The short version. Say nothing about the royal family, anywhere, including a like on a post. Leave the vape at home. Stand still when the anthem plays at 8am and 6pm. Shoes off in a home. Keep your feet down and your hands off people’s heads. Dress to the palace’s written list, not to your own idea of modest. Everything after that is manners, and manners are forgiven here.
What an official source actually states
The Royal Thai Government’s own portal publishes a short list of things visitors should know, and it is more specific than most of what is written about Thai etiquette in English. Everything in this table is a sentence read off a government page, not a summary of the guidebook consensus. Where the wording is quoted, the quotation marks are doing real work.
| Rule | What the source states | Who states it |
|---|---|---|
| The national anthem, twice a day | “The National Anthem is played at 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. every day, especially at public offices. If the national anthem is heard, one must stand straight to show respect.” | thailand.go.th (Royal Thai Government portal) |
| The head | Do not touch another person’s head, which Thais regard as sacred, and do not pass objects over someone’s head. | thailand.go.th |
| The feet | “Do not use your feet to push or point at objects. Thais consider their feet a low thing.” Never step over people, or over items such as food and books. | thailand.go.th |
| Shoes indoors | “Take off your shoes in a home. Thai people do not wear shoes in the house, as they carry in dirt from outside; only slippers may be worn.” | thailand.go.th |
| Monks | Women cannot touch monks. The portal states this without qualification, as custom rather than as a written penalty. | thailand.go.th |
| Temples | Visitors must “dress properly when in temples.” | thailand.go.th |
| Feet and heads, stated to foreigners | “Do not show the soles of your feet or touch the top of a person’s head. These are insulting in Thai culture.” | Smartraveller (Australian Government) |
| Temples, stated to foreigners | “Be respectful in temples. Avoid making pejorative comments about the Thai Royal Family. This can result in arrest, imprisonment, or expulsion.” | U.S. Department of State travel advisory |
The anthem is the one that catches every new arrival. It is not the royal anthem played before a cinema screening — that is a different piece of music in a different setting. This one arrives over a loudspeaker at eight in the morning and six in the evening, and the platform, the park or the office stops moving for about a minute.
The Grand Palace dress code, in the palace’s own words
“Dress modestly” is the advice that gets people turned away at the gate, because it is the reader’s idea of modest that fails, not the palace’s. The Bureau of the Royal Household publishes an explicit list. Here it is, unedited, alongside the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s positive version of the same rule for royal palaces generally.
- No sleeveless shirts
- No vests
- No short top
- No see through tops
- No short hot pants or short pants
- No torn pants
- No tight pants
- No bike pants
- No mini skirts
- No pants skirts
- No sleeping suit
- Men: “Wear a shirt with sleeves and long pants.”
- Women: “Wear a shirt with sleeves, a skirt that covers the knees, or long pants.”
- TAT names the things to avoid as sleeveless shirts, cropped tank tops, sheer clothing, shorts, close-fitting clothing, ripped jeans and flip-flops.
The detail worth carrying away is that tight and torn are on the list as well as short. Ripped jeans and leggings both fail, and they are what people actually turn up in after reading a generic “cover your shoulders and knees”. The palace also states that a drone may not be flown over the area.
Practical figures, from the palace’s own site: open daily 8:30am to 4:30pm, tickets sold 8:30am to 3:30pm, admission 500 baht, on Na Phra Lan Road in Phra Nakhon (Rattanakosin). We have deliberately printed no admission figure for any other temple on this page — see temple etiquette and Buddhist practice for how conduct inside a wat differs from conduct at a royal site.
The etiquette that is law
A short list of things that are unremarkable in most countries and carry a real penalty here. Each row names who states the figure, because the figures are not consistent between sources — and pretending they are would be the more dangerous simplification.
