Private Car with Driver in Thailand 2026: The Complete 5-City Guide to Hiring a Car at Disposal

Thailand is a country where the distance between "I want to see that" and "I can actually get there" is bigger than most visitors expect. Bangkok's Grand Palace and Chatuchak market are forty minutes apart in traffic. Phuket runs fifty kilometres end to end. Koh Samui is a fifty-one kilometre circle. Chiang Mai's most important temple sits fifteen kilometres up a mountain. And in every one of those places, the standard tourist solutions — metered taxis, ride-hailing apps, songthaews, scooters, packaged coach tours — each fail in their own particular way.

This guide is about the option that solves most of it: hiring a private car with a driver at your disposal for a full day. It covers what the term actually means, what it should cost, what the small print usually hides, and — the part most guides skip — what you can realistically see in eight hours in each of the five cities where we run the service: Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai.

We are Trip Thai Tour, a TAT-licensed Thai tour operator (Licence No. 14/04232, verifiable on the official Tourism Authority of Thailand tour-agent registry). We sell this service, so treat the recommendations accordingly — but everything factual below is checkable, and where the local market beats us we say so.

What "Car at Disposal" Actually Means

A car at disposal means you hire the entire vehicle and its driver for a fixed block of time — normally 8 hours — instead of paying per journey or per person. The vehicle stays with you for the whole period. It takes you somewhere, waits while you are there, then takes you on to the next place, as many times as you want. You are buying a driver's day, not a ride.

The phrase comes from the Indian travel trade, and if you have booked a Thailand holiday through an agent in Delhi, Mumbai or Hyderabad you have almost certainly seen it in your itinerary. It is also increasingly used by aggregator platforms selling "custom" or "flexible" hire.

Here is the problem. In most packaged versions, the disposal is heavily restricted, and the restrictions are rarely on the front page:

• A kilometre cap, very often 80 km for a full day. Enough for a tight itinerary, not enough for a real one.
• A fixed itinerary, with the vehicle "as per itinerary only" — meaning any extra stop is a deviation.
• Re-routing charges for changing your mind, which is the entire point of hiring a car at disposal in the first place.
• A clock that starts at the depot, not at your hotel.

Travellers typically discover these halfway through the day, standing at a junction while the driver explains that he cannot turn left. It is a genuinely miserable experience, and it is common enough that it shapes how we price and describe our own version.

Our version has no kilometre cap, no per-stop charge and no re-routing fee inside the city zone. We can afford that honestly, because a van waiting in a car park costs us almost the same as a van driving. Charging per stop would be a fee invented purely to extract money rather than to recover a cost. The two things that genuinely do cost us more are time and leaving the city, so those are the only two things we charge for: hours beyond the eighth, and a separate quote for intercity or airport routes.

What It Costs — and How That Compares City by City

Our rate is flat and national: ฿2,500 for an SUV carrying up to 4 passengers, or ฿3,000 for a van carrying up to 10, for 8 hours, in all five cities. Per vehicle, never per person.

Split across a group that becomes striking. Six people in the van pay ฿500 each for an entire day of private transport with a driver. Ten pay ฿300 each. A couple in the SUV pays ฿1,250 each. You can see the full breakdown and send us a plan on any of the city pages — Bangkok is the busiest, but the rate is identical in all five.

What makes this interesting is that Thailand's local markets price this service very differently from city to city, because each has its own fleet, geography and demand pattern. Here is the honest comparison:

Read that table honestly and three things stand out.

In Bangkok we are mid-market. The city has the deepest fleet in Thailand and genuine competition, including Grab's hourly rental product. If you are two people making three simple stops, a cheaper option exists. What you get from us instead is tolls included, no km cap, and a vehicle that waits.

In Chiang Mai the gap is enormous, and it is about seats rather than price. The established northern rate for a full-day car with an English-speaking driver and fuel is ฿3,000 — for a vehicle seating three. That is a fair price for what it is; northern drivers are not overcharging. But it means a family of five is quoted two cars and a group of eight is quoted three, and you arrive everywhere in separate halves. Our van costs the same ฿3,000 and seats ten.

On Koh Samui we sit at the floor. Samui is the most expensive place in Thailand for private transport, for structural reasons: a small island, a limited fleet, villa-based accommodation on steep hillsides, a concentrated December-to-March season, and no rail or metered-taxi culture to hold prices down. The result is ฿3,000–5,000 a day and ฿500 an hour to extend. Our van is ฿3,000 and our extra hours are ฿400.

