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Haven’t been to Bangkok in 20 years. I recall the traffic being pretty dire. Have matters improved or do I need to be limiting my travel distance from hotel to conference venue?
Conference is at CentaraWorld but I do quite like a Shangri-La!
Or consider if you can travel between the places you want on the BTS SkyTrain or MRT metro – there’s a lot more now than 20 years ago!
The thing is, if I’m BTS-img it, then I’ve got to walk outside at either end, which is going to be a sweaty affair in September, so I’m wondering if I just book into the conference hotel or one in the immediate vicinity if the traffic will be bad.
From what I’ve heard the traffic still isn’t back to crazy but I would try not to be too far away personally
My view having done 20 years of conferences in Asia is always stay at the venue if you can unless you have a very good reason not to. My parents did very much enjoyed the Shangri-La in Bangkok also but it’s just not worth the hassle.
You also invariably lose the ability to pop back to your room for half an hour before meeting up for post conference activities. A shower is so appreciated at that stage.
And give that September is when you are most likely to encounter rain and there is a saying that Bangkok traffic is like instant noodles (“you just need to add water”), WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF!!!???
If you like the Shang so much, go a couple of days early and partake. Huge help for jet lag too.
Thanks. Good idea on travelling early but unfortunately I can’t really squeeze any more time out of this trip – at either end.
Perhaps I need to rethink this. And look closely at maps etc to figure out which walkways are undercover!
Oh I hadn’t realised you put the venues! You can do that on the BTS easily but no way would be I be putting a 30min commute on just to stay at the Shang – it wasn’t that impressive the last time I was there (admittedly mainly caused by a big group booking that they even let book out the pool one evening!)
plenty of decent options much nearer
Everyone has different hopes and aspirations for hotels but out of everywhere I’ve been, I’d say that the average standard in Bangkok is the highest. It’s very difficult to go far wrong.*
I remember once staying at the Sukhothai which is a decent enough hotel but nothing special (the broker that was hosting me had good corporate rates there) and my host presented me with a list of options for dinner all of which involved getting in a car.
I laid down the law and said you can do what you want but I’m eating in the hotel as early as I can. Ironically it turned out the hotel restaurant had been voted best Thai restaurant in Bangkok and was very yummy and not aggressively priced. We were finished by 8pm whereas his plans were for dinner at 8pm. When you’re travelling and jet lagged, an early night having actually digested your food can be priceless.
* the one time I did go wrong was the buffet at the Grand Hyatt Erawan where I didn’t stop and ask myself the very basic question “why would they be making meatballs out of Wagyu beef”. I found out the next day why.
@Froggee that’s two comments from you in the same thread that have made me laugh out loud – thank you 😀
@AJA you are very welcome. My wife said she married me because I made her laugh. The use of the past tense is troubling.
What’s more troubling is if she starts arranging life insurance policies in your name but doesn’t reciprocate.
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