All,
Will be in CM from Nov. 6-11 and need some advice between:
-Spending the entire time at the Yaang Come
or
-Spending a day at the YC and then transferring to the Baan Rai Lanna

My wife and I love exploring places of natural beauty and we were planning on doing hiking, rafting and elephant riding in addition to exploring some of the more impressive wats. The Baan Rai Lanna looks absolutely spectacular and the location appears to be more convenient for ourdoor activities. Also, we are not big shoppers.

Advice?

Are you likely to want to eat in a different place every night during your trip or will you be happy to eat at BRL most nights? That is probably the only downside of staying in BRL from what you have said. From YCV, you will certainly be able to go on tours etc into the countryside but at night will be able to eat at all the wonderful restaurants CM has to offer. If you stay at BRL, you will be well placed to partake in outdoor activities and will be located in an area of natural beauty and able to take trips to the wats. However you will be restricted in terms of choice of restaurants somewhat (from what I understand as to its location) without travelling by car to CM. I think someone stayed there recently who posted so perhaps they can comment on this aspect.

Personally I don't think I could be bothered to move hotels after just 1 night (first option). I think I would either split the time more evenly or choose one or the other.

Hope this helps
BB

good point on the food BB, can anyone else comment on the Baan Rai Lanna? tripadvisor reviews said that the food was good, how expensive is it?

I've stayed at the BRL and posted a review on tripadvisor as well. Food at the BRL is very good value in my opinion. I think the most expensive dish was about 100/120 bath. Massages were cheap: from 400 (classis thai massage one hour) to 700/800 bath (swedish or aromatherapy massage one hour and extra facial treatment like 30 minutes)or something like that. Better than Oasis and less expensive.

It's true, at the BRL you don't go out at night. You just enjoy the quitness of an evening in the jungle (with lots of candles). Diner is lovely at the rice barn at the BRL, but after three nights you would like to go out and have diner somewhere else. Therefore I would not recommend more than three night there, unless you really, really love the quitness. So from 6-11 november, combine the BRL with Chiang Mai city, the perfect combination in my opinion. Five days in Chiang May city would be to much for me, personally. I love to stay in cities but after a few days I also love to move on to a more quiet, more relaxed place like the BRL. The owner (Scott)can advice you on every outdoor exploring you wish to do.

So my advice: combine YC with BRL. If you need any more assistance, just ask.

dorendan,
thanks! that was pretty much exactly the advice i was looking for. i think we will spend the first two nights at the YC and then head out to BRL for total relaxtion. any other tips would be greatly appreciated!

after some thought and research, will be spending two nights at baan orapin then moving on to baan rai lanna.

I am sure you are going to enjoy! Do you want to go wild river rafting or just bamboo rafting? When we were at the BRL, it was to dry for the wild water rafting, but the owner (Scott) told us that we should defintely do this next time we come over. Also you can ask Scott to advice you on hiking in the BRL area. We also went to a waterfall near the BRL (like 15 minutes drive further north), very nice and cool, it was in a part of a national park and I noticed that there were possibilities fot hiking as well. Be sure to have a massage from Tiw, I liked the swedisch one the most, with a facial treatment afterwards. And one morning, do the little bike tour after breakfast, that Scott has drawn out for it's guests (you can lens his mountainbikes). Easy to do, impossible to get lost and only 40 minutes. Be sure to give my best to Scott, Lorna, Tiw, het daughter Kate and the rest of the very nice local staff!

Of course you should know my name for giving my best to the BRL staff: tel them Dorenda and Gerard from Holland say hi!

we love hiking (the waterfalls sound great) and i think my wife wants to do some sort of rafting as well. massages are a must. very much looking forward to it and will certainly pass on your best. if you can think of any other advice, would definitely appreciate it.