In Phuket the headline rate looks competitive until you add the surcharges — which is a big enough issue to deserve its own section below.

The Small Print — Four Questions to Ask Any Operator

Whoever you book with, including us, these four questions separate a real quote from a headline number.

1. Is there a kilometre cap?

Ask directly. A capped day is a different product from an uncapped one, and the cap is usually invisible until you hit it. In Phuket the classic sightseeing loop alone runs 80–100 km. On Samui the ring road is 51 km before you have done anything. An 80 km cap makes both impossible.

2. When does the clock start?

At your hotel, or at the depot? The difference is routinely thirty to sixty minutes of a day you paid for. Ours starts at your hotel door and ends when you are returned to it.

3. What does an extra hour cost, and is it guaranteed?

Note the second half of that question. In Phuket and Samui, extensions are commonly described as "subject to availability", meaning the driver may simply decline because he is slotted between two other bookings. Ours are ฿400 (van) or ฿300 (SUV), unconditional, because your driver is assigned to you for the whole day.

4. What surcharges apply — and specifically, which roads?

This is the Phuket question, and it is worth its own paragraph.

On Phuket, the road up Nakkerd Hill to the Big Buddha is a six-kilometre climb that is hard on fuel and brakes, and it is standard practice for island drivers to ask for around ฿300 extra to make it. Some disclose it upfront. Many mention it at the bottom of the road, when you are unlikely to argue. Airport pickups are commonly surcharged at ฿500 booked ahead or ฿1,000 on the day, and hotels in the far north (Mai Khao, Nai Yang) or far south (Rawai, Nai Harn) often carry an outer-zone fee.

We charge none of those. The hill is included, the whole island is included, and pickup costs the same wherever you are staying. So when you compare a ฿2,100 Phuket quote against our ฿2,500, add the hill, add your hotel's zone, add an hour, and then compare.

What's Included, and What Isn't

Included: the vehicle, the driver's full eight hours, all fuel with no kilometre cap inside the city zone, door-to-door hotel or villa pickup with no outer-zone surcharge, and unlimited stops, route changes and waiting time.

In Bangkok, expressway tolls are included too. This is a genuine cost that many operators pass back to you at drop-off. According to Bangkok Expressway and Metro's official toll schedule, the inner-city Chalerm Maha Nakhon expressway charges a flat ฿50 per toll plaza for a four-wheel vehicle, and a day that crosses the city two or three times passes through several — ฿100–200 that appears as a handful of receipts at exactly the moment you least want to discuss them.

Not included: attraction entry fees, venue parking (typically ฿20–100), food, the optional licensed guide, and hours beyond the eighth.

The entry-fee point deserves nuance, because it varies enormously by city. In Bangkok a temple day genuinely adds up — the Grand Palace is ฿500 per person, Wat Pho ฿300, Wat Arun ฿200. In Phuket, Samui and Chiang Mai it barely registers: Wat Chalong, Phuket's Big Buddha, Karon Viewpoint, Promthep Cape, Samui's Big Buddha, Hin Ta Hin Yai and the Na Muang waterfalls are all free, and Chiang Mai's Doi Suthep is ฿30. In those three cities, the vehicle plus lunch is usually the entire cost of a full sightseeing day.

Bangkok — What Eight Hours Actually Covers

Bangkok punishes ambition. Traffic is genuinely unpredictable, and the worst of it runs roughly 07:00–09:30 and 16:00–19:00. Eight hours comfortably covers four or five stops spread across the city, or a great deal more if you stay in one district. An 08:00 start is worth roughly two extra stops compared with a 10:00 one.

The classic first-timer day follows the river: the Grand Palace (฿500, opens 08:30, and the single best argument for starting early — by eleven it is shoulder to shoulder), Wat Pho and its reclining Buddha ten minutes away (฿300), a crossing to Wat Arun (฿200), lunch by the water, and an afternoon at ICONSIAM or Asiatique.

The shopping day is where the disposal model earns its money outright, because taxis and ride-hailing punish exactly this pattern. Chatuchak Weekend Market on a Saturday or Sunday — free, over 15,000 stalls, genuinely exhausting — then Platinum Fashion Mall, then Siam Paragon or MBK, with the boot filling at every stop and nobody carrying anything.

