Seven Days in Chiang Mai on 300 Baht a Day
I tracked every baht for seven days in Chiang Mai eating the way a local eats: morning khao kha moo, midday curry, evening noodles. The number that surprised me was not the food. It was the coffee.
I tracked every baht for seven days in Chiang Mai, eating the way I actually eat rather than the way a menu board suggests. Morning khao kha moo near my soi. A curry and rice at the place that does one dish. Noodles in the evening. Coffee standing at the counter because sitting down costs more.
The total came to 287 baht a day on average. That is about $8. Here is where it went, and the three days it stopped working.
What 300 baht a day does not cover Accommodation, unless you are in a hostel or have a monthly room. Any alcohol. Anything with a view. The islands. This is a food-and-drink-and-transit budget for someone who has already solved the rent problem.
Day one: 210 baht
Khao kha moo from the cart at the end of my street, 35 baht, eaten standing up because there are six stools and I was the seventh person. Pork rice, a hard-boiled egg, and a cup of cha muan that came with it whether I wanted it or not.
Second rice, 35. I always get a second rice. It is the correct amount of food and I have stopped pretending otherwise.
Evening: sai ua from the woman who has had the same cart on Ratvithi for what I estimate is fifteen years. One skewer, 40 baht. She asked where I was from, I said Canada, she said the weather is very cold there, and that was the entire conversation. It repeated nightly for a week and I looked forward to it.
Totals: 35 + 35 + 20 + 40 = 130 for food. 60 for a motorbike taxi I did not need twice. 20 for the 7-Eleven run I did need. 210 baht.
Day two: where the budget starts to hurt
I had a coffee with someone who insisted on sitting down. 90 baht. The same coffee standing at the counter is 35. That is a 55 baht difference, and over seven days it is 385 baht, which is more than a week of local bus fares.
This is the first lesson and it is not subtle: the budget is a seating budget more than an eating budget. In Chiang Mai you can eat like a king for 80 baht or a student for 35, and the gap between those is almost entirely about whether a person brings you a chair with a table and a glass of water.
Food: 145. Transit: 60. Coffee: 35. A bottle of water from the 7-Eleven because I had left mine in the hostel, 20. 260 baht.
Day three: the night market
Saturday Walking Street on Ratchadamnoen. I did not eat much there because the portions are small and the prices are aimed at visitors, but I bought a cup of cha yen for 20 baht that I have not found anywhere else, and a bag of nam prik onoi for 60 that I carried home in my bag for a week.
Cheap day by accident. 185 baht.
Day four: khao soi
The bowl everybody tells you to get is 50 baht at Warorot Market and 120 baht at the place with a long English menu. I ate at Warorot. It is a deeper orange, it is less photogenic, and it is better.
Add a sai kai grilled chicken, 25, and a plate of nam prik noom, 20. 245 baht for the day.
Day five: the day it broke
I took a night bus to Pai, ate a terrible Western breakfast at a guesthouse rate, and spent the day eating nothing until a bowl of noodles at 8pm. It was a good day. It cost 340 baht and I got no value from any of it.
Budgets built on averages lie precisely when you travel fast. The number that matters is your worst day, not your best.
Days six and seven: the honest average
Two ordinary days: a rice-and-pork lunch, a bowl of tom yum that was not good and I ate anyway because it cost 60, and a roti for 25 baht standing outside a school at 4pm like every kid in the city.
Seven days, 1,940 baht total, 277 a day. Call it 280 and leave the margin.
What I actually spent the money on
| Item | Per day (baht) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 35 | Rice and pork, or noodles |
| Lunch | 45 | One dish and rice |
| Dinner | 60 | Stall or small restaurant |
| Snack | 20 | Fruit, or nothing |
| Coffee | 35 | Standing. Never sitting. |
| Water | 20 | 7-Eleven is cheaper than the machine |
| Transit | 50 | Motorbike taxi, or songthaew if you bargain |
Three things that will save you more than the food
Learn ten words of Thai. The single most valuable one is kin jay — cheap. It works at markets, at noodle stalls, and on motorbike taxis, where it routinely halves your fare.
Eat where the workers eat. Look for a shop with plastic stools, a wok, and no menu in English. If there is a menu in English and a photo of the food, you are paying 60 baht for 35 baht of noodles.
Do not sit down. I mean this more literally than it sounds.
The part nobody budgets for
The food is cheap. What caught me out in the first month was that Chiang Mai is a cash city in a way that surprises people, and that a week of forgetting to visit a specific ATM on a Sunday will cost you more than the food did. I am including a generic "atm/bank" line in my own weekly budget and I still forget.
Bring a card that works. Not for the vendors — for the days you need it.
Visas first. This budget assumes you are here legally. Since 15 September 2026 most nationalities get 30 days on arrival. Check yours before you book anything — the full list is in the country-by-country guide.
Last verified 29 September 2026. Prices move; the shape of a day here does not.
