What Thailand really costs: five travellers' budgets compared
Jay and Karolina had been in Thailand for a few minutes when their budget took its first hit. They had $300 for three days in Bangkok, and the cash machine at the airport wanted 250 baht just to hand it over. “That is $8. That’s crazy,” Jay says to the camera, and takes out 9,500 baht anyway.
They are one of five sets of travellers who filmed what Thailand cost them and put the numbers on YouTube. This article retells their trips and sets the figures side by side. Everything here comes from their videos; each price links to the moment it is said.
The five trips at a glance
| Traveller | Trip | What they report |
|---|---|---|
| Jay and Karolina | 3 days in Bangkok, a couple | A $300 budget for both, $38 a night for an apartment |
| Lisa and Josh | 3 days in Bangkok, 2023 video | A $100-a-day budget, hotels around $40–50 a night |
| Directed By Dunks | One tracked day in Bangkok, group of friends | £66.60 for one person’s day |
| Nomaswazi Tshabalala | 11 nights in Phuket, three friends, priced in rand | A little under R37,000 each for the whole trip |
| Kokoro Living Diaries | Phuket and Krabi, three days each, a couple, priced in rupees | A 95,000 package for two plus about 62,000 in flights |
Jay and Karolina: three days, $300, two tuk-tuk lessons
The couple’s plan was simple: about $100 a day between them. Their apartment cost $38 a night, and they do not say whether that sits inside the $300. At the cash machine they turned down the bank’s offer to convert the withdrawal for them: “Never do the conversion. Always do it in the local currency.”
Food barely dented the budget. A chicken pad thai was 100 baht, about $3 at today’s rate. Mango sticky rice was 80 baht for a small portion.
Tuk-tuks were another matter. On the first night a driver opened at 300 baht for the ride to a night market and took 150. Two days later a driver asked 250 to go to Lumpini Park. The couple had checked the Grab app first: about 80 baht. They bargained him down to 130 and still handed over 150 at the end. Neither ride was expensive. Both cost far more than the app.
On the way to the Grand Palace they warn viewers about the city’s best-known trick. Strangers near the entrance will say the palace is closed, “which is quite obviously a lie because the Grand Palace is open every single day.” The aim is to sell an overpriced tour. The real ticket was 500 baht each.
By the last evening they were worried. “I think we are close to breaking our budget,” one of them says as they sit down at a street restaurant called Cheaper and Better. Dinner settles it: a chicken pad kra pao for 60 baht. They finish the video saying they had planned the budget perfectly, without giving a final total.
Dunks: one day, seven friends, a running total in pounds
Dunks set out to count what an ordinary tourist day costs, starting with breakfast after a night out: 90 baht. He is not impressed. The famous one-pound Thai meal now costs him £2.11, “which is straight daylight robbery.”
The group took a Grab across the city for 800 baht. Split seven ways it came to about 115 baht each, which is his point: transport is cheap in a group and steep alone.
Then the day got more expensive. They went to Icon Siam, expecting local prices and finding a mall built for visitors. Lunch there cost 270 baht, three times his breakfast: “we got the world’s largest prices.” In the evening a rooftop bar advertised free entry, but a compulsory drink with service charge and tax came to 470 baht. The bar also turns away anyone under 20, which one of his friends found out the hard way.
His total for the day was £66.60, about $88 at today’s rate, including a laptop bag and a massage. Dinner is not in it, because the group skipped it, and he does not mention a hotel. His own verdict: “not a lot, to be honest with you.”
Lisa and Josh: the same budget three years earlier
Lisa and Josh gave themselves $100 a day too, in a video published in December 2023. Their first stop went wrong before they got through the gate. At the Grand Palace, people were shouting at them that they could not enter without trousers, so the first purchase of the trip was a pair of elephant pants. Then came a second trip to the same stall: “Lisa’s scarf didn’t pass the test,” and a scarf no longer counts as covered shoulders.