The family day usually heads to Safari World out in Min Buri, or to Sea Life and a central mall with an early finish. Because Samut Prakan is inside the Bangkok zone at no extra cost, the Erawan Museum and the Ancient City are also fair game — an underrated day most visitors never manage without a private vehicle.

What does not fit: Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi, the Damnoen Saduak floating market and Pattaya. All are outside the zone and outside a comfortable eight hours, which is why we sell them as dedicated full-day tours instead.

Pattaya — What Eight Hours Actually Covers

Pattaya is the opposite of Bangkok: everything is close, and eight hours here covers noticeably more. Six or seven stops is a normal day rather than an ambitious one, because almost everything sits within a ten-to-twenty-five minute drive of Beach Road.

The north loop takes in the Sanctuary of Truth in Naklua (฿500 day, ฿700 sunset), an all-teak carved temple that is the one genuinely world-class thing in the city, then Naklua's seafood market and Terminal 21.

The south loop runs to Big Buddha Hill on Pratumnak (free, and the best free view in the city), down to Jomtien Beach, then out to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden (from ฿950 with tram and cultural show). Add the Pattaya Floating Market (฿300 adult, ฿200 child including a boat ride) on the way back.

The boat day is the quiet winner. Your driver drops you at Bali Hai Pier for a Coral Island trip, waits through the day with your bags and dry clothes locked in the vehicle, and collects you when the boat comes in. Anyone who has stood on that pier at four in the afternoon in wet swimwear hunting for a ride knows what that is worth.

Pattaya is also the one city where we actively recommend an afternoon start. The Sanctuary of Truth photographs far better in late light, Pratumnak is a sunset spot, and the night markets, beach-road restaurants and cabaret shows are all evening events. A 14:00 pickup gives you all of that inside the same eight hours you would otherwise spend in the midday heat.

Phuket — What Eight Hours Actually Covers

Phuket rewards clustering, because the island is long and hilly and the classic loop runs 80–100 km.

The southern classic covers Wat Chalong and its 60-metre Grand Pagoda; the Big Buddha, a 45-metre white-marble figure on Nakkerd Hill that reopened on 3 March 2026 after a landslide closed the access road in August 2024; Karon Viewpoint, where Kata Noi, Kata and Karon beaches line up in one frame; and Phuket Old Town for the Sino-Portuguese shophouses along Thalang Road and the painted lane of Soi Romanee. Every one of those is free to enter.

The sunset variant reverses the order and finishes at Promthep Cape, the southernmost headland and the island's designated sunset spot — usually with one extra hour on the clock.

The boat day works as it does in Pattaya: drop-off at Rassada Pier for Phi Phi or Ao Po for James Bond Island, with the car and your belongings waiting when you return.

A note on timing: go up the hills early. By late morning the haze thickens over Chalong Bay and the coaches arrive, and both the Big Buddha panorama and Karon Viewpoint soften into white. Old Town is better later, when the afternoon light warms the painted facades. Hills first, coast second, town last.

If you would rather not plan at all, our Phuket City Day Tour is the same vehicle running that curated route with the timings worked out.

Koh Samui — What Eight Hours Actually Covers

Samui is the easiest of the five to plan, because Route 4169, the ring road, runs about 51 kilometres in a complete loop and almost everything sits on it or a short spur off it. The longest drive between neighbouring highlights is about twenty minutes, so a full circuit with six or seven proper stops is a comfortable day.

The north-east cluster opens most itineraries: the Big Buddha at Wat Phra Yai, a 12-metre golden seated figure on a connected islet, and Wat Plai Laem with its eighteen-armed Guanyin over a fish-filled lake. Both free, and Plai Laem is usually quieter.

The south coast holds the island's oddest famous sight — Hin Ta and Hin Yai, the grandfather and grandmother rocks at Lamai, exactly as suggestive as the guidebooks imply — and Wat Khunaram, where the mummified monk Luang Pho Daeng has sat upright behind glass since 1973, wearing sunglasses added because the eye sockets unsettled visitors.

The interior is where a private vehicle genuinely earns its money, because songthaews will not go there. The Na Muang waterfalls sit about twelve kilometres inland from Lamai; Na Muang 1 is a short walk from the car park, Na Muang 2 a steeper climb to a taller drop. Both free, and both better in or just after the wet season.

