The surrounding area

This was the first time that the editor team had had the opportunity to explore the other
side of Sukhumvit. There seemed to be fewer tourists on this side, and various renowned luxury
hotels, such as the Sheraton Grand Sukhumvit, Landmark , JW Mariott and many others,
stood out noticeably. Although the hotel that we were about to visit was not five-star,
based on the comments of guests, it could probably be classified as high-end.

Sukhumvit Soi 8.

Sukhumvit Soi 8

We entered Soi 8, the location of the Adelphi Suites Hotel. At the beginning of the road
were various shops, mostly restaurants, and we had to walk on the road to avoid the street
vendors on the footpaths. The hotel was very easy to get to. The hotel entrance is just
a few steps into the road off Sukhumvit, and only 3 minutes walk from Nana BTS station.

The Hotel Building

From the outside, the hotel is a brand new 17 storey modern hotel with a futuristic design,
which no doubt leads many to guess correctly that it has only recently been opened. In fact,
it was just opened at the end of 2007.

The hotel lobby

When we walk into the hotel, the first thing that we must admire is the design of the lobby area. Although it isn’t very large, it’s well arranged and comfortable, not too restricted. The modern interior décor, whether in terms of the front reception area, the guest sofas, the fresh aroma, the soft lighting in tone with the glazed tiling, or the soft soothing music in harmony with the atmosphere, all add much to the hotel’s charm. However, what we were especially interested in was the accommodation. After speaking to the hotel staff, we learned that most of the hotel guests were European or Japanese, and consisted of both tourists and business people.

The front reception area.

Front reception.

Internet access in the lobby area.

Accommodation

The hotel offers 93 rooms, classified into three different types: Studio, 1 Bedroom Deluxe and 1 Bedroom Executive, situated on the 5^th to 17^th floors. The selling points of the hotel are its spacious rooms and facilities, similar to those of serviced apartments, which include kitchenware, microwaves, TVs, DVD players, refrigerators, irons, personal safes, sofas, broadband Internet access and many more.

The Studio Room

We will start with the most inexpensive type of room, the Studio, available with a King-size single bed or a European-standard twin bed. This 36sq.m room should be sufficient for guests traveling alone or as a couple, and as previously pointed out, offers a wide range of facilities. There is also free broadband internet access in each room.

Studio Room

Studio Room

The Studio is designed to appear long, so it can easily be divided into its various sections: the living area, kitchenette and office corner.

View from the Studio room window.

Living area in the Studio room.

The Studio bathroom has an attractive, stylish design and is quite large. It includes a shower cubicle and a chic, stylish hand-basin and tap, but unfortunately there is no bath.

Studio Bathroom.

Shower cubicle in the Studio.

The Deluxe & Executive rooms

Now, let’s visit the 1 Bedroom Deluxe and 1 Bedroom Executive rooms. The additional features in these rooms are the
washing machine, personal living area, and extra space. These two types of room have a similar range of amenities, and only differ in respect of the size of the living area in the 1 Bedroom Executive, which is more spacious. This, of course, is reflected in the higher room rate.

1 Bedroom Deluxe

1 Bedroom Deluxe

Living area in the 1 Bedroom Deluxe

Living area in the 1 Bedroom Executive

Kitchenette in the 1 Bedroom Executive.

All types of accommodation offer King-size beds, and both bedrooms and living areas are equipped with LCD TVs and free broadband Internet access. These two types of room are very good value for families and long–stay guests.

1 Bedroom Executive Bathroom.

Shower Cubicle & Bathtub in the 1 Bedroom Executive.

And now to the bathroom, which is decorated in the same style as the Studio bathroom, but is larger and more spacious, divided into shower cubicle and bathtub areas.

Another attraction that we would like to mention is the attractive city view, as the hotel is not surrounded by tall buildings (except the rooms on the right hand side of the hotel), so there is a clear view of the city.

View from the 1 Bedroom Executive

We could not help thinking whether this was the reason that, whatever part of the building we were in, there were transparent glass windows providing a city view. The hotel staff told us that one of the design concepts was to use light to illuminate the colour scheme inside the building,
thereby also helping to reduce global warming.

The hotel facilities

The hotel facilities, in our opinion, are not its strong point, as the hotel is not very large and there are limitations on space. At the front of the hotel, half of the 16^th floor is designated to the swimming pool, and the other half is used as a fitness centre, situated at the back.

The swimming pool

The fitness centre

Guests are no doubt satisfied with the fitness centre, as it is sufficiently spacious and offers a wide range of new exercise equipment. Furthermore, the 16^thfloor provides a great view of the city, especially on the swimming pool side.

the Rojo Restaurant

We would like to end by commenting on the Rojo Restaurant, which is used for the buffet breakfast, and serves Latin-American style cuisine after breakfast. The restaurant’s opening hours are 6.00am to 10.30pm.

The Rojo restaurant

The Adelphi Suites Hotel tour has come to an end, and we sincerely
hope it will be beneficial for travellers looking for a place to stay. Most importantly,
we would like to thank the Adelphi Suites Hotel and hotel staff for allowing us the opportunity
to visit, assisting our tour, and providing much helpful information for travellers. If we has
printed any erroneous information, we apologize in advance.

The ModernThailand.com team was honoured to be invited by the Bel-Aire Princess to tour the hotel. We decided to travel by the MRT underground. Immediately outside Sukhumvit station (Exit 3) is Asok BTS sky-train station; this is one link between the BTS and MRT networks. Our destination is Sukhumvit Soi 5, and in fact, if you opt to travel by BTS, we recommend that you exit at Nana station (Sukhumvit Soi 7 Exit), as it is not far from the hotel, only around 5 minutes’ walk. However, as there is only one MRT station on Sukhumvit Road, we must walk from Asok intersection to Sukhumvit Soi 5.
This is not inconvenient however, as it only takes around 10 minutes.

