Can you recommend a resort within a couple hours of Chiang Mai in the mountains? My goals are...

1. Get out of the smog and away from work

2. Read, Relax, & do basically nothing for a couple days

3. Swim in a pool

I've seen about every tourist location there is to see and just want a place to relax. Doesn't need to be fancy at all. Thanks for the ideas!

On the lower end I can recommend the Pairadise Guesthouse in Pai www.pairadise.com for about 600 THB. Nice swimming lake.

On the high end there is veranda resort chiang mai, very expensive but only a 5 min drive from night safari direction samoeng and lots of pools http://www.verandaresortandspa.com/chiangmai/ about 6000 THB.

Both won't take you out of the smog though, because for that you have to be over 1000m in the mountains or south of nakhon sawan.

On the lower end I can recommend the Pairadise Guesthouse in Pai www.pairadise.com for about 600 THB. Nice swimming lake.

On the high end there is veranda resort chiang mai, very expensive but only a 5 min drive from night safari direction samoeng and lots of pools http://www.verandaresortandspa.com/chiangmai/ about 6000 THB.

Both won't take you out of the smog though, because for that you have to be over 1000m in the mountains or south of nakhon sawan.

Ha! Good point. Thanks for the ideas.

Bit further out, basic but quite and cheap with lots of interesting caves www.cavelodge.com

For total away from it all peace with good European or Thai food try The Nest 1&2 , Chiang Dao. In Pai I like Pai River Corner because it is close to everything in town, beside the river -with a nice outdoor bar- & with a pool. The food is not bad either but The Nest food is better. Neither place will break the bank and is easy to get to.

Much closer to chiang mai is the lanna resort on the samoeng road (from the outer ring road) where there are loads of resorts. This is my favourite of many i've been too, and has a swimming pool. The bungalows are on stilts and very rustic and lanna style! It has a large lawn area, and then towards the back has its pool and loads of flowers and trees. It is surrounded by mountains. Not one of the tourist visited ones, and it could well be very relaxing indeed. It has never once been noisy when i go there for lunch or breakfast. It also has a stream running round its perimeter. You can also do lots of walking. The food has never been anything less than really tasty, and that's over the eight years i've been visiting it.

For me, it's one of the best places to just chill, and i've never once stayed a night there!

On the lower end I can recommend the Pairadise Guesthouse in Pai www.pairadise.com for about 600 THB. Nice swimming lake.

I don't want to be negative, but that is a man made lake and I would be very hesitant to swim in it.

It is a hybrid between swimming pool and lake. They use tiles and walls in the middle (but under the surface) but outside the pool area it has a shore like a lake.

The water is very clean, I think they use limestone for nutrient retention and prevent growing algae that way.

I'm usually used to european mountain lakes and would never go into water like huay tung tao, ping river or even the moat. But the pairadise swimming lake is ok for me. At least it was some years ago when I was there last time.