Just stayed 3 nights at the Novotel Sukhumvit 20 for business. Checked in middle of the night after a late night flight from Hong Kong so no worries here, fast and easy.
Novotel Sukhumvit 20 is in a pretty good location, there’s a convenience store next door as well as an Italian cafe you can get breakfast (and lunch) at and as with most hotel in the Sukhumvit area, there’s plenty of restaurants, bars, and massage places not far away. It’s about 200 metres down Sukhumvit Soi 20, and Ski 20 is unfortunately right between the Asoke and Prom Pong Sky Train stations. This means it’s about a 15-20 minute walk to either of them. This isn’t a problem for me, but if you have kids it can be a bit of a pain, especially if you’re staying here in the hot season.
On the outside, Novotel Sukhumvit 20 isn’t anything great but on the inside it’s actually quite nice. Nice open lobby, not too dark and small bar near the entrance. Rooms at Novotel Sukhumvit 20 are big, the bed is fine as is everything else in the room. Shower is good, water pressure is good. From a shower connoisseur’s perspective, the temperature could be more consistent but most people won’t have a problem. There’s a rain shower but I didn’t try that as the normal shower was fine.
Room was quiet, but for some reason I’m on a roll of getting put it in the room right next to house keeping. Still, wasn’t what I’d call annoyingly noisy, you can just hear them going in and out thats all. Other than that, can barely hear what’s going on out on the street and this Soi is quite quiet anyway so you shouldn’t have problems with noise at Novotel Sukhumvit 20.
My room didn’t really have a view, it overlooked an ugly apartment, so when they say every room has views of the city, this is true, but “city” can be defined in many ways. The view was probably the worst thing at Novotel Sukhumvit 20. I’m sure other rooms have better views. There’s a nice swimming pool and gym on the 9th floor, not huge, but nice and you can’t really ask for much more than this. There’s a roof top bar but I didn’t go to this.
Probably the best thing about Novotel Sukhumvit 20 is the service. As with most Thailand hotel’s, the staff here are fantastic – friendly, smiling and genuinely happy as well as professional. This is as good a service I’ve had at any 5 star hotel in Bangkok and considerably better than most 5 star hotels in the west. This is one reason why Thailand will always be rated as one of the best holiday destinations, almost wherever you go, the service and hospitality is outstanding.
I didn’t eat anything at the Novotel Sukhumvit 20 as mentioned there’s an Italian cafe that you can get bacon and eggs at for about 200 baht (compared to the hotels 600 and something baht), it’s not the best breakfast in the world, but if you’re not fussy about breakfast, it’s more than adequate. The room service consists of some burgers and a small selection of Thai food, but like any decent hotel in Thailand, you can get better food for about a quarter of the price not far away.
If you want to go for a run, head over to Benjakiti Park where the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre is and have a run around that. If you have kids there’s boats and bikes you can hire. Emporium shopping mall is walkable and whilst that’s not the best shopping mall in Bangkok, it has a really good food hall. There’s also Terminal 21 and other shopping within 10-15 minutes walk.
I’d have no problem staying at Novotel Sukhumvit 20 again. The only issue is the location, specifically being right between sky train stations. It’s not a long walk, but there’s many hotels closer to the sky train for around the same price. For most people though, I don’t think it should be an issue. If you didn’t consider there so many other hotels on Sukhumvit, it’s be fine. There seemed to be a hotel shuttle that probably took you places but I was happy to walk around so didn’t ask.
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