Shouzer

I’m pretty much going to throw down an open invitation for people to come visit me in Thailand. Actually, I think I already did that, but I’m doing it again right now. The biggest excuse I have heard from people over the last few weeks is that it is too expensive. It is true that visiting Thailand will be expensive, but it’s not as bad as you might think.

Consider these two vacation options for the dates of Sep 12-26, a 2 week vacation. I assumed the visitor would be flying from St. Louis. It would be cheaper if you lived on the west coast, say in Seattle.

Option 1: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
This is a fairly common vacation destination, right? I sort of picked it randomly to illustrate a point. I went to expedia.com to find a vacation package. The cheapest airfare/hotel combination for this trip was $1098. Now you are probably going to have to rent a car, that’ll be about $25/day if your lucky, adding another $350 to your trip. Then there is the food. Even if you only eat out one meal a day, you’re probably looking at $15-20/day, and there’s another $250. You total cost for this trip to a mundane vacation destination? $1700

Option 2: Bangkok
Your only real expense here is airfare. For this trip, I found roundtrip airfare on www.bt-store.com for $767 on American Airlines. Your lodging will be free because you can stay with me. The food in Thailand is insanely cheap; you will actually be saving money on your grocery bill by being there. Expect to pay about $5/day to eat out for every meal. There will be a minimal transportation cost for riding public transport. I don’t know what it is yet, but it will be cheaper than gas for your car. So total cost is $767.

Yeah, I know I’d rather pay an extra $1000 to go to Florida instead of Bangkok.

I do have to be fair though. Most people do not go to Florida for two weeks by themselves, so the hotel and car would probably be split, and that’s assuming you fly instead of drive. I think my point is made though. Don’t discount visiting Thailand because of the cost until you consider the alternative.

I’ll leave you with some tips:
Fly on Wednesdays. It is way cheaper.
Avoid peak travel times. Notice I picked the middle of September instead of the week of July 4. January-February is supposed to be the best time to visit, and that’s the worst time to be here. How convenient! Plus, I would guess that airfare would be cheap around that time.