Where to Go in Thailand for the First Time: A Budget Traveler’s Guide
Planning your first trip and wondering where to go in Thailand? With so many beaches, temples, islands, and cities, choosing the right spots can feel overwhelming – especially if you’re traveling on a budget.
Before our own adventure, we spent months researching the best places to visit in Thailand, figuring out where to go based on the season, our travel style, and how much we could afford.
After spending over a month exploring Thailand on a tight budget, we’re sharing what we learned – not just the top spots, but how to choose destinations that match your vibe.
This guide is packed with offbeat places in Thailand, essential Thailand travel tips, and honest advice on what to skip on your first visit.
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How to Choose Where to Go in Thailand (That Actually Suits You)
Feeling overwhelmed by all the places you could go in Thailand? Don’t worry, you don’t need to see it all. The best places for you will depend on your interests, the season, and how you want to travel.
Are you a temple-hopper or a hammock-napper? Some travelers chase history, others are in it for the parties. For us, it’s all about experiencing local culture, finding quiet beaches, or escaping into nature.
What you value most should shape where you go in Thailand… not just what’s at the top of someone else’s list.
How Seasonality and Transport Impacts Your Visit
Where to go in Thailand can totally depend on the time of year.
It’s not just about avoiding a bit of rain, the weather and transport schedules can seriously change your plans, especially if you’re heading to the islands or more off-grid areas.
🌀 Rainy Season Warnings
Different parts of Thailand experience rainy season at different times. It’s not one monsoon that hits the whole country.
For example, the west coast (Phuket, Krabi, Koh Lanta) gets the worst rain from May to October, while the east coast (like Koh Tao and Koh Samui) gets it later in the year, around October to December.
That doesn’t mean you can’t travel during these months, but be prepared for sudden downpours and, in some cases, canceled tours or boat trips.
🔥 Too Hot to Handle
April is technically shoulder season but it’s also the hottest time of year. Think: sweaty by 9 AM, fried by 2 PM.
Sightseeing and hiking can be tough, especially in northern areas like Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. If you’re not used to tropical heat, it can drain your energy fast.
TOP TIP: If you are there in April, you’ll be around for the city-wide water fight that takes place during Songkran (Thai New Year).
🚫 Transport Shutdowns We’ve Experienced
On our second backpacking trip through Southeast Asia in 2025, we learned the hard way that not all ferries run year-round.
We’d planned to travel from Koh Lipe to Koh Lanta – an island we were excited to revisit.
We found out mid-trip that the ferries weren’t operating yet that season. It was early October, and we’d just missed the restart by a couple of weeks.
Cue a full reroute, a long travel day we hadn’t budgeted for, and less time in Thailand than we’d hoped for this time around.
Moral of the story: If you’re traveling in shoulder or low season, always double-check ferry schedules before locking in your route. Your future self will thank you.
Where to Go in Thailand Based on Your Travel Style
Now that’s sorted, let’s think about where to go in Thailand based on who you are when you travel. Here’s a little cheat sheet to match your vibe with a destination (with some personal favorites tossed in).
If You Like… | You’ll Love… |
|---|---|
Drinking a fresh coconut on a deserted beach | Koh Lanta – Beaches without the party crowds, plus a sunset that makes you forget Instagram. Beautiful Beach was our favorite. |
Jungle, lakes, and the sound of nothing | Khao Sok National Park – Floating bungalows, misty mornings, and zero nightlife (in a good way). |
Spending your vacation underwater | Koh Tao – Known for cheap diving and snorkeling with chill backpacker vibes. |
Temples + street food + tuk tuk chaos | Bangkok – Loud, chaotic, and oh so charming. Pro tip: skip Khao San Road unless you love buckets of booze. |
Cafes, temples, and somewhere to just be for a while | Chiang Mai – Temples, digital nomads, cheap eats, and the easiest place to “settle in” for a while. |
Beaches + big hotels + boats to the islands | Ao Nang – We wouldn’t call it charming, but it’s a great launchpad for Railay and island hopping. Think logistics, not luxury. |
Cities lived in by the locals | Chiang Rai – Smaller, calmer, with surreal white temples and just enough tourists. |
Beaches so far south they feel secret | Koh Lipe – We haven’t made it yet, but every traveler we met couldn’t stop talking about its turquoise waters and sleepy vibe. |
Misty mountains, caves, and great coffee | Chiang Dao – This one’s a hidden gem. It’s perfect for nature lovers and people who want mountain views without tourist buses. |
Where to Go in Thailand for First-Time Budget Travelers
These are our top picks for where to go in Thailand as a first-time budget traveler.
