It’s no secret that Bangkok has a thing for New York City style. You can see it through the city’s many luxury condos, like 98 Wireless, that mimic the classic Beaux-Arts and Art Deco architecture styles that famously flooded Manhattan in the 1930s. 

While many luxury hotel brands call NYC their home, there might not be a more famous brand than Waldorf Astoria. With a history dating back to the early 1930s, it rose to prominence alongside many of the iconic design and hospitality trends that defined the era. The hotel launched its Bangkok branch in 2018, making it one of the youngest hotels in the row of luxury properties around Ratchadamri Road. 

Its location also makes it one of the better starting blocks to explore the rest of the city and surrounding area, with gleaming shopping malls, shrines, and some of the city’s best restaurants just a short walk away. 

The Stay

Photo: The Royal Suite is modeled after the original suite in NYC of the same name that was frequented by celebrities, royalty, and the mega wealthy / Hilton Hotels

The 171 rooms and suites—including some of the largest in downtown Bangkok at 300-sqm—each feature floor-to-ceiling windows that will let you peer into the bustling city outside or the lush greens of the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. The showpiece unit in the building comes by way of the “Royal Suite”, a room found in all Waldorf Astoria hotels modeled after the original suite in NYC of the same name that was frequented by celebrities, royalty, and the mega wealthy. 

While most of us mere mortals don’t have the bank accounts to stay in a suite like that, the hotel’s more approachable offerings are no less lavish or comfortable. Even the introductory King Deluxe rooms come with sleek marble granite countertops, extremely spacious spa-style bathrooms, silky 400 thread count sheets, wide screen TVs, and floor-to-ceiling windows. At pretty much every price point on offer here, you are getting the same world-class quality and amenities that the brand is known for across the globe. 

The Food & Drinks

Photo: The Brasserie serves up sharing dishes and other simple French staples / Hilton Hotels

All of the F&B venues here were designed by the Bangkok arm of New York City’s AvroKO, and make heavy use of textiles, art deco design elements, and handcrafted details that channel 1930s New York glamor. 

The result is some of the better food and drink options you will find in the city, including The Loft, a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge on the building’s 56th floor and winner or finalist for BK Magazine’s Best Hotel Bar several years in a row. With the glittering view, the quality of drinks, and the glamor and style of the mirrored bar and bronze staircase, The Loft is a stylish crown on this hotel brand’s Bangkok property. 

Center stage in Waldorf Astoria’s suite of lavish dining spaces, the red-blooded steakhouse Bull & Bear—a nod to the financial markets on Wall Street—dishes out steaks, seafood towers and other no-nonsense staples from an open kitchen to beautifully appointed dining booths that sit beneath a quilted Thai-pattern ceiling. The venue takes design cues from the original Waldorf Bar in New York City, which was once a dark drinking den for the city’s financial elite. Sitting on the upper lobby, The Brasserie serves up sharing dishes of beef Bourguignon and other simple French staples to go with craft beer and cider on normal days. Finally, the hotel’s flagship Thai restaurant, Front Room, recently launched its first-ever 11-course tasting menu that aims to ​​reinterpret the distinctive flavors of four Thai regions.

Things to Do

Photo: Waldorf Astoria Spa has three exclusive treatment rooms / Hilton Hotels

Most of the city’s luxury hotels brag that they sit just a short BTS ride away from many of central Bangkok’s best attractions. The Waldorf Astoria Bangkok is more like walking distance from the action. The newly opened Gaysorn Amarin is just down the street, where you can both grab a new bag and dine at Gaggan Anand’s latest restaurant in the same space. The mecca of Bangkok shopping is just a few minutes walk as well. A row of the city’s biggest shopping malls—Central World, Siam Paragon, Siam Center, Siam Discovery, and MBK—line the streets around Siam BTS station. The density of malls here is so tight you can almost consider them a single building. 

This is also where you’ll find Apple’s UFO-shaped flagship boutique. For the more art inclined, the Bangkok Art and Culture Center is in the same area and is often home to the country’s premiere arts exhibitions. 

A little closer to home, the Waldorf Astoria Spa has three exclusive treatment rooms. All come with plenty of natural light thanks to the hotel’s ubiquitous floor-to-ceiling windows and offer personalized spa packages depending on your chosen way to rest and rejuvenate. 

Whether you dig the New York vibes or not, staying at the Waldorf Astoria Bangkok is going to check a lot of boxes. You’re in one of the best locations possible to explore the wider city, have ample things to do nearby, and have luxurious digs to come back to once the day is over. 

Get a slice of iconic New York City hospitality while exploring Bangkok from one of the best locations in the city by booking a stay at the Waldorf Astoria Bangkok today.