Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit Review

The Fairmont makes its case in the lobby. PIA took the ratchaphruek, Thailand's national flower, as the theme for the whole hotel, and it starts there, in the room everyone photographs. This is a big hotel made for occasions, with a ballroom for weddings and public floors meant to be seen in, and anyone hoping for the hush of a small hotel will find it busy by design. What we noticed more than the decor was how smoothly the arrival went. We were given a cold drink in the lobby lounge, the room was ready straight away, and a handwritten note from the team was waiting in it. Small things, but they set the tone for a stay in which the service felt well practised, closer to one of the city's established houses than to a hotel in its second month.

Our Deluxe King, 45 square metres on a high floor, was a polished, well-judged room, and its cleverest feature is the bathroom. Sliding shutters take the place of a door. Opened, they bring the bath into the bedroom so that it faces the window and the room feels considerably larger than its size; closed, the bathroom is a separate room again. It is a flexible arrangement, which means the same room suits a couple who like the sense of space and anyone who prefers privacy. After six weeks of guests, nothing in it was worn or unfinished. The room categories are easier to choose between than their number suggests. The entry Fairmont King comes with either a bathtub or a walk-in shower, depending on the room, so if a bath matters to you, have it confirmed when you book. The Deluxe King, with both, is the more straightforward choice, and the Deluxe Corner King adds a second window. Every room faces the city, which makes the floor more important than the aspect. Fairmont Gold begins at the same Deluxe level, so a Gold Deluxe King is essentially our room with The Club Fairmont attached: private check-in, a dedicated concierge and a lounge with its own bar, canapés in the afternoon and breakfast in the morning. Breakfast is included on many rates anyway, so it is not the reason to pay for Gold. The lounge is. It was quiet, with only a handful of guests, in a hotel whose public spaces are built to be busy. For a longer stay, or for anyone who likes somewhere calm to work or have a drink away from the lobby, that is worth something. For a short city break built around dinners out, it matters less. Among the Gold rooms, those with a terrace are the only ones below suite level with outdoor space, and the Gold One Bedroom Suite is where a separate living room begins.

The hotel describes HARPER'S as a French American brasserie, and that turned out to be accurate: a raw bar, a grill, a long bar where you could eat without a reservation, and a French kitchen serving at the pace of a busy American dining room. Of everything in the hotel, it is what we would most readily go back for. Dinner was the brasserie classics, caviar with warm blinis, a steak from the grill with herb butter and thick-cut fries, chocolate to finish, and there was not a false note in any of it. It is brasserie cooking done properly, generous and well judged, which is harder to get right than it sounds and exactly what you want from a hotel restaurant you may eat in more than once. We would send someone to HARPER'S for dinner even if they were staying elsewhere. Breakfast, in the same room, held to the same standard. The buffet and a full menu cooked to order are both included, which is less common than it should be. We ordered eggs with mushrooms and toasted hazelnuts, yoghurt with granola and fresh figs, and an expertly made cappuccino, and the menu has enough Thai and Indian dishes, Thai tea French toast among them, to suit a part of the city as international as Sukhumvit. The rest of the dining was a work in progress. Of the seven venues the hotel has announced, four were open to the public during our stay: HARPER'S, CAYA Pool Club, the Lobby Lounge and AELA Social Bar, off the lobby, a coffee bar by day and a cocktail bar until midnight, built around a music theme. The Club Fairmont was open too; it is a private lounge for Gold guests and is not counted among the seven. Wiggle Room, a French-Asian dinner with live performance, was signposted in the lobby but closed, although its opening had been announced for September, and two rooftop restaurants are scheduled for December. In October the full dining programme was not there yet, and HARPER'S was already reason enough to stay.

We train when we travel, and Fairmont Studio and the gym at Kimpton Maa-Lai are the two strongest hotel gyms we have used in Bangkok. Most hotel gyms stop at treadmills and a rack of dumbbells. This one has a proper strength floor and room for functional training, including a sled track and a curved manual treadmill, which hotel gyms almost never have, plus a separate studio of Pilates reformers. It is open around the clock and staffed through the day. The compact gym at 137 Pillars, for comparison, is fine for a run and a circuit; this is a place to follow a real programme, and for anyone who trains seriously it is a reason to choose the hotel. The pool on the 14th floor is a different kind of pleasure. It is shaped for floating rather than lengths, and planted so heavily that Sukhumvit Road all but disappears below it. CAYA, the bar beside it, serves Thai street food and cocktails, and a DJ in the evenings shows that the hotel intends it to become a scene. When we swam it was quiet, which may simply reflect the hotel's age. For now it is a calm place to spend an afternoon above one of the busiest roads in the city. The spa on the same floor is large, more than 1,000 square metres, with a steam room and sauna that look out over the city, an experience shower, an ice bucket and heated benches. Its signature is a two-hour ritual called Ancient Echoes, built around sound healing, and the products are by 111SKIN.

The lobby is what people will photograph. The reasons we would book the Fairmont are more ordinary: a room that adapts to whoever is in it, HARPER'S, the gym, and service that already felt well practised. The address is practical, ten minutes on foot from Asok, where the Skytrain and the subway meet, with Phrom Phong one stop east, and the trade-off is Sukhumvit's traffic, so use the train for anything along its line and allow an hour by car to the river. It is not a riverside classic or a quiet retreat, and it does not try to be one. For guests who want to be on Sukhumvit, eat well and keep training, we would book it now.