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About this tool
Thai road rules for visitors: which side to drive on, speed limits, blood-alcohol limits and the licence a car or motorbike actually needs.
This explainer sets out what a visitor needs before driving in Thailand: you drive on the left in a right-hand-drive car, signs are in km/h, and the licence must cover the class of vehicle you are actually using. It applies the 2021 speed regulation — 80 km/h inside municipal areas, 90 km/h outside them and up to 120 km/h on designated four-lane sections — together with the 2017 alcohol regulation, which sets 50 mg per 100 ml of blood for an ordinary licence holder and 20 mg for anyone under 20, on a probationary licence, or unlicensed.
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A car licence carries no motorcycle entitlement, and the tool says so before you pay a rental deposit.
Age and licence type both drop the limit from 50 mg to 20 mg per 100 ml.
Flashing headlights, U-turn bridges and left-on-red rules that reverse what European and American drivers expect.
Yes, if your licence was issued outside ASEAN. Thailand is a party to both the 1949 Geneva and 1968 Vienna conventions, so either type of International Driving Permit is accepted when carried with your original licence. A home licence on its own is not enough: you are treated as unlicensed, which is a fineable offence and gives an insurer grounds to decline a claim.
No. Thai law requires a licence valid for the class of vehicle, and a car licence carries no motorcycle entitlement. Riding without one leaves you unlicensed, which excludes you from the compulsory Por Ror Bor insurance and from virtually every travel insurance policy — so the hospital bill after a crash falls on you in full. Rental shops will still hand over the key; that is not the same as being legal.
50 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, which is 0.05 %, for an ordinary licence holder aged 20 or over. It drops to 20 mg per 100 ml for drivers under 20, for holders of a temporary or probationary licence, and for anyone driving without a valid licence or while suspended. A first offence carries up to a year's imprisonment, a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 baht and at least six months' licence suspension, and refusing a breath test is treated as an admission.
80 km/h inside municipal areas including Bangkok and Pattaya, 90 km/h outside them, and up to 120 km/h for cars on designated four-lane motorway and highway sections since the 2021 ministerial regulation. Those 120 km/h sections also carry a 100 km/h minimum in the right-hand lane, so driving too slowly there is an offence in its own right. Motorcycles, buses and trucks are held to lower figures on the same roads.