We are traveling with our 23 year old daughter. We would like to see bangkok for mostly shopping. where should we stay? Then we would like to go to a beach area. Should we go to Phuket or another beach area? What hotels would you recommend to get a flavor of Thailand. Prefer not to stay at fancy chain hotels . We figure 2 days in Bangkok and 3 days on beach area and then fly back to U.S.A. Looking for areas to stay, hotels, restaurants, shopping areas.

i have a restaurant list if you want it...contact me at:

[email protected]

how much do you wish to spend on the bkk hotel?

try this website:

www.huahin.20m.com

hotels are listed by street location...

many of us prefer to stay on the river but most are "chain" hotels...

marriott resort and spa, hilton, sheraton orchid, peninsula, oriental, shangri-la are the most frequented...

there are also serviced apartments which are often good for 3 people....the centre point group is well used by fodorites, especially centre point silom, which is directly next to the shangri-la and the skytrain stop taskim...

shopping is in every part of the city: there are many upscale malls: gaysorn, paragon and others....also many market places.....one favorite is mbk mall right at siam near to the skytrain....

When are you going? What is your per night budget for hotel rooms (per room)?

As Gpanda notes, which beach depends on the time of year. Where else are you going on this trip (I assume you aren't flying to Asia for 5 days in Thailand).

If you give us a budget, we can suggest specific hotels.

We will be in China before this and have always wanted to visit Thailand. We will he in Thailand around Oct. 11. As far as hotels, we do not need teh most highend, something that that is moderately priced, good location and most beautiful beach that time of year.

Moderately priced may mean $50 to one person and $200 to another. The more specific you can be, the more likely we'll be able to help.

Two days in Bangkok is not a lot. There is plenty there to interest you (not just shopping) for 5 days (or much more). From you other post, I see you are traveling in October. That's not a great time for any of the beaches, as it's when the monsoons change. Even Hua Hin, which is the driest of the beach areas gets over 10 inches of rain in October.

If it were me, I'd stay along the river. Others might recommend a hotel near a skytrain stop on Sukhumvit.

Also, what kind of shopping are you looking for? Arts & crafts, antiques, home decor, clothing, etc?

thank you for your response. Can we stya at a decent hotel for $100 a night.If we can get a 3-4 star hotel that is what we need in Bangkok. As far as the beaches which one do you think we should chance for that time of the year? we probably would like to do clothing shopping.

If clothing shopping is what you want, spend all 5 days in Bangkok and have some clothing custom-made.

October is very iffy at all of the beach areas. Gpanda gave you the address of my favorite weather site on your other thread www.weatherbase.com

Take a look at the rainfall at Phuket, Hua Hin and Koh Samui (use Surat Thani) in October and you'll see what we mean.

Also, since ther are 4 of you, you may want to consider a serviced apartment in Bangkok - you can get a two bedroom apartment at Center Point Silom for about US$200.

As for shopping for clothing in Bangkok,a lot depends on your size/height/proportions. The clothing there is porportioned differently than western sizes/proportions. The arms are almost always way too short for me and the skirts,too. If I find a skirt, I then have to buy their version of a long skirt...which is high-water on me...and have it cut to a short(25-inch) skirt which works for my height. Many of us, in this forum, have our clothes custom-made in Bangkok. I go to a place that custom makes all of my clothing and exactly to my proportions. When I do buy western-style clothes at the department store there, then I buy the company called,British India, which cuts more to western bodies as well as non-western bodies. Happy Travels!

Bunchee

I'm staying in a 1-bedroom serviced apartment very close to shopping during my upcoming July trip to Bangkok. I will be reporting back to this forum on Somerset Suwan Park View Apartment Hotel, as others are interested in my impressions of the place. The web site makes it look quite inviting. I do like serviced apartments because they provide more space and living area.

That said, I stayed at the Bangkok Holiday Inn in February of this year, and really thought it was a great hotel and super location. It's over $100 though... I think I paid about $120. That didn't include breakfast. My apartment will include breakfast for just over $100 per day.

Let us know how your are doing with your searching. As far as beaches are concerned, I was in Phuket in September a couple of years ago. Yes, we had some rain, but we went shopping in a mall and also "did" the shopping street in Patong Beach that day. We stayed at the Katathani Resort on Kata Noi Beach. Beautiful!!!

Carol

There are plenty of hotel/apartment options in the shopping area (along Sukhumvit Rd). If you are in Bangkok for shopping, the river is a little inconvenient. But a first-timer to Bangkok should really find out about life on the river. It's amazing!

I just posted on the other question:
To give you an idea, these are rainfall stats for Sept / Oct / Nov:

Bangkok : 12.6 / 9.1 / 2.3
Pattaya: 5.4 / 9.5 / 2.8
Hua Hin : 5.4 / 10.5 / 5.2
Samui area: 7.6 / 9.8 / 5.6
Phuket area: 16.5 / 12.0 / 8.2

It really is the luck of the draw, with only 2 days in Bangkok and 3 at a beach I would tend towards just taking a cab down to Hua hin at some nice beach place with a good spa, there is some shopping there, night markets etc, only about 2 hrs 30 by road at quite time of day so does not cost you much to get there and easy.

Marriott probably around $100 range, is you can stretch to about $115 for the Hua Hin Hyatt Regency you can save by using their 'Shuttle' between Bangkok and Hua Hin which is about $14 each, other Fodorites have used that shuttle and it worked fine, they have a good spa. Other places in the $60-70 range too.
http://www.huahinwhatson.com/hua_hin_hotels.html shows some luxury, boutique and budget ideas.

If you wanted to head to islands then flight, there are budget carriers but with just a few days my humble opinion is just head somewhere by cab/shuttle from Bangkok, if you want lively there is always Jomtien/Pattaya area, more shopping but beach not as good as Hua Hin, though HH beach not as good as the south islands, so it's a balance.
You can make most of time and then simply cab back to Bangkok Airport for your flight.

If you go to HH, the Sofitel is quite nice. centrally located and beautiful grounds.

you are in luck...hotel prices go up each year on nov 1...

hotel site: www.huahin.20m.com

sorry i gave that to you before...i think center point would be way less than $200 for two bedrooms but i might be wrong...

Bob, at that time of the year you're right - Center point is probably less. But someone here stayed in a 2 bedroom duing high season for about US$200 a night.