Best Rooftop Bars Near Khao San Road (2026)
Best Rooftop Bars Near Khao San Road (2026)
Khao San Road's nightlife reputation was built at street level — plastic chairs on the sidewalk, buckets from rolling carts, bass thumping out of neon-lit bars where the doors never close. But some of the best drinking in Bangkok's old town happens one or two flights up, where the noise fades just enough and the skyline opens into something you didn't expect to find in a backpacker district.
From scrappy rooftop terraces where you can nurse a Chang overlooking temple spires to polished riverside bars with Wat Arun glowing across the water, the Phra Nakhon neighborhood holds a concentration of elevated drinking spots that most visitors never discover. They're too busy looking at eye level.
This guide covers the best rooftop and elevated bars within walking distance of Khao San Road — from the cheap and cheerful to the genuinely world-class.
For the full KSR bar scene, see our Nightlife Guide.
Rooftop Bars on Khao San Road
You don't have to leave the immediate area to drink above the chaos. Several spots right on or adjacent to Khao San offer rooftop or upper-floor seating with views over Phra Nakhon's low-rise jumble of shophouses, temple roofs, and banyan trees.
Rambuttri Village Rooftop Bars
Soi Rambuttri runs parallel to Khao San, and the guesthouses and bars lining it have been stacking terraces upward for years. The result is a handful of small, informal rooftop bars — none of them famous, most of them unsigned, all of them worth finding.
The best approach is to walk the soi slowly and look up. You'll spot fairy lights and silhouettes four or five stories above the street. Some are attached to guesthouses and technically for guests, but nobody turns away a paying customer. Others operate as proper bars with menus and table service.
The views won't stop your heart. What you get instead is a feeling: old Bangkok spreading out around you in every direction, the golden chedi of Wat Bowonniwet catching the last light, the hum of Khao San just audible enough to remind you where you are. These are the kind of places where you settle in for three hours without meaning to.
Drink prices: Beer 80-120 THB, cocktails 180-280 THB. Expect basic spirits and mixers — nobody's muddling fresh herbs up here.
Best for: Budget travellers, solo drinkers, anyone who wants a rooftop without a dress code or a credit card minimum.
The Gravitique Hotel Rooftop
Sitting above the Gravitique Hotel on Samsen Road, this rooftop terrace is a quieter, more composed option than the Rambuttri spots. The hotel itself is a converted shophouse — narrow, vertical, with a rooftop bar that feels like someone's private terrace.
The view faces south and east over Phra Nakhon, which means you get the dense, low-slung old town skyline rather than the river. On clear evenings, temple spires catch gold light across several kilometers. The bar stocks a decent selection of Thai craft beers alongside standard cocktails, and the food menu leans Thai-Western comfort — satay skewers, fries, spring rolls.
It's never packed. Gravitique draws a mix of hotel guests and neighbourhood regulars, which keeps the atmosphere relaxed and conversational. The kind of bar where the staff remember your drink order on night two.
Drink prices: Cocktails 220-350 THB, craft beer 180-250 THB.
Best for: A date, a quiet drink before or after the Khao San mayhem, anyone staying on Samsen Road.
Buddy Lodge Area Bars
The stretch around Buddy Lodge, near the Brick Bar end of Khao San Road, has a cluster of bars with upper-floor terraces. None of them brand themselves as rooftop bars — they're just bars that happen to have stairs leading to open-air seating above the street.
The advantage here is position. You're directly over Khao San Road's busiest section. Lean on the railing and you're watching the full circus: backpackers weaving between pad thai carts, tuk-tuk drivers negotiating fares, someone getting a temporary tattoo under fluorescent light. It's excellent theatre, and a cold Singha makes it better.
The drinks are standard Khao San fare — buckets if you want them, towers of beer, cocktails mixed strong and sweet. Nobody's winning awards. But you're not here for the mixology. You're here for the view down.
Drink prices: Beer 80-150 THB, cocktails 150-250 THB, buckets 200-300 THB.
