New Year's Eve in Bangkok - suggestions?
 

New Year's Eve in Bangkok will be the last night night of our two week honeymoon to Thailand. I've done research on the various options out there and read many past posts but would love some input.

It sounds like being on the river would be ideal in order to see the fireworks and we've looked at the various restaurants at the Oriental...and although very expensive I think can justify a big splurge since it's NYE and our last honeymoon hurrah.

I've also looked into the dinner at the Blue Elephant which might be fun too? Any other standout restaurants either independent or in hotels that we should be considering?

We would love a fun festive atmosphere that would capture the essence of New Year's Eve in Bangkok (forgive my corniness)

Thanks for your thoughts!

There will be fireworks at all the riverside hotels and they will start the show at midnight. The atmosphere will be quite "civil" at the Oriental but if you really want to have fun I would go to one of the pub at RCA avenue - a street full of pubs, bars etc.

From 11.00 pm onward be aware that traffic going to and from the river area will be very hard to navigate.

It is very likely that the hotel at which you are staying will have a Mandatory New Years Eve dinner charged at an exorbitant rate for two. This is a common requirement for a stay at a hotel over December 31. Of course, there is no reason why you have to attend. We went to one in Cambodia last year and it was a pathetic affair. Mediocre food and the "enetrtainment" was worse.

Yes, exactly...once I almost got charged with the absolutely ridiculous tag on price of a New Year's Eve dinner/celebration that I was not going to attend. This was at a hotel in Chiangmai. After a lot of talking, I finally talked the hotel out of tagging on the price. On New Year's Eve, I was going to stay in my room and sleep as I was exhausted, so why pay for something I wasn't going to use? As for Bangkok, last year tons of folks were in front of Paragon Mall celebrating. I personally stayed home, at the apartment I rent, and watched all of the fireworks from my terrace. There were fireworks along the river and also a lot in the north part of Bangkok. The sky really lit up. I didn't want to get out into the CROWDS of people and have transportation problems getting home. I read about the celebrations the next day in the Bangkok Post and saw the photos of the crowds. Glad I stayed home. Happy Travels!

As others have said, do check and see if you are being charged for a New Year's eve gala at your hotel. (I've been at the ROS many times on New yeaer's Eve and never had a mandatory NYE charge.) If you are being charged, decide whether you want to go to that party, and if not, try to negotiate it out of your rate.

I always stay by the river, and love watching the fireworks. For dinner, I'd probably go someplace where I could just order dinner (not one of the big galas, unless you are into that), then come back to the suite for champagne (pick up a bottle on your way into Thailand - you can buy from duty free in the Bangkok airport on your way into the country) and fireworks.

Thanks for the input...

We're staying at Ibrik in the City (not the riverside location) so there won't be a compulsory dinner. Would we be able to see the fireworks from virtually any riverside restaurant or only the ones in closer proximity to the big hotels!

Oops - my last sentence should have been a questions...not a exclamation.

Each of the big hotels puts on fireworks on the river, right in front of the hotel. So the best views will be from teh hotels themselves or places close to the hotels.

Try a dinner at Sirocco on the 64th floor of Lebua at State towers. It's an outdoor restaurant, the tallest in Asia, expensive but absolutely worth it. Stunning.
www.lebua.com will lead you to details.