| What | The rule | Stated figures |
|---|---|---|
| Criticising the monarchyUS / AU / UK travel advisories | A criminal offence. The Australian and U.S. governments both describe defacing an image of the monarchy — including the King’s image on a banknote — as capable of falling within it. | Up to 15 years’ imprisonment “per offense” (U.S. State Department); “prison terms of up to 15 years” (Smartraveller); “interpreted broadly” and carrying “a long prison sentence” (UK FCDO). |
| Posting, commenting — or likingSmartraveller | The Australian advice is the specific one, and it is the sentence most newcomers have never read: the exposure extends to what you endorse, not only what you write. | “Take care not to cause offence when posting, commenting or liking items about the monarchy, including on social media.” |
| Vapingthailand.go.th | E‑cigarettes, refill liquid, shisha and electronic shisha are unlawful in Thailand. Import was prohibited in 2014; sale and possession are caught by separate instruments — the Consumer Protection Act, a 2014 Ministry of Commerce announcement, the Customs Act 2017 and the Tobacco Products Control Act 2017. | Thai government portal: sellers up to 3 years or 600,000 baht; importers up to 10 years or five times the goods’ value plus confiscation; possession or receipt up to 5 years or four times the value; using one in public up to 5,000 baht. |
| Smoking in publicTAT Newsroom / UK FCDO | Banned in almost all indoor public places, indoor workplaces and public transport, and in a named list of outdoor ones: “exercise or sports training facilities, sporting venues or competitions of any kind, public parks, zoos, amusement parks, children’s playgrounds, and markets.” | Up to 5,000 baht (UK FCDO; TAT states the same ceiling for airports, per violation). |
| Smoking on a beachU.S. Library of Congress, Global Legal Monitor | Separate from the general smoking law and much heavier. Introduced under section 17 of the Act on the Promotion of Marine and Coastal Resources Management, B.E. 2558 (2015), announced 11 October 2017 and effective from November 2017. | “A fine of up to 100,000 baht … and/or a prison term of up to one year.” |
| Taking a Buddha image homeThai Customs Department | Thai Customs lists “Buddha image, artifact/objects, antique” as restricted goods. Restricted does not mean forbidden — it means a permit from the Fine Arts Department is required to take one out of the country, and a souvenir stall is not that permit. | Permit issued by the Fine Arts Department; no fee or processing time is stated on the Customs page. |
Three governments is not three sources. The American, Australian and British advisories agree with each other on the monarchy because all three are reading the same Thai statute, not because three independent bodies established the same fact. We have set them side by side so you can see what each government chose to tell its own citizens, and we have not merged them into one confident sentence.
The customs that are custom
Everything below is manners. There is no fine attached to any of it, nobody will hold a mistake against you, and Thai people are patient with newcomers to a degree that genuinely surprises most arrivals. It is worth learning anyway, because the difference between a foreigner who is tolerated and one who is welcomed lives almost entirely in this section.
The wai
The Royal Thai Government portal defines it plainly: “a traditional Thai greeting often used for people of higher status or age”, which “can also mean thanking or apologizing, depending on” the situation. That definition carries the rule inside it. The wai runs upward — the younger or more junior person offers it first, and the senior one returns it lower or simply nods.
- Return a wai that is offered to you, palms together, fingertips around chin height, with a small bow of the head
- Wai an older person, a monk, a teacher, a landlord or an official you are meeting for the first time
- Use it as thanks or as an apology — it does that job as well as greeting
- Put your bags down first; a wai performed one-handed with a coffee in the other reads worse than a nod
- Do not wai a child — it inverts the relationship and puts the child in an awkward position
- Do not wai the staff who hand you a receipt, a 7-Eleven cashier or a waiter clearing plates; a smile and a nod is the correct response
- Do not treat it as a handshake substitute in every business meeting — many Thai professionals will offer a hand to a foreigner first
Jai yen — the cool heart
The single habit that decides how your first year goes. Thai social life runs on keeping composure, and a raised voice does not read here as “I am serious about this” — it reads as a loss of control, which costs the person shouting far more standing than it costs the person being shouted at. In a dispute with a landlord, a juristic-person office, a shop or a driver, the calm party is the one who gets helped.
- Say the problem once, quietly, and then wait — silence does more work here than repetition
- Give the other person a way to fix it that does not require them to admit fault in front of others
- Take a disagreement out of earshot of colleagues, neighbours or staff before pressing it
- Assume a smile in an uncomfortable moment is discomfort, not amusement
- Do not raise your voice, point, or stand over someone seated
- Do not deliver an ultimatum in a group chat or in a building lobby
- Do not read an apology as an admission of liability — here it is usually an attempt to restore calm
Homes, and being a guest
Shoes off is the written rule (the government portal states it, and adds that only slippers are worn inside). The rest is convention and worth knowing: you will often see shoes outside small shops, clinics, massage places and guesthouses too, and the shoes by the door are the instruction.