Best for: Groups, people-watching, anyone who wants the Khao San energy without being fully submerged in it.
Phra Arthit Riverside Bars
Walk west from Khao San for ten minutes and you hit Phra Arthit Road, which runs along the Chao Phraya River. The bars here aren't rooftops in the traditional sense — they're elevated terraces and upper decks built out over the riverbank, putting you a couple of stories above the water.
The river changes everything. Suddenly you're watching long-tail boats cut white lines through brown water, the sun dropping behind the spire of Wat Arun downstream, and the breeze coming off the Chao Phraya cool enough to remind you that Bangkok has moving air. Several bars along this strip serve food as well as drinks, and the Thai kitchen at most of them is better than anything on Khao San proper.
Specific venues rotate — some close, new ones open — but the strip itself stays consistent. Walk along Phra Arthit and follow the fairy lights toward the water. You'll find a seat.
Drink prices: Beer 90-150 THB, cocktails 200-350 THB. Food runs 120-250 THB per dish.
Best for: Sunset drinks, a slower pace, couples, anyone who wants river views without hotel-bar prices.
Best Riverside Bars (Walking Distance)
Head south from Khao San toward the river and you enter a different register entirely. The bars here are attached to boutique hotels, the drinks are crafted rather than poured, and the views are some of the best in Southeast Asia.
Eagle Nest Bar at Sala Arun
If you drink at one rooftop bar during your time near Khao San Road, make it this one.
Eagle Nest sits on top of Sala Arun, a small riverside residence tucked into the lanes of Tha Tien — a fifteen-minute walk south of Khao San, or one stop on the Chao Phraya Express Boat. The bar is compact, maybe thirty seats, arranged on a narrow terrace that faces directly across the river at Wat Arun.
At sunset, the temple's Khmer-style prang turns from white to gold to amber, and then the floodlights kick on and the whole structure glows against a darkening sky. You will watch this happen with a drink in your hand and think, very clearly, that this is one of the best bar views in the world. You will be correct.
The cocktail list is short and well-executed. Thai-inflected drinks — lemongrass gin sours, butterfly pea flower mixes — alongside reliable classics. The staff are attentive without being intrusive. The space is intimate enough that you feel like you've discovered it, even though every travel photographer in Bangkok has shot from this exact railing.
Go early. Eagle Nest is small and doesn't take reservations for the rooftop. Arrive by 5:00 PM for sunset seats, especially during high season (November through February).
Drink prices: Cocktails 350-500 THB, beer 200-280 THB.
Best for: The single best view of Wat Arun at sunset. Not negotiable.
Sala Rattanakosin Rooftop — Roof Bar and Eatery
Just next door to Sala Arun, the Sala Rattanakosin hotel operates its own rooftop bar and restaurant with a similar but slightly wider perspective on the river and Wat Arun. Where Eagle Nest is intimate and drink-focused, Sala Rattanakosin's roof space is larger and more dining-oriented.
The menu stretches across Thai and international territory — decent curries, reasonable pasta, solid appetizers designed for sharing over drinks. The cocktail program is competent, with a few signature creations using Thai ingredients like makrut lime and galangal. The wine list, by Bangkok standards, is respectable.
The broader terrace means you're more likely to get a seat without arriving at five, and the view is nearly identical to Eagle Nest's — Wat Arun dominates the frame, the river slides past below, and the sky does whatever it's going to do that evening.
Drink prices: Cocktails 320-550 THB, wine by the glass 280-450 THB, beer 200-300 THB.
Best for: Dinner with a view, groups of four or more, anyone who couldn't get a seat at Eagle Nest.
Riva Surya Bangkok
Riva Surya is a riverside boutique hotel on Phra Arthit Road itself, making it the closest upscale river bar to Khao San — roughly a ten-minute walk. The bar and pool terrace face the Chao Phraya, with views upstream and downstream rather than the head-on Wat Arun angle you get further south.
