Bangkok Travel Costs

These totals assume two people sharing a room (the per-person hotel figure is half the room rate) and leave out flights, visas and shopping. Solo travellers in hotels add 30 to 50 percent because the room is not split; solo hostel travellers are unaffected. The main Bangkok guide gives the same bands in dollars: budget $25 to $60, mid $60 to $150.

Hostel dorm beds in Banglamphu and around Khao San Road start at 250 to 400 baht, with the well-run pod hostels at Siam and Silom (Lub d, for example) at 450 to 700. Private fan rooms in Banglamphu guesthouses cost 500 to 800 baht, air-con doubles 800 to 1,500. The mid-range sweet spot is 1,500 to 3,000 baht for a four-star with a rooftop pool on Sukhumvit, in Pratunam or Silom, often including a breakfast buffet; the same chains charge double in Singapore. Upscale hotels run 4,000 to 8,000 baht, and the Riverside grand hotels (Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Capella, Four Seasons) start around 8,000 and run to 35,000 baht a night. Add 17.7 percent when a rate is quoted “++” (7 percent VAT plus a 10 percent service charge); Agoda and Booking.com normally show the all-in price. The full area-by-area breakdown is in our Bangkok where-to-stay guide; the short version is that high season (November to February), Christmas, Chinese New Year and Songkran push rates up 30 to 50 percent, while May to October brings 20 to 40 percent discounts.

Bangkok is one of the few cities where the best food is also the cheapest. At street stalls and shophouse restaurants a plate of pad thai, pad kra pao or khao man gai costs 50 to 80 baht, a bowl of boat noodles at Victory Monument 20 to 30 baht (you order several), grilled pork skewers 10 to 15 each, and mango sticky rice 80 to 150 in season. Mall food courts (Siam Paragon’s basement, Terminal 21’s Pier 21 at Asok, MBK’s sixth floor) charge 80 to 150 baht a dish on a prepaid card, and are the easy air-conditioned option at lunchtime. A sit-down Thai restaurant with air-con costs 150 to 300 baht a head; the fashionable Thonglor and Sathorn places 300 to 600 plus 17 percent tax and service; and Michelin-starred tasting menus (Gaggan Anand, Sorn, Le Du) 4,000 to 8,000 baht a head. The famous exception on the street is Jay Fai on Maha Chai Road in the Old City, where the crab omelette costs 1,000 baht or more and the queue starts before the 2pm opening.

Drinks: water is 7 to 15 baht at 7-Eleven, Thai iced tea or coffee from a cart 25 to 50, cafe coffee 60 to 120, fresh fruit 20 to 40 a bag, and coconuts 40 to 60. A 630ml bottle of Chang, Leo or Singha costs 60 to 75 baht at 7-Eleven, 100 to 180 in a bar, and 250 to 400 at a hotel rooftop; cocktails are 150 to 250 at neighbourhood bars, 350 to 500 at rooftop bars, and 600 or more at the big-name sky bars such as Sky Bar at lebua and Vertigo. Alcohol sales in shops are limited to 11am to 2pm and 5pm to midnight, which catches people buying beer for the hotel room.

