Our Thailand Vacation Cost

Planning to go backpacking in Thailand and wondering how much a trip to Thailand costs? 

We’ve shared our real-life example Thailand travel budget to help!

The theme of our travel budget for Thailand (and Laos and Cambodia, for that matter) was this: we could have done it cheaper, but we simply didn’t want to.

We kept to a moderate or flashpacker budget in many ways, such like sticking with private rooms in hostels or budget guesthouses for all of our lodging.

On the excursions, well–we had a blast. We completed our Open Water certifications on Koh Tao, and then went back for two more fun dives each in honor of Jeremy’s birthday. We also spent an unforgettable day with elephants outside of Chiang Mai.

If you take out our Open Water Diver certifications alone, our daily average trip cost in Thailand drops by almost $20.00–so, can you visit Thailand cheaper than this? Of course.

But for us, the incredible memories that we made by letting loose a little bit were worth it.

A Brief Overview of Our Thailand Itinerary

We spent 25 full days in the country, averaging a total Thailand travel budget of $96.32/day for two people, or $48.16 per person, per day. This added up to a total cost of $2407.92 for our nearly month-long trip.

Our time spent backpacking Thailand took us to Bangkok (twice), Koh Tao, and Chiang Mai, steadily following the banana pancake trail.

All prices for our trip to Thailand costs are listed in USD unless otherwise noted, and, as usual for our travel budget roundups, we don’t include the costs of entering or leaving the country here, as those expenses can vary so dramatically depending on your starting point (in our case, we flew from Sarajevo to Bangkok to enter the country, and then took a bus to Luang Prabang to exit).

2026 Note on Thailand Backpacking Prices

This blog post is quite dated at this point, as it covers our experience backpacking Thailand in 2016!

Travel and the world in general have obviously changed since then, so I can’t make any promises on the exact prices of specific items today (and of course, fluctuating exchange rates play a role too, since this travel budget is written in USD).

However, for travelers like us who earn/spend in USD, it does appear that Thailand has seen far less inflation than many destinations did this decade!

Hostel and budget guesthouse prices seem to be surprisingly stable: the places we stayed that are still listed online are still charging about what we paid.

The Grand Palace, too, seems to cost about the same. I noted that we paid “almost $15/person” in 2016, today, the 500 THB price comes to $15.96 USD.

Scuba diving seems to have increased, we paid about 8,200 THB, and according to online estimates, 11,000 THB is about the going rate now (roughly $350 USD at today’s exchange rate).

Overall, I suspect we could probably spend a similar month in Thailand for a similar price today, especially given that we’re much more experienced travelers now!

Our Lodging Costs in Thailand

Total: $615.58 for 22 nights, an average of $27.98/night.

Our lodging expenses were very moderate in Thailand, and we never stayed anywhere either grungy or flashy. We took 3 overnight trains during our stay, which allowed us to skip 3 nights of lodging elsewhere.

Cost varied wildly across the country. The most expensive place we stayed was Koh Tao, where we spent about $40/night on a budget guesthouse, and the cheapest was Chiang Mai, where $14/night got us a reasonable private room in a hostel. 

The cost of lodging can also vary dramatically based on what you’re getting: from budget hostels to romantic villas, you can pay anywhere from a few dollars to thousands for a place to sleep in Thailand.

I’m happy (and slightly surprised!) to say that more than half of the places we stayed in Thailand are still open for business years later, and that their prices are still very similar to what we paid.

I’ll cover them in more detail below, here’s a quick overview of where we stayed:

• Chan Cha La 99 Hostel Bangkok (we still fondly refer to this as Annie’s place!)
• Lub D Bangkok Siam Square (hard to ask for a more convenient spot)
• Nirvana Guesthouse Koh Tao (perfect location in Mae Head, though reviews seem to have slipped a bit since our stay)

Exactly Where We Stayed in Thailand

Bangkok

Chan Cha La 99 Hostel — On our first visit to Bangkok, Annie took great care of us at this hostel. This lady knows what she is doing!

The hostel is clean and efficient, and Annie is a wealth of information about Bangkok.

The hostel is roughly 5 minutes from the BTS. The downside? It’s a little out of the way–you’ll spend about 40 minutes getting to any major sites.

Lub D Bangkok Siam Square — This hostel is actually one of several in a chain, and we adored it.

The rooms were clean, the bathrooms spotless, and the location right in the heart of Siam was perfect for us. It was an easy walk to MBK or the Jim Thompson House.

