We have never been to Asia before and I have read interesting comments about dinner cruises in Bangkok. Does anyone have any recomendations or favorites that they will share with us. Thanks Marg

Personally I'd skip them. Hire a boat for a trip on the river and eat in one of the wonderful bangkok restaurants,

i also would skip them...take a nice day time trip on the river and save your eating for some of bkk's fine restaurants...our main concern is the cleanliness on the boats for food prep....we have seen too much from passing boats to allow us on one for dinner...

There are several very good dinner cruises available the best in my opinion are the following in order of preference. The food preparation on these is of high standard and while the food may not be as good as some of the better restaurants it makes for an enjoyable evening out on the river.

Orient Hotel - boat leaves every evening, except Monday, from the hotel pier at 7.30pm. It serves a gourmet buffet dinner consisting of Thai and Western and costs 1600 baht.

Loy Nava - This is probably the oldest of the dinner cruises (operating for over 20 years) and can serve 50-60 guests in an open air environment on a rice barge. They have a choice of meals, Thai - 1200 baht, seafood - 1500 baht and also vegetarian. They will pick you up from your hotel. http://www.loynava.com/.

Pearl of Siam - Another good one which operates from the River City Pier and cost a little less at 1100 baht for a Thai and international buffet. It can accommodate up to 170 passengers.

The Marriott Riverside Hotel also offers dinning on two ancient but splendidly adapted Thai-style boats. Each can accommodate about 35-40 guests and serve a Thai set menu of 7-8 dishes, costing 1100 - 1200 baht per person.

Other hotels like the Shangri-la and Royal Orchid Sheraton also offer these dinner cruises.

For those who are more price-conscious, the Royal River Hotel offers cruising on a 2-storey modern-style boat on saturday nights. It charges a relatively reasonable price of 400 baht per person for a buffet dinner, excluding drinks and beverages. Good but nothing fancy with service like one would expect from a standard hotel banquet. The cruise takes two hours and can accommodate up to 100 guests.

Hi,

I agree with Scotters, we did a dinner cruise from the Shangri-la. It was nice to see the river at night and enjoy a good meal at the same time(the hot food was hot, the cold food was cold and there was plenty of everything-both Thai and Western food items). We also took a day time long-boat ride too-am glad we did both as each is a different experience!

I've also done several dinner cruises and have enjoyed each one. The first one was the Oriental's rice boat, which I understand sank a while back, but I'm sure they have something to replace it by now.

The second one I took was the Shangri-La's more modern and sleek boat. If you do this one, dine outside, not inside. It was lovely.

The last one I took was the one at River City shopping mall. Wanfah is the name. There was a nice dinner plus we had some Thai dancers in their exotic costumes, and traditional Thai music being played.

I enjoyed all three, for different experiences, and would not want to say which one was my favorite (although the Shangri-La boat was nice).

Thankyou all so much for your help. The thought of spending an evening meandering along the river looking at all the sights really interests us. Now to choose just one . . .