Movenpick Suriwongse Hotel is a 4-star hotel located in downtown Chiang Mai offering 266 well-decorated rooms and suites. It was re-opened on 7 November 2017 after a revamp and rebranded from Suriwongse Hotel Chiang Mai (now under the Mövenpick hotel chain).
I read a lot on Trip Advisor whenever I’m searching for a hotel. This hotel has really mixed reviews, I guess mainly because it has two wings – one refurbished (new wing) and the other one not (old wing). Knowing that, I’ve specifically requested for a room in the refurbished wing in my booking.
There are two main reasons why we chose this hotel. Firstly, based on most travellers’ reviews, the hotel has a great LOCATION. Turned out, YES! It’s just right outside the night market. But don’t worry, there is no noise issues. Any activity you want to do in the city is only a short trip away. Almost all tours or day activities will do a free pick-up from this hotel – saves us lots of time and energy!
Secondly, most travellers also commented that the buffet breakfast is huge and plentiful (more on this later). Hotel’s breakfast service has always been one of our priorities, and so we were glad to shortlist this hotel for this reason. Price wise, this is a mid-range hotel that also fell within our budget. Considering that we’ll be out most of the day, we were not planning to stay in a luxury hotel.
Accommodation
We stayed 4 nights in a Deluxe Room with an average nightly rate of $160 (all-in with breakfast for 3 pax).
The Deluxe Room is 30 sqm in size, which is quite spacious. Available in King or Twin Beds configuration, the room can accommodate 2 adults + 1 child, or 3 adults. The room has an earthy tone with subtle Thai design elements.
There’s a sofa seating area, coffee and tea, mini fridge and bottled waters. The bathroom, however, is slightly smaller than expected. To my dismay, there was no bathtub even though their website clearly stated that bathtub is available for this room type.
When I asked the Front Desk about the bathtub, I was told that only the Deluxe Room in the old wing has a bathtub. Even though they offered to change the room for me, I politely declined as I didn’t want to stay in the old wing. Basic hotel toiletries were provided, except hair conditioner.
Dining Establishments
There are 4 dining establishments in this hotel. The main one is Fueng Fah Restaurant – an all-day dining venue that serves breakfast buffet, dim sum buffet in the afternoon and dinner buffet in the evening with huge seating capacity. You can find a wide variety of local fare and international favourites here.
Let me start with the buffet breakfast. Just one word – Superb! As most travellers reviewed on Trip Advisor, their buffet breakfast was huge and plentiful. The breakfast starts from 6am, which is good because some tours pick-up from as early as 7am.
The breakfast caters for everyone’s taste – be it Western or Asian. There’s also a small section offering Japanese food. Besides the standard breakfast fare such as eggs, sausages, bacons and cereals, they also have several live cooking stations that serve piping hot noodles and steam food items.
I particularly like the Thai-style fried noodles and vegetables, which I ate every morning. There’s also Chinese steam bun, porridge, fruits, salads, soya bean, fresh fruit juices and a toast section.
The buffet breakfast here is always a GREAT start of our day in Chiang Mai.
I’d also like to recommend their Dim Sum buffet that is served from 11:00am to 2:00pm – priced at just 299 Baht per person (that’s about S$12). There’s a lot of dim sum to choose from, including the yummy fish maw soup. Honestly, you can’t compare with Tim Ho Wan, but given the price and this is Thailand, I’m quite impressed with their Dim Sum buffet.
We also tried Le Bistrot & Le Terrace – the Italian restaurant specialises in communal dining and its hearty, trattoria-style. It serves Thai cuisines too. You can choose an indoor or outdoor seating that overlooks the busy Night Bazaar.
Besides your favourite pizzas and pastas, there are also a myriad of choices to enjoy with drinks and cocktails as well as light meals and snacks. Here are some of the food items that we tried at this restaurant, we really loved them.
At Sweet House, you will find sweet and tasty treats from the bakery to satisfy your sweet tooth. In-room dining is also available at 24-hour.
Hotel Facilities & Services
The hotel has an outdoor swimming pool and rooftop fitness center.
It provides airport transfer at 300 Baht. Knowing that the hotel is only 4.2km from Chiang Mai International Airport (just 10 mins away), we took the airport limousine instead. It costs us 150 Baht (airport to hotel) and 200 Baht (hotel to airport).
There’s a tour desk at the hotel lobby. You can conveniently book your tours here. I did a quick price comparison between the tours offered here and the tours we booked online. The prices were almost the same. The tour desk personnel speak fluent English too. The hotel also offers spa treatments, but I didn’t have time to try it out.
Around the Hotel
As I’ve mentioned above, location is the best advantage of this hotel. Around the corner from the hotel, there is a Big C supermarket, pharmacy and electronics mall (where you can pick up a SIM card if need be). There’s also a 7-11 convenient store a few walks away (less than 500m) – SIM card is also available there.
Restaurants of all kinds and prices (24h McD, Burger King, Hard Rock Café, etc) stretch in both directions, and you can easily walk to find something to suit your tastes if you don’t want to dine in the hotel.
Anusarn Night Market (opens daily from 6.30pm to 12 midnight), one of the largest Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai, is just across the street from the hotel. Lively and colourful, you can find local vendors selling virtually everything – clothing, shoes, lighting, music, handicrafts, gifts, and souvenirs. If you’re hungry, check out the many authentic and inexpensive Thai, Asian, Indian, and seafood options. Or rejuvenate with a traditional Thai massage or try a fish foot spa.
Laundry services are also available nearby if you don’t want your laundry to be done by the hotel. It’s very much cheaper too. We stumbled upon this shop across the road from the hotel that provides laundry service at just 30 Baht/kg (so cheap!).
From the front door of the hotel, you can easily catch low-cost transport like tuk-tuk to any places of interest around town. Honestly, I’d rate this hotel full marks in terms of location and convenience.
My Verdict
This hotel is just 10 mins drive away from Chiang Mai International Airport. It is also close to everything you need – you can quickly go around the corner food supplies, laundry, transport, etc. You’ll also enjoy night shopping at Night Bazaar every evening.
In terms of food, there is no lack of choices, be it in the hotel or outside the hotel. The buffet breakfast is huge and plentiful with both Asian and Western tastes well-catered.
The room size is good and spacious too. The only displeasure I had is the bathroom cleanliness, IMO it can certainly be better. Strength of English Language varies amongst the hotel staffs, but the Front Desk staffs are excellent. Overall, all the hotel staffs are friendly and helpful to us.
We would recommend this hotel for travellers who are looking for a perfectly located hotel with good value for money. Not recommended for luxury travellers though.
Example rates for a weekend stay in Feb 2018 (with breakfast, excluding taxes and service charge):
Superior Rooms from 4,007 Baht per night
Deluxe Rooms from 4,487 Baht per night
Executive Rooms from 6,972 Baht per night
Family Suites from 16,878 Baht per night
You can download a copy of our itinerary HERE.
Have you been to Chiang Mai? Which hotel did you stay? I’d love to hear from you too!
Mövenpick Suriwongse Hotel Chiang Mai
110 Changklan Road, Muang, Chiang Mai 50100, Thailand
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