What I Spent on Wonderfruit

So, while I’m still catching up on my ridiculously delayed 2016 travel recaps, I just can’t wait to start sharing my big trip (thus far) of 2017. So I’ll be jumping back and forth a bit again. Apologies for any confusion, my friends!

It’s one of the biggest questions on any ravers mind when they start flirting with the idea of a new feather-clad festival adventure. How much is this going to cost me?

One of the biggest excitements for me in attending Wonderfruit was getting to experience a festival produced at international standards but priced in Thai baht. While compared to the cost of living and traveling in Thailand Wonderfruit is surely still an enormous splurge, if held up to the bottom-line bills of festivals like Tomorrowland, Bonnaroo, and Burning Man, it’s a bargain. Here’s my baht for baht breakdown that includes four nights onsite at Wonderfruit, one night pre-festival in Pattaya, and two nights post-festival in Bangkok – and would reflect the week-long vacation that international travelers might expect to center their trip around.

Essentials

Ticket: 4,950B or $138US

Full four day tickets to Wonderfruit are 5,500B, though we were able to take advantage of party pass pricing for bulk orders of six tickets, which worked out to 4,917B per person. There is a ฿26.75B service charge for each ticket, which works out to less than $1USD.

Tickets are slightly cheaper during the very early pre-sale phase and slightly more expensive at the door. Children under 12 are free, and there are reduced price tickets for kids age 12-19. Dog passes are available for 800B (possibly my absolute favorite aspect of Wonderfruit?) All tickets are sold in baht. There are no VIP options available – how refreshing!

(Note: I received a press pass to this event, but I am putting in the party pass price that I would have paid otherwise.)

Boutique Camping: 5,000B or $140US

There are multiple different options for where to stay at Wonderfruit.

Camping

Regular camping in which you bring your own tent is included in the ticket price. If you go this route and don’t want to fly internationally with camping supplies, look for cheap tents available on Lazada, Thailand’s sort-of answer to Amazon. The regular camping area looked sparsely attended compared to the boutique area, but residents reported clean showers and toilets, secure lockers, and charging stations.

Boutique Camping

There is also boutique camping available at three levels. Prices are for four nights, and all tents sleep four people. The boutique camping area is totally separate and across the festival from the regular camping area, so if you’re coming as a large group, you’ll all want to choose one or the other together. You can get a great sense of the size of the boutique camping area from an aerial shot in this post.

• Safari tents with air con: 40,000B

These fully-furnished, stand-up tents almost went a little too far for me. I still like to at least pretend I’m roughing it. But for those craving the ultimate comfort, you’ll have two real beds, lighting, power strips, a lock box, air conditioning, and a tent big enough to stand up and walk around in. One thing I did really like about these were the two lawn chairs set up outside.

• Bell tents with air con: 30,000B

These beautiful and spacious bell tents came equipped with air mattresses, lighting, power strips with four outlets, a lock box, a large mirror, small trash baskets, and air conditioning. The lock boxes were enormous and easily fit four sets of valuables with room to spare. These two pricier options were the first to sell out, so hop to it if those are the ones you’re eying!

• Bell tents with fans: 20,000B

Identical to the option above but with fans instead of air-conditioning. This is the option we went with, both for budget and sustainability purposes.

The prices are very reasonable when split by four people. If you’re coming as only a pair, the prices are a little tougher to swallow, so bring friends! The fact that you can get a very VIP experience for only 5,000B a person is seriously wow-able if you’re coming from the European or US festival scene. That’s $35 US per person per day!

We were thrilled with our choice. Overall, I give the boutique camping team huge props, with some exceptions and issues. The bathrooms were fantastic, with cement and bamboo showers, real flushing toilets, and towels provided in every tent. There was shampoo, conditioner and soap provided in the bathrooms but the shampoo ran out by the last day of the festival, so you may wish to bring a small backup or be prepared to ask your neighbor.

