Thailand - Places to stay?

[kelley182]

We're going to Thailand later this year and are looking for recs on places to stay.

We'll be visiting Chaing Mi, Bangkok, Krabbi/Phi Phi Island. Any recs are greatly appreciated.

Advice on activities is also appreciated. We already have the Elephants on our list.

Thank you!

Edit: We're looking for places to stay that are under $150 per night. I've heard that's pretty easy to do in Thailand.

[mdgirl]

We stayed in the Navalai River Resort for the bulk of our time in Bangkok, and the Vie for our last night of the trip before our flight home. IMO the Navalai was perfect -- big, nice room right on the river at a ferry stop and near Khao San, and it was $90 a night. The Vie is a newer more modern hotel near the shopping area. It was nice to have a more luxe place after the beach, but I much preferred the Navalai.

In Chiang Mai we stayed at the 3 Sis Vacation Lodge and again I think it was absolutely perfect. Great central location and a nice room. We'd have breakfast outside in the morning and watch monks arrive to the temple across the street.

We didn't do anything with elephants, and honestly I'm pretty wary of any sort of animal experience for tourists in developing countries. This is a pretty good article about elephant trekking in Thailand.

I have a review of our trip in my blog, too, if you'd like to take a look.

[chicago]

I already responded with suggestions for where to stay on TN.

To spend time with elephants, we loved Patara. Pricey, but it was highly interactive (you have "your own" elephant for the day) and we felt that the elephants were treated well.

[definitelyO]

We stayed at the Sheraton Royal Orchid hotel in Bangkok (on Starwood points).

I would not recommend where we stayed in Chaing Mai - it was a "guest house" and it was cheap - but whoa. beds as hard as rocks, had to pay for toilet paper. don't do that.

we played Koh Samui by ear and just got lodging when we landed.

Have fun!!