220V, and sockets that take almost anything
Thai mains run at 220–230 volts, 50 Hz. If you are coming from Europe, Australia or most of Asia, everything you own will work. From North America or Japan, check the label before plugging anything in.
Usually not. Thai sockets are a hybrid that accepts flat American-style pins, round European pins and Australian angled pins in the same opening. Most visitors never take their adapter out of the bag.
The exception is a plug with a third earth pin in a shape the socket does not take. Many Thai outlets have no earth connection at all, which is fine for a phone charger and worth knowing for anything with a metal case.
Dual voltage matters. Laptop and phone chargers are almost always 100–240V and perfectly happy. Hairdryers, shavers, curling tongs and kitchen gadgets from a 110V country frequently are not, and fail in a memorable way. Check the small print on the plug before you use it.
The most common way electronics die here is a voltage spike during a thunderstorm or as power comes back after a cut. If you have travelled with something valuable, unplug it during a real storm rather than trusting a hotel socket.
Brief power cuts are more common in the rainy season and rarely last long — see Monsoon Season.
Bring a small multi-way extension from home. Hotel rooms and villas here often have fewer accessible sockets than a family with four phones, a camera and a laptop would like, and one extension solves it for the whole trip.
We live here — ask us anything about Hua Hin and you will get the real answer.
