Best rooftop bars in Bangkok: an honest ranked guide
Bangkok: Rooftop Bar and Hidden Speakeasy Nightlife Tour
Which is the best rooftop bar in Bangkok?
For the highest view, Mahanakhon SkyBar tops the city's tallest building. For old-school glamour and the Hangover II setting, Sirocco and Sky Bar at lebua. For the best all-round atmosphere, Vertigo and Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree in Sathorn. Octave in Thonglor offers a 360-degree view at slightly fairer prices. Expect cocktails of 400–650 THB, smart-casual dress codes, and to arrive before sunset — the experience is worth it once, but the famous spots are tourist-priced.
Bangkok is, by most reckonings, the best rooftop-bar city in the world. A flat sprawl studded with skyscrapers, a wide dark river curving through the centre, warm evenings nearly year-round and a hotel industry that competes on altitude — it all adds up to dozens of high-rise bars with views few cities can match. But the famous names are also two to three times the price of a normal drink, the dress codes are real, and a couple of the biggest names are coasting on movie fame. This guide ranks the major rooftops honestly, with the prices, dress codes, sunset timing and the all-important question of which are worth it and which are tourist factories.
What you are actually paying for
Before the rankings, set expectations. A cocktail at a marquee Bangkok rooftop costs 400–650 THB (USD 12–20); some venues add a minimum spend of 500–1,000 THB per person. That is a steep markup on the 250–350 THB you would pay at a good street-level cocktail bar, and the drinks are rarely better — sometimes worse. You are paying for the view and the altitude, full stop.
Three rules apply almost everywhere: dress smart-casual (no shorts, no open shoes, no vests for men), arrive before sunset to get the light and a spot, and check the weather in the rainy season because rooftops shut in storms. The broader after-dark context is in the Bangkok nightlife guide, and the daytime high-view options in Bangkok with a view.
A guided rooftop-and-speakeasy crawl is the painless way to sample several without queuing or navigating dress-code surprises.
Bangkok rooftop and speakeasy nightlife crawl — hosted hop across the best high-rise bars1. Mahanakhon SkyBar — the highest view in the city
Location: King Power Mahanakhon, Silom; nearest BTS Chong Nonsi (Silom line)
Atop Thailand’s tallest completed building (314m), the Mahanakhon rooftop combines an open-air observation deck — the famous glass SkyWalk tray — with bars on the 76th to 78th floors. The view is simply the highest in Bangkok, a full 360-degree sweep over the entire city to the river and beyond.
It works best as a combined visit: the Mahanakhon SkyWalk observation deck by day or at golden hour, then a drink at the rooftop bar. Cocktails run 450–600 THB; the observation-deck ticket is separate (around 880 THB and up). Dress smart-casual. Honest take: the altitude is unbeatable and the SkyWalk glass floor is a genuine thrill, but the bar can feel more attraction than bar, and it gets busy. Go for the view, not the drinks.
2. Vertigo and Moon Bar — the best all-round atmosphere
Location: Banyan Tree Hotel, Sathorn; nearest MRT Lumphini or BTS Sala Daeng
For many seasoned Bangkok drinkers, the open-air rooftop at the Banyan Tree is the best of the lot. Moon Bar (the lounge) and Vertigo (the restaurant) sit 61 floors up with no glass barriers — just an open edge, the breeze, and a panoramic view over Lumphini Park, Sathorn and the river. The absence of walls makes it feel genuinely vertiginous and far more romantic than the enclosed observation-deck bars.
Cocktails are 450–600 THB; the grilled seafood and steak menu at Vertigo is pricey but well regarded. Strict dress code — no shorts, no sandals, collared shirts preferred. Honest take: the most atmospheric of the famous rooftops, ideal for a couple’s evening; book a table for dinner if you want a prime edge spot. See the Silom-Sathorn guide and the Silom-Sathorn destination page for the surrounding area.
3. Sirocco and Sky Bar — the Hangover glamour (and the trap)
Location: lebua at State Tower, Bang Rak; nearest BTS Saphan Taksin (Silom line)
The lebua’s 63rd-floor rooftop is the most famous in Bangkok, thanks to The Hangover Part II. Sirocco is the grand domed open-air restaurant with a live band and a sweeping river view; Sky Bar is the gold-domed cocktail bar perched on the very edge where the film scene was shot.
It is gorgeous — the colonnaded staircase descending to the riverfront edge is genuinely cinematic. But it is also the city’s clearest tourist trap among rooftops: cocktails top 600–700 THB (the signature “Hangovertini” is a deliberate gimmick), you often queue just to photograph the bar, and the crowd is almost entirely tourists doing the same. Honest take: worth it once for the spectacle and the photo, poor value for a real night of drinking. The Saphan Taksin BTS location does make it the easiest famous rooftop to combine with a river evening — see the riverside Bangkok guide.
