The Biggest Factor: The time of year you book your flight!

Thailand's peak season (for both weather and tourists) is June, July, and August. Tickets range from $1,000 to $1,500 depending on the airline you choose. It's hard to do Thailand for under $1,000 when your ticket is already over that amount!

During the off season, tickets drop down to as little as $499 depending on the month. We booked our trip from April 9th to April 21st in 2019 and our flight was $499 round trip. Why so cheap you ask? April and May are Thailand's two hottest months. They are so hot that tourists avoid visiting which causes ticket prices to drop. This is your in!

Yes it was hot, very hot, but it was totally worth it. If you don't want to brave the heat, consider looking during September and October. This is another time of year when ticket prices drop tremendously.

Hotels and Hostels

After you book your flights, choosing where to sleep is usually your next biggest expense. The obvious answer, to keep prices down, would be to stay in a hostel. You can usually find a hostel ranging in price from as little as 10 dollars a night up to 40 dollars a night. They can range in price but are always cheap when comparing to hotel prices.

While hostels are always the cheaper option, Thailand is so affordable you can actually stay in certain hotels for the same price as a hostel! During our trip, there were 3 of us traveling together, which allowed us to split the cost of a room between 3 people. Rooms that would normally cost 75 dollars a night ended up costing us 25 each per night. More importantly, they were high end hotels with roof top bars and pools for the same price as a hostel! To check out the hotels we stayed in during our trip click on the links below!

• Bangkok Hotel

• Chiang Mai Hotel

• Phuket Hotel

Transportation:

When it comes to getting around Thailand you need to weigh your transportation options against the time you have. If you are in the country for less than a week, then it may be worth spending $90 Dollars on a flight that will get you to the next city in 2 hours (verses spending $30 on a bus but loosing a whole day driving 8 hours). If you have the time, then sure go with the cheaper option, but just remember to keep both time and money in mind!

Getting around a city, such as Bangkok, can be done in many ways. Taking the local Metro is most likely the cheapest option. But sometimes the obvious form of transport is not always the cheapest. If you rent a motorbike/vespa in Chiang Mai it would cost you about 150 Baht ($5) and you would get to use that bike for 24 hours! On the other hand, you could get charged 70 baht ($2.19) to take a Tuk Tuk or Taxi from point A to point B and that would only be for one ride.

Weighing in transportation is an important must when trying to determine how to stay within your budget.

Eating Out:

Eating out in Thailand is SO cheap! Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner are so affordable that you can eat out 3-4 times a day and still stay under your one thousand dollar budget!

A full plate of Pad Thai can cost you anywhere from 60 baht ($1.88) to 150 baht ($4.75) and it will completely fill you up. Let me repeat that. You can have a filling dinner for 2 dollars and a high end dinner for about 5.

To eat out in the USA for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (assuming each meal is about 10 dollars) you would spend at least 30 dollars, yet in Thailand you can eat out 3 times in one day for as little as 6 dollars! The main point you need to take away from this is it is perfectly okay to splurge for yourself and just eat out, because this is NOT going to break your bank!

You cannot drink the tap water in Thailand, so you will need to carve out a piece of your budget for buying bottles of water throughout the day, especially if it is very hot. Luckily, water is very cheap as well. If you buy water from a 7/11 you can get two bottles for 10 baht (31 cents), and if you buy a bottle of water at a restaurant while eating out it will most likely cost you 20 baht for 1 bottle (63 cents).

Excursions:

Obviously if you choose not to do any excursions at all this would save you some money, but then again who wants to do that? Taking an island excursion out to the Phi Phi Islands (which gets you a boat trip to 3-4 islands, snorkeling over a coral reef, lunch, water, snacks along the way, and free snorkel gear) can cost you as little as 30 dollars!

If you go on Expedia and look up these excursions ahead of time, they can be anywhere from 50-150 dollars. Instead, by waiting until you are in Phuket in person, not only are the prices tremendously cheaper but you can haggle them down to an even lower price! We were given our excursion for 32 dollars (and that was without haggling). You can still enjoy an awesome day trip for cheap, you just need to search for the deals and haggle down the prices if needed.

So Let's Add This Whole Trip Up!

(Assuming your itinerary takes you to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket over the course of 10 days)

• If you are willing to fly to Thailand in the off season, you can find tickets for as cheap as $499

• If you stay in Hostels instead of Hotels, you can spend on average 10 dollars per night! (x10 nights = $100 total)

• If you plan to fly from Bangkokg to Chiang Mai to Phuket and then back to Bangkok you will most likely spend $90(ish) per flight =$270 total (again, it would be much cheaper to look into busses)

• If you eat out 3 times a day, you can spend as little as $6.00 a day on food. (x10 days= $60 total)

• We will assume you buy 4 bottles of water a day (from 7/11 because that is the cheaper option) which would cost you 63 cents. (x10 days =$6.30)

• If you rent a vespa/motorbike every day it would cost you about $4.75 per day (again taking the Metro may be cheaper, or in smaller cities such as Chiang Mai walking is an option and is free!) But for this example we assume you rent a motorbike, it would cost you $47.50 total for 10 days.

Without excursions you can take your trip to Thailand for $982.80!

• If you want to do a Phi Phi excursion while in Phuket you can get that for about $30 dollars, but again we will assume $40 to be safe (you just have to keep walking around until you find the best price!)

• If you want to participate in an Elephant Sanctuary Excursion we can assume that this will cost around $75 dollars (if you choose a more expensive sanctuary)

With these excursions included you can take your trip to Thailand for $1,098.00!