The Sukhothai Bangkok

Bangkok hotels mostly compete on height and views. This one goes the other way. Low-rise buildings, colonnades and lotus ponds spread across six acres off South Sathorn Road, and once you're through the gate the traffic stops existing. The interiors are teak, silk and celadon, a look copied so widely since that it's easy to forget where it came from. Rooms are unusually large by Bangkok standards, which matters more than it sounds if you're here for a week rather than a night.

Celadon is the reason a lot of people book without ever staying, for royal Thai cooking under brick domes with its own lotus pond outside. The Sunday chocolate buffet has been running long enough to count as a city institution, and it fills up with Bangkok residents rather than hotel guests. If you want a rooftop bar scene and a party downstairs, this isn't your hotel. If you want quiet, gardens and service that doesn't make a fuss, it is.