What to do in one day in BKK??
 

Hi
A few friends and I have one day in Bangkok. What are the absolute highlights and what is reasonable between the jetlag and the traffic? We are staying at the new Holiday Inn-I guess it's near a Skytrain stop. Thanks!

Depends on your interests and how hard the jet lag has hit you. First time in Bangkok?

Grand Palace, Suan Lum night market, klong tour by longtail, a few temples, massage, shopping...endless possibilities.

You might want to read up on Bangkok...guidebook, search here on Bangkok and you'll find loads, google "bangkok sightseeing" ...

If you are arriving from the US, you'll likely wake up early, so you might make the most of that by having an early breakfast, going the Grand Palace, then from there, take a klong tour from the nearby pier, then maybe a spa treatment, a nice dinner if you are still conscious :) and early sleep. That would be assuming you had 2 nights and the full day in between. if you have less than a full day, of course you'll never get so much done.

Thanks for the quick response KimJapan. I've done high level reading on what to see but yes, first time in Bangkok and it seems like there is so much. We will have one solid full day there. I'm really going to try to convince the girls to not shop a ton :) and we'll save the massage time for our trip to Koh Samui (if for no other reason than we just have more time there).
Distance wise, are the Grand Palace and a couple temples near each other? What about that giant buddha? And then can we catch the klong tour from somewhere nearby? Or are these on opposite ends of the city? At least with initial research, it's the distances between the sights that I haven't figured out. Then how close is that night market to downtown? And what time is it "open"? Thanks!

The Grand Palace complex also has the Emerald Buddha in it. There is a pier near to the Grand Palace that you can get a boat from....off the top of my head I don't know the name of it, but any map will show it. Getting there is through a small market kind of area that we thought was interesting. You can get a boat from just about anywhere, but the easiest places are at the end of the skytrain pier (name again escapes me but it's a no brainer...ride the train to the river), the Grand Palace, Wat Arun or the hotel piers (Marriott Riverside, Oriental, Shangri-la, Peninsula, Sheraton). If you were doing a klong tour, you could make stops at the Royal Barge museum and Wat Arun. That and the Grand Palace in a day would be enough for me to be honest.

The night market I mentioned, Suan Lum, is near the American Embassy/Wireless Road...easy to spot on a map too. Skytrain gets you close, subway gets you right there. Nancy Chandler has done a map of it you can print out for free from her website.

Get to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha/Grand Palace when it opens. See it and then go to Wat Po and reclining buddha. Then go to Jim Thompson House (have lunch there).End day with klong tour that includes wat arun. Evening for fabulous dinner or dinner and night market.

Do whatever you want in the day & evening, but don't miss Sky Bar at the top of State Tower at the end of the night.