In planning my November trip, I have become totally hooked on this forum and all of the wonderful advice that is dispensed here. I'm not sure I could even have attempted this trip without you all and I thank you for you expertise and views. I have one remaining question. My husband and I will be in Thailand and Siem Reap in November. We begin our trip with 5 days in Bangkok. We end our trip in Phuket and will fly back to Bangkok sometime (yet to be determined) on Friday in order to catch a 6:40 am flight on Saturday back to the states (via Tokyo). We originally planned to take an evening flight to Bangkok and stay out at the airport. Now I'm thinking that we should at least enjoy one last nice dinner in Bangkok. So the question is whether we should stay overnight in the city, thus requiring a very early morning wake-up call and trip to the airport on Saturday or perhaps stay with the airport hotel and taxi in and out of Bangkok on Friday night for dinner. Any thoughts (including the ease of travel in and out of Bangkok on friday afternoon/evening and/or Saturday morning)?
Thanks.

Oh, do stay in the city! I always have to get up early my last morning for that flightback to the US via Tokyo. Traffic at that hour of the morning is non-existent so the trip is very quick.

If it were me, I'd come back to Bangkok about mid-day or so. I'd always want time for some last minute shopping before heading home.

oops - I posted too soon.

One other thing - the new airport has one hotel which is quite pricey. You can stay in the lap of luxury in Bangkok for the price of the airport hotel. Pamper yourself for that last night!

When we have an early morning flight, we want to stay as close to the airport as possible to maximize our sleeping time. I have not driven between the new airport and the city but from other posts it seems that it is not difficult to get back and forth. Based on that, it would be worth your while to have that last dinner in Bangkok. Traffic should not be too bad at dinner time.

Should you choose to stay in Bangkok and forego the extra sleep, the early morning traffic on the way to the airport will be light.

Sleep on the plane. Definitely spend your last night in town, enjoying a great dinner. If you have to wake up early to go to the airport, you will just be more tired to sleep on the flight!

But if you don't sleep well on airplanes, you'll be that much more miserable on the flight. It also pays to be somewhat awake for ticketing, departure tax, security, etc. Its no big deal taking a taxi into town for dinner if that is all you want to accomplish on your last day.

The difference in when you have to get up if you are staying at the airport vs. staying in town is an hour or less (it used to take 30 minutes max to get to the old airport from the river). So the question is whether a hour or less of extra sleep is worth staying at the airport.. Of course, I hated the old Amari so there was no question for me. Who knows what the hotel at the nhew airport will be like.

Thanks for your input. I am in a total quandry. If we arrive in Bangkok early afternoon, we will probably want to do a little more than just dinner--perhaps that last minute shopping that Kathie mentions--which most likely brings us into staying in the city. I guess if dinner is all that we want to do, then Craig has a point.
One more related question, where to stay. Our first 5 days in Bangkok are at the Oriental. I was thinking about the last night at the Sukhothai and having dinner at Celadon but I haven't found anything in the forum about this hotel. Any other thoughts? I thought the idea of staying at the hotel that has the restaurant we want to go to might make sense for the one (short) night.

I always allowed an hour to get to the old airport regardless of how long it actually took to get there - it makes sense to allow a little extra time for the unexpected. Based on previous posts, I assume that the timing to get to the new airport will be similar.

There are many excellent hotel restaurants. I don't believe I have seen anything on Celadon or the Sukhothai recently. Guenmai has highly recommended Basil, a Thai restaurant at the Sheraton Sukhumvit. The Four Seasons has an excellent Italian restaurant - Biscotti. If you want to stay on the river again, the Penn has decent restaurants - we were disappointed with Thiptara, the Thai restaurant though.

On our trip a few years ago, we stayed at the Oriental for 3 nights at the beginning and one night at the end, coming from Railey.

We found the contrast amazing when we got back to the Oriental, we really appreciated how special the service is there. On our return, the manager took us right up to our room to register. We spent the afternoon shopping.

It turned out there was a managers cocktail party that night, we met a nice couple on their honeymoon. It turned out we both had reservations at the Thai restaurant there at the same time, so we joined them for dinner. We ended up at the Bamboo Bar listening to jazz until almost 2am. Two hours later we had to get up to leave for the airport, had no problem falling asleep after being up all night!

Of course traveling in First Class helped.

