Looking for a lovely, luxurious hotel in Chiang Mai--5 stars but not as crazy expensive as Four Seasons or anything like that. Thanks for sharing your experience!

I'm always rather mystified by gate1's posts. Obviously, this is a travel agent posting, but he/she seems to know little about the places he/she posts about. I thought this was an odd list of hotel recommendations, but a bit of an internet research turns up that these are three of the "top 4" listed by Trip Advisor in Chiang Mai.

Now, I'm always cautious about trips advisor's hotel recommendations. They do not differientiate among different types of accommodations, so basic guest houses, luxe 5 * resorts and moderately priced hotels are are in the same category. So often you get results that make no sense (think about ratings of apples, oranges, rocks and baseballs one to five stars rated by people using them for different things... what would it mean if rocks were the top rated?)

Anyway, of these three, two are located well outside of Chiang Mai (both Fern Resort and Secret Garden).

My recommendation in Chiang Mai is Yaang Come Village. It is in the city but not inside the city walls.

You can help us give you better recommendations by telling us how much you want to spend per night and whether you want to be in Chiang Mai our out in the countryside.

Non of the hotels suggested by gate1 is 5 stars or 5 stars like.

suep1 you've ask on another thread about the Ratilanna and that's a pretty good choice and a good luxury vs price hotel. Also try the Chedi and D2(recommend only their junior suites).

As Hanuaman has said, these other hotels aren't 5 star - however Yaang Come Village is very nice. You can look at their website and see what you think:
http://www.yaangcome.com/

Higher end hotels in the city are
Le Meridien
Chedi
Shangri La

Is Yaang Come Village, walking distance to much?

YCV is close to the Chedi hotel and about a 20 minutes walk to the night bazaar.

many thanks all. Just made a reservation at the Chedi-though we're not locked in. CAN NOT WAIT!

Thought I'd tack this on: someone just bought the Mo Rooms hotel to my attention. Just opened in July, there are only 12 rooms; one for each sign of the Chinese zodiac, and each done by a different designer. The web site is here:

http://www.morooms.com/

The site offers rooms at a 'discount' starting at 4,800 Baht, but Agoda has it for almost half that.

The location is on Tapae road, putting it conveniently between the night bazaar and the old city.

Wow. The only bed picture I see looks like a giant slab of concrete with a thin pad on top. Is that for real? Is this one of those "it's all about the look -- to hell with being comfortable" places?