Living in Thailand: what it actually costs me

People ask how much it costs to live in Thailand and they want one number. There is no one number. Thailand costs whatever you decide it costs. The backpacker version is genuinely cheap. The version I actually live is not. Let me give you both, honestly.

The cheap Thailand is real

If you know where to go, Thailand is as cheap as the stories say. Hostels and small hotels are inexpensive, Thai-style restaurants, the ones locals actually eat at and not the tourist menus, feed you for very little, and getting around on a Grab motorbike taxi costs almost nothing. If your goal is to stretch a small budget a long way, this country lets you do it.

The catch is the tourist zones. The more touristy the spot, the faster it turns into a trap: inflated prices, bars and rooftops, the endless “massages,” a whole economy built to separate visitors from their money. Step into that and Thailand stops being cheap immediately. The cheap version asks you to live a bit more like a local and a lot less like a tourist.

The version I actually live

I will be honest, I do not do backpacker mode anymore. I rent villas, right now around 1500 euro a month split with my friend Maxime, and you sometimes see them up toward 3000. I eat at restaurants every day. I keep a bike at the door. I smoke my cigars. All in, a normal day for me lands somewhere between 50 and 100 euro.

That is not the cheapest way to live here. It is a comfortable way to live here, and that is the part worth understanding. In Thailand you choose your level. The same place that lets a backpacker survive on very little also lets you live well without it feeling reckless.

Why not just do this in Europe

Because in Europe the same life costs much more. The villa might be a similar price if you are lucky, but renting a scooter or a car is far more expensive, eating out every single day adds up fast, and hotels and hostels are simply pricier. I remember Malta and Tenerife. Back then I lived in hostels, because hotels were just too much for me at the time. Same me, different leverage. Thailand lets me live a level above what that money would buy me back home, and that gap is most of the reason I am here.

A note on timing and the rain

I am writing this in low season, the rainy season. Most travelers avoid it. For me it is ideal. Prices are softer and easier to negotiate, there are far fewer people than in December, and yes it rains most of the day so you cannot pack it with activities. That is fine. I did not come here to sightsee. I came here to work, and an empty rainy week is a productive one.

The visa, quickly

You cannot just move here and stay. On a tourist entry you get about two months, so I do visa runs: leave, come back, or hop to another country for a while. It sounds like a hassle and it really is not. This whole part of Asia is full of good places, and Thailand is only one of them. Bouncing between them is part of the deal, not a downside.

The cost that is not money

Here is the real price, the one that does not show up in any budget. Living this way means being far from my friends and my family, and I feel that. But I also know myself. If I went back and stayed with them, I would last maybe two or three weeks before I could not wait to leave again. So I have made my peace with it. The distance is the cost, and apparently it is one I keep choosing to pay.

If you want the longer version of how I ended up living like this, it is over here. And the honest take on the trading that funded a lot of the early travel is here.