Seeksreal

I am having a long layover in BKK on my way from LAX to Koh Samui. I arrive to BKK at 11 PM and my flight to Koh Samui leaves at 6 AM. I will only have carry-on luggage with me. What would be the best way for me to spend those hours? Is there a nearby place to hang out or inexpensive hotel or should I go into Bangkok? I have a similar situation on my way home as well. My flight gets into BKK at 11 PM and I fly out at 6:45 AM. By this time I might have accumulated some check-in luggage as well... I'm very grateful for any advice on what to do during these short Bangkok nights. Thanks.

aSiAnRiCk

By the time you get out of custom, it'll be midnight.

You can still go to Khao San Rd and Patpong area for a few hours. Taxi should be about 700bt to KSR and about 350bt to Patpong.
You can also check out the Nana area by Sukhumvit Rd.

As for hotel, it may not be necessary for that short of a stay. But there's an airport hotel or you can stay for cheap at Suk11 in the city (about $14 bucks a night)
Their website is at www.suk11.com - advance reservation & payment is required if you're going to arrive after hours (which you are) and they'll leave the room key at the front desk with your name on it.

donovan1313

Seeks...

I live by Khoa San and it typically costs me no more than 195 baht but I don't take any tollway. At this time of night, there is no need to.

asianrick's recs are good since there tends to be a crowd in both areas of the city around the time you'd make it there on any given night. In addition, you'll find some massage establishments to relieve that long flight of yours. Check out the following site for KSR - you'll find out what's going on there: http://www.khaosanroad.com/

You could always do a search in this forum - almost daily someone has asked the same ? as yours...

Have a good trip

transpac

Do you want to clean up, maybe sleep a little bit? Or do you want to drag your luggage into town and drink/party all night at an after-hours club?

If the former two suggestions come to mind. Reserve a six-hour block at the airside hotel, and stay "in transit" (do not clear Immigration), then at 04:00 wake-up, check-out, clear immigration and walk over to the Domestic terminal for your PG flight. (Note that at least one person reported here that Immigration was not at all happy when he went through ~ 8 hours after his flight landed, but I would just say exactly what I did, maybe show the hotel receipt, and say that I didn't know it was against any rules.) Or you could find an inexpensive hotel nearby, after having cleared Immigration. Given the potential wait times for transport this might give you 4 hours in the hotel.

There are a ton of posts here with similar questions, and experiences with nearby hotels, so a search might yield valuable information.

On your return you won't be able to check in with UA until ~ 04:30 so you'll need to find a nearby hotel.

Seeksreal

Thanks for the info! I guess I was using the wrong search terms. It seems like the dayrooms will be the best bet for my arrival and then the proverbial one night in Bangkok on my way home. Should I reserve a dayroom in advance or are they pretty much readily available?

transpac

If you want a room then a reservation is advised. They are often sold out.

http://www.miraclegrandhotel.com/dayroom.html

Seeksreal

I ended up taking a dayroom at the airport for 4 hours. It worked out great and there was no issue with going through immigration later other than they wanted to see my boarding pass since the flight was already off their screens. Thanks for all the tips here!