Romantic Things to Do in Bangkok
A visual guide from the Bangkok travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
There is a particular Bangkok evening that works almost every time: a table on a river terrace at Tha Tien as the light goes, the spire of Wat Arun coming up floodlit across the water, then a long unhurried dinner. The city is loud and hot through the middle of the day, so its romantic version lives at either end. Early mornings belong to the water and the parks, and everything after five belongs to the rooftops, when the river cools and the skyline does the work for you.
Evenings
For a first drink, Moon Bar on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree on Sathorn is the open-air classic, Octave at the Marriott in Thonglor gives a full 360-degree circuit, and Penthouse at the Park Hyatt is the quieter, better-dressed option. Book a river-facing table at Sala Rattanakosin or Eagle Nest for sunset over Wat Arun. Afterwards, the Bamboo Bar at the Mandarin Oriental has run live jazz since the 1950s in a low dark room that has aged very well. Dinner cruises on the Manohra teak barges or with Supanniga are the calmer alternative to the big buffet boats.
Daytime and quiet
Mornings are the good hours. Hire bicycles at Bang Nam Phueng pier and ride the elevated lanes through Bang Krachao's mangroves before the heat arrives, or walk the Benjakitti Forest Park boardwalks behind Queen Sirikit station at first light. Afternoon tea at the Authors' Lounge, in the Mandarin Oriental's nineteenth-century Authors' Wing, is an institution and needs booking well ahead. Bangkok also does spas properly, from the strictly traditional to the theatrical, with Divana's garden houses off Sukhumvit and the Oriental Spa across the river marking the two ends of that range. Ko Kret makes an easy half-day escape upriver.