What to Expect When Moving to Thailand: Honest Expat Truths

You’ve heard the people talking about expat life, dirt cheap street food and fancy accommodation they can actually afford. You’re already contemplating if a move to Thailand is right for you, but it’s a huge step and you don’t know if you can trust some of the information out there.

That’s where Jason and I come in. Together we’ve created How to Move to Thailand, an ebook and community to help aspiring expats move to the Land of Smiles with confidence.

You are probably wondering what to expect when moving to Thailand? Is it something that is suitable for you? For example we don’t eat street food on a daily basis and spend way more on food than $3 a day!

Meet us below 👇

Why We Moved to Thailand (3 times!)

Between the two of us, we’ve moved to Thailand 3 times, lived here for over 10 years and have experience of 3 different visa types. We know first hand how stressful moving abroad is so we are here to share our wisdom and knowledge with you, all from our Bangkok home.

Steffi’s story: Steffi came here when she was only 22 on a backpacking trip, fell in love with South East Asia and wanted to move back, had a bad break up and moved here age 24 as an English teacher. She is the main writer for this blog, read by 300,000 readers and still works as an educator in Bangkok.

Jason’s story: Jason had been coming to Thailand for years, performing his music, met Steffi and decided to take the plunge with the digital nomad visa that started in 2024. He previously held a business visa and has great connections for real estate.

We don’t pretend to know everything but we’ve definitely learnt a thing or two about relocating to Thailand and we want to take the hassle and the stress out of moving for you.

Expectation vs. Reality: The Honest Truth About Moving to Thailand

Let’s talk about the gap between what you think moving to Thailand will be… and what it’s actually like.

You expect affordable living and that’s real. Steffi used to live here on just 64,000 baht a month (approx $2000 or £1400) and travelled all the time!

What no one tells you is that your definition of “cheap” might change fast when you’re navigating currency, ATM fees, or emergency healthcare costs. Jason learnt the importance of insurance very early on!

You expect friendly locals and it’s true that Thai people are welcoming. But integrating into the culture takes more effort than a smile. At first many expats complain of the difficulties of making Thai friends. After years here we can both now say that some of our closest friends are Thai!

You expect stunning beaches and temples and so many amazing things about Thailand, but you’ll also find visa runs, confusing paperwork, and moments where you miss things like…affordable bottles of wine (especially if you’re from Europe!)

The Hardest Parts No One Prepares You For

I would say the biggest difficulty is missing loved ones at home. Even after 10 years of living abroad, it still gets to me and there are moments of homesickness, particularly if we’ve just been to our home countries for a visit. That part doesn’t seem to get easier!

For Jason one of the hardest parts was getting the DTV visa (also known as the digital nomad visa). There was so much conflicting advice online, even in the special facebook group for it and everyone was saying different things…some of which were true! Different embassies have different requirements which was super confusing and lead to him having to extend his stay in Vietnam as he was required to submit additional documents…absolute headache. Avoid this with all our DTV advice in our ebook!

Settling in and making friends can be challenging too. If it’s your first time moving abroad then it’s not something you will have done before; starting friendships from scratch! At the beginning, we recommend pushing yourself to say yes to everything until you’ve established your friendship circle and feel more settled.

What We Wish We Knew Before We Moved

There’s so many things we wish we knew, in fact I made a whole list here of our mistakes and learning curves!

From Steffi’s perspective, she wish she knew a lot more about teaching, the different schools, salary expectations and what was (and wasn’t) liveable on!

For Jason, it was definitely a lot of practical information like health insurance, making sure to stay in accommodation with strong enough Wifi for his remote job and all the advice for the DTV visa.

Inside the book, we even share the 3 biggest mistakes we made that cost us time and money so you don’t repeat them and have a more 👉 stress-free move to Thailand!

Building Real Friendships & Finding Belonging

We are both sociable people and we understand the importance of finding community, especially when we are away from loved ones.

If you look at the Facebook groups about Thailand they are full of so many trolls, it can be pretty depressing and I’ve had people reach out to me to say thank you for answering their questions rather than trolling them.

This is the main reason why we started our own private community, no question is too stupid and we kick anyone trolling immediately out of the group! Nobody has got time or capacity for that!

It makes me really sad when people say they aren’t enjoying their time in Thailand and I feel like I personally want to ensure people love it here, as much as me! Both Jason and I host various events from music nights to refugee lunches and we encourage people in our community to come and join us!

What Makes It Worth It (Still Here Years Later)

We are still here many years later (particularly Steffi) because of the amazing opportunities that Thailand has awarded us. Steffi has excelled in her teaching career since being here, started a successful and profitable travel blog, made lifelong friends from around the world and been to so many countries she can’t count (somewhere in the 35+ area). She has also achieved more than 30 scuba dives, seen wild elephants and pink dolphins and generally spread the love for Thailand!

Wanna move to Thailand too?

More moving to Thailand free resources:

• 30 reasons to move to Thailand
• Moving to Thailand as a solo female expat
• 31 things to know before moving to Thailand
• Relocation packing list
• Make a success out of your move
• Daily life as an English teacher
• Types of schools you can teach at
• Honest truths about moving to Thailand