The air mattresses deflated slightly over the weekend but the staff were more than happy to come give them a boost. I found them very comfortable! As with any festival, earplugs and eyemasks are an absolute must. The festival grounds are fairly compact and so the late night stages will absolutely project into your tent – if you’re noise sensitive, pick a tent as far from the festival entrance as possible. They gave us a choice of tents when we checked in, which I greatly appreciated.

As I mentioned, the lock boxes in the tents, with locks provided, were enormous, which was much appreciated for our many cameras and other electronics. There are additional lockers available, but they are located on the opposite side of the boutique camping area from the festival entrance so only use them for things you won’t need access to throughout the weekend – and you’ll need to bring your own locks for those. Really, with the lock boxes being so large, it’s doubtful you’ll need them.

Remember, you’re still camping – it’s very cold at night, and extremely hot during the day. We weren’t expecting the cold in the evenings but slept in several layers! During the day the fan only went so far to keep cool, and it was often better to nap in one of the shady chill tents inside the festival during the day, where there was a bit of a breeze.

Our one major complaint about boutique camping was that power was shut off from 4-8pm. With the sun setting at 6:30pm every night, I literally can’t think of a more inconvenient time to close it off. We always wanted to be back in our tents getting ready and changing out of our sweaty day clothes either immediately before or after sunset – before, it was boiling without the fan and after, we were stuck in the dark.

The boutique camping area had a dedicated check-in, a private bar and lounge – which was always fairly low key – and a coffee truck. Unlike other festivals I’ve been to, people didn’t really just hang out in the campgrounds, but they were an incredibly comfortable place to recharge and get ready for the festival every day.

Overall, while I hope they might consider the electricity-off hours for future editions, we were thrilled with the boutique camping experience.

RV Camping

Wonderfruit also has an option for RV camping! Four day RV passes are available for 15-16,000B depending on when you purchase for sites with electric and water hookup, and 8-9,000B depending on when you purchase for sites without hookup.

The RV area is separate from the other camping areas. There are RV rental companies in Bangkok – I would totally do this if I was coming back another year.

Hotel packages

There are also offsite hotel packages available, but with each located a 30-60 minute drive away and the camping being such a fun and integral part of the Wonderfruit experience, I can’t imagine taking advantage of them.

Getting There

Wonderfruit takes place at Siam Country Club, about 45 minutes outside Pattaya. You can technically fly into Pattaya airport but it’s not much closer than Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. Flights to Bangkok’s Don Muang airport will likely be the most affordable option from within Thailand and from some neighboring airports – check flights to both.

Since we are based in Thailand, and domestic travel within the country is so cheap, our transportation prices were insanely affordable. If you’re coming from much further, read this post for tips on how to score a bargain international flight.

Transport to Bangkok: 1068B or $45US

After nixing the once-per-day, $138 ferry and flight from Koh Samui to Pattaya –the fastest and most direct route, but also by far the most expensive — we settled on an overnight ferry from Koh Tao to Surat Thani (600B), a private transfer from the pier to the airport (165B), and a flight from Surat Thani to Bangkok (843B). Nok Air includes free checked bags, which was perfect for my extra festival stuff.

Note that I’m only including one-way of travel here, as I flew onward from Bangkok to Penang post-festival. Most of my group returned to Koh Tao by overnight bus and ferry combo ticket, which is 1,100B, or $31.

Villa: 668B or $16US

We spent one night pre-festival in Pattaya. Our villa in Pattaya cost 668B per night each, and was a great way to kick off our group adventure with some serious camaraderie and recharge from our overnight transit from Koh Tao.

Private Driver: 953B or $27US

We hired a private van and driver to pick us up at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport and drop us at our villa, stopping for groceries en route. The next day he brought us to Buddha Mountain and a winery before dropping us at Wonderfruit. On the final day of the festival, he picked us back up at boutique camping and dropped us at our hotel in Bangkok, stopping as we wished along the way. It was the same driver we used for our wine tour last year.