- Take a small gift — fruit, something for the house, something for the children
- Give and receive with your right hand, or with both, and steady your right forearm with your left hand for something formal
- Sit with your feet tucked behind you rather than crossed at the knee if people are sitting on the floor
- Do not step on a raised threshold — step over it
- Do not put your feet up on a table, a seat back, or a dashboard where others can see them
- Do not walk in with shoes on because your host said “it’s fine” — they are being polite
Dining
Thai food is shared, and the spoon is the utensil. The fork’s job is to push food onto the spoon; it does not go in the mouth. Chopsticks appear with noodle dishes and Chinese-Thai food and are otherwise uncommon. Rice is taken a little at a time from the communal dishes onto your own plate rather than loaded at the start.
- Let the oldest person at the table begin
- Serve others before yourself, and refill someone else’s glass before your own
- Take small amounts of each shared dish rather than a single large helping
- Expect the person who invited to pay, and expect a light protest if you try
- Do not put the fork in your mouth
- Do not take the last piece from a shared plate without offering it around
- Do not spear a shared dish with your own used spoon where a serving spoon is provided
Etiquette in the building you live in
The etiquette guides stop at the temple gate, which is unhelpful if you are renting a condo rather than visiting one. None of the following is law and none of it is on a government page — it is BAANLYY’s own read of how these relationships work in practice, and we are labelling it as such rather than dressing it up.
- The juristic person office is not a landlord and not a concierge. It administers the building for the co-owners. Requests land better as a written note left politely at the desk than as a complaint made at the counter with other residents in earshot.
- Security guards are addressed, not waved at. A nod and a sawatdee khrap / kha to the guard at the barrier every day is the single cheapest piece of goodwill available to a foreign resident, and it is repaid the first time a parcel needs holding.
- Shoes by the door applies in condos too. Many Thai households keep the convention in a high-rise exactly as they would in a house; if your neighbour’s shoes are outside their unit, yours belong outside yours when you visit.
- A dispute with a landlord is won quietly. Deposit disagreements, repair delays and end-of-lease deductions are all more tractable in a calm private message than in a confrontation. See rental listings, building profiles and verified agents for the side of this we can actually document.
- Moving-in merit is common and nobody expects you to do it. Many Thai households mark a new home with a small merit-making. You are welcome to, and equally welcome not to; no neighbour will read anything into either choice.
Thai etiquette — living summary
Editorial analysis compiled and periodically refreshed by BAANLYY’s research team — not a live data feed.
- Which etiquette rules are actually enforced, and which are goodwill?Almost everything on the manners side of this page is goodwill: get the wai slightly wrong and nobody minds. The enforced set is short and specific — anything touching the monarchy, temple dress at royal sites, vaping, smoking in the wrong place, and taking religious antiquities out of the country. That is the division this page is organised around, because most guides blur it and leave readers cautious about the wrong things.
- Which mistake do newcomers actually make most?Losing composure in a dispute. Thai social life runs on jai yen, keeping a cool heart, so a raised voice with a landlord, a juristic-person office or a shop reads as a loss of control rather than as seriousness, and reliably makes the outcome worse. The second most common is arriving at the Grand Palace in something on its banned list — usually ripped jeans or leggings rather than shorts, because visitors read “modest” and not “no torn pants, no tight pants”.
- Is the vape situation changing?The prohibition has been stable for years and the four instruments behind it are still the ones the Royal Thai Government portal names. What is not stable is the penalty figure: the Thai portal, the UK Foreign Office and Australia’s Smartraveller each state different numbers, which is a sign that what is written and what is applied at an airport desk are not the same thing. Treat the prohibition as firm and any single figure as indicative.
- Is the wai fading in everyday interactions?In casual urban settings a smile and a nod increasingly does the work, particularly in Bangkok service interactions where a returned wai can make staff uncomfortable rather than honoured. It remains the default with elders, in rural areas, at temples, and in anything formal. Newcomers are safest defaulting to it and reading the room, rather than assuming it is optional everywhere.
Analysis last reviewed 2026-09-23.
