Which Bangkok property is closest to airport?
 

I did a search but came up empty. I'll be arriving late into Bangkok, then out early the next morning. Ordinarily I might stay at the Novotel airport hotel, but I'm interested in picking up a stay for the free weekend nights promotion. Are any of the Starwood properties particularly closer to Suvarnabhumi than others?

Thanks for any help.

The Westin and Sheraton Grande are 'closest' I think and are across the street from one another. How late and how early are you arriving?

Just in terms of distance alone, the Plaza Athénée is 35km away from Suvarnabhumi Airport, and thus the closest. The SGS and WGS are approx. 43kms away. I am not sure of the exact distance, but I do know, the road distance of the LM Bangkok is over 40km from the airport. The Royal Orchid is about 42km or so away from the airport.

Hope that helps!

How is the PA closer than the WGS or SGS? Both properties are East of the PA, which is the direction the airport is as well.

Sheraton is probably the easiest of the bunch. Straight shot down Sukhumvit, then onto the toll way. No u-turns or back alley routes required.

I'm only going on the distances provided to me by the hotels when I emailed them......I only stay at SGS (and on few occasions, WGS), so have no more knowledge than that.

In December 2007, I was arriving at Suvarnabhumi late at night from India; and was leaving in the early hours for Phuket, so mailed PA & SGS to find out distances (didn't bother with WGS as they are opposite SGS); those are the distances they provided for Suvarnabhumi by return mail. In the end, stayed at SGS as usual, as the few km difference didn't make sense for trying a hotel we may not like!

So....if you don't like the distances I posted.....take it up with them...only going on what each hotel told me in December 2007!

Closest by road
 

Really, the distance isn't the issue, it's the trip time by car.

To the hotel:
Depending on the time of day and the motorway exit the driver uses either Westin Grande or Sheraton Grande are closer, but they are literally across Sukhumvit Road from each other.

To the airport:
The Sheraton Grance is closest as when the car exits the hotel, you are facing the right way to get to the motorway. Westin would mean a U-turn at Asoke which can take up to 4 minutes as the traffic lights are red for up to 210 seconds according to the counter.

Sorry to be so pedantic.

In any case, as they are opposite, I like the Sheraton Grande a lot better.

i agree

Oops, I forgot about Plaza Athénée. It is also right at the entrance/exit to the highway so probably the best bet.

Mercure Fortune Hotel on Ratchadaphisek at Rama IX Expressway
 

The Mercure Fortune Hotel is right off the Rama IX Expressway coming from the airport at Ratchadaphisek Road, and is actually closer than either the Sheraton or Westin on Sukhumvit as a taxi is likely to take you (in fact you can head south from the same exit down to Sukhumvit to get to those hotels, they're the next major intersection south on Ratchadaphisek, which is actually Asoke Road down there).

On the other hand, the Mercure isn't as nice as the Sheraton or Westin, all of which I've stayed in (the Sheraton is by far the nicest).

For more info on the Mercure Fortune Hotel go to:
http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-5931...ok/index.shtml

There's not much out by the airport that I know of as far as hotels go. Once you're on Sukhumvit, there are actually a lot of other choices at lower cost, mainly because it's close to the Nana Plaza Adult Entertainment area which itself is rather seedy.

I know you can get a cheap decent hotel for 1000 on agodo by the airport.. But in your case, I would go for the cheapest option as you are just looking for stay credit and a bed... Distance doesn't really matter it's only a matter of a few baht! Try and score the 4200 eat/stay free rate at plaza athenee, and have some nice Filets when you arrive!

I am either very very impressed that you knew that.....or, very very concerned! ;)

With your particular situation (arriving late & departing early) all SPG properties are , more or less, within the same distance. I'd chose a hotel with the best rates.


The Mercure looks nice but the OP is interested in picking up a stay for the free SPG weekend nights promotion. I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong here, that Mercure is an Accor property and not Starwood's.

The problem with the PA is that you have to head down Wireless, then make a u-turn to head back towards Ploenchit. You then have to cross Ploenchit and take a back alley route (just past the Swiss Embassy) that brings you back out onto Ploenchit about 100 meters from the tollway entrance. Can be a bit tricky if your cab driver doesn't know it or decides to take you for an extra ride.

I already know the distances (and the routes to the airport). That's why I was questioning how you got yours. Seems like the hotels were still giving the distance to Don Muang.

And due to the heavy evening/night traffic at the Patpong Area, the Le Meridien would not be the best choice.
(esp. Surawong rd)

Time of day does make a bit of a difference. If it is in the early morning then there is not enough of a difference between any of the properties to make any real difference.

The turn off the highway and back to Wireless Road to get to the Plaza eats up a lot of time during rush hour, so the Sheraton is probably the best bet by Taxi.

During rush hour the traffic in front of the SGS can get ugly. The traffic on wireless in not much better but in this case the OP is coming in late.

I would say since PA is really the closest to the freeway entry then it should be the quickest especially given we are talking about late at night and early in the morning but I still contend for late at night and early morning trips the time difference is not that much. I would not select the ROS just because you will get the taxi scam that ticks me off.

Probably concerned..... I am a pedantic fellow, but have stayed at SGS 35 times or so and know Suk Rd and the best access at different times of day really well. I've always found the U-turn at Asoke very annoying if you miss the lights as it's such a long wait.

Thanks for maybe being impressed, though.

I bow down to your superior knowledge, Sir.

