Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing the question, "where is the right area to retire in Thailand?" I thought of making this video actually after reading a recent comment on our channel; we'll go ahead and throw this up on screen.

Quoting directly: "Hi Benjamin, thank you for many enlightening videos." - you are very welcome. Tip of the hat to you, thank you. - quoting further and thank you for watching. Thanks to everybody for watching, quoting further: "I am a 58 year old guy from the Netherlands looking for the right area in Thailand to retire. I have planned and booked a 90-day trip to various areas of Thailand from late June through September. Is there a possibility that the 60-day Visa will be reduced to 30 days in the meantime, meaning I will not be able to stay in the Kingdom longer than 90 days?"

Well yeah, I have already done the videos on that. They are talking about it and I believe they are bringing down the 60-day exemption down to 30 days; in fact I think that's coming online. I will do another video contemporaneously with this one to confirm that as soon as I see something from immigration sources that actually says that yeah it is now 30 days again rather than 60. But it looks like they are doing that in earnest and with the new Parliament coming in, I wouldn't be shocked. But the point of this video, I've had a lot of people ask me this over the years and it's one of these questions, I just kind of want to like shrug my shoulders and not in an indifferent or sort of snarky kind of way, but honestly the answer really is whatever is right for you. I mean at the end of the day, some people love Pattaya, some people hate it; some people love Bangkok, some people hate it; some people like Chiang Mai, some people don't really want to live up North, or they have a problem with the burning season. Some people like Hua Hin, some people think Hua Hin is too quiet. 

I have met many expats out here, I've met many retirees and there aren’t, other than liking Thailand and the nice things that we've all come to know and expect, the standard of living that really I've never found much of any place else in the world comes comparable to, yeah that is a similarity amongst all retirees, expats, whatever you want to call them, transplants over here. But the whole, ‘what's the best place to be in Thailand’, look I'm not even going to get into that debate. I have always liked Bangkok. I will say that since COVID she has changed a lot, and actually since the smartphone. The smartphone is really, it was a totally different Thailand, totally different Bangkok pre-smartphone, post-smartphone, but again, I've met people over the years that can’t hardly stand to be in Bangkok. They don't like big cities, they like living out in the country. I know a lot of people who live up country in various places, and they have found their own little paradise up there.

At the end of the day, it really comes down to your own personality and what your likes and dislikes are. So again, I'm not trying to be overly simplistic in this video, but I really can't say it any other way than that. Different people are going to find different things here, it's one of the really, it's one of the big reasons why it's a really good idea, especially in your first year to wander around a little bit. Have a look around. See the differences in places. Again outsiders view Thailand as this sort of monolithic sort of monocultural thing. It's not. Chiang Mai is a very different place than Bangkok; Bangkok is a very different place than Phuket. Both are very different from Surat Thani or Koh Samui; they are just different. You don't go to the United States and say well what's the difference between Wichita, Wyoming and New York. Big differences. There are. Maybe not so much between maybe Wichita and Wyoming, but big differences between Wichita, Wyoming and New York. And that said, there are big differences in the attitude between folks from Wyoming as opposed to folks from where I'm from in Kansas. Same here in Thailand. Very different places and what you may like in a place, might repel somebody else. So my best advice for figuring out the right area to retire in Thailand, come here, take a look for yourself and make your own choices.