After landing in Chiang Mai, we got a taxi through the taxi desk at the airport. The ride to Le Meridien took about 20-25 minutes and took us directly through the Old City of Chiang Mai. The hotel sits right outside the Old City across a small river.

This is a continuation of the broader Thailand trip review.

You can find some earlier installments of the trip below:

• HK Airlines LAX – HKG – BKK
• HKG Autus Lounge
• St Regis Bangkok
• Gaggan (Asia’s top rated restaurant)
• Exploring and Activities – Bangkok
• Thai Airways – 777 for 40min flight
• Le Meridian Chiang Mai
• Elephant Sanctuary
• Exploring and Activities – Chiang Mai
• BKK Miracle Lounge
• Thai Smile and way home

Hotel and Check-in

The hotel has an impressive interior with two large elephant statures. It was also decorated for Christmas, as we were there in mid-December.

The check-in area is directly to the right when you walk in and otherwise the lobby has lots of seating spaces all around. We got to the hotel very early around 10:30am and not surprisingly our room wasn’t quite ready yet. Regular check in is at 3pm.

Since our room wasn’t ready yet, we were escorted to the lounge on the 21st floor and were offered to grab refreshments, while they expedited our room. They also offered to hold our luggage should we decide to head out into the city.

Room

We were assigned an Executive Suite on the 20th floor. Marriott has a benefit for Elite members called Suite Night Awards, which allow you to request an upgrade. In this case it was accepted and allowed us to enjoy the extra space.

The room consisted of a living room and a bedroom, as well as a walkway to the walk-in closet and bathroom. The bathroom had one humongous tub – we’re talking 5 people big.

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Overall the room couldn’t have been nicer with a good view of the local night market.

Spa, Gym and Pool

Our days were pretty packed and we wanted to try more local spas in town, so we didn’t use the spa at the hotel. The gym had everything you needed, but again we didn’t utilize it on our stay.

We did use the pool however. It was nicely set up overlooking the nearby mountains, however it was on the chilly side. I never spend more than 5 minutes in the water, but lounged by it instead after a morning of walking around the city.

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Breakfast

We always ate breakfast in the downstairs restaurant, instead of the lounge. The breakfast was buffet style with a omelette station. Selection was overall very good, but obviously couldn’t compete with the extravagance we had previously experienced at the St. Regis. It was still plentiful and met all our needs. Their strongest options were around their sweets and clearly I was in heaven with my sweet tooth.

The breakfast was always super busy. It seemed there were lots of tourist groups that took off on buses afterwards. That made things sometimes picked over and gave the staff a lot to do to keep up with demand. Some pics to give you a perspective below:

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Lounge

The lounge was located on the 21st floor, but could also be accessed through the 20th floor. You just then had to walk up a staircase to get to the actual lounge.

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Service

As we came to expect in Thailand, everyone was so friendly and accommodating. I mentioned the lounge while we were waiting for the room and the people in the lounge or at breakfast couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. The concierge also helped us out with a few recommendations around sightseeing, which was much appreciated.

Cost

We used Marriott points for our stay here. The cost was 35,000 points per night.

The cash rate for the time of our stay was at $185 per night. The rate for the upgraded room we received would have been close to $600.

Summary

The Le Meridien was a great hotel and central spot to explore the city. We truly loved the location and all their amenities. You also can’t beat a great breakfast and feeling you are in the middle of things. I would recommend this hotel to anyone staying in Chiang Mai.