The luxury hotel brings resort vibes to the heart of the city.
True luxury is not so much about the grand statements, the ostentatious display. It’s about the little things. The attention to detail. The proof that someone has anticipated your needs. So though the Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River boasts plenty of big-picture thinking – the vast lobby festooned with orchids, the extensive water features, a generous 50 metres squared for even a standard room, rising through various suites to 450 metres squared for the penthouse – it’s likely the service that raised it to 14th place in the 2024 World’s 50 Best Hotels awards.
Whenever you sit at a table, a purse stool is brought for your bag. If you ask for directions from any staff member, they don’t explain – they stop what they’re doing and lead you. Sun cream is provided free at the riverside pool, and glasses of ice water magically appear beside you without you even noticing. I twice saw a Four Seasons employee wading, fully clothed, through water to attend to a guest’s needs. Evidently, they haven’t yet quite mastered the knack of walking on water, but the hotel only opened in 2020, so give them time.
This care and attention extends to the interior design. You will be impressed, on entering, by the floor-to-ceiling stone walls carved to look like folded Thai fabric – but the real genius is that its frieze of white elephants, a symbol of good luck, all point towards the reception for ease of navigation. The huge artworks on the walls are all bought from local artists in the neighbouring Creative District.
Rooms and suites
We stayed in a river-view room, and we’d say it’s worth paying a little extra for that spectacular view of the mighty river plied with both passenger and working boats, with the skyscrapers of this strikingly modern city soaring above it. The curtains open at the press of a button, and the lighting system is similarly designed with ease in mind.
Sometimes you need a PhD in Hotel Illumination Technology to work out the system. The Four Seasons Bangkok has a simple bedside dimming control for all main lights, a directable wall-mounted reading lamp that shines on you alone when everything else is off for those nights when your partner crashes out first, and a “moon” symbol to press when you wake at night that softly lights just your side of the bed and the path to the bathroom.
Naturally there’s a welcome gift of fruit, a tradition upgraded by a small-scale half-coconut and half-mango under a cloche that turn out to be artfully made of chocolate and mousse. The décor is strikingly tasteful. The bathroom is huge, with a freestanding oval bath and sliding doors that when open greatly increase the sense of space.
The one shame is that balconies do not come as standard, as they do at the neighbouring Four Seasons Private Residencies building, though of course there are suites for that.
Restaurants and bars
You’d expect dining excellence here, and wow do you get it. We experienced the chef’s tasting menu and wine pairing at Yu Ting Yuan, which in 2022 became the first Cantonese restaurant in Thailand to win a MICHELIN star. This ran to a dozen dishes, many of them thankfully little more than a couple of bites.
As ever, when you have no choice in the ordering, there were a couple of misfires, at least to a Western palate: soup made from fish bladder was finished out of politeness rather than joy.
But the hits were glorious: among many others, Wok-Fried Canadian Lobster with Sasha Sauce and Caramelised Walnuts; Steamed Sea Grouper Fillet with Fermented Lemon and Aged Tangerine Peel; and Chocolate, Sichuan Pepper and Hazelnuts Caramel as dessert.
The wine pairings were thoughtfully chosen to complement the dishes, though it would have been fun to try more than just one Chinese wine – in this case a 2020 Silver Heights “The Summit” from Ningxia, with a high tannin and full body to match the gamey taste of the Deep-Fried Crispy Pigeon it accompanied.
On our second night we dined tapas-style at the BKK Social Club by Philip Bischoff, which recently changed up its Argentinian theme to Mexican. The food was far better than you’d expect of a bar, notably the crunchy, corny little tacos and the wagyu beef skewers. The cocktails were superb and well-balanced, but perhaps not as show-stoppingly inventive as you’d expect from a place currently rated No. 12 among the World’s 50 Best Bars.
That is, until we tried a holdover from the Argentinean menu which was so popular they kept it on: La Pampa is just Apóstoles Gin and citrus, but it comes topped with a chunk of eucalyptus Longan honeycomb literally oozing with the golden sweet stuff.
If you want more choice, there’s the French fine dining at Palmier by Guillaume Galliot; Italian at the Riva Del Fiume Ristorante; locally sourced traditional Thai grills at the Chao Praya Terrace; and the charming Café Madeleine.
And, until April 20, there is an exquisite-looking White Lotus-themed afternoon tea or evening cocktail experience in honour of the third series of the hit show, which was filmed at the Four Seasons in Koh Samui.
Last, but definitely not least: breakfast at the Four Seasons Bangkok, best taken on the riverside terrace, is the stuff of legend. It embraces so many cultures that the beautifully presented buffet extends across two rooms and two alcoves. And if there are finer French pastries in Paris than here, I’ve yet to taste them.
Facilities
Obviously, there’s a top-notch Urban Wellness Centre with hot pools and saunas, and treatments ranging from a variety of massages to more recherché pick-me-ups such as facial contouring and sound healing.
And, of course, there’s a wide range of wellness experiences, from Muay Thai boxing and AntiGravity Yoga to an ice bath challenge. (You’re meant to sit in that for two minutes. I managed about 30 seconds.)
Fitness Centre with state-of-the-art equipment? Check, natch, with a 35-metre lap pool beside it for good measure. There’s a leisure pool as well – a complex of three, in fact – with terrific views of the river. The few children I saw there seemed delighted with it, too.
Less obviously, the Four Seasons provides a complimentary boat. And not just any boat, but the sleekest, most stylish speedboat on the Chao Phraya River, with plush white leather upholstered seats. Given that traffic in Bangkok can make the shortest cab ride a chore, cruising upriver to the Iconsiam designer-label shopping mall, from whence it’s a short hop by public ferry to the Grand Palace, is definitely the way to go.
Also unique is that there’s an art gallery in the Four Seasons Bangkok. A big one. It displays selling exhibitions by talented local artists, in collaboration with MOCA BANGKOK, that change quarterly.
The Verdict
Four Seasons Bangkok more than lives up to the hype. It’s an oasis of calm in a chaotic, rapidly developing city. It offers not just everything you might want, but a lot of things you didn’t even know you wanted till you got it. It’s stylish yet relaxed, efficient yet friendly; the kind of place you’ll be planning your return visit to before you’ve even left.
GO: Visit www.fourseasons.com for more information.