Pathumwan Princess Hotel

As mentioned in the post Choosing Thailand Hotels for Songkran I had 6 different hotels in Bangkok that I short listed, 3 in the Siam area and 3 in the Sukhumvit area. Today’s post will take a closer look at the second hotel on my short list from the Pratunam/Siam area – the Pathumwan Princess Hotel.

The thing I really liked about this hotel is that it is literally attached to MBK. Now that might not mean much to you, but I can assure you that if you have a shopper with you this location will be awesome for them. I know Golf could spend all week shopping between MBK, Siam and Central so this location is ideal.

Getting right to the important stuff, the Pathumwan Princess is not a cheap Bangkok hotel, as you might expect given the location. Prices range from $120-154 a night, though I would say that $154 a night isn’t bad for their Executive suite given the location.

As I said, MBK is attached to the hotel and other malls are within walking distance including Siam Square (youthful and great bargains), Siam Discovery (medium price-range clothing), Siam Paragon (top-tier brand-names, aquarium, fine-dining outlets, movie theatre, opera, and bowling), and Central World Plaza (Bangkok’s largest mall). And you’re also within walking distance of the Siam BTS station so you’ll have easy access to everything else Bangkok has to offer.

While the Grande Centre Point Rachadamri Hotel was ideal for families, the Pathumwan seems ideal for the fitness oriented group boasting both an Olympic sized swimming pool and a huge 9000 square foot fitness center which includes personal trainers on staff, free weights, cardio machines and group classes in step aerobics, yoga, karate, jazz dance and other varied programs. It also has great hours being open weekdays 6am-11pm and weekends/holidays 7am-10pm.

You’ll find a full service bar at the hotel as well as 4 restaurants serving Thai, Korean and Italian menus. While this is convenient, the hotel restaurants tend to be expensive and in most cases the food is not nearly as good as what you’ll find outside the hotel. Honestly there are so many restaurants within the Siam area that you would be hard pressed to hit them all even if you were there for a month.

The hotel is recently non-smoking which could be considered either good or bad news depending on your preference. The only other consistent bad review I found is that the hotel and some of the rooms are a bit old and run down, however that is apparently being fixed as the Pathumwan Princess is currently under renovations.

Overall the Pathumwan Princess seems like a good hotel and I love the idea of the huge pool and fitness facilities. This is something I would use so it’s a definite bonus for me. The location is superb, however on the downside it is a bit pricey. Well, I have 4 more Bangkok hotels to look at still, so no decision yet, but I would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts.

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Grande Centre Point Rachadamri Hotel

Ok, following up on my post Choosing Thailand Hotels for Songkran here’s the first of the hotels that I investigated. I am going to simply go through all the hotels first and let you know what I found and then finally will give you my choices for each location – Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket. I want to thank those of you that have already emailed me with your own suggestions for hotels in Thailand as well.

So, as I said previously I am considering 6 different hotels in Bangkok, 3 in the Pratunam/Siam area and 3 in the Sukhumvit area. I’ll be looking at the Siam area hotels first and today I am going to talk about the Grande Centre Point Rachadamri Hotel which is located just off Rama I near the Chit Lom BTS station. This puts you within walking distance of the BTS and also within walking distance of Central World, Siam and MBK which is very nice, especially for you shoppers. It also puts you close to Central Chit Lom and Lumpini Park if you need a bit of greenery in Bangkok.

First off let’s get the issue of price out of the way. The Grande Centre Point Rachadamri Hotel will set you back anywhere from $117-188 per night (based on prices from http://www.agoda.com for April 2009). Yes, I know that this isn’t cheap for Bangkok, but this is a 5 star hotel located just minutes from Siam Square including all of the facilities and amenities you would expect from such. Honestly I’d expect to pay triple this price in New York, Tokyo or London.

All the reviews I read about the Grande Centre Point Rachadamri Hotel were good and many of them pointed to the excellent service as well as the “kid friendliness” of the hotel. Of course if you don’t have kids with you this won’t mean much, but if you do it’s a big selling point as hotels that are good with children can be difficult to find. Cleanliness and size of the rooms was also pointed to as a big positive of the hotel.

You’ll also find both a huge swimming pool on site as well as a gym and Jacuzzi, but be forewarned that apparently the Jacuzzi is separated by gender so you won’t be able to enjoy it with your significant other. Surprisingly there is only one small restaurant onsite, but I really don’t think that finding food will be an issue in the Siam Square area considering all of the restaurants and food courts available in the nearby shopping malls.

All things considered the Grande Centre Point Rachadamri Hotel could be a great place for you to stay if price isn’t a huge consideration and you want a great location. Additionally, if you’re traveling with children this looks to be a great hotel. Ultimately the decision is yours, but I would (and am) seriously consider trying the Grande Centre Point Rachadamri Hotel.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Choosing Thailand Hotels for Songkran

So, Golf and I are planning our next trip to Thailand for Songkran 2009 and I’ve been doing lots of research on hotels in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket. You know there are hundreds of hotels in each of the three locations ranging in price from $10 to over $1000 per night! Read more

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