The driver worked out to 833B plus a 120B tip per person. That included three days of his services and included the van, gas, tolls, etc. It’s a really good deal, even for Thailand, and I was quoted up to double when researching other transportation companies in Bangkok and Pattaya – so really sniff around before settling on the first quote you get.

If you’re in a group, hiring a private driver is the way to go. Otherwise, you’ll need to take a taxi to the Bangkok bus station, catch a bus to Pattaya (about 150B), take a taxi to the Wonderfruit shuttle meeting point, and then take one of the official Wonderfruit shuttles (150B) to the festival site – and then do it all again in the other direction.

Bangkok Hotel: 1183B or $33US

We also spent two nights post-festival in Bangkok. So many Wonderfruit attendees live in Bangkok, the festival site is easily reached, and Wonderfruit doesn’t really require the extensive preparations and breakdowns some festivals do, so for many this won’t be necessary. However, in our case, Ian and I were flying to Penang two days later so it was the perfect buffer, while everyone else stuck around mostly to take advantage of being off the island and in a big city to run errands.

I booked Hotel Icon because it was in everyone’s budget and expected to feel very meh about it but — but found myself pleasantly surprised!

Meals and Entertainment En Route: 2,930B or $82US

Basically, all food consumed between leaving Koh Tao and departing Bangkok — that weren’t at Wonderfruit. I spent 735B on snacks (let’s be honest – mostly airport fast food), 475B on my share of groceries for our two big meals in the villa (we bought too much and left a bunch behind), and 300B on lunch at the winery.

We also went on a winery tour in Pattaya and went to a movie in Bangkok.

Supplies

Campsite Food and Alcohol: 1896B or $53US

This is the one category that really makes me cringe – we went way overboard. The Tesco Lotus in Pattaya was surprisingly pricey, and I ended up spending 2,071B on my personal festival snacks (fruit, granola bars, etc.) and booze for our night in the villa (some of the leftovers of which may have made their way to the campgrounds…) Everyone in our group agreed they were totally shocked when they got to the checkout counter.

Costumes: 2,390B or $67

As usual, I had fun buying some fun personal and group costumes for this event – though I did have a shocking number of fruit related outfits prior to even being aware of Wonderfruit’s existence.

Platinum Mall in Bangkok has a wealth of ridiculousness on its accessory floor, and I stocked up on beaded headbands (650B), fruit headpieces (400B), flash tattoos (300B), and fruit earrings (40B) a month before the festival. Wonderfruit definitely won’t be their last appearance either!

My friend Will and I also surprised our group with custom Banyan Fruit t-shirts (Banyan is the bar that everyone in our crew is either an employee, owner, or obscenely loyal customer of). I bought the shirts for 1000B, and Will generously provided the designs and printing.

One funny note… the controversy over Native American headdresses has NOT hit Thailand. They were literally everywhere and in every direction.

On Site Purchases

Food and alcohol: 10,570B or $297

So this is where I went totally crazy. Oh well! With Wonderfruit’s relatively strict policy on bringing in outside food and alcohol, this is the most I’ve ever spent onsite at a festival – including pricey festivals like Tomorrowland!

But I’ve always had expensive taste when it comes to food and booze, preferring fancy cocktails over beer and hipster cafes over street food. I also have Millionaire Syndrome when I’m drinking and do things like dropping 700B on a golden bucket for the group in the Moon Shack bar. Oops.

Prices, as at any festival, were inflated from what they’d be in the “real world,” but they weren’t particularly offensive. It was a lot of fun to eat at Wonderfruit. There were beautiful stall, well-curated food trucks and tents that almost became venues in themselves (I’m looking at you, day-time dance parties in RocketFruit!)

A lot of our favorite trendy Bangkok restaurants had little outposts at Wonderfruit, and we found a few new obsessions, too. I was particularly in love with my morning acai bowls, the late night cheeseburger I couldn’t stop talking about for days, and the entire menu at Straight Outta Thonglor — and I’m still haunted that we didn’t get a charcuterie board at the cheese tent.

