Luxury hotel falls short of perfect score, thanks to one bathroom annoyance

The hotel

The Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok, Thailand

Checking in

There’s puttin’ on the Ritz, and then there’s being put up at the Ritz-Carlton, in this case – and unusually – on both land and sea. It’s all thanks to a cruise aboard Luminara, one of the three luxury “yachts” (read: ships) operated by the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, with itineraries incorporating stays at stationary Ritz-Carlton properties, including this one in Bangkok. My brief visit to the glamorous 260-room Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok is part of a seven-night cruise between Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City aboard the Luminara, with capacity for 452 well-heeled guests.

The look

Billed, accurately enough, as “a refined urban retreat that balances contemporary sophistication with Thai cultural influences”, it occupies the first 25 floors of a 50-storey tower that’s part of the One Bangkok precinct. It’s an imposing yet somewhat sterile $US3.9 billion ($5.6 billion) corporate, residential and retail development set on the foreign embassy-studded Wireless Road. The hotel overlooks Lumphini Park, the green lung of a raspy Bangkok, a crowded megacity otherwise bereft of open space. Inside, the art- and antique-studded eighth-floor lobby features black-and-white marble floors with a striking monochromatic palette softening in the lounge areas to golds and oranges that reflect Bangkok’s historic vibrancy.

The room

My bright, airy and natural-light-drenched room, in a soothing white and beige palette, lands at a generous 50 square metres. Uninterrupted views of Lumphini Park, straight across the road from the hotel, and the surrounding, modern Bangkok skyline are delivered via floor-to-ceiling windows. When it comes to amenities, only the best will do, with the room featuring luxurious Diptyque bath products, Frette linens and Dyson appliances. The only evident misstep is that the glass door to the separate toilet cubicle in the bathroom is, rather inexplicably, transparent. Unless your reviewer overlooked some sort of clever glass-fogging function, for full privacy coy couplings may wish to close the two separate point-of-entry doors to the bathroom.

Food + drink

Breakfasts are typically extravagant, performative affairs at South-East Asian five-stars, with the elegant Lily’s restaurant catering for every big and small petit dejeuner taste at a mass of manned cooking stations and a bevy of buffets. During such a fleeting stay, with the Luminara awaiting at Bangkok’s distant and unlovely port, there’s insufficient time to sample dinner at the hotel’s premier inhouse restaurant, the exclusive Duet by David Toutain (by the eponymous French chef), at as much as $365 a head, including wine pairings.

Out + about

Skip the unexciting retail complex within One Bangkok and stroll down Wireless Road to the vastly superior Central Embassy shopping mall. Further afield, your reviewer was treated to a deluxe sunset cruise along the Thai capital’s frenetic but alluring Chao Phraya River, a must-do for any visitor, followed by dinner at one of the city’s collection of jaw-dropping, vertiginous rooftop restaurants.

The verdict

Hotel spin-off cruise lines that seek to emulate the brand values and reputations of five-star-plus chains are a hot, if as yet unproven, travel trend, with rival luxury accommodation groups such as Four Seasons, Aman and Orient Express also taking to sea. In the case of the quietly sophisticated Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok, the fusing of both the luxe chain’s land and ocean brands is mostly a buoyant success.

Essentials

Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok from $513 a night for a deluxe guestroom. The next 14-night Singapore to Hong Kong cruise aboard Luminara departs on February 28, 2027, with fares from $US28,400 ($40,936). The Ritz-Carlton Bangkok, 189 Witthayu Rd, Lumphini, Pathum Wan, Bangkok, Thailand. Ph +66 2 180 7777. See ritzcarlton.com; ritzcarltonyachtcollection.com

Our rating out of five

★★★★½

Highlight

The hotel’s location, overlooking Bangkok’s equivalent of Central Park, is a knockout.

Lowlight

The concept of see-through glass toilet doors are a case of being put off by the Ritz.

The writer travelled as a guest of the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and the Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok.