Can anyone suggest a good hotel in Chiang Mai in the center of the city up to 2000 baht a night? We want to go next weekend for a shopping trip. had planned to stay at Tamarind Village but they are sold out.

There is nothing in the centre of the city in the same class as the Tamarind Village, you could try the Rydges by Tapae Gate or the Amari Rincome on the corner of Huay Kaew and Nimanhemin Roads.

Thank you for replying so promptly, Tangata. We will have a car and driver in Chiang Mai 9are sending one up from Bkk) so guess we will be ok being a bit off center. We wanted something with some local flvaour - which neither Rydges nor Amari has. Can you suggest something maybe a bit off center but with Tamarind type ambience?

I?m sorry; the trouble is that as I live here, I don?t use hotels or guesthouses. You might want to consider ?Paradise Resort and Spa? we use the restaurant occasionally and find it good and the chalets look OK. It is quite a long way out of town, further than the Four Seasons, (Regent) and by Bangkok standards, it will be cold overnight!

An alternative to that would be the Ban Sabai Spa and Village, see http://chiangmai-travel.org/hotels/cnxbsa.htm My wife uses their Spa in town and is very satisfied with it. It is about 5 km out of town.

I don?t know the Riverview Lodge or the Palm Springs Lodge, I presume you have found http://www.hotelthailand.com/chiangmai/palm/

Tanagat is the expert, living there, but if you plan on next weekend I think you will have to settle for what's available. This link gets you to a Sawadee site and as they are Thailand based you should get an answer Sunday, try it, you might get lucky.

http://www.r24.org/huahin.20m.com/chiangmai/hotels/

I will take Tangata up on the beer later in Jan. We are off to Pattaya for Christmas and then Hua hin for NY.

Have a good Festive season everyone!