What will be the best way to spend 4 days in Bangkok. All your ideas will be welcome. Thank you, Marijke

Hard because you really need more time to do the city justice.

A few must sees are Temple of the Dawn, Temple of the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace and Jim Thompson House. Also you MUST spend some time on the river exploring the klongs. But to really plan the four days we need to know more about your interests.

How enthralled are you with temples?
Do you plan on shopping a lot?
Are you interested in archeology and history?

One must is STAY AT A HOTEL ON THE RIVER!

Gloria

Pull up my previous post,"Great shopping guides for Southeast Asia". In the books I've mentioned, you'll find not only shopping ideas, but detailed hotel descriptions.And...yes, I agree...4 days in Bangkok is not enough time. I'd say 5 full days minimum.Get a private driver. Happy Travels!

uhhhh what are ya in too.

Thank you all for your answers. We like
culture, nature, walking, little bit of shopping, meeting locals.

culture and walking is best around the grand palice/china town...

nature. dusit zoo. are walking around chatachuk park. next too the huge market.. (last stop MO chit BTS)

shopping. MBK mall.. usually meets everones needs but there are many malls and shops around siam/plonchit districts
(all on BTS rout)

meeting locals. any bar/club on any night thais are party people.

I'd also go to the flower market or some of the other local markets. Also Jim Thompson House, Suaan Pakkard House and Vimamanek (sp?) Mansion and the grounds around it.

Shop around your hotel. There is so much good shopping in Bangkok it seems a waste of time to run all over the city for a specific place when you have limited time. I stay at the Oriental and do the vast majority of my shopping at Oriental Place and River City and the streets in between. I know many people here stay at the Marriott and shop near there. Once you've found a hotel we'll advise you on the best places to shop that won't cut into other sightseeing time.

the shopping around the marriott is largely for locals...you will not find much there...

my top attaction list is as follows:

grand palace, jim thompson house, V-mark palace, suan packard palace, the zoo, various wats, but especially wat arun, and the reclining buddah wat....
shopping all over the city: river city shopping center, mbk, the weekend market (hard to navigate and very hot), silom road, soi 23 sukhumvit rd area, emporium, oriental place including the thai home store and lim silver stores, the stainless steel shop at the end of the shangri-la plaza near to the skytrain stop, and thousands of additional places...
the flower market, chinatown area, any of the upscale malls like gaysorn plaza and peninsula plaza...

that is enough to keep you busy for 2 months

Thank you all for the wonderful ideas, it does seem 4 days aren't enough. What is the best area to look for a hotel? We'll be in Bangkok around march 2005.

Stay on the River!!! Peninsula, Oriental, Royal Orchid, Shangrila are all very near each other and very well located. Lots of people on this forum recommend the Marriott very highly also. Check prices both on the hotel's websites and on the various asia hotel booking websites -- asia-hotels.com and sawadee.com seem to be recommended often. March is not high season so you should be able to get some very good prices. All of the hotels mentioned above are very deluxe. Different people prefer different ones but I think you'd be happy at any of them.

If you go to the weekend market...go early. when I go, I'm finished and am leaving by around 11:45 AM...otherwise it's very crowded and hot. Happy Travels!

the hotels suggested above are perfect...i prefer either the marriott or the peninsula...the new conrad in town is nice as well as is the jw marriott...

a good web site for hotels is: www.huahin.20m.com

many fodorites, including me, prefer to stay along the river...most are upscale hotels...if you do priceline, they have had the shangri-la for about a year at $55-65 per nite which is a steal...i did it twice on my last trip...

Go see the Calypso Cabaret- we did on our trip in April- its in the Asia Hotel- seach the web for their website.
very entertaining and a classy act. You won't believe how good these ladyboys look. Its $25- well worth every penny!