Thailand - Two weeks spending money?

[bh87]

My wife and I are travelling to Phuket for 2 weeks with her family at the beginning of October. Excluding flight and hotel cost, what sort of spending money (cash to bring) would be appropriate?

Phuket will be our base for the 2 weeks, we are planning to visit Ko Phi Phi (1-2 nights max), Bangkok (2-3 nights) and possibly Chiang Mai if there is time.

This will be my first visit to Asia, any advice would be helpful!

[max_boost]

can't recall how much i spent it was mostly just food and everything was charged to the room. but remember to tip! i believe $100baht is about $3 and it's greatly appreciated by all the service staff.

[BensonTT]

Make sure you stop by Dr BJ in Bangkok

[jabjab]

Is the sex trade industry there pretty cheap there? (NON lady boys)

[mzdspd]

Went there for 3 weeks in April (low time) with my gf..

So high touristy areas like Phuket and Koh phi phi will be expensive (for thailand). We brought 3k for just over 3 weeks. We stayed at medium priced private hostels/bungalows and hotels. So I would expect about 60 ish per night for those. And then depending on what you do, that will determine how much you need for spending. A full day adventure like snorkeling or trekking is typically about 80-100 per person.

Food is dirt cheap, highly highly recommend eating street food. It will cost you around 2-4 dollars per person and it is much more authentic then the restaurants. But it does look a little risky at first haha. It will also not be as easy to find in Phuket because Phuket is very touristy.

Cabs/truck rides are also pricey in Phuket, minimum 10$ and if you go to Bangkok/Chaing Mai, they will be cheap. Also, always bargain with the drivers, they will try and rip you off.

Chaing Mai and Bangkok were my favorite areas in Thailand, I would highly recommend jumping on a plane and flying to Chaing Mai, It is the traditional Thailand experience and the food/culture is amazing there. Take some cooking classes too if you have time!.

Bangkok is a shit show (first time leaving NA for me so huge culture shock) and when I first got there, I hated it. We came back to bangkok for 4 days at the end and I loved bangkok, we learned to use the bus system and traveled around on the bus for super cheap. Check out the China town area in the late evening as well, amazing local sea food and a really cool atmosphere!

So in the end we spent 1500 each for 3 weeks. This included all hotels (average 40-50 per night), ate continually, traveled by bus, ferry or plane. Rented scooters (be careful with this, lots of people get scammed) and did many excursions.

Also, we took out cash at atms and it normally costs you around 10-20 CAD to take out money. So try and carry around a decent amount so that you do not have to continually pay to withdraw.

Oh and I cannot stress this enough.. Do not overpack or else you will just carry it around.. Take nothing. If I could go back, I would have taken 2 pairs of shorts, underwear and a t shirt. Everything else I would buy there (dirt cheap).

[g-m]

Bangkok is an awful, awful city. It's up there with Lima. When I go back to Thailand I will spend as little time possible in Bangkok. I wouldn't even leave the airport if you can swing it

[redline]

Originally posted by g-m
Bangkok is an awful, awful city. It's up there with Lima. When I go back to Thailand I will spend as little time possible in Bangkok. I wouldn't even leave the airport if you can swing it

Bangkok is the toilet of the world, every creep and pedo from all over the world is there, unless your a creep or pedo stay away

Loved chaing Mai it was great, I would stay in krabi over phuket.

The beach on Pi pi, where they filmed the beach is over rated, the back side of that island is great

[jav_]

Yeah I definitely recommend Krabi over Phuket
I tried really hard to like Chiang Mai but I couldn't stand their midnight curfew

[95EG6P]

phuket was super fun and koh sumi was a blast and full moon party was good everythign is cheap in thailand i brought 3000 for 3 weeks and lived like a king. I did not like chaing mai too much, really wanst much to do there

[bh87]

Thanx for the replies! I think I have a good idea about how much money to bring and a better idea of what to expect things to cost.

I've heard good and bad things about Bangkok, haven't done a lot of research on it other than a day trip out to the ancient capital from there, and a few famous restaurants.

Anyone have experience doing a scuba diving course in Phuket? We are thinking we might try to get PADI licensed while there

[mzdspd]

Originally posted by bh87
Thanx for the replies! I think I have a good idea about how much money to bring and a better idea of what to expect things to cost.

I've heard good and bad things about Bangkok, haven't done a lot of research on it other than a day trip out to the ancient capital from there, and a few famous restaurants.

Anyone have experience doing a scuba diving course in Phuket? We are thinking we might try to get PADI licensed while there

Bangkok is just a shit show.. I think that is why most people don't like it. People try to rip you off (tuk tuks and taxis) and everybody tries to sell you something. Best bet is to just avoid eye contact and make it look like you know where you are going.

At first I hated it, but when I came back to it at the end of my trip, I really appreciated the city and all of the cool things it has to do. I also used public transit to get around so i avoided the taxi drivers trying to screw you over.

Check out the weekend market and Siam Square mall if you want to do some shopping.

Oh and another tip.. there is an app called Maps.me and it allows you to download the map of your location on wifi to your phone and then you have gps (from your phone on airplane mode) to get around.

[bh87]

Thanx for the tip on that App, I downloaded it and looks like it will be pretty useful. Was considering buying a sim card while over there for this very reason, now I likely won't need it!

Still on the fence about Bangkok though