Seeing as we are heading for July and with Christmas being around the corner I am looking to plan a week away from Chiang Mai between the 24 and 31 st December.

I am looking for any suggestions you may have and are prepared to share for a country lodge/hotel within 150 kms or so of the city.

We are a middle aged couple with no kids but enjoy walking, eating, drinking and taking it easy ( yes another fat expat!)

We could stretch the budget for a lovely, comfortable retreat so any ideas would be welcome!

 

Chang Dao. It's lovely for walking and has the cave to look in.

I stayed at Malees Nature Lovers, but there are plenty of other options.

You would need to have a car though, as very poor public transport and it is well off the highway- too far to walk.

 

Google Cave Lodge- lovely.

 

If you don't want to hire a car, Thaton is on the bus route and is nice rural countryside. I stayed at the Riverside resort- very nice.

However Thaton is far from Chiang Mai.

 

If you have a car, there is also a lake not far north of C M where you can stay on raft rooms. I wanted to do that, but didn't get the chance.

I would say that 150 km is not that far or difficult to investigate... you might find your best shopping to be done on one of the hotel cites and pick out a resort for yourself that looks nice... there are many small resorts in and around the CM area...