Planning a holiday for the whole family this year? EL’s SHAMUS books a stay in a newish Bangkok hotel and also puts a Chiang Mai hotel to the test. Here are his tips on where to eat and what to do in Chiang Mai and Bangkok during your holiday with the fam!
Thailand – from city to mountains
My two daughters are well into their teens, and in the blink of an eye they’ll be heading off on holidays with groups of raucous friends rather than with their annoying parents.
I also know exactly where they’ll go on those holidays: to the beach. Whether it’s somewhere in their homeland Australia or a tropical spot in Southeast Asia, their destination will involve sea and sand. It’s in their DNA. With this in mind, my wife Gill and I decided our recent family holiday to Thailand would be beach free. Instead, we would dive into the glorious grimy chaos of Bangkok, then head up to the highland, to Chiang Mai.
It was a risk, but with the help of a fabulous Bangkok hotel and another great stay in a Chiang Mai hotel, both under the Spanish-owned Meliá group, I think we got away with it!
Bangkok hotel review
Opened just 18 months ago, INNSiDE by Meliá Bangkok Sukhumvit is located in the up-and-coming neighbourhood of On Nut, smack-bang on the BTS Skytrain for easy getting around. It’s a 34-storey tower with some eye-catching features, including a rooftop bar that opens up to an infinity pool with endless views of the Thai capital. For a different view, peer through the pool’s see-through bottom to LUZ, the hotel’s Spanish tapas bar, one floor below.
We were in a room category called The Townhouse, which included a living room between the bedrooms. It was ideal, and fitted-out with some modern, quirky touches. I liked the Marshall bluetooth speaker, which reminded me of my (distant) guitar-playing days; Gill loved the very generous couch in the living room that she could banish me to if required; and we all loved the free minibar, replenished daily.
All the eats
Aside from an absolute ripper of a breakfast each morning at The Kites restaurant – whose soaring windows take in more of those Bangkok views – we enjoyed two special dining experiences during our stay.
The first was at LUZ, where the Madrid-born Chef de Cuisine serves up winning plates of garlic prawns, Iberico ham, slow-cooked meats and a perfectly crispy paella. There are unconventional touches too – like a sublime dish of salmon in a mango-passionfruit dressing. It was our eldest daughter’s birthday on the night, which the staff acknowledged with a cake and a song. Earlier in the day, they’d left gold letter balloons on her bed, spelling out “Happy Birthday” – a nice touch, and more than her parents could muster. (Hey, we were on holidays!)
The second fab food experience at INNSiDE was a new offering at The Kites called a Pinto Lunch Set – four home style courses served in traditional Thai lunch boxes in pretty pastel shades. We fought over the last spoonfuls of grilled chicken in lemongrass and slow-cooked beef massaman curry, then made up over the coconut ice cream dessert.
What to do in Bangkok
You won’t need to eat much when you roll out of the Meliá, but if you do get peckish again, know that there’s a big open air food market that stretches along the footpath below the On Nut BTS station.
Having the Skytrain just a one-minute walk from this Bangkok hotel is absolute gold. We used the MRT-style transport to get everywhere from Jim Thompson House to the banks of the Chao Phraya. Neither of the two lines goes directly to the cities main temple and palace complexes, but you can get very close and then jump in a quick Grab.
We did exactly that. While Gill and I enjoyed the refresher course on Bangkok’s main attractions after a decade or so since our last visit, it was interesting to see our girls take in the sights, sounds and smells of this city of 10 million for the first time.
There was also a memorable pitstop (during an apocalyptic afternoon storm) at a Thai restaurant at Tah Tian Pier, run by a barefoot hippy carrying a cute old dog around in a backpack while taking orders. Once the floodwaters had drained from the streets, we hotfooted it back to INNSiDE for an early evening by the pool, watching Bangkok shift into night mode all around us.
A cycling adventure
Is Bangkok a good place to ride a bicycle? “Totally unsafe and not recommended” was one answer I found when researching this question online. It’s probably true – but not if you’re in the hands of Co van Kessel, an award-winning tour company whose five-hour bicycle and boat tour of the Thai capital we absolutely loved.
Starting early in the narrow alleyways of Yaowarat and Chinatown, and in the hands of two capable guides, we made our way down side streets and past small temples, before cycling over a bridge across the Chao Praya, and then transferring to a longtail boat to discover a different side of Bangkok – first, the fascinating canals with families going about their daily lives in houses on stilts, and then the unexpected lushness of coconut farms, which we cycled through in a complete and welcome silence.
The tour ended with a few delicious dishes and one or two questionably early Chang beers at a small canal-side restaurant run by a smiling family, before the boat took us back to Chinatown.
