Thailand Hotel Reviews

Bangkok is an awesome place to visit. If you are into the touristy thing, go to the Grand Palace complex area...tons of stuff to see there, and tons of temples everywhere. Check out Khao San Road (but BTS Skytrain does NOT get you there) If you are into the street shopping thing, try Pratunam area, lots of good deals there... There are also tons of fancy malls around Siam Square area. Silom Rd area is a good area to hang out...good food joint there, you can also check out the evening market at Patpong for souvenirs shopping. Well, Patpong is also known for the Thai Massage parlors that "go the extra mile" for a few extra Baht. Sukhumvit is very commercial, good tailors there, around some 18-19, there are also several happy bars in the area... but it is definitely a more business atmosphere than Silom Rd. Bumrungrad Hospital is in Sukhumvit, for anyone who needs a medical check up or any dental work, and it is quite inexpensive, by say, USA standards. The food is great in Thailand, and cheap. One thing to watch, though, is for those tuk tuk drivers. It is a fun ride, but avoid the ones that take you on side trips to see tailors, jewelry shops, souvenir shops etc.... Ask before you get on...otherwise, you may be in for an unwanted tourist tour through these expensive shops.

There are several nice restaurants nearby. The Indian restaurant towards Kata Beach, Dino''s (which looks gimmicky but serves excellent food) and Buffalo Steak House are all good.

Please note that Khao San bars/discos close at 1.30 AM by government order (info current as of 8/05). Also, Khao San is closed to vehicular traffic at night (can be a problem if you carry lots of baggage from your taxi).

There are a number of decent restaurants close to the Siri Sathorn Apts., including a Jim Thompson cafe down the same block, Anna''s Cafe, an upscale Italian place, etc. The spectacular outdoor rooftop bar/restaurant called Vertigo, on the 61st floor of the nearby Banyon Tree Hotel, is worth visiting for a drink (at 2 or 3 times the price anywhere else), but the food was less than stellar and very expensive by Bangkok standards. The tour to Attaya by bus from the Shangri-La Hotel and then back by boat, with a nice lunch onboard, made an enjoyable day trip. Traffic is so bad in the city (e.g., red lights that literally last for 7 or 8 minutes) that while taxis are very cheap, the skytrain often makes more sense. Tuk-tuks (and even the backs of motorcycles) are for the more adventurous, but can be hair-raising. Jim Thompson''s House is very interesting, and the main Jim Thompson store makes for one-stop gift buying, if one is looking for silk scarves and ties.

Chiang Mai has lots of beautiful quiet temples. Check out lots of the temples you just stumble on, that are not in guide books. Try and go to a monk chat and learn about the life of a monk and Therevada Buddhism. Wat Doi Suthep is beautiful but the "factory" tours out east of the city are often very overpriced for what it is.

Phuket, a great holiday, the water trip to James Bond Island is well worth it. The elephant rides a great day out. The night life with a fantastic show at the Moulon Rouge - Bangla St. all in all a great holiday.

We flew Thai Air to Krabi (check ahead for discounts on air fare as they did a promo for $25 one way; we missed that). Stayed at The Viewpoint Resort in Railey; a great value and great staff. We rockclimbed and CliffsMan is very helpful. Diving with Krabi Divers, good value and Paul was great. Viengtai Hotel in Bangkok, nice and a good location (has a pool)!

Go to The Cotton House in Oriental Place for superbly tailored clothing. While not the cheapest around, you do get what you pay for...We have a closet full of Thai silk, linen and cotton goods they have made for us over the past seven years, and love all of them. Try Harmonique off New Road for great Thai food at reasonable prices...and they ALWAYS have mango sticky rice for dessert!

Bangkok is the place really worth seeing. Plenty of interesting places for sightseeing, but be careful with taxi drivers. They could take You not to the place You want, but where they are receiving commission. "Seafood Market" at Sukumvit 24 is really perfect place for "seafood lovers"

Pratunam Plaza was excellent value for lunch meals. Also Thai massages here was extremely cheap (without bargaining too)!

For clothes shopping, Pratunam Markets. Electronic goods, go to the nearby Pantip Plaza. The best shopping mall for jewellery and a wide range of other goods is is Maboonkrong. The nearby Jim Thompson House is a traditional Thai teak house which is now a museum containing beautiful historic Thai artifacts. From the Narai hotel walk down to the Chaopraya River and take a ferry upstream from the end of Silom Road to Wat Pho and the Royal Palace.

Bangkok was as crowded and disorganized as we were expecting it to be. It was fun anyway. We rented a boat at the Sheraton pier that took us to the canals and a snake farm. It was good value for the money. Otherwise we got around by walking and taking taxis and tuk tuks, but you need to be prepared to bargain every time. We enjoyed the visit to the Jim Thompson house and also the weekend market. Chinatown was too crowded and difficult to navigate with kids but we found a nice chinese eatery with a delicious selection of dim sum.

