Thailand Golf Holidays: The Complete Planning Guide

The three-minute version

• Where: Pattaya for choice and value, Hua Hin for quality and calm, Bangkok for prestige, Phuket to mix golf with a beach holiday.
• How many rounds: four or five in a week. Thai rounds take 4.5–5.5 hours in the heat.
• Entry: a 60-day visa exemption currently, changing to 30 days for most nationalities — plus a mandatory digital arrival card.

What a Thailand golf trip really costs

Green fees are the headline, and they are genuinely cheap. Across the 55 courses in our directory publishing visitor rates, the average is ฿2,284 in low season and ฿3,207 in high season. What catches people out is everything stacked on top.

Caddie fees are compulsory and separate. Thailand runs a caddie system at effectively every course — it is not optional and not included in the green fee. Expect ฿350–500 per round: Black Mountain publishes ฿350, Chiangmai Highlands ฿400 and Siam Country Club ฿500.

Then the tip, which is the caddie's real income. Siam Country Club's own guidance says gratuities "generally start at THB 500"; Chiangmai Highlands suggests "400 THB and upwards". Pay it in cash, directly to your caddie, at the end of the round. Every golf package we examined excludes it.

Carts, and a trap for pairs. Carts run ฿700–1,000. At premium clubs including Siam Country Club and Black Mountain, carts are mandatory at one per golfer, driven by the caddie — so two golfers pay for two carts, not one shared buggy.

A genuinely useful quirk: booking agents sometimes undercut the club's own desk. Siam Country Club's Old Course lists ฿6,500 weekday green fee only, while agent rates for the same course have been published around ฿6,100 including caddie and cart. Always compare the club's rate against an agent before walking up.

Our trip cost calculator itemises all of this for your own group, and the Green Fee Index shows how regions compare on price.

When to go — and one thing most guides get wrong

For weather, November to February is the answer nationwide. Dry, cooler mornings, and the season Thai courses are conditioned for. March extends the good weather in most regions.

For flight prices, the conventional advice is wrong if you are flying from Europe. July is a peak month from the UK and Scandinavia — from Manchester it is the single most expensive month of the year — because it is driven by school holidays at home, not by Thai weather. The genuinely cheap European window is May, June and September. Equally, November is not expensive from anywhere: the real price peak is mid-December to mid-January, plus Easter.

The Chiang Mai warning. Northern Thailand has an agricultural burning season, and it is severe. Chiang Mai province banned open burning from 1 February to 31 May 2026, but in March 2026 the city repeatedly ranked among the most polluted in the world — on 30 March, IQAir recorded an AQI of 233, classed "Very Unhealthy". NASA's Earth Observatory documented the smoke across the north. Chiang Mai golf is superb from November to February; in March and April, go south instead.

Region-by-region detail is in our guide to the best time to play.

Where to base yourself

Undecided? The course comparison tool lets you filter every course in Thailand by price, length, prestige and the kind of trip you are planning.

The courses most trips are built around

Black Mountain Golf Club

Hua Hin · ★ 4.5 · from ฿3,200

Regularly ranked Thailand's best, and a proven international tournament venue.

Hua Hin

Siam CC - Old Course

Pattaya · ★ 4.6 · from ฿4,000

Home of the Honda LPGA Thailand and the spiritual home of Pattaya golf.

Pattaya

Red Mountain Golf Club

Phuket · ★ 4.5 · from ฿3,200

Blasted through an old tin mine — the island's showpiece.

Phuket

Thai Country Club

Bangkok · ★ 4.5 · from ฿3,200

Tour-standard conditioning and Bangkok's benchmark club.

Bangkok

Chiang Mai Highlands

Chiang Mai · ★ 4.4 · from ฿2,800

The north's benchmark, at a fraction of Bangkok prices.

Chiang Mai

Blue Canyon CC - Canyon

Phuket · ★ 4.4 · from ฿2,900

Where Tiger Woods won the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic.

