I don’t think there are many people who don’t dream of living on a tropical paradise island. Luckily, it could be more possible and more affordable than you might think!
In Goa, India you can live on a budget of around 1,000 Rupees a day (that’s about £10 or $16 a day!) India is one of the cheapest places in the world but there are also other affordable tropical paradises that you could spend a few months living in.
I’ve recently come to Koh Phangan, a gorgeous tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand, to live and work for a few months and I want to share with you my cost of living in Koh Phangan, Thailand.
Update 2024: This magical island has become a lot more popular, developed, and expensive since I lived there in 2018. Rental prices are almost double and other costs have also increased. This post will be updated on my next visit but no longer serves as a good indication of the cost of living in Koh Phangan 2024.
Why live in Koh Phangan?
Koh Phangan is a great place to live for party people, yogis and digital nomads. The island is picture postcard beautiful with soft white sand beaches, clear turquoise oceans and a lush green jungly mountainous interior complete with many waterfalls to explore and some great hikes to stunning viewpoints.
Even though Koh Phangan is mainly famous for the Full Moon Party this beautiful tropical Thai island has so much more to offer! There is great nightlife and many exciting parties all throughout the month, not at full moon time.
Koh Phangan is also a great place for digital nomads with its exciting digital nomad scene and many co working spaces on the island – some like Beach Hub are even located right on the beach!
Koh Phangan is also a spiritual island with loads of amazing, world class yoga and meditation retreats and its easy to rent a house on the island even though its not as populated as other Thai islands like Samui and Phuket. (See here for how to rent a house on Koh Phangan)
Living in Koh Phangan is no way near as cheap as living in Goa, however the island is out of this world beautiful, cleaner and quieter and generally even though things are more expensive the quality is generally much better.
Here is a quick run down of our monthly and daily costs of living in Koh Phangan in Thai Baht, USD and GBP
My Cost of Living in Koh Phangan
| Cost of Living In Koh Phangan | ||||
| Total Monthly Cost for 2 people | Cost in US$ | Cost in GBP £ | ||
| 1 Bedroom House Rental (Small but modern house with 1 bedroom, living room, balcony, kitchen and bathroom with A/C, hot water and Wifi close to Sri Thanu | 12,000 Baht | $360 | £275 | |
| Eating Out ( Once per day. Mostly Thai food in local restaurant) | 9,000 Baht | $270 | £205 | |
| Scooter | 3,400 Baht | $100 | £75 | |
| Petrol | 500 Baht | $15 | £11 | |
| Groceries, food shopping and snacks from 7/11 | 10,000 Baht | $300 | £230 | |
| Phone (Local Sim with calls, texts & internet) | 300 Baht | $9 | £6.85 | |
| Total Costs for 2 people | 35,200 Baht | $1065 | £807 | |
| Monthly cost per person | 17,600 Baht | $530 | £400 | |
Total Essential Costs for 2 people to live on Koh Phangan per month : 35,200 Baht (Approx $1065/ £807)
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More tips for living on a budget in Koh Phangan.
Eating and Drinking
In Koh Phangan I didn’t eat out as much as I do in Goa because food is more expensive, but even food in the supermarkets was not that cheap especially for imported food like cheese. In Thong Sala there are 3 big supermarkets including Tesco where you can buy food and groceries.
For cheap eats head to Pantip Food Market in Thong Sala where you can try everything from fruit shakes (30 Baht) spring rolls, snacks on sticks and sushi from only 10 Baht and you can get a curry for about 50 Baht. 7/11’s and Family Marts are all over the island where you can pick up groceries and hot snacks like toasted sandwiches and microwave meals for about 40 Baht.
There are also some cheaper Thai restaurants where you can eat from 50 – 150 Baht on average. There are lots of great vegetarian and vegan restaurants around Sri Thanu that are popular with the yoga community. Of course, there are also alot of fancy restaurants and resorts that are much more expensive and Western and imported foods also cost more.
I’m not a big drinker so didn’t really factor this into the budget but your looking at roughly 40 Baht for a beer from the shop or 80 Baht plus in a bar or party. Entrance to the parties can also add up – the Full Moon Party costs 100 Baht, some of the other parties like the Waterfall Party or Jungle Experience can cost 600 Baht but some of the other smaller parties are free entry.
Other things I didn’t really spend money on was shopping for clothes or souvenirs – there are some nice shops here but its much cheaper to buy things in other parts of Thailand like Chiang Mai although there is a walking street market on Saturdays in Thong Sala and you can sometimes find cheap clothes at the market outside the Big C supermarket.
Getting Around Koh Phangan
There are taxis and songthaews on the island but they tend to be really expensive, for example the songthaew from the port to Sri Thanu was 200 Baht per person. Renting a scooter is the best and most cost efficient way to get around the island.
Scooter rental starts at 250 Baht per day but the longer you rent the better deals you can get. We paid 3,400 Baht for a month and used about a tank of fuel each week which was 120 baht each time. If you stay longer than a month or 2 its more worthwhile to buy a scooter and sell it when you leave.
Yoga on Koh Phangan
Koh Phangan is an amazing place to learn and practise yoga and meditation and there’s loads of other activities and therapies to try, most drop in yoga classes and activities are 300 Baht but there are some free or ‘on donation’ events.
Samma Karuna has some free meditations and workshops and a free yoga class at 12.30 each day taught by newly qualified teachers. Look out for the posters around Sri Thanu and online in Facebook groups to find out whats going on. There are also lots of places to have a Thai massage which costs about 300 Baht in most places.
I hope this post has made you realise how affordable it can be to live on a paradise island! If you like beaches, yoga, parties and island living then you’ll probably love living in Koh Phangan too. If you want to explore more of Thailand check out my other travel guides and blogs too.
Read More:
- Koh Phangan beyond the full moon party
- How to rent a house on Koh Phangan
- My Cost of Living in Koh Phangan
- Best Yoga Retreats in Koh Phangan
- Yoga Teacher Training in Koh Phangan
- Confession – I hated the Full Moon Party
- 6 Best Backpacker Hostels in Koh Phangan
- Where to stay in Koh Phangan (for all areas and all budgets)
Have you lived on the island? Why not share your cost of living on Koh Phangan in the comments below and help out other travellers 🙂
4 comments
Thank you so much for this article, it helped us a lot. Did you also go to coworking places or you only worked from your apartement?If not, how did you manage to make friends? (silly question, sorry :D) And if you work from home, are there tables and desks usually in your apartement?
Many thanks from Hungary 🙂
Hi Zsofia – not a stupid question!
There are co working spaces but I was busy working and getting my money’s worth so I wasn’t really there for making friends.
There wasn’t really a good working table in my apartment – there was a kitchen counter I thought I could work on but the landlady never gave me the promised chairs so I could only work there standing up. Usually places are quite basically furnished.
I made friends at yoga and on the beach and in cafes and I already knew a few people there as well from my last visit.
Hope this helps and hope you have a good experience in KP 🙂
Interesting and helpful website.Thanks! I was just wondering if it’s easy to get accommodation to rent with decent internet connection in Thailand as I work online teaching English and need a good internet connection and cannot do this work in a cafe.
Yes, my house had a good internet connection. Most do and you can also easily get a 4G local sim card and use that as a hotspot