Travel Vaccinations for Thailand

Street dogs, cats, bats and rodents are common throughout the cities and rural areas of Thailand. If you get bitten or scratched you will need to get urgent medical attention. Animal bites expose you to a range of infections including rabies. This may be one of the vaccines for Thailand that you need, be sure to book an appointment and consult a travel health professional about this.

From the offset, travellers arriving in Thailand must be aware of mosquitoes and insects. All over Thailand, you can get dengue fever and Japanese Encephalitis and there is a risk of malaria in some parts of the country. Ensure you have had a consultation to see whether this is one of your injections needed for Thailand. Take steps to avoid insect bites including wearing insect repellent such as DEET 50% and covering areas of exposed skin with long sleeves and trousers.

Part of the experience of travelling to Thailand is enjoying the food, especially stall and street food. Do take steps to avoid travellers diarrhoea. When eating from stalls and street vendors, you want to choose a vendor that looks popular, especially with locals. You also want to see the vendor cooking the food, as it is the heat that will kill off the bacteria. Some travellers, especially those travelling with children, like to carry their own plates and cutlery to ensure the cleanliness of what they are eating off.

It is generally not recommended that you drink the tap water in Thailand. Buy bottled water and use this for drinking and brushing your teeth. Some of the most common bottled water brands in Thailand are Aura, Mont Fleur, Minere, Nestle PureLife and Aqua.

Thailand is a notorious destination for contracting travellers diarrhoea. Once arriving in Thailand you need to immediately start thinking about personal hygiene. Use alcohol gel, wash your hands regularly and monitor what you are putting in your mouth. 

Thailand is generally a safe country for travellers, and most of the 800,000 British people who travel there every year do not experience any problems. However, there have been a number of violent attacks, especially on the southern party islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Travellers, both men and women, should generally keep their wits about them throughout the country, especially late at night.

Adventure travellers are advised to practice Water Safety as there have been a lot of accidents in Thailand with operators over filling boats that head out to the islands in the south. There is virtually no health and safety regulations in place or lifeboats and the operators may not be qualified. If a boat looks overloaded or in a bad condition, wait for the next one or pay extra to go on a good boat. The weather can also be very changeable and operators will continue to operate in weather that might be dangerous.

Road Safety is a very serious risk when travelling in Thailand. Caution is advised when using tuk-tuks, mopeds and motorbikes. If you plan to hire a scooter then always think of your own safety first, especially when it comes to roads and vehicles.

Following the well publicised military take over of the government in May 2014 martial law is currently in place across Thailand. Before the coup there were large protests and demonstrations throughout the country, some of which were violent. Travellers are advised to avoid any political gatherings in Thailand.

Make sure you have health insurance in place that will cover the full range of activities you plan to undertake while you are in Thailand.

Travellers to Thailand will usually arrive in Bangkok, a modern, vibrant and very well developed city with everything that you would expect in a major city with department stores, major hotels, bars and parks. However, many travellers do experience some form of Culture Shock when visiting Thailand, taking a few days to adjust.