The north and west close the loop: Fisherman's Village at Bophut, whose Friday walking street takes over the entire lane, quiet Maenam beach, and west-coast sunsets at Lipa Noi and Nathon — Samui's best sunsets face west, so run the loop anticlockwise if you want to finish there.

One Samui-specific practicality: villa access roads. Hillside villas at Chaweng Noi, Choeng Mon, Bang Por and Taling Ngam are reached by steep, narrow, roughly surfaced private roads, and it is genuinely common for drivers here to decline the last stretch and ask guests to walk down to the main road with their bags. We do not, but if your road is difficult we will send the SUV rather than the van, because it handles them considerably better. Tell us at booking.

Chiang Mai — What Eight Hours Actually Covers

Chiang Mai divides cleanly into things you should walk and things that need a vehicle, and knowing which is which is most of a good day.

Walk the Old City. Inside the moat, Wat Phra Singh (founded 1345) and Wat Chedi Luang — whose enormous 14th-century chedi partly collapsed in a 16th-century earthquake and was left magnificently ruined — sit within a square mile with a dozen smaller temples. Most are free or ฿20–50. Your driver drops you at one end and collects you at the other.

Drive the mountain. Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is about 15 kilometres and 30–45 minutes up a switchback road, and it is the main reason to want a vehicle here. Entry is ฿30 for foreign visitors; the traditional approach is the 306-step naga staircase, or ฿20 takes the funicular. Open daily 06:00–20:00.

Drive the east. The Bo Sang umbrella village and the San Kamphaeng silver and celadon workshops stretch along a road no songthaew serves usefully. It is also the most commission-heavy stretch of road in northern Thailand, lined with showrooms that pay drivers to deliver visitors — so it is worth booking with someone who will tell you which places are working craft studios and which are sales floors dressed up as one.

What does not fit — and this matters. Chiang Rai and the White Temple is roughly three hours each way. Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest peak, is a full mountain day. Pai is 762 curves of winding mountain road that visitors underestimate badly. None of these belong in an eight-hour city charter, and any operator who says otherwise is selling you six hours in a vehicle and ninety minutes at a temple. Elephant sanctuaries are also generally out of town, which is why our Chiang Mai sanctuary visits come with their own transfers included.

Chiang Mai is also, for what it is worth, the city where we most recommend adding a licensed guide. This is a 700-year-old Lanna capital, not a resort town, and almost nothing about it is self-explanatory — why the great chedi is broken, why Doi Suthep sits where it does (by legend, a white elephant carrying a Buddha relic was released to choose the site, climbed the mountain, trumpeted three times and died there), and what makes Lanna temple architecture a separate tradition entirely.

Van or SUV — How to Choose

SUV: ฿2,500, up to 4 passengers. Van: ฿3,000, up to 10 passengers.

Since the gap is ฿500 for a whole day, the van is the better buy more often than the seat count alone suggests. Take it if there are five or more of you, if you are travelling with grandparents or small children, or if the day involves shopping or beaches — the space behind the back row swallows a Chatuchak haul, wet towels and snorkels without anyone holding anything on their lap.

Take the SUV if you are a couple, a solo traveller, or three to four adults travelling light. It handles Bangkok's Chinatown lanes, Phuket Old Town's one-way streets, Chiang Mai's narrow sois, Samui's steep villa roads and the Doi Suthep switchbacks more easily, and for a day of business meetings it is the more discreet vehicle.

One honest caveat: the seat numbers are real limits, not optimistic ones. Ten adults with ten suitcases will not fit comfortably in a ten-seat van. If you are changing hotels or arriving with full luggage rather than day bags, count your group as one or two people larger and tell us at booking. Groups over ten: message us and we will quote two vehicles or a minibus.

Your Driver Is Not Your Guide — and That's the Law

This is the part of the industry most operators are quiet about, so here it is plainly.

Under Thailand's Tourism Business and Guide Act B.E. 2551 (2008), guiding tourists without a licence is an offence carrying penalties of up to ฿500,000 or two years' imprisonment, and tourist guiding is one of the occupations reserved exclusively for Thai nationals under the Ministry of Labour's prohibited-occupations list. Enforcement has tightened in recent years, with additional penalties and bans introduced for illegal guiding.