After spending over a month exploring the country, these were the places that gave us the best mix of local culture, nature, beaches, and food – all without blowing our budget.
We’ve organized them north to south to help you plan your route and avoid unnecessary backtracking.
Chiang Rai: An Underrated, Budget-Friendly Gem in Northern Thailand
Chiang Rai is great for first-timers if you want a feel for how locals live in Thailand which you don’t find in places such as Pai and Chiang Mai.
There’s plenty to do in Chiang Rai but the main reason people visit is to head to the temples in and around the city.
The main temples are Wat Rong Khun (The White Temple) and Wat Rong Suea Ten (The Blue Temple) plus don’t miss Baan Dam Museum (The Black House) which showcases an eerie mix of art, animal bones, and strange wooden sculptures.
Spend your evenings exploring the food scene at Chiang Rai Night Bazaar. If you’re lucky enough to be in town on a Saturday, you have to go to the Walking Street.
We were there over a weekend and the Walking Street was so much fun with locals dancing and tourists joining in – definitely a trip highlight.
Our favorite cafe was Kyoto Shi Cafe – the cream buns are 10/10 and the design of the venue both inside and outside was a pleasant surprise.
👉 Heading to Laos next? This is the best way to get from Chiang Rai to Huay Xai in Laos.
Chiang Dao: Misty Mountains and Quiet Retreats
Chiang Dao is where you go when you want to get out of the city but not off the grid.
Nestled in the mountains just a couple of hours from Chiang Mai, this sleepy town offers peaceful eco-lodges, one seriously cool cave system, and the kind of slow travel vibes that first-timers often miss.
📌 Don’t miss the Thursday Night Market. We ate our way through Thai corn dogs, taro milk tea, and some of the best street pad thai of the trip. The second-hand clothing stalls and local art booths were an unexpected bonus.
What makes Chiang Dao great for budget travelers? It’s cheap, close, and uncrowded.
Whether you’re hiking to the top of Doi Luang (Thailand’s third tallest peak), poking around Chiang Dao Cave, or just chilling at a mountaintop bungalow, this is the kind of place that forces you to slow down.
👉 Need a place to stay? Here are our favorite picks – whether you want to be in town, tucked into the jungle, or perched on a hillside.
Chiang Mai: Culture, Cafes, and Easy Living for First-Timers
Chiang Mai makes an ideal first stop for budget travelers. It’s affordable, laid-back, full of food, and easy to navigate.
Thanks to its digital nomad scene, English is widely spoken and Wi-Fi is everywhere, so you’ll never feel lost (even if you get lost).
📌 If you only do one thing here, make it Grandma’s Cooking School.
You’ll source ingredients from a local market and herb garden before learning how to cook Thai classics like pad thai and green curry. Hands down one of our favorite activities in Thailand.
🌈 One of our favorite finds? Sapphic Riot – a queer-owned bar that’s cozy, creative, and perfect whether you’re traveling solo or with friends.
It was such a breath of fresh air to find a welcoming, inclusive space like this in northern Thailand.
Aside from eating and drinking, the temples around Chiang Mai are some of Thailand’s best.
Our picks? Wat Chiang Man (the oldest temple in the city, with golden elephant statues) and Wat Lok Moli (gorgeous wooden halls and almost no crowds).
👉 Planning to head here from Bangkok? Here’s how to get to Chiang Mai without blowing your budget.
Bangkok: A Chaotic, Colorful, Can’t-Miss Capital
Bangkok is loud, messy, colorful, and absolutely unforgettable. We love love love this city.
If you’re visiting Thailand for the first time, Bangkok is the perfect place to start. We’ve been back so many times, and we still leave with new things on our list every time.
TOP TIP: Avoid the tuk tuk scams near the Grand Palace, and skip Khao San Road unless you’re actively seeking a hangover.
Instead, spend your energy eating local food. Our favorite find this trip was Nai Pon Kao Seer Po, a no-frills spot full of flavorful dishes.
One of our Bangkok highlights? This Michelin Foodie Tour in Chinatown with 15+ tastings.
Expect a delicious and surprisingly affordable night out. If you’re overwhelmed by options, it’s a great way to dive into the street food scene with someone guiding you through.
