How to enjoy Bangkok, Thailand's Suvarnabhumi Airport

October 15, 2:39 AMAsia Travel ExaminerCassandra James

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One of the incredible Thai statues at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok 
(photo/Cassandra James)

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (pronounced Soo-wan-a-poom) was named by Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej and, in Thai, means "The Golden Land". It's only been open since late 2006, and is a colossal airport of steel and glass.  The largest airport in south east Asia, it's beautiful but can be a bit daunting.  Take heart though, it's actually not bad. In fact, if you find yourself in Suvarnabhumi Airport for a few hours or on a layover, here's how to enjoy it so that wait won't seem so long. 

Make Sure You Check In Early - The most important thing to enjoying Suvarnabhumi Airport is to make sure you get there early. The airport is enormous with check-in desks that seemingly stretch for miles, so you don't want to be hurtling in at the last minute and then realize there's no way your'e going to make that flight.  Allow at least 90 minutes before a domestic flight and 2-3 hours before an international flight and your traveling experience will be much more relaxed. 

Don't Forget to Eat - With many restaurants, cafes and coffee shops, Suvarnabhumi is a great place to get a last good Thai meal before you leave Thailand.  Check out Asian Corner for great Chinese food and Japanese lunch boxes, Mango Tree for Thai food, Reef Bar for snack food, and Doi Tung for great lattes and green tea drinks. Doi Tung is particularly a good place to get coffee as most of the proceeds go to help poor hilltribes people in northern Thailand.

Shopping! - Suvarnabhumi is a shoppers' paradise and one of the best airports for shopping in all of Asia. There's a fabulous Jim Thompson Thai silk shop where you can buy not only handmade Thai silk items, but canvas bags, sun hats, make-up cases, and eye glasses cases - a marvelous shop for forgotten last-minute gifts. Doi Tung also has a gift shop with the cutest Thai handicrafts, and there's a good sized Boots Chemist for any toiletries you might need. Of course there are also the usual enormous duty-free shops like Prada, Gucci and Armani, and several huge shops selling alcohol and cigarettes. And don't miss the Thai snack shops. Of course, more expensive than buying snacks anywhere else in Thailand, but a good place to get rid of any Thai currency you don't need. 

One word of warning when shopping at Suvarnabhumi though. There's been a well-publicized airport scam, where tourists are accidentally wandering over invisible 'shop boundaries' and are then being nabbed by airport police for shoplifting. With some tourists complaining of missed flights, being incarcerated for hours in an airport police office, threatened with jail and then being 'fined' several hundred dollars before being released, be very careful when you pick something up in an airport shop where you walk with it.

Sleeping at Suvarnabhumi - If you end up stuck in the airport for a long time, there are the Louis Tavern Dayrooms where you can rent a room for as little as a few hours.  At over $65 for four hours though, they're incredibly expensive so, if at all possible, if you have time to leave the airport and need a few hours sleep you'd be better off checking into one of the hotels just outside the airport proper.  

Suvarnabhumi Airport is one of the nicest airports in south east Asia so, if you know you're going to be traveling through it, make sure you allow plenty of time to enjoy it. You won't be sorry.