From Suvarnabhumi Airport to central Bangkok

When scheduling a trip to Hanoi – Bangkong – Chiang Mai – Bangkok – Ho Chi Minh City, I contacted in advance with some acquaintances who were living in Thailand to ask about things I was unclear about, because the information easily found on the Internet might be insufficient or inaccurate.

A college friend of mine just followed her husband and moved her business from Malta to Bangkok. When she heard that my husband and I were going to Thailand, she was so happy and asked me about so many things. The first question she gave me was, “Which airport are you landing at?”

I was a bit dumb at the moment because I believed that there was only one international airport in Bangkok, which was Suvarnabhumi.

Afterward, I looked up the information to find out that Suvarnabhumi is the new international airport in Bangkok, replacing Don Mueang airport. When Suvarnabhumi was put into operation, Don Mueang was at first transferred to serve domestic flights. However, from October 2012, Air Asia moved to use Don Mueang, for reasons a, b, c, and d (related to the parking, costs).

For more information, see Wikipedia, in the long list of airlines that land at and take off from Suvarnabhumi, there is no Air Asia.

We booked Vietjet Air tickets, so that day the plane landed at Suvarnabhumi. The large Suvarnabhumi Airport is located about 25km East of central Bangkok. It sounds far but the traffic is very convenient.

From Suvarnabhumi airport to central Bangkok, you can choose one of the following 3 means of transportation: taxi, bus, or airport rail link (airport tram).

We have not gone by bus yet so we will not share it here, you can refer to other sites.

1. Taxi:

After completing the customs procedures, getting your luggage and buying a phone card (if necessary), go to the Entry level 4 gate on the 1st floor.

Here, you line up to get a taxi number at the distribution counter with an airport staff available. They will give you a voucher stating the taxi line and the driver’s name.

You follow the voucher to go to the taxi area, give the driver the voucher and your expected destination.

We went from Suvarnabhumi to Sukhumvit (~ 29km), and it took 30 minutes. The taxi fee was 250bath (according to the meter), plus 70bath (for 2 times of tolls). The total fee was 320bath (~ 215,000 VND).

It was quite cheap and convenient if you have a lot of luggage. However, you should avoid taking a taxi at rush hour, because the road is no less stuck than in Vietnam.

2. Airport rail link:

Photo source: worldlytravelerguide.com

To make it easier to imagine, you look at the subway chart and you will see that the subway station at Suvarnabhumi Airport is located at the last point on the right of the red line.

From here, there are 2 routes to central Bangkok and vice versa:

– Express: fast train route. It takes you directly to the first station – Makkasan transfer station (to transfer from Airport Rail Link to the subway), and the second station – Phaya Thai BTS. The one-way fee to the end station is 150bath/ person.

– City Line: normal train route, travel time is slower due to stops at Lat Krabang, Ban Thap Chang, Hua Mak, etc. (as shown on the map). The one-way fee to the end station is 45bath/ person.

You go to the basement just below level 1 to buy cards. If you’re not sure about the route, just tell the destination to the staff, they will guide you.

For example, my husband and I stayed at a hostel near Nana station (green line). We bought the cards from Suvarnabhumi to Makkasan. After getting off the train, the two of us followed the arrows to return the cards, to go out to another card counter; this time, we bought cards to go from Makkasan to Sukhumvit subway station.

If we got off at Nana station, we had to transfer from the subway (MRT) to the sky train (BTS) by returning the cards at Sukhumvit, then walking from the basement of Terminal 21 shopping center via a long corridor to get to Asok BTS, from there we would buy another cards to go from Asok to Nana.

Because we just needed to go one more station to get there but we had to move so much and had to queue for buying cards, the two of us decided to walk from Sukhumvit station to the hostel. It took us about 15 minutes.

It depends on which area you stay to choose the appropriate vehicle.

3. Buy a phone SIM card:

At the arrival terminal – Suvarnabhumi airport, after completing the customs clearance and getting your luggage, you go straight to the gate, you will see many service counters, just find AIS counter!

