Bangkok is a vibrant, lively metropolis, filled with exciting street life, delicious food and kind people 😄

A cost breakdown of 5 nights and 4 Days in Bangkok! This was my first time visiting Bangkok and everyone I’d spoken to who has been there said you’ll either love it or hate it. Honestly, after being there for 4 days I can’t say that I loved or hated it!

There are definitely parts of the city that I love, like the stunning temples, the delicious street food and the luxurious shopping malls!

On the other hand, I hate the air pollution in the city. I know this is inevitable due to over 10.5 million people living here and driving cars, tuk-tuks and scooters everywhere. But the air felt thick and dirty.

I also didn’t enjoy most of my interactions with tuk-tuk drivers. We would agree on a destination and a price for the journey, but when we arrived they would always ask for more than we initially agreed. It’s not a huge problem, it’s mostly just frustrating because they try to see if you’ll give them more money.

My partner Brett and I are travelling on a budget. We are trying to save money wherever we can, so this meant a lot of breakfasts from 7/11 and street food wherever possible, but we spend more money on activities and tours.

Accommodation

We stayed at Khaosan Art Hotel, just a 5-minute walk away from the famous backpacker hub of Khaosan Road.

The hotel is in a great location, it’s a 2-minute walk to the pier where you can catch ferries up and down the Chao Phraya river.

It’s also surrounded by massage parlours, and market stalls selling clothes, souvenirs and food and drinks.

We stayed in a small double room, and let me tell you — it was small. The room was equipped with a double bed, air-conditioning, a TV (that didn’t work), a Juliet balcony overlooking the road and a private bathroom.

It had everything we needed, but it was so small that there was no space to put our luggage when we needed to get things in and out of our backpacks.

I’m not complaining though, for the price of the hotel and the location especially I think it’s definitely worth it for our budget. The price below was for 2 people for 5 nights.

Total Cost for 5 nights: £63 (2656.59 baht)

Food + Drinks

The food in Bangkok was absolutely divine! We tried all sorts of street food staples, like pork and chicken skewers, Pad Thai, Khao Pad (fried rice) and crispy fried pork.

We also tried some interesting foods from 7/11 that we can’t buy in England. Like Cheese Icecream, Red Bean Buns, Shrimp and Seaweed flavour crisps, and a pink lychee drink.

Our go-to snack from 7/11 was the cheese and ham toastie, we rated it 9/10! In 7/11 they can toast the toasties for you and heat up any ready-meals so you can eat them straight away!

Total Cost for 2 People: £88.38 (3727 baht). Average £17.60 per day.

Total Cost for 1 Person: £44.19 (1863.41 baht). Average £8.83 per day.

Transport

Bangkok is a big city, but luckily there are many different options for getting around!

You can take the SkyTrain, taxis, local buses, scooters or of course tuk-tuks. We found the easiest and most convenient way to travel in Bangkok was by Grab Taxi (equivalent to Uber), you simply download the app on your phone, allow location services and you can enter where you want to go. A nearby driver will come and pick you up and you can pay in cash before you leave the taxi.

It might be cheaper to get the taxis with the meter, but we found Grab to be a good option because you already know the final price of the journey before you confirm the ride.

If you’ve got time and you’re not in a hurry to get anywhere, a relaxing way to get around the city is by getting a ferry boat on the Chao Phraya river.

Ferries run up and down the river all day and in the evening until about 6:30 pm and later in high season.

The totals of the transport include airport transfers.

Total Cost of Transport for 2 People: £64.17 (2706 baht). Average £12.83 per day

Total Cost of Transport for 1 Person: £32.09 (1353.18 baht). Average £6.41 per day

Tours and Entry Fees

Whilst in Bangkok Brett and I went on two official tours. One was to visit the Railway and Floating Markets, this was a half-day tour that cost ~£60 for both of us.

We also went on a cycling tour of Bangkok with Co Van Kessel Cycling Tours and had a great time exploring the city’s back streets and visiting off-the-beaten-path places.

This cost £47.20 for both of us, which was one of the highlights of our trip! The rest of the cost was for entry fees to temples.

For example, the Grand Palace cost £11.86 (500 baht) per person for entry. Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) cost £4.74 (200 baht) per person for entry.

Total Cost of Tours and Entry Fees for 2 People: £140.01 (5903.8 baht). Average £28 per day

Total Cost of Tours and Entry Fees for 1 Person: £70 (2951.77 baht). Average £14 per day

Other

Other costs included me buying 2 pairs of trousers from the floating market (£11.86), 2 Thai SIM cards (£11.81), foot massages (£8.06) and a rain poncho (59 pence).

Total for 2 people: £32.32 (1362.88 baht)

Total for 1 person: £16.16 (681.44 baht)

FINAL TOTAL

For 2 People: £387.88 (16356.19 baht)

For 1 Person: £193.94 (8178.10 baht)

I was pleasantly surprised with the overall cost of visiting Bangkok for 4 days and 5 nights, being a capital city I thought it would be much more expensive, but it’s very affordable.

We did everything that we wanted to do, including tours, visiting temples, going on the ferry boats, trying local cuisine and visiting different areas of the city.

Have you been to Bangkok before? If so, what was your favourite and least favourite thing about it? Did you find it affordable? Let me know in the comments!