How the enforced rules got there
- 1932Constitutional monarchy, undiminished deferenceThailand’s shift from absolute to constitutional monarchy changed the political system. It did not change the social and legal position of the King, which is the distinction newcomers most often miss when they reason by analogy from monarchies elsewhere.
- 2005Thailand joins the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco ControlThe Tourism Authority of Thailand dates the country’s accession to 27 February 2005. Everything on the smoking side of this page — the indoor bans, the named outdoor places, the beach ban — descends from the tobacco-control programme that followed.
- 2014E-cigarettes prohibited from importA Ministry of Commerce announcement prohibited bringing e-cigarettes into the Kingdom. Sale and possession are caught by the Consumer Protection Act, the Customs Act 2017 and the Tobacco Products Control Act 2017, which is why the offence a traveller is charged with varies with how the device was found.
- 2017Beaches go smoke-free under the marine resources ActAnnounced 11 October 2017 and effective that November, under section 17 of the Act on the Promotion of Marine and Coastal Resources Management, B.E. 2558 (2015). The penalty ceiling — up to 100,000 baht and/or up to a year — is an order of magnitude above the ordinary public-smoking fine, which is the part that catches people out.
- TodayThree foreign governments warn their citizens in near-identical termsThe U.S., Australian and UK advisories now each carry a monarchy warning, a vaping warning and a smoking warning for Thailand. They corroborate each other less than they appear to — all three are reading the same Thai statutes — but the consistency of the warning is itself the signal for a new arrival.
What we could not confirm
The gaps, stated rather than papered over. A page that only prints what it is sure of is more useful than one that reads smoothly.
- The monarchy statute’s own text is not quoted here. The Office of the Attorney General’s English Criminal Code PDF would not load to any automated request in this run, and the Office of the Council of State’s translations index returned a 404. The fifteen-year figure on this page is what the U.S. and Australian governments tell their citizens — it is not text we read from the Code.
- The e-cigarette penalties do not reconcile. The Royal Thai Government portal, the UK Foreign Office and Australia’s Smartraveller each state different numbers for the same offences. All three are printed above with their provenance; we have not picked a winner.
- No beach is named. The Library of Congress describes the November 2017 ban as a trial covering twenty beaches in four provinces; TAT describes it as nationwide. No current official list of covered beaches was located, so this page names none. Assume any beach is covered.
- No temple admission figure appears except the Grand Palace’s. Wat Pho’s visitor page resolves to a virtual-tour shell with no fee or hours on it, and the TAT attraction pages tried for Wat Arun and Wat Pho returned 404. Only figures published by the venue itself are printed.
- The Fine Arts Department permit process is not described. Thai Customs states that the permit is required and names the issuing department; it does not state a fee, a form or a processing time, and we did not find one on an official page.
- A claim from the previous version of this page has been removed rather than restated. It advised against standing chopsticks upright in rice on funeral grounds. That convention is more strongly associated with Chinese and Japanese practice, no Thai official source states it, and chopsticks are in any case uncommon at a Thai table outside noodle and Chinese-Thai dishes. It is gone rather than rewritten.
- No tipping percentage. Widely repeated figures have no authority behind them, and a service charge on a bill is a contractual term rather than a tip. The FAQ says what is observable and stops there.
Frequently asked
The Bureau of the Royal Household publishes its own list, and this is it in its own words: no sleeveless shirts, no vests, no short top, no see through tops, no short hot pants or short pants, no torn pants, no tight pants, no bike pants, no mini skirts, no pants skirts, no sleeping suit. The Tourism Authority of Thailand states the positive version for royal palaces: men wear a shirt with sleeves and long pants; women wear a shirt with sleeves and either a skirt that covers the knees or long pants, and it names flip-flops among the things to avoid. Note that tight and torn are on the banned list as well as short — jeans with a rip and leggings are both caught, which surprises most visitors more than the shorts rule does.
It is law, and it is the one area on this page where a mistake is not smoothed over. The U.S. Department of State tells its citizens that “making a critical, threatening, or defamatory comment about the royal family is a criminal offense, punishable by a prison sentence of up to 15 years per offense”. Australia’s Smartraveller gives the same 15-year figure and adds that defacing an image of the monarchy, including on a banknote, can attract it. The UK Foreign Office says the law “can be interpreted broadly”. Smartraveller also warns against “posting, commenting or liking items about the monarchy” on social media — liking is the part almost nobody knows. We were not able to retrieve the statute’s own text from an official Thai government source in this run and have said so on the page rather than quoting it from a law blog.