Your driver speaks working English. He knows the city — which expressway exit is moving at four o'clock, where a van can actually park near Wat Pho, which noodle shop is worth stopping at, which coast the Phuket weather is on. He will recommend restaurants happily and carries WhatsApp translation for anything complex.

He will not narrate temples, and we will not pretend he can. Plenty of operators quietly let drivers do it anyway, which puts the driver at genuine legal risk and gives you history of uncertain accuracy.

If you want commentary, add a TAT-licensed English-speaking guide for ฿2,500 for the whole day — for the group, not per person. Where it pays off most:

• Chiang Mai — Lanna history is dense and almost entirely unexplained on site.
• Pattaya's Sanctuary of Truth — unguided it is a bewildering wooden building covered in thousands of carvings; guided, it resolves into a readable Hindu-Buddhist cosmology.
• Bangkok's Grand Palace — the Ramakien murals along the cloister become a story rather than a very long wall.
• Samui's Wat Khunaram — the mummified monk goes from macabre curiosity to a genuinely moving lesson about impermanence.

For beach days, shopping days and market days, skip it happily. Nothing is lost and the vehicle price does not change.

What This Service Is Not Good For

Worth stating clearly, because the honest limits are as useful as the features.

• Airport transfers. Quoted separately by route. Flight timing risk does not belong inside a flexible sightseeing day.
• Intercity travel. Bangkok↔Pattaya, Chiang Mai↔Chiang Rai, Phuket↔Krabi — all separate route quotes.
• Long-haul day trips. Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi, Damnoen Saduak, Doi Inthanon, Pai. These need ten to twelve hours and are sold as their own tours.
• One or two simple journeys. If you just need to get from A to B twice, ride-hailing is cheaper and we will tell you so.
• Groups over ten. Message us for a second vehicle or a minibus.

What Our Customers Say

"Our agent's package said 'car at disposal' but capped it at 80 km and wanted extra for every change. We cancelled and booked Trip Thai Tour directly instead. ฿3,000 for the van, six of us, and we went to the Grand Palace, Chatuchak, Platinum and out to Samut Prakan with no arguments about kilometres. The driver found us pure vegetarian food twice without being asked twice." — Deepak & Anjali S., Mumbai, India

"We had been quoted ฿4,500 for a day by our resort on Samui and ฿500 an hour to extend. This was ฿3,000 with ฿400 extra hours, same size van, better service. The driver waited while we prayed, found us halal food at Fisherman's Village, and never rushed us at the waterfalls." — Aisha & Yusuf B., Dubai, UAE

"Nine of us in Chiang Mai. Two other companies quoted three separate cars because their vehicles only seat three or four. Trip Thai Tour sent one van for ฿3,000 — ฿333 each — and we all travelled together. Doi Suthep road included, no arguments." — Sanjay & Poonam T., Pune, India

Why We Check Your Plan Before Confirming

One deliberate difference in how we sell this: we do not take payment online, and you cannot instantly auto-confirm a day with us. You configure everything on the page — vehicle, date, hours, passengers — tell us roughly what you want to do, and send it over. We check it, then confirm.

That sounds like friction. It is actually the opposite, and here is why.

A disposal charter is the one product we sell where the customer's plan determines whether the product works at all. Four things routinely go wrong when a booking is auto-confirmed without anyone reading it:

1. The route leaves the zone. Someone books a Bangkok day and plans Ayutthaya. Someone books Chiang Mai and plans the White Temple. Both are outside the product, and both discover it at 9am with a driver who cannot take them.
2. The hours do not add up. Twelve stops across Bangkok in eight hours is not a tight day, it is an impossible one. Better to say so at the booking stage than to spend the day apologising.
3. The group does not fit. Ten adults with ten suitcases do not fit in a ten-seat van, however the seat count reads.
4. The guide is not available. Licensed guides are a limited pool, and the ฿2,500 add-on is not guaranteed on 24 hours' notice.

An operator that takes your money instantly and discovers any of that afterwards ends up issuing a refund and you end up with a ruined day. Checking first costs us a few minutes and costs you nothing — sending a plan commits you to nothing and is never charged. It means every confirmed booking is one we already know we can deliver.

