Where to Stay in Bangkok ? – The Best Zones for the Hotel

If you don’t know Bangkok and you have no idea where to stay, this page is for you. The purpose of this page is not to recommend specific hotels, but rather to help you recognize some potential areas in which you can book a hotel.
You can read opinions of travellers about specific hotels in Bangkok.
There are plenty of Hotels in Bangkok for all Budgets.


(Click on the Map to see it Larger).

1. Town Center – Siam area and Pratunam (the big malls area)

Advantages of this location: It is really central. You are right in the Big malls of Bangkok. You are also close to the skytrain station Siam (and others), close to the train to airport, close to the nightlife in Nana area. You have plenty of choices for restaurants.

Disadvantages : Hotels and Food are more expensive in town center. The hotels tend to be big chains, like for example Novotel. You can find budget hotels in Pratunam area.
See Hotels near Siam zone.
Visit the page : Big malls of Bangkok to see a map with this area.

2. Town Center – Sukhumvit street, Nana zone

Advantages of this location: Very Central. It is close to the main nightlife of Bangkok. Close to where are the discos at Soi 11 of Sukhumvit (Soi are the little streets that go out of Sukhumvit). Close to the red districts Nana and Soi Cowboy. Just 3 skytrain stations from the Big malls of bangkok at Siam area.

You can find a lot of budget hotels in this area. There is also a lot of fast food.
Disadvantages : A very tumultuous area, it’s exhausting after a while.
See Hotels near Nana zone.
See the page : Maps of Bangkok.

3. Khaosan Road -The Backpacker’s zone

Khaosan Road is the backpacker’s zone of Bangkok and a tourist attraction by itself. Visit the page : Khaosan road Survival Guide.

Advantages of this location: A lot of budget hotels and food and a lively atmosphere. Many Vegetarian restaurants.
Khaosan is close to some important tourist attractions like : The Big Palace, Chao Phraya river and Wat saket.
Disadvantages : The skytrain doesn’t reach this area, it is more difficult to get to town center. See the page : How to get from the Khaosan to…
Khaosan is a quite noisy environment but you can find quiet hotels on the river side.
Visit the page in this site about Hotels in the Khaosan zone.
Or search directly Hotels in the Khaosan zone.

4. Chao Phraya river

Advantages of this location: It is always nice to have a river view. Chao Phraya river is one of the nicest and elegant places in Bangkok and living here is more expensive.
There are some luxurious hotels right on the river like the Hilton and Sheraton hotels in pier number 3 of the boat transport. See the page : service of boats in the big river Chao Phraya.

The Backpacker’s Khaosan area, is also close to the river but you will have to take an hotel in the Phra Athit street to get a view of the river.
If you stay on the Chao Phraya river, you can use the public boats service in order to arrive to certain tourist attractions like the Big Palace and wat Arun.
Disadvantages : An hotel on the river is generally expensive.
It is not the center of town. There are only 2  metro stations on the river. See the skytrain page.
See Hotels on the River side of Bangkok (on the map, choose the hotels that are near the river).
See the page : Maps of Bangkok.

5. Silom – Pat-Pong area

Advantages of this location: A lively zone at night with bars and restaurants. There is also a modern mall. Pat-Pong is also a red district.

Close to the big Lumpini park. Good access to Transport, the skytrain station Sala Daeng and also MRT station Silom. It is just at 3 stations from the big malls of Siam.
Disadvantage : Less central than Siam and Nana.
See Hotels near Pat-Pong.
See the page : Maps of Bangkok.

6. China Town

Advantages of this location: You are in China Town which is a tourist attraction by itself, a lively zone at day and at night. There are not many tourists staying in that area so you can get hotels at good prices.

Close to metro stations and also close to the Chao Phraya river.
Disadvantages : You have to take some kind of transport to get anywhere, but it is not far.  Also, not a lot of hotels to choose from.
See Hotels in the China Town zone.
See the page : Maps of Bangkok.

7. Near the main international Airport or at easy reach- (Suvarnabhumi)

If you are short in time and you need to be able to reach the international airport Suvarnabhumi rapidly (Map):

Several cases :

  1. You want your hotel to be near the airport, for minimum travel time, then See Hotels near the international Bangkok airport Suvarnabhumi.
  2. You want to stay in Bangkok town center but be able to reach the airport rapidly at Night Time : At night there is no traffic problem, so you can stay in any place in Bangkok and you can reach the airport with a Taxi in less than an hour, See Hotels in Bangkok.
  3. You want to stay in Bangkok town center but be able to reach the airport rapidly at Day Time : During the day, there may be traffic jams in Bangkok (for many reasons), so you can take your hotel near one of the stations of the airport train in order to bypass the traffic, you’ll be able to reach the airport in less than half hour. Choose your train station :

See the following map, click to enlarge:

map hotel near train to airport bangkok

(See the train to airport page for more details about the airport location and the train to the airport).

If you want to stay near Don Muang airport (mainly a domestic airport) :

This airport is about 22 Km to the north of center Bangkok (see it in the Maps page). There is not an airport-train to get there (like there is for the international airport Suvarnabhumi) and you may choose to sleep near the airport. See Hotels near Don Muang airport.

8. Anywhere close to a skytrain station or MRT (underground) station

Your hotel can be anywhere in Bangkok. It could make sense to be far from the tourist zones if you get better conditions in the hotel and if you are near a skytrain or metro station. With the skytrain (and metro) you can reach quite fast the center of Bangkok, it is a very efficient service. In fact, being close to a skytrain station in a non touristic area can be better (in terms of transport) than to stay in the touristic left side of Bangkok (Khaosan or the Chao Phraya river) where there is no skytrain.

If your hotel is not close to a skytrain station, it is still OK, as there are plenty of taxis in Bangkok at very good price, but I would still recommend to be near a skytrain station.
See Hotels in Bangkok (with the bottom left menu you can filter by places of interest or skytrain stations).
See the page : Maps of Bangkok.

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