Top 10 Nightlife Hotels in Bangkok

Picture this. You’re on Sukhumvit Road, enjoying a memorable night out alongside a multi-cultural cast of revellers, ladyboys and hard-selling vendors. You’re loving it – but knackered. Fast forward a few tired steps. You’re in a serene, whisper-quiet lobby. The air is cool. A bellboy summons the lift and, on reaching your room, sleep never came so quickly. This urban oasis effect, along with all you’d expect of a plush hotel, is the beauty of Soi 5’s Amari Boulevard.

On Sukhumvit Soi 1, Unico Grande Sukhumvit is one of those sleekly exotic, ever-so stylish hotels, a place you leave hoping some of its class has rubbed off on you. Its luminous cream surfaces, plump furnishings, swimming pool and unabashed air of modern Thai elegance, make for a truly gratifying retreat from all the late-night antics – dining, drinking, dancing or debauchery – that surround it. And there are a lot of them.

From the 475 rooms and suites and private lounges, to the meeting rooms, formal dining and fully equipped business centre, every nook and cranny at the Montien Bangkok is stupendously opulent. Great for business, leisure, families or couples, its crowning glory though is its spot on Suriwong Road. An offbeat nocturnal adventure at nearby Patpong– be it comically sleazy go-go bar, bustling night market or proudly pink nightclub – is never far away.

Itching to check out the expatriate hang-outs on Sukhumvit Soi 22? Heard good things about the studiously cool nightlife scene on Soi Thonglor and Soi Ekkamai? Or perhaps you want to mingle on Soi 33 itself, with its international eateries and surfeit of salacious hostess bars? If any of these options set off your nightlife ‘radar’, then Sukhumvit’s Novotel Lotus – a grand but mid-priced hotel – is a foolproof choice.

A recent addition to the city’s top hotel ranks, this urbane gem has an eye-catching, sail-like glass façade that screams “ook at me, I’m special!” And it is… Not only is there all you’d demand of a five-star (luxury, hi-tech rooms, six restaurants, business centre, spa, pool, unimpeachable service). It’s also only 50 paces from the carnival-like seediness of Soi Cowboy, close to a Skytrain and underground station, and dead centre in the heart of never-sleeping Sukhumvit.

Whether you’re here for business, nightlife or shopping, the Novotel excels at debatably the three most important factors in hotel decision-making - location, location and location. The coolest boutiques, the busiest shopping malls and the most central Skytrain station - Siam Square - surround this four-star blend of luxury rooms, restaurants, bars and superb hospitality.

Siam Heritage offers 73 elegant rooms, suites and serviced apartments, each one accented in an authentic Lanna and Rattanakosin-era style. Polished wooden floors, beautifully crafted beds and antiques everywhere. Traditional Thai living at its most fabulous. Head out though, onto Suriwong Road, and it’s like you’ve just stumbled out of a forward-travelling time machine: heaving clubs, swinging bars, neon flashing everywhere. Brilliant.

This is one of our best sellers. Why? Its price surely helps. As does the exuberance of the expected: the swimming pool, spa, gym, elegant restaurants and wide variety of rooms and suites. But, if we’re really honest, the Ambassador’s ‘piece de resistance’ is its Sukhumvit Soi 11 location, in the pulsating heart of Sukhumvit’s clubland. Eccentric bars, space-age nightclubs, a till-dawn disco in the basement – this is a night-owl hideout without the long fly home.  

Why do visitors love nights out in Silom? Is it the thrill of the neon strip of go-go bars they call Patpong, and the spectacularly sleazy antics that go on inside them? The buzz of the mercenary night market that plies its trade next to them? Or is it the glitter of the bars, pubs and clubs that, for revellers in the know, easily eclipse both of them? Stay at The Tawana – a radiant, grand, heavily wood-accented property on Suriwong Road, and find out for yourself.