They have short-term 3G packages (7 days, 10 days, 30 days, etc.) for solo travelers and group travelers with reasonable prices. The procedure is simple, you just need to show your passport and pay the money.

That time we went to Thailand for 9 days so we bought the 10-day package with the price of 299 baht (~ 198,000VND), including 2 basic benefits:
– Unlimited internet use within 10 days
– 100 bath in the account. The user can call both domestically and internationally.

About “unlimited”, they also note that the “unlimited” use capacity is 500MB, 1.5GB or 3.5GB depending on the package you choose to buy.

We only bought a 3G package for 10 days for one phone and then shared the wifi with the other phone, meaning that both of us could be online, so we quickly ran out of internet use capacity. When you run out of unlimited internet access capacity, the internet speed will slow down, so you have to charge money to your account.

You can buy 3G sim as well as buy top-up cards at any 7-Eleven store (convenience store system which opens 24/24, similar to Circle K, 24h). The lowest price for a top-up card is 100 bath.

However, the amount you top-up will be deducted very quickly. I recommend you to balance between using 3Gs and wifi. Where you can use wifi, you should turn off 3G.

The service in Thailand is generally very good, so when buying a sim, the lovely staff of AIS will help you replace the sim into your phone; Or the staff at 7-Eleven will guide you on how to top up your account. If their English or your English is not good, they often try to make you understand 😀

4. Public transportation:

For me, the transport system in Bangkok is busy, confusing and crazy with many different means.

I used to be in Singapore for a year and a half, feeling very comfortable with public transportation, now I was crazy about the transportation network in Bangkok. At first, I thought it was because I was not used to it. But my friend who lived there for almost a year must admit I was right.

To get around Bangkok, you can choose a taxi, tuk-tuk, motorbike taxi, bus, subway (MRT) or sky train (BTS) and boat (with some special areas).
– Taxi ở Bangkok giá khá rẻ nhưng không nên đi vào giờ cao điểm.
– Tuk tuk sẽ rẻ hơn nếu đi nhóm 3-4 người chứ một cách bình thường thì tuk tuk đắt hơn cả taxi, phải trả giá nữa. Mà được cái tuk tuk hơn taxi ở chỗ luồn lách được 😀

– Taxi in Bangkok is quite cheap but you should not go during rush hours.

– Tuk-tuk is cheaper if you go in a group of 3-4 people but normally, tuk-tuks are more expensive than taxis, you even have to bargain. But a tuk-tuk is better than a taxi in rush hours because it can maneuver better than a taxi ?

– You should only use motorbike taxi to go somewhere near, but if you go far, it is more expensive than a taxi because they charge 2-way trip because each motorbike taxi group has a stop station so motorbike taxi driver must return to the stop station after taking the guests to the destination.

– MRT and BTS are managed by two different management units, so each card must be sold separately. Each time you buy a card, you have to wait in line which is a bit time-consuming, not to mention the “ticket” to go through MRT port is a coin and the BTS ticket is a card (in Sing, I can buy a single card and use it on the bus, MRT or BTS without buying a new card). Both MRT and BTS have tickets for 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, etc. The advantage of taking the train is that the train goes quite fast and there is no traffic jam.

– With the boat going along the Chao Praya River, you go to Samphan Taksin BTS station and follow the direction board to the marina, then you can see the price list of each destination. You should research first to see which port you want to visit. For example, Memorial Bridge Pier has Saphan Phut Night Market, King Rama I Monument; Bangkok’s largest flower/ fruit market opens 24 hours; Maharaj Pier has a palace, royal park, and Wat Phra Kaew, etc. We reached Samphan Taksin at around dusk so we just took a boat to Sathorn Pier to hang around in Asiatique – a large commercial center along the Chao Phraya river.

If you have a specific schedule, you should consider where to go, when to go, and then consider the means of transportation and the type of MRT and BTS cards to buy.