Phuket

Getting there, and getting your clubs there

Flying with clubs is where the money quietly leaks. The most important thing is not whether the airline "includes" golf — it is the weight allowance. A loaded travel bag runs 15–20kg, so on a 23kg-per-piece economy fare the clubs eat an entire bag. Carriers on weight-concept tickets pooling 30–40kg are far more forgiving.

• Included in your normal checked allowance: Thai Airways, Emirates (hard 300cm size cap), Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines (battery golf trolleys banned), Cathay Pacific and British Airways.
• Changed recently — check twice: Etihad moved golf bags into the standard checked allowance from 1 June 2026. Plenty of third-party guides still describe the old free-extra-allowance policy, which no longer applies.
• Must be booked and paid for separately: Norse Atlantic treats clubs as Special Baggage with a 23kg cap, and Finnair charges for golf even on business fares that already include two 32kg bags.
• Time-limited: Turkish Airlines carries one set free on international flights until 31 December 2026.

Or simply rent. Almost every Thai course rents clubs — ฿1,500 at Black Mountain, ฿2,500 at Siam Country Club. For a trip with two or three rounds, renting often beats paying sports-equipment fees both ways.

On the ground: a metered taxi from Suvarnabhumi into central Bangkok runs about ฿300–500 including the airport surcharge and tolls. Grab and Bolt will usually take golf bags but it is not guaranteed — there is no golf-bag filter in the app, small cars cannot fit a full set, and regulations permit a surcharge of up to ฿100 per item. For a dawn tee time, pre-book a private transfer. Direct airport coaches to Pattaya start around ฿130 and to Hua Hin around ฿342, but check the baggage limit: the standard allowance of one bag up to 20kg can be tight with clubs.

Entry rules, etiquette and staying out of trouble

Visas and the digital arrival card

At the time of writing, most Western tourists — including UK passport holders — enter Thailand under a 60-day visa exemption, extendable by a further 30 days, per UK FCDO guidance. The Thai cabinet approved cutting this to 30 days for 59 countries and territories, with updated details agreed in July 2026, but the measures were still pending publication in the Royal Gazette and take effect 15 days after it. Until then current conditions apply. For a two-week golf trip this makes no practical difference, but confirm the position before you book.

Everyone needs the Thailand Digital Arrival Card. Since 1 May 2025 all foreign nationals must complete it online before arrival, replacing the old paper form. Submit within 72 hours of travel, complete a new one for every entry, and keep the confirmation on your phone. Use the official government portal — plenty of paid look-alike sites exist.

Your passport must be valid for six months beyond arrival with at least one blank page.

Course etiquette

• Collared shirt, always. No cargo shorts at virtually every club, no beachwear, denim or flip-flops. Soft spikes.
• Allow 4.5–5.5 hours for eighteen holes — noticeably slower than at home, and worth factoring into afternoon plans.
• Arrive 20–30 minutes early for caddie and buggy assignment.
• Carry cash for caddie tips; tip your caddie directly rather than through the pro shop.

Insurance and health

Take proper travel insurance. The FCDO notes that all Thai hospitals require a guarantee of payment before treating patients, and advises cover for local treatment and medical evacuation. Check vaccination guidance at least eight weeks before travel. One golf-specific tip: standard policies often cap or exclude sports equipment, so check whether your clubs need declaring separately.

Events worth planning around

Honda LPGA Thailand is the biggest week in Thai golf, played at Siam Country Club's Old Course in Pattaya. The 2026 edition ran 19–22 February and was won by Jeeno Thitikul at 24-under on home soil. Spectator access is straightforward and it makes an excellent centrepiece for a February trip.

The Centara World Masters is the one to know about if you would rather play than watch — an amateur tournament for club golfers with age and handicap divisions, drawing around 400 players from 30 countries. The 2027 edition runs 6–12 June 2027 in Hua Hin at Black Mountain and Pineapple Valley (the rebranded Banyan). Packages run ฿44,500–89,900 per golfer and registration closes 31 August 2026.