It doesn’t have the personal touch that Annie provided, but we wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again on our third visit to Bangkok.

Koh Tao

Nirvana Guesthouse — Located right in the heart of Mae Head, we loved this guesthouse!

It was only a short walk from the pier, reasonably priced, clean, and the owner was very accommodating.

We would be happy to stay here again. The only reason we moved guesthouses was Nirvana was fully booked, and we couldn’t extend our stay any further.

The other guesthouse we used in Koh Tao was also lovely, but has since closed down.

Our Transportation Budget in Thailand

Total $285.16

Our most notable transportation costs were the 3 overnight trains we took (Bangkok to Koh Tao, Koh Tao to Bangkok, Bangkok to Chiang Mai), which cost roughly $30-32 per person each.

Bangkok’s BTS skytrain is paid for by pre-loading money onto small “Rabbit Cards” that you then scan whenever you enter and leave the train system. (We still have ours, they make great impromptu souvenirs from Bangkok.)

The costs of riding the BTS added up faster than we expected, especially on our first trip to Bangkok.

Since we were staying in a less-than-ideal (read: far away from everything) location, we ended up spending almost $1.00 each on every ride into the center of town.

Our Restaurant Travel Budget for Thailand

Total: $455.92

There’s really just no way around this: way too much of our travel budget for Thailand was blown on Western food.

Looking back, it’s easy to be frustrated with myself for not sucking it up and eating more street food (and we did eat tons of street food!), but at the time, my stomach was desperately craving familiarity.

I do say “I” for a reason–Jeremy would have happily put himself on an exclusive diet of pad thai, noodle soup, and red curry for the entire month (or more).

Even with our far-too-frequent stops for Western food, our total food cost was $11.21 per person/per day–including the grocery category below.

Not a terribly impressive number, but not one to lose much sleep over, either.

Luckily, I think we will be able to easily trim this number the next time we go to Thailand.

Our Grocery Costs in Thailand

Total: $104.41

“Groceries” weren’t much to write home about in Thailand–we didn’t have access to a kitchen anywhere we went, and street food was so cheap and accessible that cooking seemed like more trouble than it would have been worth, anyway.

This is par for the course in Asia, of course!

This category of our travel budget for Thailand is essentially made up of water, convenience foods from 7/11, and fruit stands.

Our Tour + Excursion Expenses in Thailand

Total: $818.16

… And this is where our trip to Thailand cost really escalated.

Our biggest numbers in this category were our Open Water Diver certifications ($475.71), two additional fun dives each ($92.08), and our elephant experience ($138.81).

I also threw the 3 movies we saw in Bangkok into this pile, even though that defies the definition of the word “tour”.

Most Wats in Thailand charge a modest fee, if any, but there is an exception: the Grand Palace was almost $15/person.

While I’m glad that we saw it, I don’t think we’ll ever go back there again when there are beautiful (and significantly less crowded) Wats available for a fraction of the price.

Miscellaneous Thailand Travel Budget Costs

Total: $128.69

Since our Thailand travel budget covered almost a month of expenses, the random costs added up: toiletries, clothes (both fun clothes and basics to replace some worn-out ones), and a few rounds of laundry.

We already miss $3.00 loads of laundry that were washed, dried, and folded for us!

This category also includes souvenirs, which we bought more of in Thailand than anywhere else in the world.

Almost all of our souvenirs, including a beautiful teak figurine that is my favorite souvenir ever, were elephant-themed. Go figure.

(2026 update: that elephant is on our mantle as I type this. Still one of my favorite souvenirs of all time.)

Our massages also fall under this category, which added up to so many glorious hours spent getting all the kinks out for only $6.00 each.

The most unexpected cost under miscellaneous? We paid $1.45 to replace a glass that Jeremy broke in one of our guesthouses. I couldn’t get over how inexpensive that was–an American hotel would have happily charged $20.00.

Final Thoughts on Our Thailand Travel Budget

Looking at the total numbers for the cost of our trip to Thailand, it would be easy to wish that we had spent a little less–there would have been so many ways to make it cheaper, and the budgeter in me can’t help but wonder.

Even saying that, though, I know that there are experiences we didn’t get to and are still hoping to experience on our next trip to Thailand: visiting the Andaman Coast, a lot more scuba diving, some hiking, visiting Chiang Rai, lots more island hopping in general, and motorbiking in Pai… just to start.

There is absolutely nothing that I would have wanted to miss out on. The money we spent in Thailand over the course of almost a month there was absolutely money well-spent.

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