Amanta Ratchada Review

The 4 star Amanta Ratchada Serviced Apartments offer a good alternative to guests staying in Bangkok – combining the space and convenience of serviced apartments with the facilities usually found in a hotel.

Just 5 minutes walk from the closest MRT Subway station and within walking distance of nightlife, entertainment, shopping and supermarkets, the Amanta Ratchada Serviced Apartments is well situated in a central Bangkok location.

The complex features 116 rooms including one and two bedroom suites that are fully furnished with a well stocked kitchenette, washer/dryer, balcony, LCD TV, DVD and CD player, as well as a bathroom with separate bathtub and shower.

Rooms are modern and comfortably furnished in contemporary décor, with wooden floors. Complimentary breakfast is served in the Amanta Ratchada Serviced Apartments restaurant, and high-speed wireless internet is provided free of charge.

The outdoor swimming pool is attractive and spacious, plus there is a fitness center, steam room, business center, guest parking, children’s playground and a restaurant.

Review

We stayed here last month and found the rooms quite pleasant. Our room on the ground floor had hardwood floors and looked out onto the pool.

Rooms

The bathroom adjoins the bedroom and is enclosed in floor to ceiling glass walls. Privacy is provided by the horizontal wooden venetian blinds. However, if I lived here (about 60% of the apartments are occupied by long term residents) I don’t know how long it would be before I got sick of reaching over the bathtub to open and close the blinds every time I wanted to go to the toilet. I’d probably just leave them closed the whole time.

The wireless internet connection was good, working strong and fast in the rooms as well as outside by the pool, where breakfast is served. A password is required, which is available at the front desk.

The apartments came equipped with two flat screen televisions, one in the living room and another in the bedroom. You could probably adjust the TV in the bedroom so that you could watch it while you were taking a bath, but I didn’t try it.

Speaking of the bathroom, one thing that I really liked was a large rubber head/neck rest attached (by suction cups) to the bath so that you can really lay back and relax. It would probably also be appreciated if you wanted to take a bath and not get your hair wet.

Pool

The pool is long and wide, but not very deep, (1.2 meters) and there was also a shallow children’s pool at one end. As this is a serviced apartment and not a resort, there is no pampering going on poolside. There are a few, but not many poolside lounges and if you want a pool towel you have to either bring your own or go to the gym and sign one out.  The towels were a little on the small side and a bit raggedy, but not unusable. The poolside chaise lounges were also a little weather worn.

Fitness Center

Overlooking the pool is a fitness center manned by a friendly attendant who approached me at the pool and asked if I wanted to use the steam room. I didn’t really want to but found it hard to say no as he was obviously trying very hard to please. The steam room was nice enough (as steam rooms go I suppose) and there are a couple of showers and a nice new locker area.

Location

The Amanta Ratchada is on Ratchapisek Road and easily accessible by MRT subway. In fact the Thailand Cultural Centre subway station is only a 3 minute walk away, and in turn, only 3 stations from Asok where the subway and Skytrain stations meet.

Coming back to the hotel at night by taxi was a bit of a problem for us as the address written on the back of the room key-card is kind of weird and inaccurate. The Amanta is on Soi 5 on Ratchadapisek Road but there is no mention of the Soi number on the card, only the lot number, 77-88. Without Soi 5 written on the card, it looks like the address is 77, Soi 88 Ratchdapisek, but taxi drivers will refuse to take you because there is no Soi  88. You are best to get an address card from the front desk before venturing out and not use the room key card as reference.

Local Area

Nearby the apartments there are a number of malls, supermarkets and movie theaters within walking distance. You will find Hollywood nightlife complex just up the road a little as well as RCA, a popular night spot for young Thais.

The area is not a tourist spot so once when we were looking for help with directions we had trouble getting any help as nobody spoke any English in the area near the hotel, a big contrast from more touristy places.

Overall the rooms were pleasantly furnished, large, modern and clean. The area was a little bit further off the well beaten tourist track, however public transportation was very close by.

Finally, the price was fantastic, we paid USD80 for a night which I think was great value.

More info and pictures of Amanda Ratchada Serviced Apartments.

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