The “land of smiles” does high-end and low-end brilliantly. Hip hostels and five-star resorts service small wallets and big budgets alike. How about in between? In Thailand there’s a happy medium. Mid-range hotels are packed with amenities – art, spas, swim-up bars – without the price tag of Europe or the Americas.
In terms of destinations, Thailand’s two shining stars are its largest island and its biggest city: Phuket and Bangkok respectively. The country’s most visited places promise keen prices for inimitable cuisine and cultural immersion. Connecting between Phuket and Bangkok via sleeper train or low-cost airline is easy. Which location first? We prefer to begin on the beach.
Phuket: beaches that won’t break the bank
Phuket combines the best of Thailand’s coast in one petite package. It has approximately 30 golden beaches, such as Freedom beach near the town of Patong, a tranquil banana of sand. It has ethical animal reserves, including Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, where former working elephants are rehabilitated in lush forest. It has epic dive spots, such as Sirinat national park a few miles from Phuket airport, where, in an ecosystem of mushroom coral and black mangroves, leatherback turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. This big island is rich in experiences.
In Thailand, memories of a lifetime don’t break the bank. Take Patong, on Phuket’s buzziest shore. Start with a sunrise yoga class on the soft sand, where a certified instructor finishes with a soothing sound bath. For lunch, take a Thai cooking class, grinding kaffir limes into a som tum salad. Patong’s most phosphorescent sight, Bangla Walking Road, is completely free. In the evenings, you’ll find a vital theatre of street performers, karaoke kiosks and pulsating clubs that thrum until daybreak.
Thailand’s mid-range hotels offer more bang for your baht too. DoubleTree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort is an oasis of tranquility near Patong’s beating heart. The hotel’s alfresco breakfast salon is shaded by banyan trees. Three gigantic pools host swim-up bars. A 24-hour fitness centre overlooks the resort through plate glass windows. This prime location has direct access to Patong’s sandy shore. All for the price of a basic hotel outside Thailand.
Best of all, DoubleTree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort is tangibly Thai. Guests are welcomed into a refreshed lobby bathed in tropical light, to be greeted with a signature DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie. The hotel’s Port restaurant offers seafood buckets with local lobsters and blue crabs, served with chilli paste and sticky rice. Note that restaurant ingredients are sourced from local organic farms, while solar energy powers the entire resort. The hotel is in keeping with Phuket’s ecological ethos.
Thanks to the rugged mountainous topography of Phuket, about 70% of the island is accessible solely by hike and bike trails. Khao Phra Thaeo national park, for example, is made up of virgin rainforest with a couple of accessible waterfalls, where langurs and gibbons swing from the trees. The Laem Krating Cape jungle trail switches between emerald forest and topaz seascapes, with an opportunity to swim from the deserted sands of Nai Harn beach. The island’s most accessible hiking trail leads to Phuket’s iconic Big Buddha statue, which gazes serenely down over the sublime landscape.
Bangkok: a megacity trip without the mega prices
In Bangkok, visitors can also enjoy a priceless experience without the price tag. Few quarters yield indelible memories like Khlong San. In this timeless canal district, orchards once intermingled with silk emporiums. Temples such as Wat Thong Thammachat remain places of unhurried contemplation. By contrast, Khlong San’s night market feels like a foodie Instagram reel, laden with steaming noodles, spinning rotisseries and sriracha sauce.
The neighbourhood’s Hilton Garden Inn Bangkok Riverside recalls the past and the present. The lobby’s fighting fish painting represents good fortune, while other artwork takes inspiration from a royal temple. Yet this skyscraper address, which opened in September 2024 with sparkling new facilities, has direct access to Iconsiam, a glittering mall that serves as a dining, shopping and entertainment epicentre. By night, guestroom windows capture the neon skyline synonymous with this 21st-century megacity.
Mid-range hotels in Thailand come with all the bells and whistles. At Hilton Garden Inn Bangkok Riverside, you’ll find a rooftop swimming pool and a fitness centre with staggering city views. Breakfast at buffet restaurant Together & Co features à la minute Thai noodles and eggs made-to-order. The hotel has direct access to the driverless Gold Line of Bangkok’s SkyTrain transport network. This svelte commuter system zips travellers to temples, treatments, museums and markets for 150 baht (£3.50) for a one-day pass.
If the Khlong San district showcases Bangkok’s past, the Ploenchit neighbourhood heralds the future. Glass towers reflect a street level maze of sushi counters, nail bars and organic smoothie stalls. One storey above, Bangkok’s shiniest shopping malls like Central Embassy are home to every Western and Asian superbrand. Alongside is Eathai, an indulgent food hall, where hungry shoppers can order crab curry over rice noodles.
The zone’s most avant-garde hotel is DoubleTree by Hilton Bangkok Ploenchit. The lobby is backed by an atrium alive with tropical plants. A geometrically precise swimming pool is encircled by lazy loungers and swaying trees. Panoramic guestrooms offer a contemporary conversation with the surrounding skyscrapers. Bangkok has more than 1,000 hotels (pdf). Travellers rank this one in the top 10.
Like many mid-range hotels in Thailand, a stay at DoubleTree by Hilton Bangkok Ploenchit can cost less than an airport taxi in a European capital. At the hotel’s Open restaurant, Asian delicacies are displayed in an all-you-can-eat buffet. The wellness centre, managed by Makkha Health & Spa, offers up a milk bath followed by a herbal compress using 100% natural ingredients. Kids can request a teddy and a box of Lego. This is budget luxe.
But in Bangkok, the past is never far away. The Ploenchit area’s most astounding sight is Benjakitti park. This 72-hectare (180-acre) green lung was built, with wicked irony, on the site of a former tobacco factory. A hulking landscape has become an urban sponge, where plants and ponds filter city pollution. Crushed concrete has been repurposed as raised pathways. At dawn, join Bangkok’s grannies on the park’s 4 mile (6km) network of nature paths, amid the dragonflies and sunbirds, to welcome a new day.
To enjoy the very best of Thailand, no matter your budget, explore the stay for you today
