Hotel Review – Chiang Dao Nest (and a little bit about Chiang Dao)
A beautiful spot with clean and modern bungalows – we had some of our best sleeps in Thailand here! Nights actually get cold here and we appreciated the shower (which generates very hot water at high pressure!) and the heavy blankets on the bed. No complaints at all about the bungalow.
Likewise, the whole infrastructure of Chiang Dao Nest is great; there’s an internet shack (with high speed internet!) and a very comfortable dining area. The grounds of the hotel are beautiful with a huge variety of exotic plants and flowers. Just gorgeous! The price is also very good (about $30/night).
2 things we didn’t like here: 1) We found Wicha, the owner, very rude. It started the minute we arrived and set the tone for the rest of the stay. I looked the hotel up on Trip Advisor and opinions vary – people either thought she was great or that she was really rude. My feeling is that it depends how she likes you, she’s obviously the queen of her kingdom and will treat you accordingly (very un-Thai, but everything about Wicha and Chiang Dao Nest in un-Thai). The following review made me smile because it was an exact mirror of our experience;
http://www.tripadvisor.ie/ShowUserReviews-g293917-d607620-r13957349-Chiang_Dao_Nest-Chiang_Mai.html I agree with him – she should manage the details but stay away from dealing with customers.
The 2nd thing that disappointed us was the Western food. For all the talk about how the Western Food is so great here, we found it very disappointing! If there had been a Thai restaurant nearby we would have eaten there. I would really recommend that Chiang Dao Nest have at least one Thai plate on their menu (Chiang Dao Nest 2 has a Thai menu but it’s pretty far down the road…)
I would give this place a 3 1/2 out of 5 – my 2 negatives aside, this would be a pretty perfect place!
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On Chiang Dao:
Chiang Dao is a lovely little town about and hour and a half north of Chiang Mai. We spent 2 days here; the first day we discovered the surrounding area including the Chiang Dao caves (quite remarkable, the cave complex actually goes 14 km into the mountain!) and the temple on Chiang Dao mountain (nice views!). The 2nd day was spent at the Elephant Nature Park (see next post). Chiang Dao is also a nice base for trekking activities. A beautiful spot!
Tags: Hotel reviews, Thailand
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