The Siam

The Sukosols, who own The Siam, are a family of musicians and collectors, and in 2012 they opened a hotel on the Chao Phraya with room for the collection. Bill Bensley designed it after Bangkok's Art Deco years: white walls, tall black-framed windows, and a long dark pool across the front for the building to admire itself in. Inside, black fretwork screens rise the height of the entrance hall round a small fountain set in pebbles, and the family's Han dynasty pottery keeps company with vintage posters and old travel trunks. Three acres of garden run down to the river in Dusit, the royal district, with an infinity pool at the water's edge. Chon, the Thai restaurant, is set in century-old teak houses among the lawns.

Recommended for anyone who wants Bangkok's temples by day and somewhere well upriver of the centre to come back to, and for families: under-twelves stay free, and even the spa has a menu for children and teenagers. Wat Pho and the Grand Palace are fifteen minutes away, and the way into town is the hotel's own boat, twenty-five minutes down to Sathorn pier with not a traffic jam in sight. Leaving is optional. The Muay Thai ring, said to be the first in a Bangkok hotel, comes with a coach, and the Opium Spa has five treatment rooms for whatever the coach leaves behind. There is also a Sak Yant, the sacred Thai tattoo, the one souvenir that never needs packing. The sunset cruise leaves from the hotel's pier in a wooden boat roofed like a sala, its curtains tied back: the same river as the shuttle, at a better hour.