Should You Rent a Scooter in Thailand?

The decision of whether or not to rent a scooter really depends on where you are in Thailand. Major cities like Bangkok have specific rules for how scooters are supposed to behave that can be confusing and overwhelming to non-locals.

Things are much more relaxed in rural areas. In Koh Lanta for example, you can use a scooter to meander down the road at your leisure, park basically anywhere, and explore the entire island much more comfortably than you would on foot.

We rented scooters three times during our visit to Thailand. Our first rental was in Chiang Mai so that we could explore Doi Suthep: a mountain with a national park as well as a temple near the summit.

Even though Chiang Mai is much smaller than Bangkok, we still found the traffic to be pretty intimidating. Being accustomed to having a whole lane to myself, lane-splitting with other vehicles felt like taking my life into my own hands. And, it should go without saying, but under no circumstances would I want to learn to ride in Chiang Mai.

Besides, Chiang Mai has tuk-tuks, Grab (the Uber of Southeast Asia), and other forms of transit for hire. So, there’s really no need to have your own wheels. We returned the scooter after one day, and didn’t rent another one for the remainder of the month we spent in this city.

Our second and third scooter rentals were in Koh Lanta and Koh Sok village, respectively. Unlike in Chiang Mai, we found scooters to be a cheap, low-stress, convenient way to get around both of these places. In rural areas, traffic tends to be scarce and laidback. Parking is free and plentiful. Further, Grab taxis tend to be unavailable, and things are too spread out to be walkable. We kept our scooters for the duration of our stays in both locations.

To sum up: if the place you’re staying is urban enough to have Grab, I personally wouldn’t bother with a scooter rental. Grab is cheap and feels a lot safer in high-density places. The locals know the rules of the road much better than you will. But if you’re staying somewhere rural enough to not have Grab, you’ll probably be happy to have your own scooter.