Chiang Mai is full of hotels, as well as a very large number of guest houses. Most hotels used to be tourist class, clean and comfortable but not necessarily anything special. That has changed in recent years with the opening of several new five star properties, with apparently more on the way. Hotels are concentrated in two areas, one along the river and the other along the road leading to Suthep mountain.
Our favorite area to stay is around the Night Bazaar. As there are several hotels near the bazaar, it's easy to find one in your price range and there are a number of tourist services in the district. I've stayed at a lot of hotels in Chiang Mai over the years. See all of my Chiang Mai hotel reviews.
We've listed a few selected hotels below. For more hotels, you can compare rates from dozens of sites at Hotels Combined.
Location, Location, Location - Chiang Mai Hotels Near the Night Bazaar
The pool at the Anantara, with the spa and guest rooms behind.
As mentioned above, we prefer a hotel near the city's famous night bazaar. Even if you're not very interested in shopping, the area is full of restaurants and other entertainment venues, making it easy to make several pleasant evenings without having to navigate yourself to other parts of the city. Taxis tend to gather around the bazaar, so even if you do want to go someplace else, it's easy to find transportation.
There are hotels around the night bazaar in all price ranges. We've listed a few options below. At the top end the D2 is right in the middle of things, with it's urban chic extreme make-over of the old Chiang Inn. Joining the D2 is the Anantara (formerly The Chedi), a posh hotel on the river-side built around the old 1912 home of the British Counsel.
Cheaper options include the Pornping Tower, a very good tourist class hotel, and the Suriwongse Hotel right in the middle of the night market.
Thai Style -- Out of the Ordinary Chiang Mai Hotels
Chiang Mai was something of a pioneer in creating hotels that displayed traditional design ideals, while still incorporating all the modern conveniences that international travelers expect. Any of the following will definitely make your stay unique.
Chiang Mai Hotels to Pamper Yourself
Sometimes you just have to pull out all the stops and stay in a place where you can totally enjoy yourself. It wasn't long ago that there were very few options for places to stay that were a cut above tourist class, but now there are more and more hotels in the four and five star class available.
The Four Seasons Resort was among the first of the new high end resorts. It's located about 20 minutes outside of Chiang Mai, in a valley of rice fields backed by forested mountains. In 2004 it was joined by the Dhara Dhevi Hotel (formerly the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Hotel), which is slightly closer to town. There's no easy way to describe the Dhara Dhevi. It's a fantasy design incorporating the look of temples and palaces from several cultures and periods of Northern Thailand. Lastly, there's the only truly top-end hotel in the city proper, the Anantara (formerly The Chedi). The hotel is built around the 1912 residence of the British Counsel, now restored for use as the hotel's restaurant.
Special Hotel Features
There are places you won't find on the major hotel reservation sites. These include small guest houses within Chiang Mai as well as unique resorts in the countryside. Below are some of the places we've come across in our travels that we think you might want to know about.
West of the Ping River, near Wat Gate, is a beautiful bed and breakfast residence built around a 90 year old teak house. [Update November 2005:] Recent guests report that Baan Orapin just gets better. They've paved the courtyard and are even planning to add a pool. Everyone we've heard from has nothing but raves for the place.
Within the walls of the old city, near some of the city's largest old temples, is a guest house with a bit of a difference. Seven Suns is operated as a non-profit business to help fund vocational development and AIDS education among the disadvantaged of northern Thailand and Burma.
The new guest wing of Baan Orapin.
Near Wat Gate on Charoen Rat Road is a charming 90 year old teak house set in shady grounds that have been converted to a bed-and-breakfast styled residence. There are villas as well as large spacious rooms for rent. We checked out some of the rooms in the new residence and they are quite fantastic.
Rates are quite inexpensive for the quality of the rooms.
20 August 2007
The Buri Gallery House is a small (21 room) hotel built into a large old (50 years) wooden house. Carving even a large house into 21 rooms has resulted in something of a rabbit warren that may be confusing to guests without a good sense of direction, and even my deluxe room was not that big. The room had "wood" floors and walls, and a woven bamboo ceiling.
26 August 2006
Opened in February 2006, this small hotel near Chiang Mai's famous night bazaar has quickly gained a following among those who like distinctive places to stay. Comprising just 42 rooms in a low-rise complex, the hotel is just about five minutes walk from the night bazaar area. The hotel was built around a few giant old banyan trees, which gives the new hotel the feeling of a long-established village.
The ivy covered curing barns, now housing the guest rooms. The lush vine-covered corridor connecting the guest rooms. Located 29 kilometers from Chiang Mai, Kaomai Lanna Resort is probably not the place to stay for first time visitors to the north. However, if you're looking for some place unique to get away from it all, the resort may be exactly what you're looking for.
The resort's 36 rooms are built into old brick barns formerly used to cure tobacco.
20 July 2008
Manathai Village is a small hotel in the warren of narrow alleys between the night bazaar and the old city. The location is handy, and quiet at night, but the streets around it are quite a maze, so if you have a bad sense of direction, you might get lost trying to find your way back to the place on foot. Many taxis seem to know it, and the airport taxi guy seemed to know exactly where he was going.
26 August 2006
The Pornping Tower is one of the original Chiang Mai tourist hotels, one of a group of locally run hotels built a stone's throw from the night bazaar around 30 years ago. One of the problems typically encountered with locally run hotels is that they don't invest as much as they should in maintenance and upkeep. So, I was pleasantly surprised on a recent stay at the Pornping to find that it was still in reasonable shape.
26 August 2006
The hotel pool, with its jacuzzi in the middle. Tucked away in the narrow alleys east of the Ping River, the small Puripunn hotel proved quite a surprise. There are just 30 rooms, half of which are "ordinary" deluxe rooms. In addition to these, there are 10 "Puripunn Deluxe" rooms with huge bathrooms featuring large tubs and shower rooms. There's also one suite that has its own pool as well as a bathtub-jacuzzi built for two.
Here's a list of all the hotels that we've personally stayed at and written up in Chiang Mai. You can compare rates from dozens of reservation sites for hundreds of Chiang Mai hotels using the Hotels Combined search box on this page.
Baan Orapin (Guest house in Wat Gate area) Buri Gallery House Hotel ( within the Old City walls) Kaomai Lanna Resort ( well outside of town) Manathai Village Hotel (Seven Suns Guest House
Typical guest room of Seven Suns. Within the walls of the old city, near some of the city's largest old temples, is a guest house cum small hotel with a mission "to provide continuous high quality services and accommodation at our guest house, support our staff to be their best and seek opportunities to empower those not as fortunate as ourselves to obtain a better life."
Rooms are bright, clean and well appointed for a guest house.
July 2006
With just eight rooms, the Tri Yaan Na Ros (pronounced Tree Yah Na-rote) seems to fit the "boutique hotel" label perfectly. Inside and out, the property has been designed in the style of the late nineteenth century, when Chiang Mai was being 're-discovered' and re-populated after being emptied out by the Burmese for many years. Floors and most furniture are made of wood, with many accents from the local silver shops.