How to Book

Pick your city, configure the day, and send us the plan:

• Bangkok — Private Car & Van at Disposal
• Pattaya — Private Car & Van at Disposal
• Phuket — Private Car & Van at Disposal
• Koh Samui — Private Car & Van at Disposal
• Chiang Mai — Private Car & Van at Disposal

Each page has a short form: choose van or SUV, set the date, pickup time, hours and passenger count, add the optional guide, and write a line or two about what you would like to do. It sends straight to us on WhatsApp with everything laid out. We reply with a confirmation, usually within minutes during Thai business hours — and if your plan needs adjusting, we will tell you exactly what and why rather than taking the booking and hoping.

Send it at least 24 hours ahead so we can check availability and assign a driver. Once confirmed, you will receive his name, mobile number and the vehicle's plate by WhatsApp the night before. For airport transfers, intercity routes, groups over ten, or a multi-day arrangement, message us on WhatsApp +66 89 949 6235 and we will quote it properly.

Trip Thai Tour is TAT Licensed No. 14/04232, rated 4.0 from 186 reviews, and operated by Global Feed Limited Partnership in Bangkok. You can verify our licence yourself on the official TAT tour-agent registry — we would encourage you to check any Thai operator you are considering, not just us.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 'car at disposal' mean in Thailand?▼

A car at disposal means you hire the whole vehicle and its driver for a fixed block of time — usually 8 hours — rather than paying per journey or per person. The vehicle stays with you throughout: it takes you somewhere, waits while you are there, and takes you on to the next place as many times as you like. It is the difference between buying a taxi ride and buying a driver's day. The term comes from the Indian travel trade and appears in most Thailand packages sold from India, though packaged versions almost always cap the kilometres and charge for re-routing.

How much does a private car with driver cost in Thailand per day?▼

With Trip Thai Tour it is a flat ฿2,500 for an SUV carrying up to 4 passengers, or ฿3,000 for a van carrying up to 10, for 8 hours, in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai. That is per vehicle rather than per person, so six people in the van pay ฿500 each and ten pay ฿300 each. Local market rates vary widely by city: roughly ฿2,000–3,500 in Bangkok, ฿2,100–2,800 in Phuket, ฿3,000 for a three-seat car in Chiang Mai, and ฿3,000–5,000 on Koh Samui, which is the most expensive.

Is there a kilometre limit on a car at disposal?▼

With us, no — you can visit as many places as you like inside the city zone, in any order, with no kilometre counter and no per-stop charge. This matters because a kilometre cap, commonly 80 km, is the single most frequent restriction in packaged 'car at disposal' deals sold through agents, alongside a fixed itinerary and re-routing charges. Travellers usually discover the cap halfway through the day when the driver declines to turn. Always ask three questions before booking anyone: is there a km cap, when does the clock start, and what does an extra hour cost?

When do the 8 hours start — at pickup or when the driver leaves?▼

With Trip Thai Tour the clock starts the moment your driver collects you at your hotel or villa door, and ends when he drops you back. A 09:00 pickup means a 17:00 drop-off. This is worth confirming with any operator, because starting the clock at dispatch rather than at pickup is a common practice that quietly consumes thirty to sixty minutes of a day you have paid for. Ask the question directly before you book — a straight answer tells you a lot about how the rest of the day will be handled.

What is included in the price?▼

The vehicle, the driver's full 8 hours, all fuel with no kilometre cap inside the city zone, and door-to-door hotel or villa pickup with no outer-zone surcharge. In Bangkok, all expressway tolls are included too, which matters because the inner-city Chalerm Maha Nakhon expressway charges a flat ฿50 per toll plaza and a cross-city day passes several. Not included are attraction entry fees, venue parking of roughly ฿20–100, food, the optional licensed guide at ฿2,500 per day, and any hours beyond the eighth.

Which is better, the van or the SUV?▼

The SUV is ฿2,500 and seats up to 4; the van is ฿3,000 and seats up to 10. Since the gap is only ฿500 for a whole day, the van is better value for any group of four or more, and it is the clear choice if you have grandparents, small children, or a shopping or beach day ahead, because of the luggage space behind the back row. Take the SUV if you are a couple or three to four adults travelling light — it handles narrow old-town streets, steep Samui villa roads and the Doi Suthep switchbacks more easily.

