Our Seven Homes in Chiang Mai

We spent about a month in Chiang Mai, as we wrote about in our last post. We ended up staying at seven different places in total, all of them giving us a different experience and a different view of the city.

When we were reading about the life of digital nomads here in the many many blog posts on the topic we found, it seemed that everyone was staying in a nice apartment here. But when we finally started searching for a place there weren’t that many available online. We were of course very late, trying to find a place for the high season, just couple of weeks before arrival. So many places were already booked. Another challenge was that most of the places we were interested in weren’t available for a month or less, or they would just cost too much with weekly pricing.

We could have recruited an agent to help us find an apartment like many others have done. But since staying for only a month, we dropped the idea and decided to stay at guesthouses and hotels instead. We could arrange everything by ourselves and this way we got to experience different places and areas, not being stuck in one for the whole time. It is also very early in our digital nomad lives, and we are still very excited about moving around and not feeling the need for a more permanent base.

These are the places we stayed at, listed in our order of preference:

Excellent value - Na Inn

Lovely place in very central, but still quiet location in old town, a block from the Sunday walking street. Huge room with a table for four, a sofa and a soft-chair. Comfortable beds, enough closet space, good wi-fi. Breakfast is just toast & jam, but the coffee is good (freshly-grounded beans). And you can get more wholesome breakfast from the B&B next door. Excellent value at 650Baht/night.

Trendy - Baiyoke Ciao

Apartment hotel on Nimmanhaemin road. Big room with attached kitchen (not really for cooking, but does have a micro and some utensils). Comfortable beds, small dining table, small balcony. Almost excellent wi-fi. Downstairs there’s a café and a restaurant (does also room service). Tons of restaurants, café’s and bars around. Students everywhere, which makes it very lively. More expensive than other places we stayed at, 1400Baht/night, w/o breakfast.

Homely - Jane’s House

Just outside of the northern edge of old town. Spacious & clean room. Good wifi. Very nice and helpful owner, homely atmosphere. Good breakfast included, although no choices offered. 800Baht/night.

Free bikes - Cool Guesthouse

Near North Gate in old-town. The rooms are quite small, but clean. There’s a safe and a nice tv (you can use skype through it!). No fridge though. There’s a café which serves tasty breakfast (only few choices). Good wi-fi. The small courtyard is nice and you can work/hang out at the attached café, even when they are not open. Bicycles are free for guests. This provides an excellent way to get around the old town, where the traffic is not so hectic. 890Baht/night when reserved through their website, w/o breakfast.

Mostly harmless - Fuengfa Place 

Quite basic but clean and spacious rooms. Ok wifi. Breakfast basic. In old town, near the west gate and a bit far from all the action. Across the street is a very comfy café-restaurant serving cheap tasty food and delicious fruit shakes. 900baht/night.

For the pool - Changpuak Hotel 

Stayed just for one night, cause almost everywhere else was full. They have an enjoyable pool area, and it was the main reason for choosing this hotel. Everything else was very average, and we wouldn’t recommend I for longer stays or working. But for a day at the pool, relaxing, reading and swimming, it serves fine. 850baht/night. (Breakfast not included, it’s 150baht/pp extra, not worth it).

Old and weary - Pornping Tower Hotel

Got a free night stay when booking for the Flight of the Gibbon adventure. They had also other hotels in the deal, but this one had space for us. No wonder why, since this “4-star” hotel has definitely seen better days. Lots of small insects in the room, a family of pigeons living on the unfinished balcony (interesting to watch, so could also be a plus?), everything old and weary. Not really recommended.

Antti and Mirje

We are Mirje and Antti, a 30+ digital nomad couple, entrepreneurs with restless feet and passion for experiencing the world. more »