Budget Tips for New Travelers in Thailand (BKK)

if you don't eat in expensive restaurant, not use private taxi every day, and not go drinking beers every night and girls, your budget will be reasonable around 1000 per day depends on attraction fees, you can check on internet the fees of those you want to visit.
Now up to you to plan budget for gift, personal effect or souvenir you want to buy ....
Regarding night life, entertainment, you can spend a lot.... you can put coeff 3 to 5....3000-5000 THB
It is always difficult to plan a budget, if you were just eating drinking in street it will be 3 meals x 50 = 150 per day rounding to 300 THB ( double ) to have a margin for snack, ice cream, water bottles, shake, and others...
But in restaurant you can spend 300-500 per meal, add 100-200 for beer in the restaurant, depends on location, ...
however thai street restaurant is not expensive a bit more than food market,,, you can find many food market even in place like Big C, tesco, shopping centre, with meal around 40-80 THB...

That's it, hard to say since people tend to do different things on vacation.  1000 baht a day is a good bit for a local to eat and get around but on vacation we tend to spend more, doing things that cost more than usual, buying more things, eating different foods.  Factoring in alcohol is difficult since people drink different things in different places and costs vary, and as Kris mentioned it's odd how pricing for food varies so much, 50 baht up to 500 for a meal, could be more in different places with drinks, but usually 250 is fine.

You've mentioned the basic things tourists seem to do here, except shopping.  For temples Wat Phra Kaew, right beside the Grand Palace, sort of a part of it, is standard, and so is Wat Pho.  Wat Arun, across the river, is under construction now so maybe not the best time to see that.  There are lots of different shopping and nightlife areas; I guess different people here or general guides could help with more specific questions about those.

kris napat wrote:

if you don't eat in expensive restaurant, not use private taxi every day, and not go drinking beers every night and girls, your budget will be reasonable around 1000 per day depends on attraction fees, you can check on internet the fees of those you want to visit.
Now up to you to plan budget for gift, personal effect or souvenir you want to buy ....
Regarding night life, entertainment, you can spend a lot.... you can put coeff 3 to 5....3000-5000 THB
It is always difficult to plan a budget, if you were just eating drinking in street it will be 3 meals x 50 = 150 per day rounding to 300 THB ( double ) to have a margin for snack, ice cream, water bottles, shake, and others...
But in restaurant you can spend 300-500 per meal, add 100-200 for beer in the restaurant, depends on location, ...
however thai street restaurant is not expensive a bit more than food market,,, you can find many food market even in place like Big C, tesco, shopping centre, with meal around 40-80 THB...

Thanks a lot BKK

kris napat wrote:

if you don't eat in expensive restaurant, not use private taxi every day, and not go drinking beers every night and girls, your budget will be reasonable around 1000 per day depends on attraction fees, you can check on internet the fees of those you want to visit.
Now up to you to plan budget for gift, personal effect or souvenir you want to buy ....
Regarding night life, entertainment, you can spend a lot.... you can put coeff 3 to 5....3000-5000 THB
It is always difficult to plan a budget, if you were just eating drinking in street it will be 3 meals x 50 = 150 per day rounding to 300 THB ( double ) to have a margin for snack, ice cream, water bottles, shake, and others...
But in restaurant you can spend 300-500 per meal, add 100-200 for beer in the restaurant, depends on location, ...
however thai street restaurant is not expensive a bit more than food market,,, you can find many food market even in place like Big C, tesco, shopping centre, with meal around 40-80 THB...

Thanks Kris. Surely helped!

I've been taking the local boats for travel to work; that's a great transportation option, but of course only for getting around near the river.  It's a lot like a bus; you just step on, pay them 15 to 20 baht for two kinds of boats (I wasn't clear on that part), then go. 

As with the busses it can be cryptic how different routes work, in this case related to local versus express versions, but unlike with the busses you know the route for sure; either up-river or down-river.  It would help having either a detailed map of stops or better yet Google Maps since then you'd have a detailed map and would know where you are on it. 

Related to that, SIMs with data plans are generally readily available and inexpensive in most of South East Asia; maybe for around $20 you could talk and use a good bit of data for the week, probably easiest to pick up at the airport, at stalls by the exit.  Of course it would also be good to use the wireless at your hotel if free to save it, especially if you have online habits that use up a lot of data.  The more people around tend to speak English the less critical those types of supports seem to be (lots of planning, use of maps and guidebooks, online references) since you can just ask someone where something is.

Related to planning, and also cost, it would be a shame to visit Bangkok and only see what guidebooks mention (although you'd want to see some of that, a couple main temples and such).  It can be unfamiliar and uncomfortable eating unfamiliar foods, or not knowing where you are, but lots of Bangkok has a really cool look, with old world and new developments mixing everywhere.  Something like wandering around Chinatown would be a cool experience for most (not like the Singapore Chinatown, though, it's not a renovated tourist souvenir and restaurant area, it's a bit old world).  A guidebook would mention that but the experience wouldn't have to do with just finding the places there they mention, but about looking around.