Their other surprise was cash. The temples took cash, the restaurants took cash, the trouser stall took cash. They had withdrawn 2,000 baht for the first day and spent more than half by the second temple. “I kind of wish that we had picked up more,” one of them says.
They quote few prices, but the ones they give are low: two dishes at the Icon Siam food court for 180 baht together, and two sausages on a stick in Chinatown for 15 baht. Decent hotels in their area ran $40 to $50 a night, close to what Jay and Karolina paid later. At Chatuchak market their advice is to assume the first price is several times the real one.
They end the three days “sweaty and happy, as is the Bangkok way.”
Nomaswazi: eleven nights in Phuket with two friends
Nomaswazi Tshabalala travelled with two friends and counts everything per person, in South African rand. Her first lesson is about waiting. A year before the trip the flights were 9,500 rand. When the three of them were finally ready to book, eight months out, the same seats were just over 12,000. They paid R12,283 each, about $725 at today’s rate. “My tip is please book as early as possible.”
The hotels made up for it. Eleven nights in two hotels, with breakfast, came to R9,137 per person, about $540, or under $50 a night. “Guys, it’s a bargain,” she says, adding that nothing at home comes close.
The rest of the money went on the holiday itself. A day at Yona Beach Club cost R2,860 each. A day tour to the Phi Phi Islands, with hotel pickup and lunch, was R1,200 each. She recommends it and is honest about it: it runs from seven in the morning until five, and you should be ready for that. For getting around she found Bolt cheaper than Grab; eleven days of rides cost each of them about R1,117.
Her total is a little under R37,000 per person, roughly $2,170, before souvenirs. The automatic captions garble the exact figure, so we have rounded it.
Kokoro: a package for a first anniversary
The creator behind Kokoro Living Diaries booked a package for two three months ahead for a first wedding anniversary: three days in Phuket and three in Krabi. She prices it in rupees. The package was 95,000 for the couple and return flights for two about 62,000, together roughly $1,670 at today’s rate. Breakfast, most transfers, insurance and an eSIM were included.
Her video is useful for what the package did not cover. Island tours carry an entry fee for foreign visitors of 200 to 400 baht per person, paid on the day. Each hotel took a cash deposit at check-in, 2,000 baht at the first and 1,000 at the second, and gave it back at checkout. Her advice is to keep enough money aside for that. One day of Grab rides cost 1,000 baht, and a dolphin show for two was 1,200.
What the five trips have in common
Street food is cheap; anything built for tourists is not. Dishes cost 60 to 100 baht in three of the videos. The traveller who paid 90 baht for breakfast paid 270 for lunch in a mall the same day.
Check the app before you take a tuk-tuk. Drivers opened at two to three times what they accepted, and the agreed fare was still well above the Grab price.
Bring cash and expect a fee to get it. The airport machine took 250 baht per withdrawal, one couple needed cash almost everywhere, and hotels may ask for a deposit.
The Grand Palace costs 500 baht, is open, and has a dress code. Cover knees and shoulders, and ignore anyone outside who says it is closed.
For long-haul visitors the flight is the biggest cost, and it moves. The South African group’s fare rose by more than a quarter in the four months they waited.
The hotel is rarely what breaks the budget. $38 to $50 a night in Bangkok, and under $50 a night per person in Phuket with breakfast.
How this guide was made
Every figure above was stated by the traveller in their own video, in the currency they used. Quotes are taken from the videos’ automatic captions and checked against them. Where we convert to US dollars we use the exchange rate of 15 November 2026; the videos were published between 2023 and 2026, so treat conversions as a guide. We did not travel for this article, and nobody featured here paid or was paid to appear.
Planning your own trip
Fares to Bangkok and Phuket change by the month. Our flight pages show the cheapest months on each route from live prices. For the day itself, you can see current ticket prices for Bangkok attractions and compare fixed-price airport transfers.