You could find a meal for as low as 100B a plate and as high as 800B, though they generally fell in the 200-400B. Drinks ranged from 80-300B. I was a bad blogger and didn’t record any particular food prices (too many golden buckets, ya know?) but here are a few examples I was able to glean from menu board photos:

Cold pressed juice from Fabb Coffee and Juice Bar: 135B

Whapow Coldbrew from Fabb Coffee and Juice Bar: 120B

Kai Jiew Egg dish from Egg Picnic: 100B

Thai sticky rice wine from Sato Bar: 100B original, 150B strong

Grilled camarelized bananas from The Thailand Young Farmers: 80 baht

Thailand’s version of ginataan from The Thailand Young Farmers: 50B

Isaan pad thai from The Thailand Young Farmers: 185B

Ice cream from the reggae bus: 180B

One thing to note is that Wonderfruit is completely paperless – you’ll have a band that you load baht onto and then pay for everything with a tap of the wrist. I was annoyed to learn there was a significant surcharge for credit card top-ups, which forced me to use cash (I hate using cash, as it’s much harder to track.) If you have any credit left over when you’re ready to leave, you can get a cash refund from the top-up stations between 12noon on Sunday and 12noon on Monday.

One major Wonderfruit highlight? Free water refill stations throughout the festival and campgrounds. Considering the festival’s commitment to sustainability, it was essential – and as a bonus, it saved us from having to buy multiple bottles a day.

Splurges: 2,725B or $76

I splurged on a glitter application in the Wonder Salon for 500B, a rhinestone-encrusted antler headpiece for 1,300B, and a beautiful pair of handmade earrings for 350B. I only wish I was patient enough to get my hair and makeup done more nights – it was so much fun! I also spent 575B on pool floats, which considering how little time we spent in the lake was a bit excessive – but yet I can never regret a pool float purchase.

Massages: 1,600B or $45US

I had one 45 minute foot massage for 700B and one 60 minute foot, head and shoulder massage for 900B in the cutely designed massage tent. Higher than typical Thai massage prices? Of course. But well worth it for restoring and refreshing – and escaping the sun!

Here’s the full spa menu:

45 min foot reflexology:                700B
60 min foot, head and shoulder: 900B
45 min back and shoulder:           700B
60 min Thai massage:                   900B
60 min oil massage:                       1,200B
90 min foot reflexology + Thai massage:          1,350B
90 min foot reflexology + back and shoulder massage: 1,450B
90 min foot reflexology + oil massage: 1,600B

Wonder Feasts: 1,500B or $42

Wonder Feasts are beautiful ticketed meals prepared by some of Bangkok’s top chefs. There were four Wonder Feast options: two dinners with free-flow wine for 3,000B, and two brunches for 1,500B. I wasn’t blown away with my experience.

Total cost for the four day festival:
31584B or $885USD per person

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Total cost for the full seven day trip:
37,433B or $1,061USD per person

I would say that I experienced Wonderfruit at the top end of the spending range – I did VIP camping, bought whatever food and drinks I wanted, and freely splurged on things like massages and a Wonder Feast. For all that, Wonderfruit clocked in at $220 a day. Comparatively, I did Burning Man about as cheap as it is possible to do and spent between $120-150 a day, and did Tomorrowland somewhere in the upper middle and spent $375-500 per day. So while Wonderfruit is an extremely expensive four days as far as travels in Thailand go, it is very competitively priced when you hold it up against other festivals from around the world.

I also included the total for the full week of our trip, including four nights at the festival, one night before, and two nights after.

Overall? Normally a very frugal person, festivals are my big travel splurges and I don’t regret this one for a second. I’d say they were baht well blown.

What do you think? Would you go to Wonderfruit?

Also in this series: Wandering Through Wonderfruit: A Festival Review Part I • Feasting on Wonderfruit: A Festival Review Part II

I received a press pass to Wonderfruit, however all other expenses were my own, and I will outline them in an upcoming budget breakdown. 

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