Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Bangkok Holiday - From Singapore to Bangkok





I have traveled to Bangkok from Singapore last weekend. This was my first time in Bangkok since 2010. I have a friend staying there in a hotel (he is there for business) so I have had a chance to stay free for 4 nights (I arrived to Bangkok on Thursday and left on Monday).

As usual, I took a budget flight from Singapore to Bangkok. I booked a Jetstar Asia plane with no check-in luggage on flight to Bangkok and no seat selection and insurance (I usually buy it separately). The ticket price for return flight from Singapore to Bangkok was 211 USD, which is not bad at all. And this was for a booking done just 4 days prior to flight.

Of course Jetstar Asia is not the only cheap flight option between Singapore and Bangkok. Scoot Airlines (flies with large body Boeing 777), Tigerair and AirAsia also operates budget flights between these two cities. I usually fly with Jetstar so I again chose them.

Flight from Singapore to Bangkok takes 2 hours to 2 1/2 hours depending on air traffic. It was a smooth ride. Jetstar Airbus A320 seats are quite narrow (you can buy a wider one for 20 SGD extra) but still enough to watch movie on my way from my laptop. I even had chance to write some posts.

I suggest you to take a flight going to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport instead of Dong Muang Airport. The reason is the fantastic Airport Rail Link which I will review here briefly.

How to go to Bangkok city center from Suvarnabhumi Airport?
You can go to Bangkok city center from airport by taxi, bus and airport shuttle. But all these have one problem in common: terrible Bangkok traffic! As the new government implemented a subsidiary to help first time car owners to buy a car, they say 1 million new vehicles have hit the roads in recent years and made the traffic situation worse.

But now there is a very good (and the best indeed) alternative to go to Bangkok city from Suvarnabhumi Airport: Airport Rail Link. This new system goes to both BTS Skytrain and MRT. There are 2 types of trains. Express directly goes to Makkassan (for MRT) and Phaya Thai (BTS Skytrain). It comes in every 30 minutes and if you have luggages it has enough space for them. It costs 90 bahts from airport to Skytrain line by Express.

City Link trains (second option) stops in every station from airport to Phaya Thai. It is cheaper (45 bahts) but slower and does not have enough space for big luggage.

I took City Link from airport to Phaya Thai. From Phaya Thai to airport I took Express. Express cars are like intercity train cars (large space for you and your luggage) and City Link cars are like metro cars.

Below is the current rail systems in Bangkok. The pink one is Airport Rail Link, the greens are BTS Skytrain lines and the blue one is MRT.

Bangkok Mass Transit Map
Bangkok Public Rail Systems
Source -top-travel-bangkok.com

I stayed in ALoft Hotel Bangkok which is walking distance away from BTS Skytrain Nana station. So for me the route was:
  • City Link (45 baht) to Phaya Thai. 20 to 30 minutes.
  • Here I walked to Skytrain Sukhumvit line and took a car in Bearing direction (30 baht).
  • Left at Nana and exit station from Exit 3.
  • Took Soi 11 and arrived at ALoft Hotel in 10 minutes
If you are planning to travel to Bangkok from Singapore for holiday, do not forget to check our Bangkok from Singapore package deals entry for some great packages.

For the Spanish version of this article visit Vacaciones en Bangkok – De Singapur a Bangkok.

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