InterContinental Bangkok

There’s much to be said for tiny boutique hotels, unusual concept hotels, and family-owned independent lodgings. But if you haven’t experienced a straight-down-the-middle no-surprises luxury hotel in an East Asian capital city, you might not appreciate just how pleasant a well-run business hotel can be. The InterContinental Bangkok rises some 37 floors above the Ratchaprasong commercial district, close to the Erawan Shrine and the Centralworld shopping and convention center.

The double-height lobby is as grand as can be, and the rooms are an exceedingly palatable blend of classic luxury, Thai tradition, and modernist simplicity. Chromecast televisions and Byredo bath products are standard, and the elevated views of the city are memorable, to say the least.

Facilities include a well-equipped fitness center and the lavish Spa InterContinental, as well as a palm-fringed, lagoon-like rooftop pool, complete with cocktail service. And while there’s a whole city outside, there’s half a city’s worth of restaurants under the InterContinental’s roof — from dim sum and Cantonese fare at Summer Palace to Californian cuisine at the straightforwardly named SoCal and the venerable Fireplace Grill and Bar, a classic European steakhouse that’s been a Ratchaprasong institution since the Sixties.