Travel tip: a 4x4 adventure in Thailand by rental car

Thailand Offroad Adventure. With 4x4, reduction and differential locks through Thailand - pure offroad fun without much legal restrictions. 4wd and on in the mud. From fords and the rivers to the beautiful mountain villages and "hill tribes" in the mountains of Thailand.

Years ago we were on the road in Thailand for a few weeks with a rental car. Unlike our rental offroad adventure in Laos, there was a wide range of rental companies and a Toyota Fortuner was quite affordable. As it turned out, the vehicle was only conditionally suitable for the terrain we encountered.

But even with road configuration, with 4x4 and gear reduction you get further than you think.

Thailand is especially off the beaten tourist track beautiful, pristine and offers plenty for the off-roader heart.

Thailand Offroad Adventure Tour. With 4x4, reduction and differential locks through Thailand - pure offroad fun without much legal restrictions. 4wd and on in the mud. From fords and the rivers to the beautiful mountain villages and "hill tribes" in the mountains of Thailand.

Away from the very well developed and maintained highways and main roads, there are plenty of dirt tracks, river fords and remote mountain villages, some still only accessible via single-trail ie actually only via motorcycle.

Perhaps the travels in Asia also explains why my travelogue to Iceland did not degenerate into exuberant reports on the subject of fords, water crossings and offroad. Thailand and Laos offer more here and even outside the rainy season.

Also, prohibitions here are from unknown to really thinly sown, or not recognizable to Western eyes. The idyllic landscape, the charming mountain villages, the helpfulness of the rural population - who has only seen Phuket, Koh Samui, Pattaya and Bangkok, has never really got to know Thailand.

In the countryside, the cheap price level is added, guesthouses, food, food - somehow the already exchanged and planned money does not want to become less at all.

A tent, sleeping bag and basic equipment is not necessary, but allows to spend much more time in the more remote travel areas.

Yes, of course, there were several necessary repairs and spare parts along the way. But even without language skills you can agree there with gesture language and find price. We decided ourselves what was on our account - and where we contacted the landlord, which happened for example with a new car battery. The repairs were inexpensive, spare parts quite on European level.

Do we need a route planning? We say: no. If you are looking for offroad you will find plenty of it. Google reveals where there is no official road network, the satellite view shows the mountain villages - which also want to be supplied. If you are looking for mud and dust, you will find it.

Our travel pictures are from northern Thailand, around Chiang Mai. It's been over 10 years - and I still dream of exploring Thailand further by 4x4. But of course there is still the latent plan to tackle this by land with a silkroad journey - so I didn't want to anticipate anything here.

For those who do like to do some planning, perhaps even taking good old maps with them, GT Riders maps can help. Friends of ours were in 2018 on our tracks on the road and from Thailand off the beaten tourist track - also very excited.

After such a trip you can smile tired about wearers of a shirt with the inscription "no tuk tuk, no massage" to, because all the mentioned you will not have seen on your trip, or have been offered...

Make sure you have a good insurance package and an acceptable deductible to keep costs down. In the event of an accident, the insurance company is interested in knowing that it is not simply the tourist's fault.

And handle it the same way if something breaks while you are playing - pay for it yourself, so that travelers after you can get a rental car without "you are not allowed to go off-road" passus.

Yes, we even had our rental car polished up to make the marks from raking the single-trail passages disappear....