Welcome to Chiang Mai

By browsing hotel websites it is almost impossible to easily find out which is the best location to stay in a city for what you want.  Every hotel seems to claim to be centrally located so I turned to the Thaivisa forum and asked.  The first response I got was Montri hotel so without further ado I immediately booked a room at Montri Hotel and arranged an airport pick-up.

The pickup from the airport cost a ridiculously low 150 baht ($4.50) and included the guy holding the sign for you after baggage claim and a nice air conditioned ride into Chiang Mai.  Once I saw the brick wall, the gate and tons of tourists, I immediately got the impression I chose the right place.

Montri Hotel Location

You really can’t ask for a better location for a hotel in Chaing Mai than the exact spot the Montri sits on.  Montri sits next to the last renaming tiny portion of the ancient wall that used to surround Chiang Mai’s moat.  This happens to be the location of the very beginning of the huge Chaing Mai walking street fair.  For anyone in Chiang Mai on Sunday staying in Montri Hotel is a great shopping base and allows bargain hunters to store their buys in their hotel room while shopping for more.

There is a place which packages and ships off your buys if you don’t want to pack them in your luggage or simply want to ship them to your family and friends overseas.  They charge huge fees but for some (like me) the convenience factor was just too much to pass up to ship off some gifts for my family.

In addition to the Sunday walking market related places there is a HUGE 3 story Starbucks across the street as well as an Air Asia airline office, book store, pharmacy, a bunch of restaurants and bars and more.  There are also numerous places which rent out motorbikes and even cars within 20 meters of the Montri Hotel

Night View from Room 323 in Montri Hotel

Montri Hotel Amenities

Montri Hotel does not have a ton of extras such as swimming pool or fitness center.  The enormous lobby and restaurant are great places to relax in the midst of a day busy with tourism.  Montri Hotel’s convenient location was an amenity in itself but aside from that, a very fast and reliable wireless internet connection was complimentary with a night stay along with free breakfast.

As I mentioned before there were a bunch of bars and restaurants along the streets surrounding the Montri hotel but I never left the restaurant on the bottom floor of Montri Hotel which  is very nice, large and has good service to go along with.  Blix restaurant has a nice air conditioned indoor seating section as well another large mist cooled outdoor seating section.  I had the hamburger on two separate occasions along with the American breakfast which was complimentary with the room.

Blix Restaurant on Ground Floor of Montri Hotel

Overall Impression

For the price of almost 1000 baht per night ($30USD) which is a little higher because November-February is considered the high season Montri Hotel was worth it based on the location and restaurant alone.   Since the room was located right next to busy street surrounding the canal, traffic noise is audible (at least in room 323)  for almost the entire day and night even though the double pane windows help quiet the street noise.  The room was completely 100% adequate, clean, large enough but nothing spectacular.

The service was above average in the hotel and the restaurant.  Overall I would recommend Montri Hotel for anyone looking for a great location in Chiang Mai looking to spend around 1000 baht ($30USD) per night.

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