Getting Around Bangkok On The Cheap (We Did It All)

Welcome to Bangkok you made your long or short flight. Like every capital it’s busy and the first thing you want to do is to get to the accommodation you’re staying at to reset yourself, before exploring the beautiful sites and trying the tasty street food. Having exhausted and used all the different transportation options during our 2-week stay in Bangkok, we’re here to share what we learned about getting around Bangkok! We went everywhere and used transport every day and the bus is definitely the cheapest, but not the most efficient. The sky train is likely your best option, we explain why below.

Important: paying in cash is the only way around Bangkok unless you have international banking or you book through taxi apps.

Getting A Taxi in Bangkok – Don’t Get a Taxi Driver

Yes, typically there will be public taxi services at the airport but we all know that is usually quite pricey. On top of that, non-app taxi drivers will single you out as a foreigner and try to rip you off. For example: when we arrived at Pattaya from Bangkok, a taxi driver wanted 500 baht for a 6km drive.

Our taxi cost us 500 baht from central Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi Airport) to our accommodation (Bang Son) using Grab, which is expensive in theory, and we did catch a traffic jam but probably much cheaper than the airport taxi drivers’ rate.

Grab Taxi

The video above is a timestamped video of ours showing use of the Grab Taxi app in Thailand, Bangkok

The Grab app is very reasonable for its’ prices around Bangkok. However, like any other taxi service factors affect the price such as busy times, how far you are heading (prices range for a 5km trip), and whether is it sunny or rainy too.

Heads up the traffic jams in Bangkok are something else I have never seen, let’s imagine putting New York and London traffic together and maybe that would equal how bad it gets. Even better! We were stuck on a Bus for 40 minutes for it to only move down the road which would have been 5 minute’s walk. Seriously that’s how bad it gets.

So if you find yourself in your first torrential rain, which is an experience in itself, being wet but not necessarily cold is a first.

The best thing to do in this scenario is book yourself a motorcycle taxi, through one of the apps. Crazy, dangerous, and fun idea but at least it gets you around Bangkok, literally through the maniac traffic jams. We touch on this shortly.

Bolt Taxi

Similar to Grab, factors affect price ranges for a 5km trip but the only difference is that Bolt is generally more expensive in Bangkok.

Indriver Taxi

InDriver can save you a lot of your money as part of the app is to set your own rate. Sounds brilliant! Unfortunately, it’s really unreliable and you almost barely can find rides as it’s not very active. It’s worth downloading and giving your best shot, but from our experience using it, we never found a ride – even when we put the price higher than Bolt and Grab were suggesting!

Getting Motorbike Taxi in Bangkok

When you come familiar with Thailand’s rules of driving, you will very soon realise there aren’t any rules for motorbikes around Bangkok.

Motorbikes are a large percentage of Bangkok’s transport and 74% of Thailand own a bike. Motorbikes here in Bangkok drive how they wish to, to get to their destination and more so when there is traffic.

Despite the point of having a motorbike to get through the traffic, the bikers here in Bangkok create their own bike traffic too, due to the high volume of owners. So, bikers will ride on the opposite side of the road, on the pavement, and will cross red lights just to avoid being in any sort of traffic jam.

On the other hand, they do get around even if that is pushing the bike at full gear through above-knee-level floods. Which benefits on rainy days, they can drive you to your destination, but it’s quite dangerous or scary if you’re new to being on a bike with no minimal safety. Yep, not even a helmet. If you’re feeling brave then enjoy yourself.

Prices for getting Motorbike Taxi in Bangkok, Using Grab or Bolt

Getting Taxis is really cheap and efficient when you’re in Bangkok, but during rainy times it’s best to avoid the roads altogether and head for the Skytrain, or get a dangerous motorbike Taxi and have a fun ride!

Taking The Bus in Bangkok

Most of the buses are still from 1975 when the prime minister proposed a free bus service for those on a low income. So the buses are a bit rough around the edges compared to other transport. We personally loved that they still had their big steering wheels, big gear sticks, doors in the middle and front of the bus, and let’s not forget the amazing loud engine!

Lucky us we have google maps to guide us to the right bus stop, but even then you have to just hope you won’t be standing for more than 30 minutes as there are very few smart bus stops that tell you the times. Well, some don’t even display the bus numbers.

Prices for Buses in Bangkok

We recommend getting the non-AC bus because they’re a lot more fun and you really don’t need the AC when you start moving as all the windows are completely open. Also, you save a fair amount if you’re traveling as a family or group. Non-AC buses are also pure fun! You got the warm breeze in your hair, the view of the city center with the locals, and the best part is when you go over bumps at speed it feels like you get a little air time. AC buses are more expensive and of course a smoother ride.

One thing to note is that the buses don’t have a schedule and you need to wait at the bus stop until it comes. Most buses will also stop anywhere on the road if you wave them down, so that’s a bonus. Also, many buses that say they don’t stop at the bus stop, will stop if you ring the bell, which is fantastic.

Many of the conductors are extremely friendly and if you tell them where you need to go, they will tell you if it’s the right bus and shout at you when you need to get off, telling the driver to stop the bus for you. Most don’t speak English well, but a lot of the time, if you’re having trouble, many Thai people will offer to help you out and translate for you.

