Public holidays, alcohol bans and what closes

When you can buy alcohol

11:00 to midnight, every day. That is the whole rule now.

For fifty years there was also a ban between 14:00 and 17:00, brought in originally to stop civil servants drinking at lunch. It was suspended for a trial from December 2025 and then abolished outright by a notice published in the Royal Gazette on 28 May 2026, effective the following day. A great many travel guides and forum posts still describe the afternoon window as though it exists. It does not.

Outside 11:00–midnight, shops and supermarkets will refuse the sale, and the till will often physically block it. This catches people out most at breakfast time and after midnight.

The days nothing is sold at all

Five Buddhist holy days each year carry a nationwide ban for the full twenty-four hours, from one minute past midnight to midnight: Makha Bucha, Visakha Bucha, Asalha Bucha, Khao Phansa and Ok Phansa. Sales are also suspended on election days.

It applies to shops, convenience stores and ordinary restaurants. Selling in breach of it carries up to six months in prison or a 10,000-baht fine, which is why a 7-Eleven will not quietly make an exception for you.

There are exemptions, and knowing them saves the evening: licensed hotels may serve their guests, international airport terminals are outside the ban, and certain licensed entertainment venues in designated tourist zones may continue to serve. In practice, if you are staying in a hotel with a bar, your evening is unaffected.

Worth knowing in advance: Asalha Bucha and Khao Phansa fall on consecutive days, so that pair is a single unbroken 48-hour dry stretch rather than two separate ones.