A very popular commercial district for young people to hang out and socialize. Siam Square is filled with many local apparel shops as well as personal care and cosmetic stores where you can always find items to fulfill your style. The area gives you a similar vibe of walking in Shibuya or many shopping districts in Asia, but on a much smaller scale, where small shops line up along a walking street, crowded with young people and advertising screens displaying the endless possibility of consumption.
What is the highlight?
1. Shop your favourite trendy item
Most of shops are located along the walking street at the back of Siam Square One. You will find some shops have a retail space for the entire building, some only on the ground level along the street, some on the second floor of a building with narrow stairs to go up or some located inside a small shopping complex.
If you come by BTS, you can just walk straight from the BTS Siam station using the exit in the middle of the station, enter Siam Square One and walk along the giant ramp which will lead you to the walking street on the ground level. From this point, you can decide to go left or right.
On the right side, along the walking street you can find shops such as Gentlewoman local fashion chain with nice fitting and reasonable price, POP MART famous art toy shop, Ravipa local Jewelry brand for every day use, CIRCULAR quality apparel made from recycled materials, Beautrium personal cares shop, etc.
On this side, there are streets called Siam Square Soi 2 and 3 intersect the walking street where there are also shops along these streets as well.
Shops along Siam Square Soi 2 are mostly local high quality apparel brands such as Yuedpao, a 100 THB (~3 USD) good quality T-shirt shop, SOS Flagship Store offering multi-brands female apparel store, DGRIE men’s tailored, Selvedgework custom made Jeans, URTHE men’s streetwear, etc.
The area between Siam Square Soi 2 and 3 used to be a cinema named “Lido” which now no longer operates as a cinema but rented out the space around the cinema for retail. Shops inside Lido are usually an individual retailer, selling fashionable apparel, or services such as hair and nail salons.
A narrow building with a nice facade from the walking street between Siam Square Soi 3 and Siam Square One is a small shopping complex called Centerpoint Siam Square. The shopping complex is filled with individual retail shops similar to Lido and some buffet style restaurants at the top.
Back to Siam Square One, if you turn to the left side, the first thing you will see is a huge MINISO LAND where you can find small creative items for your daily use, or a trendy gift to your friends.
Walking along the street, you will find Siam Square Soi 5 and 6 intersect the walking street. Shops around here are massage shops as well as a few global brands stand alone shops such as Rolex and Tudor.
2. Experience a youngster’s favorite food
Not only fashion apparel shops you can find in Siam Square but the area is also filled with many local restaurants at really reasonable prices, targeted for teenagers and young adults. You will easily find Japanese hotpot buffet offering various choices of meat from local beef to Wagyu, many creative Sushi places as well as many Korean BBQ places and Chinese Mala Tang spreading across the area.
From my view, this area is not a good place if you are looking for Thai food, but if you want to experience the local youngster lifestyle, this could be a good place for you.
Opening hours
The big local branded shops and restaurant chains mostly open everyday around 10:00 until 22:00. Shops of small local brands, individual retailers and beauty services may open a bit late like 11:00 or 11:30 and close a bit earlier around 19:00 or 20:00.
For Lido, Centerpoint Siam Square and Siam Square One, the complex itself opens daily from 10:00 until 22:00, but again the individual retailer inside a complex may opens a bit late and close a bit earlier than the shopping mall. Therefore, as a local, I would recommend visiting Siam Square from 11:00 onwards to experience the full vibe of the area.
Entrance fee
The area opens for the public, therefore there is no entrance fee to the area including the entrance to the complex such as Lido, Centerpoint Siam Square and Siam Square One.
How to get there?
By BTS
This is the most convenient way to visit Siam Square. Get off the train at BTS Siam station. As mentioned earlier, you can go to the ground level and start walking from any street from Soi 2 until Soi 6. For the most convenient way, you can just walk through Siam Square One to the back and you will arrive in the middle of Siam Square.
By MRT
If you come from another part of Bangkok where MRT is closer and accessible to you, MRT is considered to be a great option as well. However, you need to transit to the BTS skytrain network either from MRT Silom station to BTS Sala Daeng station or MRT Sukhumvit station to BTS Asok station and later get off the train at BTS Siam station.
By Taxi/Tuktuk
It is possible to go here by Taxi or Tuktuk. The driver may charge you an overpriced rate as traffic is quite bad in this area but you can always negotiate for a lower price. As a local, I recommend negotiating the price first before entering the vehicle and keep in mind both you and the driver can always reject the deal.
By Car
Siam Square has parking spaces which are small open areas along each street (Soi). If you drive a car, you can park here. The parking can be accessed from Rama I road. However, it can be very difficult to find the spot due to its crowdedness and it might not be as safe as a shopping mall nearby as it is an open public space where people can go in and out, passing the parking lot as well as your car.
There will also be a parking fee applied and the fee is higher compared to the other parking spaces nearby. On weekdays, from the 1st hour until the 6th hour, the fee will be 20 Baht per hour. From the 7th hour onwards, the fee will be 40 Baht per hour. On weekends, from the 1st hour until the 4th hour, the fee will be 20 Baht per hour. From the 5th hour onwards, the fee will be 40 Baht per hour. Please study the parking fee again at the parking lot for further updates.
From my personal experience, if you could not avoid bringing your car to Siam Square, I suggest finding another place to park such as Siam Center or MBK Center, and consider to dine in those places for around 500-2,000 Baht to get free extra hours and later walk to Siam Square. This way can save you more time to find the parking space as well as the parking fee.