No. E-cigarettes, pods, refill liquid, shisha and electronic shisha are unlawful, and the ban covers import, sale and possession under four separate instruments — the Consumer Protection Act, a 2014 Ministry of Commerce announcement, the Customs Act 2017 and the Tobacco Products Control Act 2017. The Royal Thai Government portal states penalties of up to 3 years or 600,000 baht for selling, up to 10 years or five times the goods’ value for importing, up to 5 years or four times the value for possession or receipt, and up to 5,000 baht for using one in public. Foreign advisories quote different figures again — the UK describes confiscation and fines of 5,000 to 30,000 baht in practice. The numbers disagree; the prohibition does not.
The national anthem. The Royal Thai Government portal states that it “is played at 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. every day, especially at public offices”, and that “if the national anthem is heard, one must stand straight to show respect”. You will meet it on a BTS platform, in a park, in a government office and at some schools and markets. Everyone around you stops where they are for roughly a minute; the correct response is to stop too. This is a different piece of music from the royal anthem played before a cinema screening.
Not freely. The Thai Customs Department lists “Buddha image, artifact/objects, antique” among its restricted goods, meaning a permit from the Fine Arts Department is required to take one out of the country. Restricted is not the same as prohibited — narcotics, counterfeit goods and CITES-listed wildlife are on the prohibited list, and Buddha images are not — but the permit is a real step, and a shop receipt is not a substitute for it. The Customs page does not state a fee or a processing time, so allow time and ask the Fine Arts Department directly rather than the seller.
In homes, yes — the government portal states it as a rule and notes that only slippers are worn indoors. Beyond homes it is convention rather than instruction, but it is a strong one: temple buildings, many small shops, clinics, massage shops, guesthouses and some offices. The reliable cue is the shoes already outside the door. If there are none and you are unsure, ask; nobody minds being asked, and everybody notices the person who walked in.
Not directly. The Royal Thai Government portal states that women cannot touch monks, and the practical convention that follows is to place the item down on a cloth or surface for the monk to pick up, or to pass it via a man. This is custom rather than a published penalty, and Thai women observe it as carefully as anyone — it is not a rule aimed at foreigners. On public transport you will also see seats left free when a monk boards; leaving that space is the same courtesy.
There is no legal rule and no fixed convention, which is why every guide gives you a different number. What is actually true: mid-range and upmarket restaurants and hotels commonly add a service charge to the bill, which is a contractual term you agreed to by ordering, not a tip — read the bill before adding anything. At a street stall or a small shophouse restaurant nothing is expected and rounding up is normal. Taxi fares are commonly rounded up to the nearest ten or twenty baht. Anything beyond that is your choice, not an obligation, and we are not going to print a percentage that no authority stands behind.
Sources & References
- Things you should know before traveling to Thailand — Royal Thai Government portal
- Electric and electronic cigarettes are illegal in Thailand — prohibition on importing by tourists (Royal Thai Government portal)
- The Grand Palace — Practical Information (dress code and prohibited items)
- The Grand Palace — opening hours, ticket hours and admission
- Dressing to Visit Royal Palaces in Thailand — Tourism Authority of Thailand
- TAT highlights anti-smoking laws in Thailand (4 November 2019)
- Prohibited and restricted goods for travellers — The Customs Department
- Thailand: Ban on Smoking on Beaches — Global Legal Monitor
- Thailand Travel Advisory — local laws and the monarchy
- Thailand travel advice: safety and security — vapes, monarchy, smoking
- Thailand travel advice: local laws — monarchy, vapes, beaches, feet and heads
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
Quoted rules are reproduced from the sources named above. Where this page describes custom rather than a stated rule it says so in the section heading; that material is BAANLYY’s own editorial guidance and carries no authority beyond our own. Customs vary by region, setting and household. Thai law changes, penalties are applied at official discretion, and nothing here is legal advice — confirm anything you intend to rely on with the relevant Thai authority.
Last verified 23 Sep 2026 against page facts re-read that day, as recorded in the explore-depth rotation log