UK passport to Thailand: entry and scouting trip budget

Apply here, nowhere else

For a short tourist trip there is no visa to apply for in advance. There is one mandatory arrival form, and it is free. Use these official links directly.

Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) on the official Immigration Bureau site - the only official TDAC portal, linked from GOV.UK. Free, and completed within 3 days before arrival.
GOV.UK: Thailand entry requirements - official UK guidance for full British citizen passport holders, including the 30-day exemption change, funds and onward travel checks, and overstay penalties.

Scam warning: the TDAC itself is free, and visa-exempt entry has no border fee. If a site charges you for the TDAC, or its address is not tdac.immigration.go.th, stop. Do not enter passport details or payment details there. Copycat TDAC sites charge for a free government form and cannot give you a faster decision or a longer stay. For a longer stay, for business, or for work, study, retirement, or living in Thailand, you need the correct visa before you travel: this page does not link to an e-Visa apply route, because no official e-Visa apply link could be verified on 24 October 2026. Check the government route directly through the Thai Embassy and GOV.UK links above, rather than trusting a search result that looks official.

Entry checklist, short visit

Visa exemption, tourism only: from 15 September 2026, British citizens entering under the visa exemption scheme can stay for up to 30 days for tourism only. Visa-exempt entry does not cover business travel, including conferences or meetings. If you are travelling for business, get the correct visa before you travel.
Cost: no fee for visa-exempt entry at the border, and no fee for the TDAC. Do not pay a site that charges for either.
TDAC required for everyone: from 1 May 2025, all foreign nationals entering Thailand by air, land, or sea must complete a digital arrival card online before arrival, within 3 days before arrival. Each traveller, including children, needs their own TDAC. The TDAC is not a visa and does not change your stay length.
Passport: your passport must have an expiry date at least 6 months after your arrival date, and at least 1 blank page.
What you may be asked to show: proof of funds of at least 10,000 Thai baht per person or 20,000 Thai baht per family, and evidence of onward or return travel. GOV.UK says British nationals have been refused entry for failing to provide this evidence.
Land-border limit: visa-exempt entry for tourism through land-border checkpoints is normally limited to 2 entries per calendar year. This restriction does not generally apply to arrivals by air. Frequent entries can attract extra checks on onward travel, accommodation, and funds.
Longer stay: if you entered before 15 September 2026, you will usually be allowed to stay for the period granted when you arrived. For a stay beyond the new 30-day exemption, get the correct visa before you travel or, if eligible, apply for an extension through the Thai immigration authorities before your permission expires. This page does not state an extension fee or length, because no current official extension figure could be verified on 24 October 2026, and older extension figures predate the September change.
Overstay: overstaying brings a fine of 500 Thai baht per day up to a maximum of 20,000 baht, plus a risk of detention, deportation at your own expense, and a ban from re-entering for up to 10 years. Read the admitted-until date on your stamp, not a blog calculation.
Transit: the TDAC applies to arrivals by air, land, and sea. If you only transit without passing through Thai immigration, check your exact case before travel, as this page does not state a transit exemption.
Not a move: visa exemption does not give work, study, retirement, or residence permission. Work, study, retirement, or living in Thailand needs the correct visa before you travel, with its own advice.

Dual nationals: GOV.UK advises leaving Thailand on the same passport you used to enter, to avoid problems at immigration.

Scouting trip budget, fixed maths

Flights are per person, the room is shared, daily spending is per person. Trip total is for all travellers. Per person is trip total divided by travellers, with no extra flight added. All flight and hotel figures below are editable examples, not sourced flight or hotel prices. Entry fee is $0, and the TDAC is free, so no entry fee is added to this calculator.

Trip length (days)

Travellers

Flights per person ($)

Stay per night, total room ($)

Food, transport and activities per person / day ($)

Buffer for extras (%)

Keep the trip within the 30-day visa exemption on these defaults, or get the correct visa before you travel. The calculator does not check your stay against the exemption limit.

Your result

Estimated trip total, all travellers, including entry fee ($0)

Per day, all-in-

Per person-

Entry fee total, all travellers-

Worked example on the default inputs: 10 days, 2 travellers, $750 flights per person, $90 room per night, $60 daily per person, 10% buffer, $0 entry fee. Base is $3,600, plus buffer is $3,960 total, $396 per day, $1,980 per person. Flight and hotel figures here are examples for maths checking only. Replace them with quotes you have actually received.

From scouting trip to move

A scouting trip answers questions a calculator cannot: which area feels right, what the heat and the wet season actually feel like, and whether a place on holiday is a place you want to live. If the trip goes well, the next step is proper immigration advice for a move, not a longer visa-exempt stay.

There is no matching move page for this route in the current ElsewhereMath cluster, because the cluster move pages are US-origin only. This page therefore links back to the prototype homepage only, and does not point to a move page that does not exist.

← Back to the prototype homepage

Sources, checked 24 October 2026

GOV.UK, Thailand entry requirements, opened directly 24 October 2026 and updated 12 October 2026: 30-day visa exemption for tourism only from 15 September 2026, land-border limit of normally 2 entries per calendar year, funds of at least 10,000 Thai baht per person or 20,000 per family, onward travel evidence, passport 6 months plus 1 blank page, TDAC within 3 days before arrival, and overstay fine of 500 Thai baht per day up to 20,000 baht.
TDAC portal address tdac.immigration.go.th, as linked from the GOV.UK page above. The TDAC site itself did not return readable text in the check, so the free-of-charge and mandatory points rest on GOV.UK plus multiple 2026 summaries of Immigration Bureau material checked that day.
Older 60-day exemption guides were deliberately not used, because GOV.UK states the 30-day rule from 15 September 2026. The earlier 60-day figure is noted here only to explain why older guides disagree.

Gaps left open on purpose: no official e-Visa apply link is given, because none could be verified on 24 October 2026, and no extension fee or length is stated, because no current official figure could be verified after the September change. Recheck GOV.UK and the Thai Embassy again before this page publishes as a guide, because entry rules change.