About 56 countries are exempted from getting a visa, and these citizens can get into the country for 30 days. Click here to see whether your country is amoung the 56.  

Citizens of another 99 countries can get a tourist visa of 15 days upon arrival in the main airports.  
Apart from that there are 3 different visas:  
- Transit visa: 30 days, 200 Bht  
- Tourist visa: 60 days, 300 Bht, you need to get this at your embassy, an extension of 30 days is available.  
- Non-immigrant visa: 90 days, 500 Bht, not available at airports.  

There is now a new 1 year multiple entry visa. In order to get this visa, you need to get it in your home country. Secondly you only get 3 months per entry, but visa companies in Bangkok can handle the revalidation for you without you leaving the country. Price is about 3000 Bht though (2/99). 

Overstaying your visa  

Money matters

Hotels

Introduction
 Thai hotels are usually excellent value for money. You can find accomodation for any price. Both backpackers and luxury tourists can find what they want.  

When booking a hotel, always check whether taxes, service and breakfast are included. If not, this could add about 21% to your bill + the breakfast which can be relatively expensive compared to a lunch. 

 It is obvious you can get much better value for money in Northern Thailand then in the South. Ko Phi Phi is more expensive f.i., and there's no room for bargaining there.  

WARNING: on several occasions, we saw that leaflets showed a really great hotel, but the reality was really bad. So take that into account when looking through leaflets when choosing a hotel. 

Occupancy rates during high season  
One word of caution however: don't expect the hotels to be empty due to the Asian crisis. Tourism from other Asian countries like Korea and Hong Kong has indeed decreased a bit, but this has been largely compensated by the increase of western tourists (Europe + 21% in 1998), so in fact there were 7.700.000 tourists coming to Thailand in 1998 (+ 7,5% compared to 1997). This is because a lot of people are attracted by low prices, and they tend to avoid more volatile countries like Indonesia and Myanmar and instead head for Thailand. It is of course also true that a lot of new hotels have been built over the recent years, so this keeps things in balance.  

Stories on travellers sleeping on the beach of smaller islands (Ko Samui, Ko Phi Phi) during  Xmas and New Year are absolutely true. Some will say this is propaganda from Thais working for the tourism industry around Chiang Mai, but it's not !! So I would say, avoid the beaches during this period, otherwise make reservations and be prepared to pay a lot more for your accomodation. 

Where to book your accomodation

Booking accomodation through the internet
While preparing my trip, I came across A LOT of online hotel booking systems. These cater for the tourist willing to spend at least 500 Bht for a room, but usually well above that. It's worth shopping around, I found good deals on some of these websites. During my visit, I especially checked whether these "special offers" where for real, and I can indeed confirm they are. I never found internet rates to be higher then locally, the maximum I could get was the same price, but usually local prices are 20 to 30% higher then the internet prices. Also these prices usually include breakfast and taxes while the official prices are usually "room only ++"-prices (4/99).  

Here are some of the sites I checked:  
- Chiang Mai Online: this site has a lot of hotels on offer, but they also have a hotel discounter page which is very interesting. F.i. at the time of writing (3/99), you could book the Chiang Mai Orchid for only 1200 Bht a double including taxes and breakfast, a local broker had it for 1600 Bht, and the hotel gave it for 1850 Bht (BTW, they were full). They also have cheaper guesthouses listed. Most of the hotels listed on this page are 10 to 20% cheaper then what you find elsewhere.  
- Asiatour: This is the page of Diethelm, one of the biggest tour operators in the region. You can find info on any SE Asian country. On accomodation in Thailand, their Bangkok section is worth a look. My experience after comparing different websites, is that their prices were the best on the web (except for CM). Not for every hotel, but some of their offers were good value. F.i. Le Meridien for 50 US$ is relatively cheap. A broker at the airport gave it for 60 US$, the hotel itself gave it for 120 US$.  
- Asiatravel: this page has a lot of hotels on offer (more then Diethelm f.i.), not only on Bangkok, but also the beaches. They list hotels and mention whether they have "special deals" or "very special deals". These deals can be very good value. The beach hotels remain pretty expensive though.  
- Sawadee: If you're heading for Ko Samui, don't miss this page. This is not a travel agent, but an internet server in Lamai. I'm not saying their prices are very good, but you'll find almost every hotel on Ko Samui with a price listing and often also a website with description and pictures. Online booking is possible. Prices here are simply what each hotel puts there.  
- Other Online booking pages are:   -Asia discovery  
- There was a very recent warning on the LP Thorn Tree about www.hotels.siam.net/index ripping people off with getting their VISA card number and then taking off 400 US$. I don't know if this is really true though. On most of these sites, you don't even have to pay a deposit (2/4/99).