Missing travel to Asia like crazy, and particularly Thailand? Today is a big day. After Australia and Singapore each dropped testing this week, Thailand is joining the pack.
Thailand’s journey to testing free travel has been a bit like the Harry Potter book series. It’s been a long and winding road, with great moments, tragedies and a point where your eyes hurt from reading. Actually, it might be more like Lord of The Rings, where you wonder if it will ever end.
Anyway, after a series of twisting turns, Thailand shocked the travel world in March by proclaiming plans for a logical and timely framework to drop all Covid-19 travel testing, as situations improved. Like many things in Thailand, few who read the news believed it would actually follow schedule.
But today, Thailand is proclaiming officially, that from May 1st, all mandatory Covid-19 testing for travel to Thailand will be dropped for fully vaccinated visitors.
This is a huge step change, and one that joins with plans to scrap cumbersome forms, too. With so much excitement to get back to Southeast Asia, here’s what you need to know about Thailand’s latest travel changes.
Thailand Scraps Covid-19 Testing For Travel
If you’re a fully vaccinated visitor, Thailand will no longer require Covid-19 tests before travel, or after arrival into the country, from May 1st, 2022 onward. All visitors will still need proof of vaccination. Unvaccinated visitors must still quarantine and take tests.
Instead of mandatory testing for vaccinated arrivals, travelers will be encouraged to self administer an antigen test after arrival, but are not obligated to do so. Yep, you will get a test, but you are not obligated to take it. So, where to? Krabi, Chiang Mai, Phi-Phi?
There are two key remaining steps: the Thailand Pass and health insurance. All visitors must still apply for entry in advance of travel, via the Thailand Pass. The pass process is much easier now than it was before.
For now, the country is holding onto requirements to obtain at least $10,000 in travel insurance coverage. The travel insurance should have Covid-19 as a covered item. This lowered coverage amount will significantly reduce the cost of obtaining the insurance.
The main good news is that if you book a trip and fill out the forms, you’re going, and your trip should be stress free on arrival. There’s no fear of a false positive abroad, or being forced into quarantine.
More To Come From Thailand?
In March, Thailand dropped pre-departure testing and proposed a move to antigen testing to replace RT-PCR tests from May. After consideration, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha went a step further, removing the mandatory testing requirement entirely.
In those same March plans, Thailand proposed ending all remaining Covid-19 related travel restrictions, including the Thailand Pass and other bureaucratic measures from June 1st, 2022 onward. By all indications, that’s likely to be on track. It should be.
If you’re planning to travel to Thailand after June 1st, you may experience travel of old. It’s finally time to start booking trips.
Yawn. Wake me up when they aren’t requiring the failed vax for entry. You know. The vax that does NOT keep you from catching the Vid and does NOT keep you from spreading the Vid. Absolutely foolishness to require a failed vax for a virus that isn’t killing anyone anymore (unless the person was woefully unhealthy to begin with) !!!!
You can enter without proof of vax, you’ll just need more testing and short quarantine. That’s all I gots to say about that today.
completely agree
But it has significantly lowered hospitalizations from COVID that is a well known fact. So yes, it doesn’t stop you catching or transmitting it but it does keep you significantly safer once you do catch it. I’m neither anti vax or pro vax, I’m just pro choice. Given Thailands destroyed tourism industry and the billions of income they’ve lost I think they’re being extremely clever on gradually phasing out restrictions one step at a time and they’ve handled it well. I had to test and go 2 weeks ago and yes it was hassle but it was only one night. I can’t wait to see Thailand the way it was pre covid.
Sorry James living to over 65 is not woefully unhealthy: The body just starts to deteriorate at a faster rate. Thereby becoming mote susceptible to Virus’s etc.
BRILLIANT !
@James
Wow, so many lies and misunderstanding of Covid and Vaccines in general in 1 post.
Keep sleeping. Happier to travel without people like you.
^ ididot
Educate yourself.. Stop listening to msm.. And do some proper research.. If you love your children.. Its your duty to protect them.. Read the pfizer report they tried hiding for 75 years.. Whoever has taken the vaccine.. You now have no immune system for life
And when you get here you will find a graveyard. Yes there are a few places where tourists can go for a meal, a drink and some entertainment. But in the main the tourism infrastructure is in disarray with vast numbers of businesses closed for ever. The government does not want tourism to return in big numbers because tourists bring liberal ideas which conflict with their xenophobia and desire to return the country to the 19th century where ordinary people were little more than slaves to their overlords. Thailand is not a place of happiness any more.
Well said
Completely agree. Nothing is the same here anymore. Bars are still not open and some will never open again.
Unvaxd are probably 100 times healthier than the vaxd ones with 10 times stronger immune system and lifetime antibodies for cvid.
Ugh… When the masses will wake up from their sleep. And I thought they now fully opened.
Your final salutation is fir a female!
Had a sex change lately?
The “at least $10,000 in travel insurance coverage” is a killer for me. So…
In May I will be in the US Virgin Islands, which only requires a QR code proving my vaccination documents were accepted.
In June I will be in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and The Netherlands. They dropped all requirements for fully vaxxed pax so they won my flight, hotel, and other money.
In July I will be in Norway, Denmark, Ireland, the UK, and Portugal because…they don’t have requirements like “at least $10,000 in travel insurance coverage.”
Thailand was my next-to-last country to visit in March 2020, before the Zombie Apocalypse wreaked havoc, but Thailand still gets a failing grade in inviting travelers like me back.
Most of us have had covid regardless of your vaccination status. Natural induced immunity by omicron should be sufficient to travel without going through restrictions. Unless your immunity had been compromised.
Countries that insist on vaccination can feck off! For what reason? It doesn’t prevent transmission or stop contraction! It’s just punishment for those who won’t comply! I’ll take my money and spent it in a country that has little to no restrictions for the unvaxed!
What does fully vaxed mean?
2 doses plus booster? What is required max length from last dose?
Very important details that can potentially make or break your entry into a country.