Chiang Mai hotel review
Chiang Mai, in Thailand’s far north, is a different beast from Bangkok. For one thing, it only took us 10 minutes to navigate our way out of the airport and another 10 to take a Grab to our accommodation. I’ve waited longer at a Bangkok traffic light.
If you include the surrounding mountains, Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second-biggest municipal population after the capital, with 1.2 million people. Yet the urban area itself is home to just 120,000 people. In the middle is the Old City, a square grid of streets surrounded by crumbling walls and a moat.
Meliá Chiang Mai opened in 2022. It lies east of the Old City, overlooking the River Ping and right next to a popular night bazaar.
Levelling up
We loved our stay at this Chiang Mai hotel. Our two elegantly designed rooms in the hotel’s club category, known as The Level, were enormous – an additional family could have slept back-to-back on the giant daybed stretching all the way along the windows.
We also had access to The Level’s executive lounge on the 21st floor, with panoramic views of the city and the mountains beyond, together with all kinds of complimentary daily offerings, culminating in cocktails from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. The latter included so many delicious canapés that it was hard to justify dinner afterwards, though we did nip upstairs to Mai The Sky Bar, Chiang Mai’s highest rooftop bar, for a nightcap.
Laan Na Kitchen, meanwhile, is this Chiang Mai hotel’s all-day dining restaurant. At breakfast, I quickly became friends with the fellow manning the noodle station, loving his take on the region’s famous khao soi – coconut curry soup with braised chicken. The other family members cited Meliá’s Spanish roots as an excuse to kick-start their day with freshly-made churros with chocolate sauce.
Good thing too, as it meant we all had plenty of fuel in the tank for exploring Chiang Mai each day. And you’ll need it – this place lends itself to lots of walking.
What to do in Chiang Mai
Start anywhere in the Old City and just potter about, and you’ll soon find a market, a boutique, a café, some street food or a striking temple to investigate.
We also set aside half a day for a memorable visit to an elephant sanctuary. There are many of these in the region – research them online first, as they’re not all held in the same regard. We were very happy with our pick. There was no direct interaction with the animals; instead, we observed them from different vantage points, marvelling at everything from their cheeky, playful natures to their gargantuan bowel movements.
Back at the Meliá, we settled in for some downtime around the pool. If our girls were younger, they’d have spent hours on the waterslide over at the kids-only section. Speaking of which, children are incredibly well catered for at this hotel – in fact, the kids’ club, called “Kidsdom”, is probably the biggest area I’ve seen dedicated to young guests at any hotel! Good luck dragging them away from that one…
We also loved the look of the YHI Spa, a classy and tranquil space that came highly recommended from an Expat Living colleague. Instead, we chose our last slot of time to try a new Thai-inspired afternoon tea at Mai Restaurant and Bar. (In case you hadn’t guessed, my family and I could eat for Australia.) It was presented on a vintage tea cabinet handcrafted at the nearby Baan Tawai Wood Carving Village, with pull-out drawers holding tasty morsels like spicy prawn salad, Thai tea macarons and black sesame scones with local mulberry jam. As our daughters polished off the last of the items and then sidled off for some more tanning time back at the pool, I got the sense that – for once – they weren’t pining for a beach!
A hiking adventure
Still thinking about what to do in Chiang Mai? It is awash with temples – more than 300, including a few dozen within the walls of the Old City alone. The most famous, though, is Wat Doi Suthep, which sits atop a jungle-swathed mountain at almost 1,700 metres above sea level. A stream of buses and songthaews (red pick-up trucks that serve as taxis) shuttles tourists up and down the hill all day.
I decided that, instead of joining all those vehicles, we would hike up to the temple through the jungle. And when I say “we”, I mean me and the two other family members who agreed to come along. The third said she’d been dragged up enough mountains by her husband to last a lifetime, and that she would instead explore Chiang Mai’s renowned silver jewellery shops.
As pretty as Doi Suthep is – highlights include a glistening gold stupa and a 306-step staircase sculpted like a mythical snake (Naga) – the best part of our three-hour expedition was stumbling upon hidden Wat Pha Lat halfway up the mountain (pictured, above). This old temple complex feels like it’s being swallowed by trees and gouged out by streams. It’s wonderful.
Note that this unguided hike is unpaved and quite steep in parts, especially the second half from Wat Pha Lat to Doi Suthep. To get to the starting point, take a Grab from anywhere in Chiang Mai to “Wat Pha Lat Hike – Monk’s Trail”.
Want to stay in the Bangkok hotel featured here? Find out more about INNSiDE by Meliá Bangkok Sukhumvit.
To book the Chiang Mai hotel and find out more about what to do in Chiang Mai during your stay, go to Meliá Chiang Mai.
This article first appeared in the Winter 2024/2025 issue of Expat Living magazine. Subscribe now so you never miss an issue.