• BTS Skytrain: 17 to 62 baht per ride by distance; a Nana to Siam hop is about 30 baht, Siam to Mo Chit for Chatuchak about 44. A one-day pass costs about 150 baht and pays off after four rides. The Rabbit stored-value card costs 100 baht plus a top-up (minimum 100) and needs your passport to register; it saves queueing, not money. Contactless Visa and Mastercard work at the gates on both the BTS and MRT.
• MRT Blue Line: 17 to 45 baht. Useful for Chinatown (Wat Mangkon), the Old City (Sanam Chai) and Hua Lamphong. The 20-baht flat fare you may read about applies only to Thai citizens registered with a national ID; visitors pay the normal fares.
• Airport Rail Link: 15 to 45 baht from Suvarnabhumi to Phaya Thai, 30 minutes, every 10 to 15 minutes from about 5:30am to midnight. From Don Mueang, the A1 bus to Mo Chit is 30 baht and the SRT Red Line to Krung Thep Aphiwat about 33.
• Chao Phraya Express Boat: 16 baht flat on the orange-flag service that stops at Phra Athit, Tha Chang (Grand Palace), Tha Tien (Wat Pho) and Sathorn (BTS). The blue-flag Tourist Boat costs 30 baht a hop with an English commentary and a day pass of 150 to 200 baht. Cross-river ferries are 5 baht. Khlong Saen Saep canal boats from Pratunam to the Golden Mount cost 10 to 20 baht.
• Taxis: Meter flagfall is 35 baht, then about 6.5 baht per kilometre, so Sukhumvit to the Grand Palace runs 100 to 150 baht without traffic and 200 to 250 in it. From Suvarnabhumi to the centre expect 300 to 500 baht including the 50-baht airport surcharge and 50 to 75 in expressway tolls. If a driver refuses the meter, take the next cab.
• Grab: Usually 20 to 50 percent more than the meter but cashless and argument-free; a typical central ride is 120 to 250 baht. GrabBike motorcycles are 40 to 100 baht for short hops and beat the traffic.
• Tuk-tuks: No meter. Agree a price first: 60 to 100 baht for a few blocks, 150 to 200 across the Old City. Decline any 20-baht “temple tour”, which ends at a gem or tailor shop.
• Motorbike taxis: 20 to 30 baht for a soi run, 50 to 100 for longer hops; the orange-vested drivers at every BTS exit are the fastest way down a long Sukhumvit soi.

Bangkok’s big three temples cost real money and everything else is nearly free. The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew charge 500 baht (8:30am to 3:30pm, strict dress code, ticket includes the Queen Sirikit Textile Museum), Wat Pho 300 baht including a bottle of water, and Wat Arun 200 baht. After that: Wat Saket (the Golden Mount) 100 baht, Wat Traimit’s Golden Buddha 100 baht with the museum, the National Museum 200, the Jim Thompson House 200 with a guided tour, and Wat Benchamabophit a token fee. Wat Suthat, Wat Ratchanatdaram’s Loha Prasat, the Erawan Shrine, Lumphini Park, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Chatuchak and the Pak Khlong Talat flower market cost nothing.

Modern Bangkok charges more. The King Power Mahanakhon SkyWalk costs 500 to 1,200 baht depending on the time slot, with sunset the most expensive; the Baiyoke Sky observation deck is cheaper at around 400. A one-hour Thai massage costs 250 to 350 baht at a neighbourhood shop, 400 to 500 for oil, and 480 baht at the Wat Pho massage school; hotel spas start at 1,500 to 2,500. A half-day cooking class runs 1,000 to 2,500 baht, a long-tail boat through the Thonburi canals 1,000 to 1,500 for the boat (not per person) for an hour, and a Muay Thai night at Rajadamnern or Lumpinee stadium 1,500 to 3,000 for tourist seats. Day trips are cheap if you go by train: Ayutthaya is 15 to 20 baht in a third-class carriage from Krung Thep Aphiwat and the main ruins of the historical park charge 50 baht each; a minivan to Maeklong Railway Market and Amphawa is 80 to 100 baht each way; organised day tours to Kanchanaburi or Damnoen Saduak cost 1,200 to 2,500 baht.

A tourist SIM from AIS, TrueMove H or dtac at either airport costs about 300 to 600 baht for 7 to 8 days of unlimited or high-cap data with some call credit; the same packages are a little cheaper at 7-Eleven in town, and eSIMs bought online run $5 to $15 for a week. Laundry by the kilo in Banglamphu and the Sukhumvit sois costs 40 to 60 baht per kilogram, back the same evening. Expect 20 to 30 baht for a 7-Eleven toastie, 30 to 60 for a Thai iced tea, 50 to 150 for sunscreen, 100 to 200 for rain ponchos and umbrellas when the sky opens, and 5 to 10 baht for a public toilet at markets and piers. Souvenirs are negotiable at markets and fixed in malls: a Jim Thompson silk scarf is 2,000 baht and up, a Chatuchak elephant-print pair of trousers 150 to 250 after bargaining.

