Getting around Thailand — motorbikes, licences, transit and connectivity
Practical ground-transport guidance for long-stay visitors, verified Aug 2026. Rules and fares change; treat any figure here as indicative and check an official source (Department of Land Transport, your insurer) before relying on it. Not legal advice.
Renting a motorbike — the licence part matters
- To ride legally you generally need an International Driving Permit with the motorcycle category (A) plus your home licence — a car-only IDP does not cover a scooter. Get the IDP in your own country before you fly; it cannot be issued to you in Thailand.
- This is an insurance issue, not just a fine: ride without the right licence and your travel insurance will very likely refuse a medical claim — and motorbike injuries are the single most common serious accident for visitors to Thailand.
- Helmets are legally required for rider and passenger. Police checkpoints are routine, especially on islands and tourist strips; on-the-spot fines for no helmet or no licence are common (amounts vary by province and change — treat any figure you read online as indicative).
- Never hand over your passport as rental deposit — leave a copy plus a cash deposit. Photograph and video the bike from every angle before riding off; pre-existing-damage disputes on return are a classic scam, worst on the party islands.
- Typical monthly rates run roughly ฿2,500–4,500 for a 110–125cc automatic, less for long rentals in Chiang Mai, more on islands and in high season. Check the tyres and brakes yourself.
Paying for Bangkok transit
- MRT (Blue and Purple lines) and the Airport Rail Link accept a straight contactless tap with a foreign Visa/Mastercard — no card to buy, which is the simplest option for a short stay.
- BTS (Sukhumvit and Silom) still runs on its own Rabbit card. One card does not cover the whole network, so expect to carry either a Rabbit card plus contactless, or to buy single tickets on BTS.
- Official fare bands from the government feed are shown per line on the Bangkok page. Fares are distance-based, so a cross-town trip sits at the top of the band.
Songthaew, tuk-tuk and motorbike taxi
- Chiang Mai's red trucks (rot daeng) are the city's main transport but they are NOT a bus route — you flag one down, say where you're going, and agree the fare before getting in. Shared hops around the old city are usually a flat per-person fare; asking to go somewhere off their direction costs more or gets a refusal.
- In Pattaya and parts of Phuket the same vehicle runs fixed loops for a flat fare ("baht bus") — board and press the buzzer to get off. Elsewhere assume negotiation.
- Bangkok tuk-tuks are a tourist-priced novelty, not transport — a metered taxi or an app car is almost always cheaper. Refuse any "meter broken" taxi and take the next one.
- Motorbike taxis (orange vests, at every soi mouth) are the fastest way through Bangkok traffic for a short hop, and the app versions have set prices.
Data before you land
- Without mobile data you cannot call a Grab, read a map, or scan a QR to pay — so sort connectivity before you leave the airport. An eSIM activates before you land; a local AIS/TrueMove/dtac tourist SIM bought at the airport is usually cheaper for a longer stay.
- Thai QR payment (PromptPay) is everywhere, but most QR flows need a Thai bank account — as a visitor, carry cash for songthaew, markets and island rentals.
Before you ride anything
- Check that your travel insurance actually covers motorbike riding — many policies exclude it outright, or only cover it above a certain engine size with the correct licence. Read the exclusions, not the summary.
- Thai roads are among the world’s most dangerous per capita and most fatalities involve motorbikes. Ride sober, ride slowly in the rain, and skip mountain roads (Pai, Ko Pha-ngan, Ko Tao) until you are genuinely confident.