City orientation in Bangkok and beyond: learn the city before you commit to it
A Thai posting is decided by a handful of practical facts: how long the school run takes, which station is near the office, where the nearest hospital is. Asia Relocation Thailand shows you those facts on the ground, with a local consultant, before the lease and the school are chosen.
Bangkok rewards those who understand how it moves. The elevated BTS and the underground MRT carry much of the city above and below its traffic, and a home a short walk from a station can change the shape of a week. Where the trains do not reach, the roads decide, and the same journey can take very different times depending on the hour. A household that learns this before signing a lease chooses differently from one that learns it afterwards.
Outside the capital the questions change. Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin and Koh Samui each have their own rhythm, their own services and their own distances, and none of them is a smaller Bangkok. An orientation there is built around how that particular city works for a family or a professional.
Asia Relocation Thailand has helped expatriates, professionals and families settle in Thailand since 2011. The orientation is run by a consultant who lives in the city, and it is coordinated by the same in-house team that handles the visa, the home search and the move.
The practical city, seen on the ground, and what is handled separately
This page is about using the city. Finding the home, learning the codes and learning the language each have their own service.
On the orientation
- Your routes: home, office and school, travelled by train, car or taxi at the times you will use them.
- Health: the hospitals and clinics nearest your home and work, how appointments and emergencies are handled, the pharmacy.
- The ordinary week: banking for a newcomer, a phone line, supermarkets, fresh markets and the services a household uses.
- Schools on the map: for families, the campuses that matter, placed on the daily route rather than compared in the abstract.
- Practical pointers: dress for a temple, behaviour in a market, the small courtesies that smooth a first week.
The modules are chosen from your brief and listed before the day.
Handled by another service
- Finding the home. The orientation tells you where you want to live; the home search in Thailand finds the property and negotiates the lease.
- Thai values and etiquette. The wai, face and hierarchy are the subject of our cross-cultural training, a session in its own right.
- Thai lessons. Speaking the language is our language training service.
- Visas. Permits follow their own rules: visa and immigration in Thailand.
Add any of them to the same file and one coordinator sequences them.
Five building blocks, put together into your day
Few households need all five. The brief decides which ones the consultant takes you through.
Getting around
The BTS and MRT lines that serve your addresses, ride-hailing, taxis and driving, tested on your real journeys so the commute is known before it is chosen.
Health and emergencies
The hospitals and clinics on your side of the city, how to register, what to do at night or at a weekend, and where the nearest pharmacy is.
Daily life and banking
Opening an account, setting up a phone line, shopping between supermarkets and fresh markets: the errands that fill the first fortnight.
The family route
Schools, parks and activities placed on the map of your week, so the choice of home and school can be made together.
Beyond Bangkok
The same approach in Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin or Koh Samui, adapted to how each city is organised and travelled.
A brief before you fly, a day in the city, answers after it
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The brief
Office address, family, school needs, arrival date and the questions already on your mind, gathered on a call before you travel.
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The plan
The modules and the order of the day, sent in writing, with the routes planned for the hours you will actually travel.
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The day
With your consultant, on the ground: the routes, the hospitals, the shops and the services, seen and timed rather than described.
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The follow-up
The questions that come once you have started living in the city, answered by the same consultant in the weeks that follow.
A family, an assignee, a retiree, an HR team: four first looks at Thailand
Families with children
The school run decides the home. The orientation places schools, stations and clinics on the same map before either is chosen.
Professionals on assignment
The commute to the office and the services around it, seen on a working day, so the first week at work starts without surprises.
Retirees and long-stay residents
Healthcare, daily services and the rhythm of a city like Chiang Mai or Hua Hin, before deciding where to settle for the long term.
HR teams sending staff
A consistent orientation for each arrival, written into the relocation policy and coordinated with the visa and the home search.
Six Thai cities, and none of them a copy of another
Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin and Koh Samui, each with a consultant who knows it.
Bangkok is the city of offices, international schools and train lines, and most corporate orientations take place there. The day is organised around the stations and roads that will shape your routine.
Chiang Mai in the north is calmer and organised on a smaller scale. Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin and Koh Samui are coastal cities where distances, seasons and services follow their own logic. An orientation there is not a shortened Bangkok tour: it shows how a household actually lives in that place.
What newcomers ask before their first days in Thailand
What does a city orientation in Bangkok actually include?
Should we do it before or after choosing a home?
Do we need a car in Bangkok?
Do you offer orientation outside Bangkok?
Can the whole family join?
Does the orientation include Thai culture?
Can it be combined with our home search?
Who leads the day?
From seeing the city to living in it
You know the area, now find the home
Condominiums, houses and serviced apartments shortlisted, visited and negotiated with you.
Home search in Thailand →The full relocation service
Housing, schools, orientation and settling-in across Thailand, with one in-house coordinator.
Relocation services in Thailand →Tell us the city, the office and the arrival date, and we plan the day
Asia Relocation Thailand, in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin and Koh Samui.
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