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When I walked into my suite at the Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit, it was clear that I had stepped into a world of luxury. Not only was the room spacious with a sitting area and wet bar, but the architectural beauty of the high-rises of Bangkok could be admired from the large fluffy king bed through a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
In the bathroom, I discovered an upscale glass shower and a deep free-standing tub next to a window, where I would later soak in a mass of bubbles, soothing away the weariness borne of international travel.
It wasn't until I was floating in the hotel's outdoor infinity pool that looked over the city of Bangkok that I realized what an amazing opportunity I found myself in. I had traveled to a city that offered affordable luxury, and I was going to take full advantage of it.
The phrase in itself, “affordable luxury” is an oxymoron. Luxury travel experiences are not supposed to be affordable, which is why they are luxurious in the first place. They're set aside for the traveler strapped with cash, a spending budget that is nearly limitless.
However, visit Bangkok and you'll quickly understand what I mean. The city provides tourists with a unique opportunity: to enjoy luxurious places and services at an affordable cost.
Take Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit. Generally, five-star hotels are considered "luxurious," but this four-star property, which only opened in 2018, has the look and feel of a five-star hotel, and the service to match. It's clear in the posh black and gold lobby, the spacious and exquisitely designed dining room, and the high-quality service in the restaurants and meeting spaces.
Yet, when I compared the price of a three-night weekend stay in February between the Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit and a comparable Hyatt-branded hotel in New York City, I found the New York City hotel to be $100 extra, and not half as luxurious in design as its Bangkok counterpart.
Some may argue that comparing a New York City hotel to a Bangkok hotel wouldn't be fair—and you'd be correct. While both are popular international destinations, the price for luxury in New York City comes at a high price tag.
With a conversion rate that favors U.S. travelers and a pricing model that seems to be lower than many other cities around the world, luxury experiences in Bangkok isn't just for the wealthy. Middle-class travelers, for once, are privy to the world of luxury, too.
Take spas and massages—in the U.S. these experiences are pricy, and for a top-quality spa or massage, almost unattainable. However, in Bangkok, you can get a two-hour Thai massage in an upscale spa for about $35, an "affordable luxury" experience that just doesn't exist where I come from.
That's not the only affordable luxury experience I discovered in Bangkok. I had a 10-course Michelin-star meal at Nahm, in the Como Metropolitan Bangkok hotel, for as low as $92, and enjoyed fancy cocktails on a brand-new rooftop bar called Spectrum at my hotel.
The views, the DJ, and the tapas-style plates I ordered at Spectrum were top-notch, and add in the fact that I had a wagyu beef platter for less than $30 (this was not a sliver of wagyu beef found in five-star restaurants in the U.S. for $40, but a generous portion of meat), and I was beyond pampered.
For middle-class travelers such as myself, Bangkok provided so much more than I expected. Not only were the tourist attractions amazing, and private tours were available at reasonable prices, but I could indulge in luxury experiences without going into debt.
Could I afford such luxury experiences in big metropolitan cities around the world or even in my own country? Hardly.
And that’s what makes Bangkok special. It gives travelers of different classes a chance to be pampered, indulged, and treated like kings and queens at half the cost.
