Where to stay in Bangkok

The original Bangkok backpacker hub built around Khao San Road — 400 meters of pad thai stands, €2 cocktail buckets, and gap-year travelers from everywhere. Chaotic and self-contained, but the surrounding Banglamphu streets are genuinely atmospheric: old wooden shophouses, neighborhood temples, and the Democracy Monument just north.

Bangkok's Chinatown is one of the world's great street-eating destinations. Yaowarat Road at night: shark fin soup you shouldn't order, grilled seafood you should, pad see ew, mango sticky rice, and more gold shops per square meter than anywhere outside Dubai. The Talat Noi neighborhood behind it has beautiful street art and century-old shophouses.

North of the tourist trail, Ari is where Bangkok's young creative class lives: independent coffee shops, affordable Thai restaurants with no English menus, vintage clothes, and not a single tuk-tuk touting. A BTS stop from the chaos of Sukhumvit but a world apart. Victory Monument area has the city's best minivan terminals for day trips.

The artificial island at the heart of Bangkok: Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), the Grand Palace, Wat Pho (giant reclining Buddha, the birthplace of Thai massage), and Wat Arun across the river. All within walking distance of each other. Visit before 10am to avoid the worst heat and crowds. Dress code enforced — shoulders and knees covered.

The long BTS corridor from Asok to Ekkamai is Bangkok's expat and tourist spine: Terminal 21 mall, the rooftop bar at Octave, street food on Sukhumvit Soi 38 (late night), and the highest concentration of international restaurants in Thailand. The Nana and Asok sections are nightlife heavy; Thonglor and Ekkamai are where Bangkok's fashionable young crowd goes.

Bangkok's financial district by day, rooftop-bar destination by night. The Vertigo on the Banyan Tree hotel (63rd floor) and the Lebua Sky Bar (where The Hangover II was filmed) are both here. Patpong night market runs between the two main streets. Silom Soi 4 is the center of Bangkok's LGBTQ nightlife — enthusiastic and welcoming.