Ping Nakara Hotel Review

Ping Nakara Hotel Review:

You may remember my post about elephant tourism where I included a little intro to the Ping Nakara Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Well, I was definitely holding back because I LOVE this hotel. So, here is my Ping Nakara Hotel Review.

First of all, I love boutique hotels because of their ability to provide excellent customer service. I also LOVE anything historic, vintage, retro, old, whatever you want to call it. And in the age of Instagram, my priority has been to blend what I love, and what is “instagramable”. This hotel, omg surpasses this times 100. The vintage 1970’s Mercedes car which retrieves you at the airport is a great start. Then, there are the colonial pillars, the all-white facade, the perfectly manicured landscaping, the aqua blue pool, the outdoor shower, and the ornate balconies. I could easily go on, and on, and on.

Jacques was surprised at my delight. He didn’t know how much I would obsess over every little detail of this property. I am still obsessed. There were enchanting touches as well that you can’t see in a photograph, like the smell of lemongrass when you approached the lobby from the second floor, the sound of birds chirping in the garden around the pool, or the serenity of the chess board or the tea room/ library… every detail was perfection. (they even provided a complimentary mosquito spray on property.)

The restaurant on site was really good and had an extensive menu. Also, the breakfast buffet was great! It sat next to the pool so the view was just gorgeous and oh-so picturesque.

Location:

On the river- near the Anantara Hotel. Many hotels are lovely in essence, but few of those are also close to the action. Well again, Ping Nakara hits the mark. Only a few short blocks away from the night market, we walked around and got a custom passport holder, a necklace with a vial encasing a single grain of rice with “Jacques” on one side and “Kier” on the other, and some hair ties because even though I brought like 15lbs of toiletries, somehow I forgot hair ties.

We also walked to Peak Spa and got fantastic massages and I got a blow out following my muddy river bath with the elephants! (Post coming next!) Peak Spa will also pick you up from Ping Nakara or wherever you’re staying which was a nice touch! We opted out of the ride home though so we could explore and stumbled into The Whole Earth for dinner which was SO GOOD. OMG, it was incredible! I Highly recommend eating here, everything was amazing and they had an extensive vegetarian selection as well.

Improvements:

Although almost everything was perfect there were a few things I should mention as I like to give honest reviews. Some of the staff’s English was not very good so it was hard to communicate any special requests or questions (I was trying to ask if they had bottled water in glass bottles since it’s not as bad for the environment… I ended up ordering and returning two types of water before they brought perrier in a glass bottle.) Although, their English was still better than my Thai lol.

I don’t know what they could do about it as the building is very old but the walls seemed a little thin as we could hear a lot of what our upstairs neighbors were doing. So, if you’re a light sleeper you may want to take that into consideration.

All in all, I loved this hotel and it was one of my favorites on our entire 8-hotel trip!

Thank you for reading!

Dress: Forever 21. Bag: Aldo. Earrings: Aldo.
Shades: Vinta. Swimsuit: Anne Cole.