Thailand’s 2026 calendar runs to 19 official dates according to the Bank of Thailand’s holiday notice, and they matter more to your trip than you’d expect. Banks, government offices and the Immigration Bureau close on these days, but that doesn’t mean the country shuts down, malls, restaurants, 7-Elevens and most tourist businesses keep normal hours right through the calendar below. The exceptions worth planning around are the 5 Buddhist holy days, when alcohol sales stop nationwide for 24 hours, and the two big travel-crunch windows, Songkran in April and the New Year period, when transport sells out and roads clog up as the country moves.
This guide lays out the full 2026 calendar, which holidays are bank-only, government-only or shared, the alcohol-ban dates, and the practical gotchas, a visa deadline landing on a holiday, a long weekend you didn’t plan around, that trip up visitors most often. If you’re timing a visit around a specific event rather than working around the calendar, our Songkran in Thailand and Loy Krathong and Yi Peng lantern festival guides cover those separately.
Thailand’s 2026 public holiday calendar
| Date | Day | Holiday | Closes for | Alcohol ban? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thu | New Year’s Day | Banks, government | No |
| 2 Jan | Fri | New Year holiday (cabinet-approved bridge day) | Banks, government | No |
| 3 Mar | Tue | Makha Bucha Day | Banks, government | Yes |
| 6 Apr | Mon | Chakri Memorial Day | Banks, government | No |
| 13-15 Apr | Mon-Wed | Songkran Festival | Banks, government | No |
| 1 May | Fri | National Labour Day | Banks, private sector (govt. offices open) | No |
| 4 May | Mon | Coronation Day | Banks, government | No |
| 13 May | Wed | Royal Ploughing Ceremony | Government only (banks open) | No |
| 31 May | Sun | Visakha Bucha Day | Falls on a Sunday | Yes |
| 1 Jun | Mon | Substitution for Visakha Bucha | Banks, government | No |
| 3 Jun | Wed | HM Queen Suthida’s Birthday | Banks, government | No |
| 28 Jul | Tue | HM King’s Birthday | Banks, government | No |
| 29 Jul | Wed | Asahna Bucha Day | Banks, government | Yes |
| 30 Jul | Thu | Buddhist Lent Day (Khao Phansa) | Government only (banks often open) | Yes |
| 12 Aug | Wed | Mother’s Day / HM Queen Mother’s Birthday | Banks, government | No |
| 13 Oct | Tue | King Bhumibol Memorial Day | Banks, government | No |
| 16 Oct | Fri | Special holiday, Bangkok financial institutions | Banks only (Bangkok) | No |
| 23 Oct | Fri | Chulalongkorn Day | Banks, government | No |
| 26 Oct | Mon | Wan Ok Phansa (End of Buddhist Lent) | Not an office holiday | Yes |
| 5 Dec | Sat | Father’s Day / National Day | Falls on a Saturday | No |
| 7 Dec | Mon | Substitution for 5 Dec | Banks, government | No |
| 10 Dec | Thu | Constitution Day | Banks, government | No |
| 31 Dec | Thu | New Year’s Eve | Banks, government | No |
Compiled from the Bank of Thailand’s 2026 financial institutions holiday notice, cabinet announcements and government calendars; cabinet sometimes adds bridge holidays mid-year, so confirm close to your travel dates. As of July 2026.
What actually closes on a Thai public holiday?
Banks, government offices and Thai immigration close, but shops, restaurants and most tourist infrastructure don’t. Government departments, post offices, most embassies and the Immigration Bureau all observe the full calendar above, so anything requiring a government counter, a visa extension, a document stamp, a bank transfer over the counter, gets pushed to the next working day. Malls, restaurants, convenience stores, tour operators, hotels and transport services, on the other hand, run essentially normal hours on almost every date on that list. A public holiday in Thailand looks and feels like a quiet Sunday for offices, not a nationwide shutdown for visitors.
The one closure that touches everyday tourist life is alcohol. On the 5 Buddhist holy days below, bars, restaurants and convenience stores stay open for business as usual, but alcohol sales specifically stop for the full 24 hours, no beer with dinner, no wine from 7-Eleven, no exceptions for tourists.
Which days have an alcohol ban in 2026?
