Will appreciate comments on the following hotels in terms of location, rooms and amenities. Thanks <BR> <BR>Le Meridien President, Bangkok <BR>Amity Green Hills Hotel, Chiang Mai <BR>Dusit Island Resort, Chiang Rai

Le Meridien is right at the heart of business and shopping area, well served by the elevated train system, easy to commute within the city. <BR>Dusit Chieng Rai is a bit out of town, but the brand name is good.

Nancy: Just stopped for lunch (I remember it was nice like a lot places in Thailand) at the Dusit Island Resort. From what I could see (not the rooms though), it looked very good to me. <BR>Enjoy!

I stayed at the Dusit Resort last year. The rooms were lovely and spacious. I wasn't impressed with their breakfast buffet but the meals and Chinese restaurant were fine.

We stayed at the Dusit Island Resort last July. It is the nicest place in Chiang Rai but as the above poster noted, it is a bit out of town. That didn't really matter to us as we used the Dusit as a base for a day tour of the "Golden Triangle" and a half day tour on a long tail boat that picked us up right at the hotel and took us up the river to a hill tribe village where we took a short elephant ride. Because we booked the tours at the hotel, they were quite expensive by Thai standards. However, we were the only ones on either tour. Our guide and driver were wonderful. We did not eat dinner at the hotel but did go into town and enjoyed a wonderful (and very inexpensive) meal at Cabbages and Condoms ("C&C"). Incidently, there are no tuk-tuks or taxis at the hotel. The only transportation into town is to hire a samlor (peddle vehicle). The hotel does have a shuttle to go back and forth to the airport.

We couldn't decide between the Dusit Island Resort and the Meridien. We chose the Meridien. Although it was wa out of town, it was absolutely delightful. We used the hotel as a base of operations for day trips to Laos and Myanmar as well as arranged for a car and driver to take us to a variety of sights - hilltribes, beautiful gardens, temples, etc. The restaurant in the hotel was reasonable and the food was delicious. The hotel and grounds were beautiful. I would imagine that by now there is alot more traffic and action in the area. When we were there is the summer of 1999 it was obvious that alot of new building in the area. This is the true "Golden Triangle" area and was worth staying so far away from town. Walk the river at night in town and share the experience with the locals who set up picnic type dinners, take the river ride, and sample the meat grilled at the street stands. This part of our two week trip to Thailand resulted in more "people" than "place" memories.

I have never stayed at Le Meridien, but it was highly recommended to me by a good friend who is a tour guide with Abercrombie & Kent, so I know he is familar with all the nice hotels. He didn't specify which Meridien, though. He has also recommended the Amari group hotels to me. Hope this helps you some.

There are two Meridien Hotels on the same site in Bangkok, the older Meridien President Hotel and the new luxurious Royal Meridien. The former is beginning to show signs of wear and tear and while perfectly comfortable is now the equivalent of 3-4 stars and is used a lot by mid-priced package tours. <BR> <BR>The site is quite well located, within easy access of shopping, entertainment and sightseeing places. It is adjacent to the Skytrain. <BR> <BR>For the older hotel you should be able to get a price heavily discounted from the rack rate.