Cars, drivers and licences for a long stay.

Start with whether to drive at all

Thailand drives on the left in right hand drive cars, the reverse of every Gulf state, and in traffic with its own grammar. Motorcycles occupy the space between lanes and appear from behind at junctions. Lane discipline is loose. Bangkok congestion turns a two kilometre journey into forty minutes at the wrong hour and eight at the right one. On the coast the roads are steeper and considerably more dangerous in the wet months than they look on a dry morning. Plenty of foreign residents drive here for years without incident. It is simply not a thing to take on for the first time with three generations in the car.

So the default we recommend for a stay of weeks or months is a car with a driver, for practical rather than ceremonial reasons. It removes the parking problem, which in Bangkok is real. It lets a family split: the men to a meeting, the women and children to a mall, without anyone waiting. And it puts someone in the vehicle who knows the hospital entrances, the mosque, and which route is passable after an hour of rain. In Bangkok, the honest comparison is often between a car and the Skytrain, and the train beats the car on the central corridor at almost any working hour.

Licences for a season

If someone in the family will drive, the licence question has to be settled before arrival, not at a rental counter. Thailand recognises international driving permits issued under the conventions to which it is a party, alongside the holder's own national licence. Whether your country issues a permit under the convention Thailand recognises, and in what form, varies by country and has changed over time. Confirm it with your own licensing authority before travel and, if in any doubt, with the Thai Department of Land Transport or the Royal Thai Embassy. Driving without a licence valid here reaches beyond a fine, because it can affect how an insurer responds after an accident.

For families spending long periods here across several years, a Thai driving licence is worth obtaining and is more straightforward than most expect. The usual requirements are proof of address in Thailand, obtained through the immigration office or your own embassy, a medical certificate, a passport with valid entry status, and a short knowledge and reaction test, with an initial licence for a limited period and a longer renewal after. Requirements are set by the Department of Land Transport and revised from time to time, so its own current guidance is the authority.

How a chauffeured car actually works here

Foreign families sometimes imagine the choice is between a taxi and owning a car with a full time employed driver. In practice the market sits in between and is well developed. Cars with drivers are hired by the day, the week or the month from established transport operators, from hotels, and through offices such as ours, priced by vehicle class with a standard working period and an overtime rate beyond it. A monthly arrangement for a season is materially cheaper per day than daily hire and gives the family the same driver throughout, which is the point: a driver who knows the household learns the routine within a week and stops needing instructions.

The things worth settling in writing at the start are unglamorous. The hours included and the overtime rate. Whether fuel and tolls are included. Where the driver waits and eats, and that he is provided for properly, which is decency and also how you keep a good driver. Whether he speaks English, and whether Arabic is available, which it sometimes is at additional cost. Whether the same driver is guaranteed. And for families with strict privacy requirements, that the household is not discussed and not photographed.

If you do drive yourself

Self drive rental is straightforward from the international companies at the airports and in the cities, and the discipline is all in the insurance rather than the car. Understand the included cover and the excess, and photograph the vehicle before leaving the lot. Thailand operates a compulsory basic motor insurance regime alongside voluntary comprehensive cover, and the compulsory layer is far thinner than families assume: it is not a substitute for comprehensive insurance, and the difference is the entire question after a serious incident. Confirm what a rental includes in writing.

Two rules of the road that catch Gulf drivers specifically. Motorcycles will pass on both sides and will occupy the space you are about to move into, so mirror checks matter more here than at home. And child restraint requirements apply in Thailand, with the law having been tightened in recent years, so seats for young children should be arranged with the rental company or the transport operator in advance rather than assumed; confirm the current requirement with the Department of Land Transport, since the detail and its enforcement have developed. On the practical side, most operators serving family traffic will fit seats on request if asked at booking and will not have one available if asked at the door.

The vehicle that actually fits a Gulf family

Vehicle choice is where families are most often placed badly, because the default offered is an executive saloon and the family is nine people. The workhorse of this market is the Japanese luxury van, the Toyota Alphard and its equivalents, seating six or seven in genuine comfort with sliding doors, high roofs and privacy glass that lets the women of the family travel comfortably. For larger parties the next step is a commuter van seating ten or more. A second vehicle for staff and luggage is standard on any airport transfer for a family of size.

For a family that has taken or bought a house, the question of its own vehicle eventually arrives. Long term leasing from an established company is generally simpler for a foreign family: it avoids registration questions, includes maintenance and insurance, and can be ended. Purchase and registration involve requirements that depend on immigration status, so take advice. A car left standing for months at a coastal house belongs in the maintenance schedule discussed in our article on running a household from abroad, because it deteriorates faster than the building.

Distance, roads and the trips families actually take

Bangkok to Hua Hin is the classic drive, roughly three hours in reasonable conditions, and one of the arguments for Hua Hin with elderly parents who dislike a second flight. Phuket and Samui are islands and the driving is local, but the hill roads on Phuket's west coast are steep and become genuinely hazardous in heavy rain, which is precisely when a Gulf summer family is there. Night driving on rural roads is best avoided entirely: unlit vehicles, livestock and motorcycles without lights make it a poor risk.

If there is an incident, the guidance is short. Stop, do not move the vehicles unless obstructing, call the emergency number and your insurer, and wait for the insurer's assessor, who in Thailand routinely attends the scene and whose report drives what follows. Do not settle at the roadside and do not admit fault. If anyone is injured, the hospital comes first and the paperwork second. Carry the insurer's number and your embassy's consular number in the car.

AGP's main driving and transport guide covers licence conversion, insurance classes and vehicle registration in full. What a Gulf family needs before its first season is narrower: settle the licence question at home, take a car and driver by the month rather than the day, book the van rather than the saloon, and do not learn left hand traffic in Bangkok rain with your mother in the back.

Licence recognition, international driving permit requirements, Thai licence procedures and child restraint rules are set and revised by the Thai authorities. Confirm what your national licence and permit allow with your own licensing authority before travel and with the Department of Land Transport in Thailand, confirm the exact scope of any rental or hire insurance in writing with the provider, and confirm consular assistance arrangements with your own embassy in Bangkok.

This briefing is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Thai rules change frequently and individual cases differ. Verify current requirements with the relevant authorities, including the Immigration Bureau, the Board of Investment, the Land Department, the Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department, and take advice on your own facts before acting.