Call me crazy but last night I used the ROS for an airport overnight. It's the expressway pretty much the whole way, less than 25 minutes in each direction, and was by far the cheapest. I know it's a bit of a disregarded property but was actually quite lovely for what it was -- Upgraded to a top floor jr. suite, club access, and the option to take breakfast down by the river (which wasn't too crowded and a wonderful spread). Easy in and out, checkin in the room, it actually worked nicely.

In the other direction I did use the Novotel as even from there I was heading off to the airport before 5am... :)

Late at night/early in the morning- if you want an SPG property I would say ROS as the entrance/exit from the motorway is very easy (although during the day the traffic is a nightmare).

The best choice IMHO is the SGS/Westin. From the airport, the Sukhumvit off-ramp will be 5-10 minutes earlier than Silom. (I have, however, been stuck at this off-ramp during the weekday evenings on a rare occasion.)

The likely Freeway entrance for the Plaza Athenee is on Rama IV rd, which is several KMs on a stretch that can get very slow during certain peak times. Although just as easy as the lot above to get to from the airport, the jaunt from hotel to airport isn't the quickest.

The ROS, Sheraton (one of my favorite properties) can get terribly congested between the offramp at Silom and the hotel. It's a stretch of only a few blocks, but I've been stuck in it for 30-45 minutes often.

I would follow the previous advice and do the SGS/Westin... where the meter portion of the fare should be less than 200THB.

If you tell your taxi driver (or the person at the PA putting you in the taxi) where you're going, then Rama IV isn't the way to go. The hotel people should know the correct way (which is on Wireless).

Agree, the best place is the SGS for easy access

SGS in my opinion is the best bet... Especially headed in late at night, out early in the morning.

Ok, I'm bumping my own thread because I'll be in and out of Bangkok three times between now and June and would like to stay at a Starwood if at all possible. As before, I'm arriving late into Bangkok (about 11 p.m.) three nights; my flight the next day is at about 11 a.m.

On the other three days I arrive at 5 p.m. However, luckily, two of those 5 p.m. arrivals are on Sunday; the third is on a Tuesday. My flight out the next day is 6 a.m.

FWIW, I have a pretty low per diem of about $140, but would go beyond that for some comfort and especially being relatively convenient to the airport.

Same advice from folks as last time? Anything different by virtue of these times and the fact that it's now a couple of years later?

Thanks again for any help!

Generally I'd say that you will be safe at the PA, SGS, WGS, FP or Aloft. They'll all give you a pretty fair experience for the arrival/departure times you are talking about.

I did a couple of stays at the Aloft Sukumvit and thought it was a nice property. The price is right (and now its going to be a cat 1, even better!), free wifi and decent fitness facilities. The only issue with traffic is that the area can be a mess. If you don't have much luggage though you can take the train from the airport and walk the rest of the way... about 1 km or so...

My vote would be for WGS or SGS as well. I've never had problems getting out quickly at that time in the morning and rarely had problems coming in that late. Your biggest variable in time will be the delay in getting through immigration, and I usually check both immigration areas of the airport since the first one you come to is often the most crowded (thanks to your fellow travelers). You'll have little enough time at the hotel as it is with your schedule, so for me, saving the extra few minutes that you'd incur going going farther west (like the ROS or Meridien) is worth it, but then I like to cut things close and get every minute extra sleep I can when I'm flying out of Suvarnabhumi early morning.

Thanks to everyone for the welcome advice. Looks like I can get a good company discount rate at the PA. Any further thoughts on whether that is a feasible option for times (please see below) when I might be dealing with heavy traffic? Also, any further directions on what to tell the taxi driver re how to get there, since a post upthread makes it sound confusing.

The Four Points certainly is within my budget and I don't need anything fancy for a quick stay. But is it equally convenient to the airport as SGS and WGS? It certainly is close to them, but I realize that in Bangkok once you get on a side street you can be stuck there for longer than the entire highway ride to/from the airport.

It's true that I'll be arriving late or on Sunday for five of my visits and leaving very early in the morning on three of them, so traffic won't be much of an issue. But for a couple of the other departures I'll be catching an 11 a.m. flight on a week day. If I were at the Four Points, how much time would I want to leave to make sure to get to the airport on time? (Or would I simply be crazy to stay there those times?)

Thanks again for the help!

Late evening arrival Sunday early morning departure Monday AM really I would just stay at the Novotel in the airport at BKK which is a solid Thailand 4*.

If you are heading to a SPG property the easiest one to get OUT of BKK from will be the PA. If you want to tell a driver how to get to the hotel printout a map from their website (or ask them to email you one)- alternatively if you know the street well tell them Wireless road and then just stop them when you get to the LM complex (which is quite large).

The other properties are also fine. For an 11A flight on a weekday- if you are flying domestic economy, domestic or international business, or first I would leave at 8:30, otherwise at 8:00A. The difference is because flying economy non-domestic you don't have priority immigration or security- so factor in 30 minutes difference to clear this. If it is raining I would add another 20 minutes.

Thanks for the quick and useful advice, TS. With the exception of one 5 p.m. weekday arrival, the challenge will be the 11 a.m. weekday departures, so for the most part it looks like I'll go with the PA and get the map/directions as you suggest.

FYI ... Next year there will be an LM golf resort out at the airport.

https://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefe...ropertyID=3031

they say opening Dec 2012, but we know how that works. :)

Check out the SPG BKK property map in my sig.

11AM departures are easy.

-David