Best for
Temples, food, shopping, and a base on the rail network
Nightly range
฿1,375–฿23,344 a night
When to go
November to February is the cooler, drier part of the year and the busiest for visitors. March to May is the hottest. June to October is the rainy season.
Bangkok is Thailand’s capital and its largest city, built along the Chao Phraya River.
We cover six areas. Our picks in Sukhumvit, Silom and Sathorn, Siam and Chinatown are all within about 600 metres of a BTS or MRT station, in straight lines. The Riverside picks sit on both banks of the Chao Phraya. The Old Town, around the Grand Palace and Khao San Road, is the exception: none of our picks there is within 1.8km of a station.
Location scores across our 19 Bangkok picks run from 9.8 to 8.2, and the lowest belongs to a hotel only 580 metres from a BTS station, but 7.6km from Asok. In a city this size, check where a hotel is before anything else.
Where to stay
in Bangkok.
Pick the area first and the hotel second. On a trip this size the half hour between one beach and the next shapes the holiday more than the room does.
Ordered by the mean guest score of the listings in each area, the same basis as the hotels below.
The Chao Phraya River after sunset. Photo by TomaszSwatowski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayRiversideBoth banks of the Chao Phraya, with the highest average scores of our Bangkok areas and both the cheapest and the most expensive hotel we list in the city.Explore Riverside
Wat Phra Kaew, in the grounds of the Grand Palace. Photo by Ninara, edited by TSP, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayOld TownThe historic Phra Nakhon district around the Grand Palace and Khao San Road, with the best value scores of our Bangkok areas and no station close to any of our picks.Explore Old Town
Siam Square, with Siam Paragon and MBK. Photo by Fabio Achilli, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to staySiamBangkok's central shopping district around Siam BTS, with the best location scores of our Bangkok areas.Explore Siam
The skytrain and skyline near Chong Nonsi, seen from Silom Road. Photo by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to staySilom & SathornBangkok's business district, with the best comfort scores and the weakest wifi of our Bangkok areas.Explore Silom & Sathorn
Terminal 21 on Sukhumvit Road at Asok. Photo by Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons4 places to staySukhumvitThe long road east along the BTS, where our picks run from the Asok interchange to Punnawithi, about 7.6km further out.Explore Sukhumvit
Yaowarat Road at night. Photo by Ninara, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayChinatownYaowarat and the streets towards Hua Lamphong, with the lowest average scores of our Bangkok areas and every pick close to the MRT.Explore ChinatownTop rated in Bangkok.
luxury / Riverside
Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok
Researched Pick฿23,344
a night
luxury / Siam
Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok
Researched Pick฿14,041
a night
boutique / Old Town
The Moment
Researched Pick฿3,548
a night
luxury / Sukhumvit
Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit
Researched Pick฿10,044
a night
luxury / Silom & Sathorn
Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn
Researched Pick฿4,400
a night
luxury / Sukhumvit
Carlton Hotel Bangkok Sukhumvit
Researched Pick฿5,868
a night
Ordered on guest evidence alone: mean score across every booking platform we checked, then review depth. Having stayed somewhere does not push it up the list.
Things to do.
Tours carry each operator's own score, never averaged with the others running the same trip. Places you simply visit carry no score, and say so.
— 01cultureDamnoen Saduak floating market
— 02waterA Chao Phraya dinner cruise
— 03cultureA day trip to Ayutthaya
— 04cultureMuay Thai at Rajadamnern Stadium
— 05foodA Bangkok street food tour
— 06cultureChatuchak Weekend Market
— 07natureLumphini Park
— 08cultureThe Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew
— 09cultureThe Jim Thompson House Museum
— 10cultureWat Arun
— 11cultureWat Pho
— 12viewpointWat Saket and the Golden Mount
Drag to explore — 12 checked in Bangkok
Two badges.
No grey area.
Every one of the 31 Bangkok listings carries one of these. We never blur the line between somewhere we went and somewhere we checked.
How we research →We went. The listing names who stayed, when, and for how many nights. If we haven't been, it doesn't get this badge.
0
in Bangkok
Not been yet. Confirmed on more than one platform, with its real guest score and review count recorded from each. Each one prints its working.
31
in Bangkok
Get the good stuff first.
New listings, price movements worth knowing about, and the occasional note on somewhere that stopped clearing our bar. No list exists yet, so this button does nothing on purpose.