It is worth mentioning that tickets on the buses are also one-way trips, meaning you got to pay for both ways and even the extra buses in between to get to your destination.

Rush hours in Bangkok seem to be between 4 pm all the way until 8 pm some days. One of our journeys from Samyan Mitrtown to Bang Son should have been 1 hour and took us almost 2 hours.

This goes for when it rains too because as mentioned it floods very quickly which affects the cars and buses which then rapidly turns into a gridlocked traffic jam with water flowing above your ankles.

Taking the BTS Skytrain in Bangkok

The Skytrain, also known as The Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS Skytrain) is an elevated train that operates on two lines above

Sukhumvit Line runs from Mo Chit Station to On Nut Station and the Silom Line runs from National Stadium Station to Saphan Taksin Station. Between these lines, it serves 23 stations in total.

In case you’re not familiar with the underground system in London, the way the Skytrain operates is: its routes run on coloured lines and some lines link to two lines or more. For example, the MRT blue line (Tao Poon) links to the purple line (Bang Son).

It can be very confusing getting around the first couple of times, just like the underground, you will find you will have to change many times unless your destination is on one line.

Also, some stations have similar names for instance: Chatuchak park MRT and Chatuchak park SRT, only have one letter difference but are miles apart from each other. We quickly learned this on the first day, trying to meet our Thai friend. As a result of this, the signs for both sides on the rail, a lot of the time have the same destination or similar name – so be sure to check your direction before getting on.

Prices for the Skytrain in Bangkok

Therefore, if you are heading to the tourist attractions like Siam station or your Bangkok trip changes to big stations like Bang Sue then expect to pay more than going somewhere less touristy.

Rush hour! It happens everywhere but it’s always worse in a huge city. And while it sounds crazy to pay more when rush hour is happening just think about how it’s not “off-peak” time.

Here are the two main stations that cost us more to travel from during our stay

Having said this, the Skytrain is probably the best way to travel to get around in Bangkok when it is busy because this elevated train system avoids the traffic jams below your feet, as well as decreases the chances of you getting soaked from the rain.

Plus the views you see along the way of the huge city are beautiful.

Getting the Boats in Bangkok – Chao Phraya River

While standing on a platform rocking on the river waves waiting for the boat to arrive. I wasn’t too keen about getting the boat due to my small fear of boats. However, the boat service is actually a fun and great experience even more so during the rain. You get to see a lot of different buildings and parts of temples along the river too.

The express boats also work on a colour system, similar to the Skytrain. Google maps even state the colour for you, so it’s easy to navigate and get around using maps in Bangkok.

Prices for Boats in Bangkok

On the same day, we got the Chao Phraya express boat we got the tourist boat from Phra Pinklao Bridge to Si Phraya which was 20 baht each for a 20-minute journey. Whereas, we traveled from Si Phraya to Bang Po for 16 baht (8 baht each), which was almost an hour worth of boat service. Naturally, the tourist boats are going to cost more as they are modern and have AC too.

But like every other public transport mentioned so far, it was cheap because it was the Chao Phraya express boat – local boats in the Chao Phraya river – basically, not the tourist boat.

Getting Tuk Tuks in Bangkok

The locals know how to pinpoint the tourists around Bangkok and whilst they are indeed more common to see around than the local buses, a lot of them will rip you off because they know you need to get around and you don’t know how.

Don’t be entirely scared off using them if you want, but it’s better to use the Grab app and tip the drivers using that app (in our experience, they’re more honest and you will never be overcharged).

Getting To Bangkok

Out of taxis, buses, and shuttles, if you’re not driving yourself, the cheapest transportation is the bus and shuttle but buses can add extra time to the journey due to their stopping locations.

Going to Pattaya was part of our travel plans after being in Bangkok for 2 weeks. Pattaya is 100km from Bangkok and although there are flights, it’s a max of 2-hour journey by coach. So getting the coach for us was more beneficial to our budget, we booked through Roong Reuang Coach knowing it was more reliable.

Important Note For Saving Money Booking Coaches Online

We recommend checking the Thai coach websites if you’re located in another country because otherwise, you’ll get results that charge you more because they’re targeted at foreigners.

To do this go to google.co.th and search for รถเมล์ (it’s Thai for “bus”). Then type (using Latin alphabet) the places you want to travel between.

Prices For Transport To Bangkok

Find a few different websites for transportation to your destination and compare prices to get the best price for you.

Final Tips for Getting Around Bangkok on The Cheap

Spite of whether you go on the local public transport services or the modern tourist ones, traveling on each transport it’s an experience in itself and will create contrasting stories.

Things To Know Before Using Public Transport in Bangkok

wehatethecold

I’m Harry – and I was tired of the same old “10 best places I’ve never been but I’m writing about for some reason” blog posts. So… I’m a young traveller on a mission to travel the world and share my true, unfiltered experience, including all the gristly details. From packing my life into one bag for a year, to traveling Vietnam by motorbike, to sorting out Visas for specific countries – I’ve done it all, am doing it all and only give my advice on things I have done – not regurgitated cr*p from another source *cough* most publications *cough*. So bear with us! This project will take some time to grow, and will take a fair bit of money. But I’m determined to make it the single best source of information about traveling on the internet.