With slick, minimalist lines, sophisticated guest rooms and suites, and an enviable location, Park Hyatt Bangkok has everything today’s Bangkok-bound traveller needs.
So it’s finally happening, the world is emerging from the pandemic, casting away its masks (for the most part) and moving on. And a big part of that will be exploring, if not just for the thrill of it, then for work and to visit family. Bangkok remains a firm favourite, not just because of how successful Thailand has been tackling Covid, but because of how cosmopolitan the City of Angles has become, with its eclectic mix of old and new, its towering hotels and malls set against an ancient backdrop of temples and street trading. If you are planning a foray to Krung Thep, we think we have the perfect place from which to base your adventures.
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Once the scene of elegant garden parties hosted by the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand, a prime corner plot in the heart of CBD was converted into the Park Hyatt Bangkok, one of the city’s leading luxury hotels, back in 2017, and the property has certainly retained its youthful persona thanks to striking architecture by AL_A, the London-based studio founded by Amanda Levete, with help from Bangkok-based Pi Design.
The hotel and its adjacent Central Embassy luxury shopping mall are bound together by a continual looped form merging plinth and tower. Drawing on motifs and patterns found in traditional Thai architecture, the eye-catching façade is clad in extruded aluminium tiles, creating a shimmering moiré-like pattern that quickly reached icon status on the city’s skyline.
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First Impressions
It’s a Park Hyatt so you know the vibe – intimate, contemporary, oozing with sophistication and subtle, modern touches. Guests arrive at upmarket Phloen Chit (Wireless Road no less) and are whisked up to the hotel’s 10th-floor sky lobby, which boasts spectacular urban panoramas. The hotel itself spans the ninth to 35th floors and is approximately 45 minutes from Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Here is the lofty, library-quiet lobby, young but immaculately uniformed and razor-efficient front desk staff check me in and direct me down the hall to a bank of elevators for the leap up to my King Corner Room.
The Room
The first thing you notice when you walk into your room – pretty much any room in the hotel – is that view. It’s mesmerising and you could be forgiven for forgoing your most pressing engagements and perching yourself on the sofa to while away the evening watching the transition of day to night amongst the skyscrapers (yes, the views continue into the bathroom).
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Once you drag yourself away from the floor-to-ceiling vistas, you’ll start to appreciate the efforts of New York design firm Yabu Pushelberg (they of the Park Hyatt New York design fame), which has dressed the hotel’s 222 rooms and suites in calming neutral tones accented by statement artworks (art lovers should take a peak in the ballroom, which is home to Japanese artist Hirotoshi Sawada’s awe-inspiring Pagoda Mirage, hundreds of small, conical copper swirls, suspended en masse to evoke the reflection of a pagoda on water).
Ideal for solo travellers and couples on a weekend escape, the room features a bed so large they’d have to be a sprinter to catch their lady in. You’ll be greeted each morning by those 180-degree city views, which can also be kept at bay with electronic blinds, while there’s also an ample workspace, a separate dressing room and living area, and a sumptuous bathroom with his and her vanities, a separate soaking bathtub and rain shower, and Le Labo skincare products. There’s the all-important Nespresso machine, an ornate minibar that just begs you to crack open that duty-free and get shaking, and a 55-inch widescreen television.
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I personally love the bathtub and the work desk, which allow me to respectively soak away a long day pounding the pavements of Bangkok and catch up on the real world once I’m done.
If you’re looking for something a little fancier, the Park Hyatt Bangkok also boasts some stunning suites, including the beautiful Park Deluxe Suite, and the stunning Diplomatic Suite (named for the neighbourhood’s many embassies), a beautiful space that comes complete with a full pantry, a Denon sound system, a separate office and more of those spectacular views.
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Dining
In keeping with that oh-so-cool urbane persona, the Park Hyatt Bangkok does elegant dining right, with locals and guests alike making a beeline for the chic Penthouse Bar and Grill, designed by the Big Apple’s AvroKo design firm. The four-floor venue is also home to an intimate chef’s table, a standalone cocktail bar, a separate whisky room, and an exclusive rooftop bar that’s famed for its rare spirits collection and which is popular with the city’s beautiful.
Here, in the elegantly appointed Penthouse, service is intelligent and refined yet approachable and menu highlights include Sloane’s Pork Chop with candied cashews and orange, and a tamarind barbecue sauce; Hua Hin burrata with dehydrated tomatoes; Wagyu beef vol-au-vent; and Canadian lobster linguine with bacon and chives.
Downstairs, just below the lobby, you’ll find The Embassy Room, an elegant space overlooking the hotel’s expansive outdoor swimming pool (more on that in a minute) and which serves leisurely a la carte breakfasts with local touches – think spicy sweet Thai-style eggs with Chinese pork sausages.
Alternatively, The Living Room serves the best high tea in the city as well as light meals and evening cocktails and canapes, while The Bar (above), an equally brooding, sophisticated venue, specialises in Old World wines, classic cocktails, and small plates of perfection.
Facilities
Once you’ve done the weekend markets and toured the rooftop bars, you’ll find respite at the hotel’s stunning 40-metre saltwater pool, one of the city’s most iconic and the perfect spot in which to escape the Bangkok heat. If you’re feeling guilty about your shenanigans, you can work up a sweat at the 24-hour fitness centre.
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Alternatively, be poked and prodded into submission in the Pañpuri Organic Spa (above), which features eight treatment suites, a whirlpool, a silver-lined steam room, and a menu laced with all-natural products – the Indulge Me Pañpuri Ultimate Relaxation treatment combines an organic foot ritual,m milk salt body scrub and milk salt body wrap with a herbal healing Thai compress, a hot oil treatment, and a Lotus Defense radiance facial.
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