💸 On a budget? Here are our top Bangkok accommodation picks, whether you want to be near the action or tucked into a quieter neighborhood.
Bangkok is also your gateway to the rest of the country with cheap flights, endless buses, and trains heading north or south.
Koh Tao: The Best Island for First-Time Divers
If you want to snorkel, dive, or just float in turquoise water all day, Koh Tao is the place.
It’s packed with dive schools and boat tour companies, but unlike other busy islands, this one still feels small enough to explore at your own pace.
During our stay, we didn’t book the first snorkel tour we found. Instead, we walked around collecting quotes and chatting with different agencies before landing on Premium Oxygen Snorkel Tour.
Our tour was affordable, well-run, and genuinely respectful of the reefs.
When you’re not in the water, Koh Tao is easy to enjoy: hike up to one of the viewpoints for sunrise, sip cocktails at a beach bar, or just find your perfect stretch of sand and do nothing.
👉 Thinking about renting a motorbike? We think you should skip it. The roads here are hectic and filled with first-time drivers. Here’s how we explored Koh Tao safely and easily without a scooter.
Khao Sok: Nature-Focused and Wildly Underrated
Khao Sok National Park might be one of the most beautiful places in Thailand and yet it’s still surprisingly easy to miss.
Despite being just a few hours from Surat Thani or Phuket, this jungle-covered gem still feels off-the-radar.
If you’ve seen dreamy photos of floating bungalows on Cheow Lan Lake, chances are that’s what drew you here too.
On our first visit, we booked a low-cost lake tour. It was fun but the bungalows were rundown and the group was way too big to feel peaceful.
Next time, we will book with Seek Sophie. Their tour is still affordable, but with a much more intimate group, stunning accommodation, and that “middle of nowhere” vibe we are all craving.
👉 Want the floating bungalow experience without the chaos? Here’s the Khao Sok package we recommend.
Ao Nang: A Laid-Back Base for Island Hopping
Ao Nang is one of the easiest places to land if it’s your first time in Thailand.
There’s a wide range of budget stays, easy beach access, and no shortage of food (whether you’re craving pad thai, pizza, or something in between).
It’s also the perfect base for island-hopping. From Ao Nang, you can grab a longtail boat to Railay Beach in roughly 15 minutes, or take day trips to Hong Islands, James Bond Island, and more.
One of our favorite random finds was Burger Bung. It’s an unassuming local spot with epic smash burgers. Even our Grab driver raved about it.
For a town that caters heavily to tourists, Ao Nang still delivers local gems if you know where to look.
👉 Unsure where to stay in Krabi? See our comparison of Ao Nang and Railay Beach.
Koh Lanta: The Best Budget Beach for a Slow Escape
Koh Lanta surprised us in the best way. For an island that’s so easy to get to, it still feels wonderfully quiet and slow-paced.
It’s getting more popular, but when we visited, the roads were quiet, the beaches nearly empty, and the backpacker crowds surprisingly thin.
Read more about the bridge expected to better connect Koh Lanta to the mainland by 2029.
We spent five days motorbiking around the island, hopping from one peaceful stretch of sand to another. Here are our favorites.
It felt like we’d found a slice of Thailand that hadn’t been totally claimed by tourism yet.
Beyond beach-hopping, Koh Lanta has a few standout experiences: tour Lanta Animal Welfare, wander the wooden stilted shops of Old Town, or hike through Mu Ko Lanta NP.
Finish the day with a bite to eat on the Walking Street.
👉 Want to add Koh Lanta to your route? Here’s how to plan the perfect stay.
These were the places we loved most as first-time, budget-conscious travelers and they’d be our top picks for anyone planning their first trip to Thailand.
If you’re mapping out a longer route, check out our one-month Thailand itinerary or even our 3.5-month Southeast Asia route.
Not every spot made our must-visit list. Here’s where we’d personally skip and why.
Places We’d Skip on a First Trip (Especially on a Budget)
Let’s flip the usual “don’t go here” travel advice on its head.
We’re not here to bash places just because they’re touristy or popular. We get that everyone’s travel style is different.
That being said, if you’re traveling to Thailand for the first time and trying to stick to a budget, there are a few destinations we’d personally skip or at least save for another trip.
To be honest, we researched our trip pretty thoroughly, so we didn’t end up anywhere that totally missed the mark.
