Your First Month in Pattaya: What to Sort Out First

Moving to Pattaya is exciting, and there's a lot to sort out. Here's the order I'd do it in.

Week one: your phone

Get a Thai SIM and number first. It gets you online, and these days that's essential: for maps, paying for things, checking things and doing your research.

Rent first, and go below budget

Even if you've visited plenty of times, rent before you buy. Short lets are hard to find: you might get a six-month lease, but often it's 12 months. Choose somewhere below your budget to start with, make sure you really enjoy living here, then scale up.

Living here isn't the same as a holiday. A lot of people visit for a month or two, love it and move here, then find it feels different once they slip back into a normal routine. Some end up splitting the year, say six months back in the UK and six months here.

For more, read renting a condo in Pattaya.

The admin

Once your visa is set up, open a bank account. You don't need a certificate of residence unless the bank, or later the licence office, asks for one. More in banking in Thailand and visas in Pattaya.

Then get a Thai driving licence.

You don't need to register with a hospital. But if you have insurance, find out where the hospitals are and what they offer. More in healthcare in Pattaya.

The mistakes to avoid

Staying in holiday mode and overspending is an easy one, though you are here to enjoy the lifestyle.

The bigger mistake is taking the wrong advice. You meet a guy in a bar who's lived here far longer than you, and take what he says as the truth. But plenty of people are misinformed, and living somewhere a long time doesn't mean you know how things work. Check things for yourself.

My top tip

Get your Thai driving licence. It makes life here so much easier, from police checkpoints to using it as ID instead of your passport.

For more, read what I wish I'd known before moving to Thailand, making friends in Pattaya and is Pattaya expensive?