Detailed Review
On the Chao Phraya River and next to Taksin Sky Train station, this garden landscaped hotel lies within 2 km of Silom Road shops and the Royal Palace. The hotel features squash courts, tennis courts, two pools, meeting and conference rooms, five restaurants, river cruises, a health club, and a health spa offering a full menu of treatments.
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All guestrooms feature large windows with city and river views, contemporary design with traditional Thai highlights, large desks, high-speed Internet access and marble bathrooms.
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The Shangri-La Hotel Bangkok features two outdoor pools set in gardens on the river, two flood lit tennis courts, two squash courts, a fitness centre, and the largest spa suites in Bangkok. Classes in yoga and Thai cooking are also available onsite. There is a shopping arcade in the Shangri-La Wing. Various theme parties, dinners, and river cruises are available on the hotel’s Horizon yacht. The hotel has five restaurants and three bars.
Press Quotes
"The Shangri-La is in a pair of high-rise buildings on the east side of the river, near the Oriental. A portrait of Thailand's king encased in bright gold greets guests in the lobby, which is huge and busy, with the air of a convention hotel." Los Angeles Times 08
Independent Reviews
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"Overlooking the Chao Praya River, this luxury hotel boasts the Chi Spa, tropical gardens and close proximity to the Royal Palace."
Two wings in this hotel service business and leisure travelers respectively. The Chi Spa complex boasts the most spacious treatment rooms in the city.
Shangri-La Bangkok
By Caroline Major
The spa crowd is wising up to the recently rejuventated Bangkok Shangri-La. One of the biggest launches on the international spa scene in 2004 is Chi Spa, Shangri-la’s much considered spa concept which has hit a winning formula. This new spa is based on Chinese and Himalayan healing techniques and treatments and combined with a just finished refurbishment (mid 2004) enables the river-front hotel to credibly boast. Large rooms with modern bathrooms and a fresh contemporary Thai atmosphere provide for a comfortable stay in the capital. Choose a room with a river view for immersion in the Bangkok bustle without the hassle.
The Chi concept has permeated the hotel with a fresh faced crowd eating healthy ‘spa cuisine’ from the room service menu, gorging on tropical fruits and sunning themselves between treatments by the river-side swimming pool. The mix of clientele a grand reason to join the throng at the breakfast buffet for a game of ‘guess who they are’ as you strain to hear snippets of conversations. Bermuda shorts wearing men with sports sandals mix it up with buffed gay couples, next to young Asian families with pre-schoolers in tow. Groups of gals on beauty trips glow with their ‘just polished’ skins shining in the morning sun while older couples stare into their eggs wondering how they came to be part of such a mélange.
The business travelers, for the most part are separated from the leisure hunters in a separate wing. A ‘hotel within a hotel’ as the marketing types like to call it, is complete with it’s own reception, entrance, décor and more business orientated services. A well equipped gym is located between the two wings.
The Shangri-la boat departs from their Chao Praya pier for one of the best tours of the near-by ancient capital of Auyuttya which makes for a pleasant day strolling around the still active temple ruins.
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Condé Nast Traveller 2008 Gold List