Five Buddhist holy days carry a nationwide, 24-hour alcohol sales ban: Makha Bucha (3 March), Visakha Bucha (31 May), Asahna Bucha (29 July), Khao Phansa (30 July) and Wan Ok Phansa (26 October). Asahna Bucha and Khao Phansa fall on consecutive days in 2026, a rare back-to-back dry stretch, since Khao Phansa marks the start of Buddhist Lent the day after Asahna Bucha commemorates Buddha’s first sermon. Vendors caught selling on these dates face fines up to ฿10,000 or up to six months in prison, and the ban applies to shops, bars, restaurants and hotel minibars alike, with narrow exceptions carved out for specific licensed venues and international airport terminals.
2026 is also an election year, which adds three more dry windows on top of the Buddhist calendar: the SAO elections, the general election’s two voting stages, and Bangkok’s gubernatorial election each trigger their own temporary alcohol ban. Our alcohol laws in Thailand guide has the full list of dates, exceptions and penalties if a trip lands on one of these windows and you want to plan an evening around what’s already in the fridge.
How do public holidays affect travel around Thailand?
Songkran and the New Year period are the two weeks to plan around, not just show up for. Songkran runs 13-15 April 2026 (Monday-Wednesday), and because so much of the country travels home to celebrate with family, domestic flights and long-distance buses and trains toward the North and Isaan routinely sell out days or weeks in advance, while highway traffic out of Bangkok thickens noticeably in the days immediately before. The New Year period carries the same pattern in the opposite direction, and 2026 has an extra edge to it: the cabinet approved Friday 2 January as an additional holiday specifically to stretch the break to 5 days and encourage more domestic tourism, so expect Pattaya, Hua Hin and Chiang Mai to be busier than a standard New Year weekend.
The practical fix is the same for both windows: book transport and accommodation well ahead if your trip overlaps either, rather than assuming you can sort logistics on arrival. Long weekends built around substitution days, like the Visakha Bucha weekend running 30 May-1 June, draw a smaller but similar surge in domestic tourism, worth knowing if you’re headed to a popular weekend destination and want to avoid competing with half of Bangkok for a hotel room. Our best time to visit Thailand and Thailand weather by month guides cover how these travel windows line up with the wider seasonal picture.
What happens if a visa deadline falls on a holiday?
Thai immigration automatically pushes a 90-day report, visa extension or re-entry deadline to the next working day when it lands on a public holiday or a weekend. It’s a standard administrative buffer rather than a special favour, and it applies consistently across offices. The catch is what it doesn’t cover: don’t assume a specific immigration office is open just because your deadline shifted, and don’t leave a report or extension until the holiday itself expecting the counter to be staffed. Regional offices sometimes adjust their hours differently around long holiday clusters like Songkran or the New Year break, so it’s worth confirming your own office’s schedule directly before you travel if a deadline sits close to one of these dates. This is general orientation rather than immigration advice, always verify your specific deadline and office hours with Thai immigration directly.
How do substitution (in-lieu) days work?
When an official holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, Thailand adds a substitution day, almost always the following Monday, so the holiday is still observed with an office closure even though the original date was already a weekend. In 2026, Visakha Bucha falls on Sunday 31 May, observed with a Monday 1 June holiday, and Father’s Day/National Day falls on Saturday 5 December, observed with a Monday 7 December holiday. The alcohol ban and other observance-specific rules stay attached to the original date, not the substitution day, which is why 31 May carries the dry-day ban rather than 1 June.
Sources
- Bank of Thailand: Financial Institutions Holidays
- Bangkok Post: Thailand declares 5-day New Year holiday to boost tourism, economy
- Pattaya Mail: Cabinet approves extra public holiday for New Year 2026
- The Nation Thailand: Thailand marks Labour Day 2026 as workers gain pay rights but officials stay on duty
- Reporting on the 2026 Royal Ploughing Ceremony date and government-only holiday status, cross-checked against the Cabinet Resolution Information Service Center’s published calendar.
- Thailand’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Act provisions on Buddhist holy-day and election-day sales bans, as reflected in our own alcohol laws in Thailand guide.
Where to next
If your trip lines up with one of these dates, our Songkran in Thailand and Loy Krathong and Yi Peng lantern festival guides go deeper on those two specific festivals, alcohol laws in Thailand covers the dry-day exceptions and penalties in full, and best time to visit Thailand and Thailand weather by month help you plan around both the holiday calendar and the seasons. Once you’ve got your dates sorted, browse what’s on right now in Thailand events.