What a week in Thailand actually costs, line by line

Article updated: 2026-09-17

Best rate USD · Bangkok: 33.24 — Superrich Thailand — Headquarter Rajdamri 1 · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details

Most Thailand budgets go wrong in the same way. People estimate the big items carefully, guess at the small ones, and then find that the trip cost a few hundred dollars more than planned with no single purchase to blame. The money leaks out of the lines nobody budgets: the spread on the money you changed, the flat fee on four small ATM withdrawals, the airport taxi negotiated at the kerb, the 17% that appears on the hotel bill at checkout.

This is a seven-night, two-person trip priced line by line, in baht, so you can see which numbers move and which do not.

Accommodation

Per night, for a double room, outside the December–February peak:

Two things to know. First, the advertised rate is often not the price you pay: mid-range and upmarket hotels add a 10% service charge and 7% VAT, which is the ”++” you see on Thai price lists and about 17.7% on top. Cheaper places usually quote inclusive. Read which one you are looking at before comparing two rooms.

Second, this is the line where booking ahead genuinely helps, and not mainly on price. A free-cancellation rate booked earlyAd costs the same as or less than the walk-in rate, and it gives you a confirmed address for the arrival card and the taxi driver. Compare the total including taxes rather than the nightly headline, and check the current price at the time you book.

Getting around

• BTS and MRT in Bangkok: roughly 17–62 baht per journey depending on distance. Budget about 100 baht per person per day if you are using them to get everywhere.
• Metered taxi: flagfall 35 baht. Most cross-town trips in Bangkok are 80–200 baht, more in traffic. Airport runs add a 50-baht surcharge and 25–75 baht of expressway tolls.
• Ride-hailing: similar to a metered taxi plus a small booking fee, with the advantage of a price shown before you accept and no argument about the meter.
• Motorbike taxi: 20–60 baht for short hops.
• Intercity: a Bangkok–Chiang Mai overnight train in second-class air-conditioned sleeper is in the several-hundred-baht range; buses are cheaper; domestic flights are often the same money as the train once booked in advance.

An airport-to-hotel transferAd on arrival day is the one transport line worth fixing in advance, for the reasons set out in your first two hours in Thailand — mainly a late landing, a group, or a long run to Pattaya or Hua Hin. For everything else in town, pay as you go.

Food

• Street food or a market stall: 50–80 baht a dish
• Shopping-mall food court: 60–120 baht
• Ordinary Thai restaurant with a menu: 120–250 baht a dish
• Tourist-area Western restaurant: 300–700 baht a dish
• Large beer in a convenience store: 50–70 baht; in a bar: 120–200
• Coffee: 60–120 baht in a cafe

A realistic figure for two people eating a mix of street food, food courts and one sit-down dinner a day is 800–1,500 baht per day. Eating exclusively in hotel restaurants and tourist-strip Western places will double it.

Attractions

This line varies more than any other, because it depends entirely on what kind of trip you are having. Temples and museums are cheap and priced at the gate; commercial attractions and day tours are not.

• Grand Palace: 500 baht per person, fixed, sold at the gate
• Major temples: a hundred or a few hundred baht each
• Observation decks, aquariums, theme parks: 500–1,500 baht at the gate, and these are the ones where advance ticketsAd are often genuinely cheaper
• A full-day guided trip out of Bangkok — Ayutthaya, the floating market, Kanchanaburi: 1,000–2,500 baht per person depending on group size and whether lunch is included
• Islands and boat days from Phuket or Krabi: 1,200–3,000 baht per person

Which of these are worth pre-booking, and which are the same price at the gate, is a longer answer than it looks: ticket price versus gate price in Bangkok goes through it properly. The short version: fixed-price state attractions, never; high-list-price commercial attractions, usually; anything involving a boat, a minibus or a timed slot, yes, because those sell out rather than because they are cheaper.

Connectivity

A travel data planAd for a week is a small line — tens of dollars at most — but it is the one that makes everything else work: maps, ride-hailing, translation, and looking up a rate before you walk into a shop. Buy it before you fly rather than queueing at an arrival-hall counter.

The money lines nobody budgets

Here is where the quiet money goes.

The exchange spread. Between a competitive Bangkok exchange shop and a hotel desk or airport arrival counter, the gap is commonly 1–3%, and occasionally more on minor currencies. On a 40,000-baht holiday budget that is 400–1,200 baht — a nice dinner, lost to standing in front of the wrong window. Changing at a good counter is the single highest-return ten minutes of the trip. Start from the Bangkok guide and check the live boards on the shop directory.

The ATM fee. Thai ATMs charge foreign cards a flat 220 baht per withdrawal. Four withdrawals of 5,000 baht cost 880 baht in fees; one of 20,000 costs 220. If you are using ATMs, take out large amounts rarely. The full maths is in Thai ATM fees.

Dynamic currency conversion. Any time a terminal or cash machine offers to bill you in your home currency, that offer carries a 3–8% margin. Decline it every time and pay in baht.

The hotel’s ++. 10% service and 7% VAT on mid-range and above.

Leftover baht. Changing baht back at the airport on the way out loses you the spread twice. Spend it down, or read leftover baht.

Putting it together

For two people, seven nights, excluding international flights:

Both columns describe a good trip. The difference between them is mostly rooms and restaurants, not experiences.

The lines worth locking in before you fly are the ones with a queue, a fixed capacity or a late-night surcharge attached: the room, the arrival transfer, the data plan, and any timed or boat-based tour. The lines to leave alone are the ones that cost the same whenever you buy them — temple entry, local trains, and dinner.

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