Hi all, has anyone had experience with hiring a boat on the chao-praya for the evening? It would be for about 50 people, and there would need to be enough room for people to sit down and eat and a bar also. An area on top deck for people to view Bangkok would also be good.

How do I go about arranging this and what, approximately, should I expect to pay?

Thanks

A good place to start is at the pier at Thaksin BTS stop. There are many different companies that have booths there and also have flyers on the walls everywhere. You would be better off just having your 50 person party join one of the boats that already offer that. You can see many trolling up and down the Chaopraya already and some have phone numbers on the side. Also you can talk to any of the larger resorts and hotels along the river that offer this.

I'm not in Thailand and its a private function, so I can't just turn up on the off chance. Needs to be booked in advance. Thanks for the pointer though.

You can find various boat charters for this just by searching online.

I've been on one private cruise arranged with: www.sabaicruise.com

Some of the regular dinner cruises also offer the option of chartering the whole boat for exclusive use. You could email/call any of the ones that look interesting and see if they're open to private charters (if it's not already mentioned on their websites).

Hi, yes by pure coincidence I was just looking at the site. The thing is that the boat would need to comfortably hold 50 people, and boat they provide with the package I had in mind can only accommodate 30. But if anyone has personal recommendations of something similar, then I'd be grateful to hear about it.

Thanks

Try these:

http://www.yokyor.co.th/cruise/boat4.html

I was recently looking at renting a boat, and came across their site

Thanks mate, will take a look.