The atmosphere is resort-casual. During the day, hotel guests lounge by the pool. By evening, the bar fills with a mix of guests and walk-ins drinking well-made cocktails while the river traffic slides past. The bartenders know their way around a shaker, and the Thai-inspired cocktail list changes seasonally.
Riva Surya splits the difference between Khao San's anything-goes energy and the polished hotel bars further downriver. You can show up in shorts and sandals and nobody blinks. The prices are hotel-level but not punishing, and the setting — right on the water, with the old town at your back — earns every baht.
Drink prices: Cocktails 300-480 THB, beer 180-260 THB.
Best for: An upscale-but-accessible riverside drink, pool-adjacent afternoon sessions, a step up from the Phra Arthit strip without going full luxury.
Worth the Short Trip
These spots require a slightly longer walk or a quick tuk-tuk ride from Khao San, but the payoff justifies the effort.
Supanniga Eating Room (Tha Tien Branch)
Not a rooftop bar per se, but the upper-floor river-view terrace at Supanniga's Tha Tien location deserves a mention. It's primarily a restaurant — and an excellent one, serving Isan and Thai dishes that are several tiers above tourist-strip cooking — but the terrace seats facing the river come with Wat Arun views and a proper cocktail list.
Come for dinner. Stay for the view. The deep-fried sea bass with green mango salad alone is worth the walk from Khao San, and the Chalong Bay rum cocktails wash it down beautifully.
Drink prices: Cocktails 280-400 THB. Dinner mains 200-450 THB.
Best for: A proper Thai dinner with river views and drinks. Bring someone you want to impress.
What to Expect
Best Time to Go
Sunset. This isn't complicated. Most of the bars on this list are oriented westward toward the river and Wat Arun, which means the golden hour light show is the main event. Plan to be seated by 5:00 PM in high season, 5:30 PM in the hotter months when the sun sets later.
After dark, the temple floodlights create a different but equally striking atmosphere. If you miss sunset, don't skip the visit — nighttime views of illuminated Wat Arun against a black sky are arguably more dramatic.
For the Khao San-adjacent spots (Rambuttri, Buddy Lodge area), timing matters less. The show below runs all night.
Dress Code
Near Khao San Road: wear whatever you wore to Khao San Road. Shorts, sandals, tank tops — nobody cares. These are backpacker-district bars that happen to have stairs.
At the riverside hotel bars (Eagle Nest, Sala Rattanakosin, Riva Surya): smart casual. Covered shoes aren't strictly required at most, but you'll feel more comfortable in something a step above fisherman pants. No suits, no heels, no pretension — this is still Phra Nakhon, not Thonglor.
Getting There
Everything on this list is either on Khao San Road or within a 20-minute walk. The Tha Tien cluster (Eagle Nest, Sala Rattanakosin, Supanniga) is the furthest, at about 1.5 kilometers south. Walk along the river for the scenic route, or flag a tuk-tuk for 50-80 THB if the heat is winning.
The Chao Phraya Express Boat also connects the Phra Arthit pier (near Khao San) to the Tha Tien pier in about ten minutes. It costs 15 THB and is one of the best public transit experiences in Bangkok.
Budget
A night of rooftop drinking near Khao San can cost as little as 300 THB (a few beers on Rambuttri) or as much as 2,000 THB (cocktails and dinner at a riverside hotel bar). Most people land somewhere in the middle. Budget 500-800 THB per person for a solid evening of two or three drinks at one of the mid-range spots.
The Bottom Line
Khao San Road's reputation as a ground-level free-for-all is earned. But the neighbourhood's best-kept secret is its vertical dimension — the rooftops and terraces and upper decks that give you old Bangkok from above, with a drink in hand and temple spires catching the last of the light.
Start on the Rambuttri rooftops for cheap beers and a local feel. Graduate to Phra Arthit for river breezes. And at least once, make the walk to Eagle Nest and watch Wat Arun turn gold at sunset. That's not just one of the best bar experiences near Khao San Road. It's one of the best in Bangkok.