Review – Top Garden Guesthouse, Chiang Mai

The last of my reviews of the budget places I stayed at in my recent journey to Thailand and Myanmar, I returned to Thailand after 17 days in Myanmar and headed up to Chiang Mai, a place I felt at least had changed even more than Bangkok in some ways since my 1999 visit.

Not that I remembered the place a heck of a lot. Today it’s almost got a sort of steady order about the place. I originally thought I’d stay in the same place I did in 1999 as I thought it would be really interesting. I stayed at the ‘Rendevous guesthouse’, which proved to be a nice and quiet place to stay, clean enough and was only about $20 a night this time round. However, I was not alone, and I compromised with my wife who had a load of suggestions and we settled on ‘Top Garden Guesthouse’ instead.

Well, we were on to another winner, there’s no doubt. Run by a Canadian/Thai couple, Top Garden Guesthouse was just as nice as it looked on their website. So perhaps they should change the website because 9/10 hotels and guesthouses look WAY better on the website than when you finally get there!

This is the sort of place you can chat with the owners at any time of the day. They were incredibly friendly and helpful and at no point demanding you to book tours or anything through them (so that they can get the commission), just genuine people who want to share their Chiang Mai with you. There’s a lovely foyer area, drinks available from a fridge during the day, and the room we had was a double at 680 baht (around $30US) and it had a TV, air conditioning, a bar fridge and of course, wifi.

Rooms were cleaned daily and were very clean anyways. The only minus was the bathroom, which although clean was very small and the shower tended to make everything wet when in use. Otherwise, the room was just what was needed.

For any hints about where to go and how to get there, the owners were more than happy to oblige. And they also showed a little interest in their guests as well. They knew what tours were good and value for money as well. The location was close to the old city without being in the centre of it, a pretty decent location too along a smaller street. All in all – highly recommended. If we went back we’d have no hesitation in staying there!