I am a frequent traveler to THAILAND. When traveling outside of Bangkok, I often stay at a local guesthouse rather than a conventional hotel. Besides saving some monies, staying in a guesthouse allows me to sample the local flavor and it is a more conducive environment for meeting fellow travelers. In addition, the informal, carefree ambiance of most guesthouses suits my personality better than the somewhat stiff and fabricated environment of many traditional hotels. Guesthouses are usually small family run affairs – ranging from no frills hostels with simple dormitory like accommodations and shared bathroom facilities (popular with the young backpacker crowd) to the luxury “boutiquish” affair with amenities comparable to a small hotel (popular with the older crowd and families). As they say different strokes for different folks!

In Bangkok, the greatest number of guesthouses and hostels are located on or near Khao San Road. Affectionately known as the tourist ghetto of Bangkok, Khao San Road is a real magnet for the young backpacker crowd from Europe. Throbbing with activity night and day, Khao San Road swarms with cafes, inexpensive restaurants, bars, Internet shops and massage parlors. Lining the sidewalks are numerous street vendors offering anything from colorful tattoos to hair braiding. A real carnival scene to the say the least! While Khao San Road has the greatest selection of guesthouses by far, you can also find some quality guesthouses in the less busy and quieter neighborhoods of Bangkok as well.

I believe that the absolute rock bottom rate for simple accommodations with shared bathrooms in a Bangkok Guesthouse is about $4-5USD, although if you stay in a guesthouse which has shared sleeping quarters, the cost is probably less. For the young tourists-backpackers from Europe who are traveling around Thailand and Southeast Asia for 1 month or more, it definitely makes senses to stay in guesthouses for most of the journey in order to stretch out the monies.

Travelfish, an authoritative online guide for the independent traveler to Southeast Asia, is an excellent source of information on guesthouses and offbeat accommodations in Bangkok and Thailand in general. Just recently, Travelfish published a wonderful article on the top 10 guesthouses in Bangkok. If you’re a backpacker or a flashpacker, or an independent traveler like myself, this article is a must read!

Tomorrow is the start of my 2 1/2 week adventure in COSTA RICA. If you’d like to follow my journey, I suggest that you subscribe to my RSS feed.

Tags: Guesthouses in Bangkok, Khao San Road, Thailand travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Bangkok, Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.