From dive bars to swanky clubs, there’s plenty to do in Thailand’s capital come dark. Check out this insider guide to the best nightlife options in Bangkok:
The Speakeasy
An upmarket bar with great views, The Speakeasy at Hotel Muse is set in a beautiful space on the 24th and 25th floors. Designed to bring back some Prohibition Era nostalgia, it consists of two bars, a cigar lounge, private salas and a boardroom.
The Speakeasy, 55 Khwaeng Lumphini, Khet Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand, +66 (0) 2 630 4000
Sukhumvit Soi 11
In recent years, this busy Bangkok street in the city’s Nana area has been pumped full of hotels, tourist-friendly pubs, nightclubs and restaurants.
Soi 11 newcomers worth checking out include Apoteka – great live music, stiff drinks and craft beer – and Levels, an enormous, high-ceilinged room whose centerpiece is a circular, glowing bar with a jazzy LED chandelier overhead. The latter has house-heavy DJs every night, with the occasional visiting big deal international act.
Sukhumvit Soi 11, Bangkok 10110 Thailand
RCA
Another great place for bar hopping – if you don’t mind hanging with the under-25 set – the numerous clubs and pubs that line Royal City Avenue (taxi drivers all know it as RCA) provide a congregation point for youngsters looking to chill out.
Named for the historic American highway, Route 66 is the mother of all clubs here, where the ghetto riche and urban fab descend in throngs to dance to a variety of music. For live music, there’s Cosmic Café.
Royal City Avenue, Huai Khwang, Bangkok 10310 Thailand
WTF
Curious name aside, WTF on Sukhumvit Soi 51 lives up to its multifaceted concept of food-drink-art-friendship, attracting the city’s intellectual and creative class.
WTF is comfortably tiny, with a few tables scattered around on the first floor near a well-stocked bar, while the second floor serves as a gallery space.
WTF Bangkok, Sukhumvit 51 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110 Thailand, +66 2 662 6246
Maggie Choo’s
It may be located in the basement of a hotel (accessed via a separate, dark entrance), but this speakeasy-like bar with a Shanghai opium den vibe comes with the solid pedigree of nightlife mogul Ashley Sutton. Sutton is behind several of the city’s time warping establishments, such as Iron Fairies and Fat Gutz.
At Maggie Choo’s, you get live jazz, leather armchairs, bank vaults and Queen Victoria busts juxtaposed with cocktails, tile work, lattice and heavy wooden doors. Beautiful women clad in cheongsams hang from swings and drape themselves across the bar.
Maggie Choo’s, Below Hotel Bangkok Fenix Silom, 320 Silom, Bangkok 10500 Thailand 10500, +66 (0) 91 772 2144
Alfresco 64
How about a drink at a place that bills itself as the world’s highest outdoor whisky bar?
Alfresco 64 – A Chivas Bar sits on the 64th floor of the Bangkok’s Lebua at State Tower hotel. (That’s about 800 feet above ground in case you’re wondering)
Alfresco 64’s atmosphere is intimate, and the whisky selection is superb. Don’t come here thinking you’ll order a beer. This is a serious whisky bar. However, they do know how to whip up creative whisky-based cocktails.
Alfresco 64 – A Chivas Bar, Lebua at State Tower, 190 Silom Road, Bangkok; +66 2 624 9555
CNN’s Forrest Brown contributed to this article.