But we also steered clear of places that didn’t fit our style thanks to intel from fellow travelers and a whole lot of Reddit deep-diving.
Pai
We were so close to visiting Pai because it came up on almost every “must-visit” list. But after chatting with other travelers in hostels around the country, we started to rethink it.
More than one person mentioned that Pai had become a bit of an Instagram playground, full of swings, smoothie bowls, and a very specific type of traveler we were already trying to avoid.
It’s funny how quickly you trust people you’ve just met on the road but when you click with someone over travel style, you just know they get it.
Those conversations were enough to confirm that Pai probably wasn’t our vibe.
Maybe next time, but for this trip, we were chasing something a little quieter and more grounded.
👉 Is Pai worth visiting? We will help you decide.
Phuket & Phi Phi Islands
Jess had already been to Phuket and Phi Phi years ago, and from what she remembered (and from what we’ve heard since), they’re the kind of places that were best experienced before mass tourism changed them.
They’re still hugely popular with first-time visitors (and we get the appeal), but for us, there were just better fits.
Ao Nang and Railay Beach offer the same stunning coastline with less of the chaos, and Koh Lanta gave us the beachy slow pace we were craving minus the crowds.
We swapped Phi Phi for nature in Khao Sok and lazy days on Koh Lanta, and left with no regrets.
👉 Where you go in Thailand just depends on your travel style. Read our Phuket vs Krabi comparison post to get a better understanding of which side of Thailand is for you.
Koh Samui
Beautiful, for sure. But from what we gathered, it’s not the best value for money, especially if you’re not looking for resorts or higher-end comforts.
It’s popular with families and couples, but as budget backpackers seeking chill spots with character we gave it a miss.
👉 Follow our South Thailand itinerary to discover Thai Islands you might not have considered visiting.
Pattaya
Even Thai locals we spoke to gently steered us away from Pattaya.
It’s known for its nightlife, big resorts, and a party scene that just isn’t our vibe – especially on a first-time trip where you’re trying to see the best sides of Thailand.
We’re also not drawn to places where tourism comes at the expense of local communities. Pattaya has a long-standing reputation for that, and while we haven’t been ourselves, it was enough to make us pause.
We’ve heard there’s a new BBC documentary called Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise that explores some of this.
We haven’t watched it yet, but we’re curious how it portrays Pattaya and what conversations it might spark.
Quick Tips for First-Timers in Thailand
Here’s a quick list of our best Thailand travel tips that are always handy to know before your first trip:
- Getting around in Thailand
- Book buses through your accommodation for door-to-door service.
- For 1st class train seats on popular routes make sure you book in advance.
- Use Grab to get around the cities.
- Save money on accommodation by taking overnight transport (like the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai).
- Dress codes and temple etiquette
- Pack loose-fitting clothes as Thailand is hot and humid.
- Many people will walk around in minimal clothing but we choose to dress more modestly.
- Carry a scarf around with you to cover your shoulders in temples. In some places of worship you need to wear bottoms below the knee too.
- 👉 This is our complete packing list we used in Thailand if you want some examples of what to wear!
- Budget breakdowns: what to expect daily
- We spent a total of $2,010 USD for two people during a month in Thailand.
- That’s around $33 USD per person, per day.
- Cutting back on alcohol helped our budget stretch further – beer is heavily taxed and adds up quickly.
- SIM cards and useful apps
- We bought an eSIM via Airalo. It’s quick, easy and reliable. Use code JULIA1616 for $3 OFF your first eSIM purchase.
- XE Currency is great for checking real-time exchange rates and tracking what you’re spending.
- ViaBus is so helpful when you’re navigating the buses in Bangkok. Routes and stops are accurate, and the GPS tracking helps you to plan which bus to catch.
Final Thoughts: Where Should You Go in Thailand?
The best places to go in Thailand really come down to your travel style. Whether you’re into temples, trekking, beach naps, or back-alley noodle hunts.
Don’t feel like you need to cram it all in – that is the number one thing we always remind ourselves of when we’re backpacking.
Travel slowly, leave room for surprises, and trust that you’ll figure out what kind of traveler you are once you’re there.
Here are some of our most popular Thailand itineraries:
🎒 Best for first-timers: 10 Days in Thailand
🏖 Best for beach-lovers: 3 Weeks in South Thailand
🥇 Best of the best: The Ultimate 3 Week Itinerary