Can the driver act as our tour guide?▼

No, and any operator telling you otherwise is putting their driver at legal risk. Under Thailand's Tourism Business and Guide Act B.E. 2551, guiding tourists without a licence carries penalties of up to ฿500,000 or two years' imprisonment, and guiding is one of the occupations reserved for Thai nationals. Your driver speaks working English and will happily recommend restaurants and explain practicalities, but he will not narrate temples. A TAT-licensed English-speaking guide can be added for ฿2,500 per day for the whole group — most worthwhile in Chiang Mai.

Do you pick up from the airport?▼

Not on the 8-hour disposal product. Airport transfers are quoted separately by route, because they carry different timing risk — flight delays, arrivals-hall waiting, and hard deadlines in the other direction — and folding them into a flexible sightseeing day tends to produce a stressful one. Message us on WhatsApp +66 89 949 6235 for a fixed transfer price. For comparison, many Phuket operators surcharge airport pickups at around ฿500 booked ahead, or ฿1,000 requested on the day.

Can we travel between cities, for example Bangkok to Pattaya?▼

Not on this product, which covers each city and its immediate area only. Intercity routes are quoted separately by route because they are genuinely different jobs: Bangkok to Pattaya is roughly two hours each way, Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai about three, and Doi Inthanon or Pai are full mountain days. Cramming any of them into an 8-hour charter means most of the day spent in a vehicle. Message us on WhatsApp and we will price the real journey properly rather than selling you a day that cannot do what you want.

Can you arrange halal, vegetarian or Indian food stops?▼

Yes, at no extra cost. Tell us at booking or tell your driver on the day, and he will take you to genuinely good halal-friendly, vegetarian, Jain-friendly, Indian or Western food rather than a restaurant that pays him commission. All five cities are well served. Your driver will also pause for prayer times whenever you ask and will wait as long as you need at any stop, since there is no time pressure inside your eight hours. Lunch is not included — budget roughly ฿150–500 per person, less in Chiang Mai.

How far in advance should I book a private car in Thailand?▼

Send your plan at least 24 hours ahead, so we can check availability, assign a driver and confirm your pickup time. Weekends, Thai public holidays and each city's high season fill faster, so 48 to 72 hours is safer then — particularly Koh Samui from December to March, where the island's vehicle fleet is genuinely limited, and Chiang Mai around Loi Krathong and Yi Peng. If you want the licensed guide add-on, give us 48 hours where possible, as guides are subject to availability. Same-day requests are sometimes possible via WhatsApp.

Do I pay online when I book?▼

No. You configure the day on the page — vehicle, date, hours, passengers — tell us roughly what you would like to do, and send it to us on WhatsApp. We check the plan against the vehicle size, the hours and the route, confirm a driver is free, and reply, usually within minutes during Thai business hours. Payment is arranged only once your day is confirmed. We work this way because a disposal charter is the one product where your plan decides whether we can actually deliver it: a route may leave the city zone, twelve stops may not fit into eight hours, or a guide may be unavailable. Checking first means every confirmed booking is one we know we can run.

What happens if we want to keep the car longer than 8 hours?▼

Extra hours are ฿400 for the van and ฿300 for the SUV, charged in whole hours, agreed with your driver on the day and settled directly with him. There is no advance commitment, no minimum extension, no evening premium and no penalty rate. This compares well with local norms: roughly ฿500 an hour on Koh Samui and ฿350 in Phuket, where extensions are also commonly described as 'subject to availability' because the driver may be slotted between other bookings. Yours is assigned to you for the day.

Is a private car cheaper than taxis or ride-hailing?▼

It depends entirely on how many stops you make. For one or two direct journeys, a taxi or ride-hailing app is cheaper. From roughly four stops onward the disposal model wins, and it wins decisively on shopping, beach and market days. It also provides something apps cannot: a vehicle that waits, so your bags, shopping and dry clothes stay locked inside all day and there is no scramble for a car outside a venue at closing time or in the rain.

What is the cancellation policy?▼

Cancellations more than 7 days before your booked pickup time receive a full refund; between 7 days and 48 hours a 50% refund applies; within 48 hours or for no-shows the booking is non-refundable. Cancellations count from the moment your written message reaches us on WhatsApp +66 89 949 6235 or by email. If your airline cancels your flight or you have a documented medical emergency, we offer one free date change within six months instead. If we cancel for any reason, you choose a full refund or a free new date.