Botanic Resort, Chiang Mai

Hotel's Picture is good and peaceful in the day times and website, But the hotel is too far from town and in the night time, the surrounding scenery is so scary, quiet and too dark. Reception Staff's good performance. My children and wife didn't accept to stay in this hotel anymore because of scary night time there.

This hotel appears to cater exclusively to the native tour bus circuit and corporate meetings, and the place seems completely designed and programmed for just such groups and little more. The staff was cheerful and tried to be helpful, however, with only a couple of exceptions, even if they seemed somewhat confused and unsure about how to handle individual foreign guests. Even though my daughter has lived in Thailand and speaks some Thai, most of the staff apparently could not understand our requests and sometimes misled us badly, such as denying that wireless internet service was available, thus charging us to use their computer in the lobby, although we had toted our laptop and been assured that we could do business while there (in fact, they have WiFi but did not share with us). Only beer was available in the restaurant, as both the lobby and pool bars were completely bare and looked as if not in use for some time. The room was really musty and smelly, really bad for allergy sufferers. The shower had very low pressure and limited warm water, never mind hot. Even though the hotel seemed almost completely empty, our room was located on the far, back perimeter of the property with our windows a few feet from an employee parking area on the service road where the staff congregated to smoke and socialize and store the garbage, so not quiet or relaxing and no view whatsoever. Either due to the outdated construction, lack of insulation or both, every tiny sound was magnified, both from outside and in the hall, which was not conducive to a restful visit as we were awakened when a vehicle drove up the service road or someone simply walked down the long, bare hall. The restaurant staff was sparse and not very attentive, seeming confused, again as if they are not equipped or prepared for individual guests. The food we ordered tasted fine, but the menu selection was not very accommodating to healthy or individual diets, so vegetarians should beware.

Very secluded from the hustle and bustle of city life - great for honeymooners ! If your stay is rather long and you want a bit of an adventure, there are lots of activities nearby the resort to enjoy; Tiger Kingdom, monkey school, snake farm, X-centre (my fav), elephant camp, visit to tribal villages are some of the things you can do.