Bangkok speakeasy and rooftop pub crawl — guided evening with skip-the-queue entries4. Octave — the best-value 360-degree view
Location: Marriott Hotel Sukhumvit, Thonglor; nearest BTS Thong Lo (Sukhumvit line)
Octave, on the 45th to 49th floors above the Thonglor Marriott, is the locals’ and expats’ pick for a reason: a genuine three-tier 360-degree rooftop where the top level rotates your view across the entire Sukhumvit skyline, at prices noticeably fairer than the Silom giants. Cocktails run 350–450 THB, and the happy-hour deals are among the best on any Bangkok rooftop.
The crowd is younger and more local, the music livelier, and the Thonglor location puts you in the city’s best nightlife district for a follow-on drink. Honest take: the best balance of view, vibe and value among the big rooftops, and the natural launch point for a Thonglor night — see the Thonglor nightlife guide and the Thonglor-Ekkamai guide.
5. Above Eleven — the Peruvian-Japanese rooftop on Sukhumvit
Location: Fraser Suites, Sukhumvit Soi 11; nearest BTS Nana (Sukhumvit line)
On the 32nd floor above the buzzing Soi 11, Above Eleven pairs a Nikkei (Peruvian-Japanese) menu with a lush, garden-styled rooftop and a lower, more intimate view over central Sukhumvit. It is less about dizzying altitude and more about a stylish, party-leaning evening — the music builds as the night goes on and it flows naturally into the Soi 11 club scene below.
Cocktails are 350–450 THB. Honest take: the rooftop for people who want a night out rather than a quiet view, perfectly placed for the Sukhumvit Soi 11 clubs. The district is covered in the Sukhumvit guide and the Sukhumvit-Nana-Asok destination page.
6. Tichuca — the glowing tree, Instagram’s favourite
Location: T-One Building, Thonglor; nearest BTS Thong Lo (Sukhumvit line)
Tichuca exploded on social media for its centrepiece: a glowing, tree-like light sculpture rising through the open rooftop, jungle-styled terraces, and a multi-level layout that climbs to “The Tower” at the top. It is the most photogenic of the newer rooftops and skews young and stylish, with DJs and a club-like energy after dark.
Cocktails run 350–450 THB. Honest take: style over substance on the drinks, but the design genuinely delivers and the atmosphere is electric on weekends. Expect crowds and queues for the top level. Another strong Thonglor option to pair with the area’s bars.
7. Cielo Sky Bar — the underrated riverside view
Location: Sky Walk Condominium, Phra Khanong; nearest BTS Phra Khanong (Sukhumvit line)
Further out on the Sukhumvit line, Cielo is the rooftop locals recommend when they want a real view without the Silom prices or crowds. On the 46th floor, it looks west across the city toward the river and the sunset, with a relaxed terrace and noticeably gentler pricing.
Cocktails are 300–400 THB. Honest take: the best low-key, lower-cost rooftop for a sunset without the tourist crush — the trade-off is the slightly less central location near Phra Khanong, covered along with the eastern Sukhumvit area in the On Nut and Phra Khanong destination page.
Rooftop bars versus rooftop restaurants
Several of these venues — Sirocco, Vertigo, Above Eleven — are as much restaurants as bars, and dining secures you a prime view table that drinkers cannot always get. If a great view table matters more than the lowest price, booking dinner is the move. The food-led high-rise options are covered separately in the rooftop restaurants guide.
Practical planning notes
Sunset timing: Bangkok sunsets fall around 18h00–18h30 year-round (the city sits near the equator). Arrive by 17h15 in the cool season for a table and the best light.
Season: the cool dry months of November to February give the clearest skies and most comfortable evenings; the rainy season (June–October) means storm closures — always have a backup. The month-by-month picture is in the Bangkok weather guide.
Getting there and home: all the bars above sit near a BTS station, but the BTS stops around midnight, so plan a Grab for the journey home — the getting around Bangkok guide and the BTS Skytrain guide cover the network and hours.
Cost discipline: if the goal is a great night of cocktails rather than the view, one rooftop drink at sunset followed by a move to a street-level speakeasy or a Thonglor bar gives you the view and better-value drinks. The Chinatown speakeasies guide covers the best of the ground-level cocktail scene.
A sensible rooftop-bar strategy
You do not need to do more than one rooftop in a trip, and trying to tick off several in a night is a waste of time and money — each one demands a lift queue, a minimum spend and a markup. The smarter play is to pick one rooftop that matches your priority and build the evening around it.
If the view is everything, go to Mahanakhon and treat it as an attraction. If you want romance and atmosphere, choose Vertigo and Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree and book a dinner table. If you are basing yourself in Sukhumvit or Thonglor and want a night that continues into bars and clubs, start at Octave, Above Eleven or Tichuca and walk on from there. If you simply want the Hangover photo, do Sirocco once, take the picture, have one drink and move on to better value elsewhere. And if you want the view without the crush or the prices, Cielo out near Phra Khanong is the quiet local pick.
Above all, remember that the drink is incidental — these are view bars, not cocktail bars in the way the Chinatown speakeasies are. For a serious cocktail, descend afterwards. One rooftop for the sky, then the street-level scene for the drinking, is the formula seasoned Bangkok regulars actually follow. The Bangkok for couples itinerary builds an evening around exactly this rhythm.
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