Guest House Fit for Royalty?

After staying in a very nice, albeit excessive serviced apartment and a mid-range hotel for my first couple nights, I decided to stay in an older guesthouse.  Royal Guesthouse offered hostel style shared rooms for as little as 200 baht ($6USD) per night.  For anyone busy visiting temples and touring the local areas, during the day, and partying in a local bar at night, having anything other than a cheap room may be overkill and Royal Guest House definitely caters to this.

At this point in my life, sharing a $6 room is probably not going to happen but luckily for me Royal Guest House offers a few different types of rooms.  They offered a room with private bathroom and fan (no Air Conditioning) for 500 baht ($15USD) which is what I initially booked but I opted for a 750 baht room with a private bathroom, air conditioning and a balcony.

The room was a little bit stuffy at first coming from a giant serviced apartment but I quickly got used to it as I blasted the efficient but loud air conditioning and watched an interview on Larry King with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel.  The cable offered at Royal Guesthouse is noteworthy as there were tons of English speaking channels.  The bed was not the most comfortable and the bathroom was very basic but I have no major complaints.

View from Each Side of Royal Guest House Room 217

Location

Coincidentally Royal Guest House was located a couple blocks from the main gate (brick wall) just as the places I stayed at the previous two nights were.  It is kind of difficult to find as there is a narrow pathway under a bush covered overhang which leads to the front gate.  If you turn away from the moat road on 5 Kotchasarn Soi 4 pay close attention on the left hand side until you see the pathway which leads to Royal Guesthouse.  You can find more information on the Royal Guest House website.

Overall Impression

Royal Guesthouse is definitely not going to win any awards for luxury travel but it was adequate for the single traveler wants nothing more than a comfortable room to sleep in.  Royal Guest House also has a pool and a cool staff and “chilling out” area where you can meet fellow travelers over a cold beer.  If the circumstances were the same (traveling alone for sight seeing) I will probably choose Royal Guest House again simply because I like the idea of not paying for stuff that you don’t use in higher-end hotels and serviced apartments.

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