The surrounding area

We also used this opportunity to explore the surrounding
area, thereby killing two birds with one stone. This is one of the shopping areas popular
with tourists. Small and large shops line the roads, but it is the smaller stalls stretching
along the footpaths that seem to be more attractive to tourists. They sell a variety of goods,
such as clothing, bags, jewellery, souvenirs, handicraft, CDs and many other products.
Unfortunately, not many places were open when we passed by, as it was still early; the vendors had just started to set up their stalls, but if you come after 6pm, you will see crowds of tourists looking for good deals. Most importantly, products may still be bargained for here, but I must mention that every Monday the footpath stall vendors have a day off on order of the Bangkok administration.

Sukhumvit Soi 5

Before meeting the hotel staff, we have enough time to explore Soi 5, where the Bel Air is situated. From the beginning of the soi, there are shops lining both sides of the street: clothes shops, minimarts, tour agencies and restaurants. 7-Eleven and Foodland, which are open 24 hours, are situated in the middle section of the street. There are also two restaurants popular with tourists: Gulliver’s is on the right and the Thai Food Terrace is on the left, in the centre of the soi.

The Middle-East Street

There is also a minor road in this area connecting Soi 5 and Soi 3/1, which is full of shops and tourism businesses. It’s called Middle-East Street. Most of the shop signs are in Arabic, and most of the restaurants serve Mediterranean and Arabic fare. In fact, you can tell by the name of the road that this accommodation and tourist area is popular with Middle-Eastern tourists, especially from July to September, which is regarded as their holiday period. So, it wasn’t strange that we found Middle-Eastern tourists wherever they went, among the crowds walking in and out of the side roads and in the cars which made the roads feel very narrow.

In front of the hotel.

The Hotel Building

What was most strange was that it was reasonably quiet from
the middle to the end of Soi 5, without many shops or crowds. It made us feel that if we
wanted to find a place to stay in Nana, this area would be a very good place to relax.

The hotel lobby

As we almost reach the end of the road, we finds the Bel Aire Princess, which is located on the right hand side. This is the very first time we’ve seen the hotel and surrounding area. The hotel is new, and its entrance opens onto the soi. When we enter, we receive a friendly welcome from the hotel staff.

The reception area is not very spacious, and its design is simple, but pleasing on the eye

Although the lobby area and guest Internet corner are limited in size, their cleanliness and brightness are admirable.

Internet access in the lobby area

The Superior & Deluxe roooms

Most hotel guests are European or British, according to the hotel staff assisting us during our visit. The first place they invite us to see is the guest rooms, which are divided into 5 types: Superior, Deluxe, Superior Plus, Deluxe Plus and Club Room. The hotel contains 160 rooms altogether, but only offers 150 rooms to guests. Unfortunately, we are unable to visit the Superior and Deluxe rooms, as they are fully-booked, so the hotel staff invites us to visit the Superior Plus, Deluxe Plus and Club Rooms. They tell us that the amenities in the Superior Plus and Deluxe Plus rooms are no different to the Superior and Deluxe rooms, apart from the fact that the Plus type double rooms contain Queen Size beds and offer Internet access.

The Superior Plus and Deluxe Plus rooms are situated from the 11^th floor up

City view

Faclities available in all rooms.

personal safe

The selling point of the Superior rooms is the high availability and lower room rate. Although the amenities are not very different to the more expensive accommodation, if you would like a more spacious room, we would suggest that the Deluxe room would be more comfortable.

The Club Tribeca room

For those travelling as a family group, the Club Tribeca is recommended, as its size and amenities are similar to the Deluxe Plus.

Club Tribeca Room

Club Tribeca Room

The additional features in the Club Tribeca room are the DVD player (but no CDs!) and a sofa, but if guests reserve a triple room, arm chairs are provided instead.

Club Tribeca Room

View from the window

The Club Tribeca room seems to be more spacious than the Deluxe Plus, and according to the hotel staff, this is due to the room’s position in the corner of the building.

After visiting each type of room, we are able to summarise that all rooms are beautifully decorated in modern style and the various in-room amenities are new and state-of-the-art, as they are replaced regularly. The rooms are bright and fresh, and most importantly, extremely clean. It is unfortunate that there are no balconies, but the windows provide a city view.

Club Tribeca Bathroom

The bathrooms in all types of room are the same. They are not very large, but clean, with chic hand basins. Bathtubs are provided in all rooms except the Club Tribeca Room on the 17^th floor. However, if guests would like a bathtub, they may request a different room from the hotel staff.

The hotel facilities

After our tour of the accommodation is over, the hotel staff takes us to the 3^rd floor by elevator in order to visit the other facilities.

The hotel staff told us that every evening they put fruit on the tables in the elevator area for guests, another impressive service.

The 3rd floor contains many of the hotel’s facilities, such as the fitness centre, swimming pool, massage parlour and conference room.

The fitness centre is small, but the equipment is in good condition, and may be used by around 6 guests at any one time.

The Massage Parlour on the hotel’s 3^rd floor.

The swimming pool

Another facility we were intent on visiting was the swimming pool. We asked the staff to take us to the swimming pool, which was located near the fitness centre. As we arrived, we noticed that some guests were using the facilities, but not many. This may have been because it was still early. The swimming pool’s opening hours are 7am-7pm.