Buses in Thailand – What You Need to Know

Thailand has a very well-developed network of intercity and international buses, and you can travel almost the entire country by bus, and even visit neighboring countries. At the same time, bus travel will be the cheapest way to get around the country, if, of course, you're ready to put up with some inconveniences. A bus trip of the same distance in inexpensive classes will cost even less than a train, not to mention that trains in Thailand won't take you everywhere.

What Buses There Are in Thailand

Broadly speaking, all buses in Thailand can be divided into two types:

• Tourist Buses in Thailand

  

  These are buses run by private companies that set up routes between popular tourist cities at their own discretion and are intended for tourist purposes, i.e. tourists usually use them to move from resort to resort. Tickets are sold at travel agencies and by the carrier companies, and cost a little more than scheduled buses for the same routes. But they're much more convenient, since they usually depart from tourist areas rather than from bus stations (terminals) that you have to get to by local public transport or taxi. Moreover, the ticket price often includes a transfer from your hotel to the tourist bus departure point – i.e. they pick you up and drop you off hotel-to-hotel.

  Among tourist buses, a separate category should be highlighted – minivans or micro-buses. They're quite comfortable for short trips, but usually lack a luggage compartment, and long journeys with large luggage are difficult in them (you can only squeeze in with a small backpack). This should be clarified in advance, before buying tickets.

  

  However, it's only fair to also tell you about the downsides of tourist buses, which is why we recommend thinking twice and checking everything before using their services:

  • Punctuality, or rather its complete absence. Situations where, when buying tickets, you're told the bus departs at 8 a.m., but in reality they pick you up at 7 or 9, are far from rare. Also don't be surprised if, when selling tickets, they assure you that you'll arrive at your destination right at 18:00, but in reality you only get there at night. Arrival times are deliberately listed by tourist companies as unrealistically early to attract tourists, and along the way they make many detours, picking up and delivering goods. We wouldn't really recommend relying on minivans if you need to catch a flight or transfer to a train.
  • Lots of transfers. If the route involves changing buses or transferring to a ferry, that's not great. It happens that in a single journey you have to make several transfers from bus to bus, move your luggage, and ride practically squatting while hugging your suitcases. For example, the route on a tourist minivan from Pattaya to Koh Chang island involves pickup from hotels by minivan, a transfer on the outskirts of town to a larger bus, arrival at the ferry and boarding the ferry, and another transfer to a minivan already on the island.
  • Little space for luggage. This problem occurs both in minivans and in medium-sized tourist buses. Large suitcases sometimes simply don't fit, so they're piled in the aisles and on seats, leaving very little room in the cabin. So you have a chance to suffer a bit on the road even because of other people's huge suitcases.

• Scheduled Buses in Thailand

  

  Scheduled buses run between almost all cities in the country, are used by locals too, cost less, and depart from bus stations. In other words, these are exactly the same intercity buses as back home. Some scheduled buses belong to private companies, but mostly they're government buses or buses of very large companies. They run strictly on schedule and arrive on time, or with a slight delay.

  

  But unfortunately, they have their downsides too:

  • Complicated online ticket buying. Tickets for them can most often be bought either at station counters or online on Thai websites. And these Thai websites often don't even have an English interface and may not accept foreign cards.
  • Hard to find schedules. There are many buses and carrier companies, but there's no single website where you can get complete schedule information. In our experience, sometimes the only reliable way to find out anything about the schedule, or even whether buses run from the city you need to another city you need, is to come to the station in person and ask at the counters. Because of this, it's hard to plan your travel route in advance.

Which buses to use is up to you. If you don't want to complicate your life getting to know routes and schedules in Thai, tourist buses between the main resorts of the country will be enough for you. But remember what's written above about their quality and punctuality.

So, scheduled buses depart from and arrive at bus stations in Thai cities. Along the way they pick up or drop off passengers, making stops at designated places or at other bus stations. To board a passing bus, you should buy a ticket at the bus station and get information about the place and time of the bus stop, since passing vehicles may not even stop at bus stations but pick up passengers at bus stops along the route. Sometimes you can board a bus without buying a ticket in advance (but not at a bus station, where they keep an eye on drivers doing such "side business"), but for that you need to know the schedule and route.

Tickets are bought in advance or right before the trip at bus stations, or at ticket offices in town (called Boh Koh Soh), and are often available at local travel agencies (with a small markup) alongside tourist buses. VIP class tickets are best bought in advance. Sometimes travel agencies supplement the purchased ticket with their own transfer from your hotel to the bus station, which is very convenient, but of course not free. And sometimes instead of a scheduled bus, they slip you a more expensive tourist bus ticket. So the best option is to buy them yourself at bus stations. Here it's worth warning that in cities frequently visited by tourists, the staff at bus station counters speak English well enough, but in small provincial towns you'll have to communicate with gestures and write the destination and time on paper.

There are five classes of scheduled buses, among which the most popular and convenient are VIP, first class, and second class.

VIP – the most expensive, comfortable, and fast. Air-conditioned, no different in comfort level from tourist buses. Toilet on board. Practically no stops along the way.

First class – cheaper than VIP, air-conditioned, with a toilet on board, but slower and makes more stops along the way.

Second class – the cheapest. Not always air-conditioned (if air-conditioned – marked in schedules and on tickets as Air Conditioned or A/C; if not air-conditioned, marked as Ordinal or not marked at all), and if air-conditioned, it's weak. No toilets on board. They make tons of stops along the way, including for toilet breaks, which is why they go very slowly. Mostly used for short routes.

There are also Silver class and Economy class.

Where to Find Schedules and Prices, and Buy Tickets?

Unfortunately, there's no single online booking system (at least, we don't know of one) for bus tickets that covers ALL ROUTES. But quite a few popular routes are now gathered together and available for search and booking on these sites:

• transport.co.th - has the most complete bus schedule, but not all of it.
• 12go.asia - a reliable search engine, tickets can be paid with a foreign card or you can book and pay at counters in shops in Thailand.
• Trip.com – has buses and trains, accepts Russian cards. Not all routes are available for purchase (it says everything's sold out), but in fact tickets can be bought at counters or on other search engines.
• busonlineticket – another reliable aggregator, but you can only pay online with a non-Russian card.

In practice, it's much easier to buy tickets on the spot at travel agencies – that's almost always what we do. Yes, you might overpay a little, but the price usually includes delivery from the hotel by minivan. But all this, of course, depends on the destination – in some cities there simply are no travel agencies where you can buy them, and then you have to go to the station or buy online.

And here we've gathered bus and train schedules for Thailand by destination.