Five days in Bangkok is not enough! I prepared myself for a sightseeing tour of Bangkok, but ended shopping more than half the time. We spent 2 full days at the weekend market, which was a worthwhile experience. We also toured the temples which were really beautiful (though I must admit, there is only so much one can take in). Nightlife was pretty okay. One thing that struck me was Bangkok is a city that doesn''t sleep. At 2+ in the morning, there were still roadside stalls open selling food, clothing etc. Subway was 24 hours! Travelling in Bangkok was a breeze with the BTS, taxis and tuk tuk. You can purchase a 15 trip BTS ticket for 300 baht which will allow you to travel to Siam, Silom, Sumkohvit areas and the weekend market (this covers pretty much where you will be travelling in Bangkok). For taxis, we felt that it was cheaper to take metered taxis.

I took the SkyTrain to Chatuchak weekend market and spent the next 6 hours there. Even saw some cock-fighting at the livestock section. There are also some book stalls stocked with English magazines. Don''t rush through the market. Take your time, drink water regularly and try the local food as well.

I don''t have advice about Bangkok but I would like to strongly recommend that people travel to the coastal regions in Thailand that were hit by the tsunami. Business is up and running again, and the area is as pretty as always, but unfortunately tourist numbers have dropped as much as 90% and those poor people are really suffering again financially. A great time to go is the low season because everything - hotels, tours, shops, beauty salons - has cheaper prices. In the beautiful beach town of Ao Nang, I would like to recommend having a one-hour Thai massage. I had an excellent one at Taak Thai Massage and Beauty Salon on 291 M. 2 Ao-Nang (opposite McDonalds). They offer a varied range of massages, hair treatments, waxing and manicures. Email tak54@hotmail.com. If you are heading to Koh Phi Phi and would like to assist in the ongoing tsunami cleanup, volunteers meet at Carlito''s Bar everynight at 7pm. More information on volunteering can be found at www.hiphiphi.com. But don''t be put off visiting this island because there is still some rubble around - it is stunningly beautiful and the snorkelling and diving is great. One way to get to the Koh Phi Phi island group is to do the one-way snorkelling tour advertised by all travel agencies in the region, enjoy the snorkelling on the uninhabited island, then get off the boat at the inhabited one.

Jomtien Beach...A small part of Pattaya but away from the maddening crowds. Check out ''Kaffa" Restaurant next to KFC at the end of the beach!

This was my 5th visit to Bangkok, and the place was as hot and friendly as usual. There are numerous inexpensive and good Thai restaurants near the Pinnacle Hotel. There are fewer tourists in the Rama IV area than at Silom or Sukhumvit, which means that prices are a bit lower there.

Be careful of very "friendly" people with strange ID cards that assure you that the museum you want to visit is closed and they offer to arrange for a tuk-tuk (3 wheel motorcycle) to get you somewhere else. Taxis are very cheap but arrange paying by the meter before getting in. I recommend the restaurants at the hotel (Montien Riverside), they are great. Avoid visiting the so called "snake farms". Do visit the National museum and the Temples. When bargaining in the open markets, start at very low prices (e.g. if they start at 1000 Baht, you should start at 100 Baht).

Metered taxis are now available in Chiang Mai, although sharing the red pickup trucks is still the most fun way to get around. Tuk-tuk drivers are an honest lot and will not try to take you to the nearest gemscam shop like their Bangkok brethren. Massage is half the Bangkok price. The travel agency across the road from WatPhraSingh provides excellent service, we are pleased with their small-group tours.

We took the A1 bus from airport (cheap) and wound up not too far from hotel. But, would recommend taking a private car to airport. But don''t use the hotel''s limo. Balk at the price and the doorman will get you a cheaper/reasonable private car. (The streets are very hectic and getting back on the A1 bus with luggage is a bitch.) We found one excellent restaurant, Mango Tree, on 37 soi tantawan, surawongse road, a few convoluted blocks away. Avoid the Siam Cuisine rest. on Surawong Road. Take the Skytrain to Siam Square to shop at MBK Shopping mall. Huge spaces devoted to all kinds of items like what seemed a square block of mobile phones, for example. Take Skytrain to Saphan Silom and ignore hustlers, look for the public ferry to cruise the Chao Phraya river to temples. The Grand Palace is fabulous as is Wat Po. Ignore all the people that although well dressed, and seemingly well meaning, will lie and tell you the temples are closed for all kinds of reasons. DON''T listen, they are trying to get you on another trip to some lesser temple. Take the Skytrain to National Stadium and wend your way to the "Jim Thompson House," a example of old Thai homes. The shop has beautiful silk items for sale.