How I Traveled to Bangkok, Thailand for less than $300 [Travel Cheap]
In this post, I discuss how I was able to travel cheap to Bangkok, Thailand for under $300 for flight, accommodation, and transportation.
Thailand is a favorite destination for people all over the world because over there, you feel like a King. Food prices are around $2 per meal and you can get large, fresh coconuts for less than $0.50.
On top of that, there are endless things to do. Amazing beaches, the famous river markets, temples, elephant riding, tiger petting, and a plethora of night markets.
I always start with the big 3 expenses in traveling. To travel for cheap, you’ll need to save on Flights, Accommodation, and Transportation. The better deal you’re able to find for all 3, the more money you’ll be able to save.
Flights:
Traveling in Asia is awesome because it’s cheap. There’s a number of budget airlines including Scoot, Air Asia, and Tiger Air. I was able to find a deal through Tiger Air after doing an initial search on flights.google.com. If you’re booking from the States, I’d suggest looking at your points inventory to save on long-haul flights.
The deal I got from Taipei to Bangkok was only $203.
Both legs of the flights also had a meal option for around $5 USD! The way Tiger Air works is similar to any other budget airline where you only pay for what you need.
Since I was only traveling with a small luggage, I didn’t need to pay for check-in.
Service on Tiger Air is also sublime.
Funny story (skip if you don’t want to read): I almost missed my flight back from BKK – TPE because I went to the wrong airport. The person who called the cab for me thought I was going to the main International Airport (BKK), not realizing my flights was from Don Mueang. Of course, I didn’t realize there were two airports in Bangkok.
It was during traffic jam hour when I had to go from BKK – DMK.
When I got to the gate, it had just closed so I begged the wonderful Tiger Air staff to let me on board. My flight back to the States was actually the next morning so I would have missed that flight as well if I didn’t catch this one.
The gate agent personally called the pilot. The pilot told her to let me on. So I ran to the gate as quickly as I could.
Unbeknownst, there was a short small lady running after me the whole time. Since I was already late, I didn’t bother to stop until I got to the gate.
When I got to the gate, I found out the short lady was the gate agent that let me on the plane. She was trying to return my ID and Credit Card. Lesson learned: always check your airports.
Accommodation:
Hotels and accommodation in Bangkok is incredibly cheap. As you’ll see below, I booked a decent hotel for about $17 USD. And the majority of my stays was about the same price.
You can find cheaper hostels for even less, but I wanted to stay somewhere decent. If you’re looking for luxury accommodations, they also have 4+ star hotels for around $50-60/night.
Total I spent about $90 for 5 nights all together in Bangkok and also Chiangmai.
Transportation:
Whenever you travel in Asia, more likely than not there’s going to be great public transportation. There are cabs but cabs can be expensive and unfortunately a lot of cab drivers tend to rip-off foreigners.
In Bangkok, I rode a bus from the airport to the main train lines. I took the train to the nearest station near my hotel and then walked right to where I was staying.
It just requires a bit of research on sites like WikiTravel or TripAdvisor. If you really can’t figure it out, I’d be happy to help you.
It’s not as straight forward than taking a cab and may not be super simple, but it’s an adventure that will save you a lot of money. In my case, I spent about $4-5 to get to where I needed.
Things to Do:
There’s a ton of things to do in Bangkok. All of it was extremely cheap. I hired a personal driver that made me feel like a millionaire. He took me wherever I wanted to go and helped haggle prices at places I wanted to visit.
Some notable things in Thailand were the famous floating river markets, some of the massive temples, tuk tuks, huge night markets, the main city, and the wide availability of fresh coconuts!
If you liked this post, you can also read on how I was able to travel cheap to Chiang Mai, Thailand for under $200.
What are some of your trips for traveling to Thailand for Cheap?
