Bangkok: Happy Hour at Red Sky Rooftop Bar

Rikke and Magnus stay at a hotel a little further down the street from mine, so today we arranged to meet at 5pm to go and get a sundowner at Red Sky, which is the rooftop bar at Centara Grand. We took the SkyTrain to Chitlom, and from there we walked to the hotel, which is located inside Central World shopping mall. Central World is huge, so we took a wrong turn both once and twice. Even though I’ve been to Red Sky a couple of times before, it therefore still took us 20 minutes to walk through the mall and locate the hotel lobby.

We finally made it, and it was worth all the trouble. Red Sky is on the 55^th floor, so you have the most amazing view of the city, and I would prefer Red Sky to Sky Bar anytime. Sky Bar primarily caters to tourists who want to see the bar from Hangover, and be able to tell their friends that they’ve been to the highest open air bar in the world. The times I’ve been there, I’ve felt like cattle. There’s no seating available and you drink expensive drinks out of plastic cups, so after you’re done photographing, there’s really nothing else to do.

Red Sky feels more like a real bar, and the view (which might easily be the second best in Bangkok) is just an added bonus. You don’t pay a cover charge, and the prices are reasonable, considering the location, especially during happy hour. We paid 1800THB in total for 2 glasses of wine, 2 glasses of Martini, 2 beers and 2 servings of truffle fries. Happy hour ends at 6, and we didn’t place our order until 5:50. Not at any point did we feel that they wanted us out, to make room for guests ordering from the ordinary menu. They let us have our happy our drinks at our own pace, and our happy hour soon turned into a happy evening.

Red Sky at Centara Grand 55F, Central World, Bangkok, Hours: 6pm-1am, Tel: +66 (0) 2100 1234,Dresscode: Smart casual, no singlets,flip flops, sport shorts