Nearly every Thai bank ATM charges foreign cards a 220-baht fee per withdrawal (a few charge 250), on top of whatever your own bank adds, so take out the maximum each time: most machines allow 20,000 to 30,000 baht per transaction, and Krungsri and Bangkok Bank machines often dispense 30,000. Always decline the on-screen offer to convert to your home currency; that “dynamic currency conversion” costs a further 3 to 6 percent. Changing cash is better value than ATMs for larger sums: SuperRich (the green and orange branches around Ratchadamri, Siam and Pratunam) and other licensed exchange booths give rates within 1 percent of the interbank rate for clean US dollar, euro and pound notes, while airport counters are 3 to 5 percent worse.

Cards are accepted in malls, hotels, chain restaurants, supermarkets and on the BTS and MRT gates, and Grab is cashless by default. Street stalls, markets, taxis, tuk-tuks, boats, small restaurants and most guesthouses are cash only. Thai QR payments (PromptPay) need a Thai bank account, though Alipay+ and some Singaporean and Malaysian banking apps now work at 7-Eleven and many stalls. Carry 100- and 20-baht notes: a 1,000-baht note is hard to break at a noodle stall and taxi drivers rarely have change for one.

Tipping is appreciated but never expected at street level. Leave nothing at stalls and food courts; round a taxi fare up to the nearest 10 or 20 baht; and in restaurants check the bill, because most mid-range and upscale places add a 10 percent service charge (shown as “++” with the 7 percent VAT), in which case nothing more is needed. Where there is no service charge, leaving the coins or 5 to 10 percent is generous. Massage therapists are the one group for whom a tip is customary: 50 to 100 baht for an hour. Hotel porters get 20 to 50 baht a bag, housekeeping 50 to 100 baht at the end of a stay in better hotels, tour guides 200 to 500 baht a day, and Grab drivers nothing (the app offers a tip option, which is optional).

• Eat where Bangkok eats. Three street or food-court meals a day cost 250 to 400 baht; one restaurant dinner can match that alone. Lunch sets at good restaurants are often half the dinner price.
• Take boats and trains, not taxis. The 16-baht express boat covers the Old City, Chinatown and the Riverside, and a 150-baht BTS day pass covers the rest. A taxi across town in rush hour costs 250 baht and takes longer.
• Pay for three temples, see thirty free. Only the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun and a couple of others charge; the rest of the Old City, Dusit and Thonburi costs nothing.
• Drink at happy hour. Most Sukhumvit and Silom bars run two-for-one or half-price drinks from 5pm to 7pm or 8pm; the sky bars often have a 5pm to 6pm reduced rate before the sunset crowd.
• Go in the green season. From May to October hotels drop 20 to 40 percent and the rain comes in afternoon bursts, not all-day downpours.
• Withdraw once, not often. Take out 20,000 to 30,000 baht per ATM visit, or change clean banknotes at SuperRich, and avoid the 220-baht fee stacking up.
• Shop at Chatuchak and Pratunam, not the malls. Clothes, bags and souvenirs cost a third of mall prices once you have haggled 30 to 40 percent off the opening figure.

A week costs roughly 10,000 baht ($300) backpacker, 24,000 ($725) mid-range and 75,000 ($2,270) comfortable; two weeks double that, less a little as you find your favourite cheap places. If you plan to continue to the islands, budget more per day there: hotels, boats and food on Ko Samui, Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands run 20 to 50 percent above Bangkok prices, while Chiang Mai and the northeast are cheaper still.

Within Thailand, Bangkok sits in the middle: street food, hotels and transport are 20 to 50 percent cheaper than on Phuket, Samui or Phi Phi, where a plate of pad thai is 100 to 150 baht, a taxi starts at 300 and mid-range rooms run 2,500 to 4,000 baht, but a little dearer than Chiang Mai, where dorms are 200 baht and meals 40 to 60. Pattaya, Hua Hin and Ko Samet are closer to Bangkok prices. Against the region’s other hub cities the gap is wide. In Singapore a hostel bed is the price of a Bangkok four-star room, a hawker-centre meal costs two to three times a Bangkok street plate, and a mid-range hotel is 6,000 to 9,000 baht equivalent; a mid-range day there runs three times a Bangkok day. Tokyo is similar: business hotels at 4,000 to 7,000 baht equivalent, bowls of ramen at 250 to 300 baht, and metro fares comparable to the BTS but with no 16-baht boats or 60-baht dinners. The practical upshot is that Bangkok is where to splurge on hotels, massages and tailoring, because the same money buys two or three times as much as it will in the next city on most itineraries.