We agonized also over spending the last night at the airport and were glad we didn't. It turned out to be one of the best nights of our trip.

i agree with the others....for our first few trips we took a hotel room out by the airport--not the amani...we were always very uncomfortable and eating good was a problem, so we decided to suck it up and just get up early...so here is how we have done it from the marriott riverside to the OLD AIRPORT: wake-up call 3AM, shower for me, room serice at 3:05, bellman at 3:20 and pay bill and leave by 3:usually used AAC Limo.....this was for a 6AM flight....and it gave us plenty of time, in fact we were often early, which i prefer....i think if anything you would add 1/2 hour to this for the new airport, but until one of us actually tries the airport run we will not know....but at that hour you will fly to the airport i am sure..so my bottom line is stay in the city, get a great lux nites' sleep and a good room service breakfast and just get up early...we always try to go to bed early but never make it before 11...

we have eaten at celedon...it is quite nice, pricey however....the hotel is fabulous...i don't much like the location but it might be a help for getting to the new airport as it is sort of in that direction....

how about the peninsula so you would have a comparison??

another choice would be the intercontinental or the four seasons, with its fabulous restaurants....

cad---not sure of your exact dates in bkk, but we are planning a couple of mini fodors GTG's....so far there is one on nov 6 at the marriott at 4:30PM, one on nov 25 at the german brewery on rama III and one on dec 1 at tongue thai restaurant at an undertimined time as of this date...

there will be some postings about this in the next couple of weeks on fodors..
if you have questions you can get me at: [email protected]

others are of course welcome at any of these GTG's...
bob

Stay in BKK. You're going to be exhausted on the plane no matter what. You'll have jet lag on the return, no matter what. Why deny yourself the extra time in BKK for a few measly hours of sleep that will make no difference. If possible, book an earlier flight from Phuket. There are plenty.

Thanks again to all of you. Looks like it is decided and we will spend our last night in Bangkok instead of at the airport and have a wonderful dinner somewhere. Now I just have to decide where to stay and where to eat and I know there are so many great choices for each!
I may also try to get to the Nov 6th GTG although I do believe I am in the midst of some wonderful spa treatment at that time!

The eternal question...Spa Treatment or Dinner with Bob?

My husband and I are celebrity impersonators. www.almostcher.com and www.nearlyrod.com We are currently negotiating a deal to perform in Phuket, in order to help re-build the tourist trade after the Tsunami. We would very much like to spend some time in Bangkok as well. I am having some new Cher costumes made there, as we speak.
I wonder if anyone could give us some insight as to whether a good, Vegas-quality impersonator show might be well-received. We are thinking that perhaps some of the bigger, upscale hotels might consider it. Any advice will be much appreciated. If there is anyone willing to act as an agent to book us, we will happily pay a commission.

Helene A. Masiko-Crews &
Steven L. Crews

thais love entertainment and pattaya and phuket are places where it would do very well as well as in bkk...

the nov 6 GTG is only cocktails, not dinner...

we would welcome seeing and meeting you, if you can come...free boat from the hotel pier at taskim at the end of the skytrain....we will meet in the elephant bar on the 2nd floor of the main (center) building

If I can rearrange my spa appointments, we will stop by (or maybe if I cannot, I will send my husband who is not much for spa treatments but always one for afternoon cocktails!)
Thanks again to all.

I agree with all those folks who suggested to stay in-town even though you need to get-up at 4AM and be on your way by 4:30. Also, after 3-4 full days in Phuket (if you are snorkelers a day trip to Phi Phi Islands is a must) based on my stays there you will be ready to leave (don't get me wrong, for it is a lovely place and really bounced back after the Dec.'04 disaster)and take an 11AM flight to Bangkok that will have you at your hotel before 2:30.
If the airport hotel is so pricey why not stay at the Penn and eat at the Chinese restaurant as suggested, it is very good, or if you missed eating at the China House at the Oriental stay there in a standard room and enjoy Peking Duck (outragious) plus 1 appetizer for $80-$90 and take the hotel car service, I know it cost was unreal ~$90 OW in April, to the airport but you can be pretty certain it will be comfortable and likely will not break down which is more of a risk with a taxi.You can also squeeze in a few hours more of shopping or a message before dinner. To me that sounds like a plan. Just a long thought. Enjoy.