Benjakitti Park

Benjakitti Park sits beside the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre in Bangkok, built around a reservoir on land once occupied by a state tobacco factory. Entry is free, open daily 05:00-21:00, and since a 2022 expansion it connects on foot to Lumphini Park via an elevated walkway.

The cabinet ordered the tobacco factory relocated in 1991 to free up the site for a public park, and Queen Sirikit presided over its opening in 2004, timed to mark her sixtieth birthday. The original park covers the lake itself — roughly 14 hectares of water framed by jogging and cycling paths, pavilions, and a health park — with plantings chosen to keep something in flower through the year. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has managed it since 2008, after an initial period under the Treasury Department.

The 2022 addition, Benjakitti Forest Park, is the reason this park now draws crowds well beyond its original footprint. Built on former Tobacco Authority land behind the lake, it added roughly 1.6-1.7 kilometres of elevated skywalk that loops through treetop boardwalks and over constructed wetlands designed to manage stormwater — a “sponge city” approach to flood control that doubles as a nature trail. From the walkway you get open views across the wetlands to the Bangkok skyline, something the original lakeside park never had.

Insider Tip: Don’t stop at Benjakitti — the elevated Green Bridge continues straight into Lumphini Park, about 1.3 kilometres further, entirely above street level and shaded for most of the walk. Combining both parks makes for a proper morning outing rather than a quick loop.

Watch out: Weekday evenings and weekend mornings bring out serious numbers of runners and cyclists on the lake loop and skywalk — if you want the wetlands to yourself, go on a weekday before 07:00.

Bicycle rental points operate near the lake for anyone not up for the full walk, and the wide paths make this one of the easier central Bangkok parks to navigate with a stroller. Sunset is the busiest and most rewarding time to be on the skywalk, with the convention centre and downtown towers catching the last light over the wetlands.