The restaurant and breakfast are great. The rooms are spacious and clearly high quality for this sleepy town but just average on US standards. We were in a first floor room facing the back which was very dark. We also woke up to scurrying and found a mouse in our garbage pail. Probably the best choice in town but inspect your room and do not stay on the first floor.
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eDreams
Phrae is a bit off the beaten track, so one shouldn't expect to see the same high levels of sophistication as in BKK or Chiang Mai. The pace is slower here, but the people are nicer and the prices are cheaper. We found this hotel to be clean and comfortable, staffed by people who are kind and good hearted (ใจดีมาก). We stayed in two different rooms for our 2-night stay, and in both cases, the rooms were clean, in good condition (most hotel beds in Thailand are very firm), and had good amenities. The breakfast buffet, contrary to what some have said, was excellent, but may intimidate some people who aren't familiar with Thai breakfasts. Don't worry, just ask for guidance with the food, and you will be pleasantly surprised.
All of the staff were friendly and kind, and exemplified the very best in Thai customer service. We wanted to tour around the city and surrounding villages -- one of the best parts of Thai domestic tourism -- and the manager gave us a detailed overview of places to go, but never steered us toward any tourist traps. When I was having trouble with my in-room wifi, one extremely kind gentleman (Khun Roon) stopped what he was doing to reboot the wifi servers. Voila! Problem solved. To be honest, we were so charmed by the staff that we brought them back some food treats when we went to the night market/food stalls,
The garden area is nice for breakfast, and you could linger as long as you wanted without feeling hurried or crowded. But you need to beware of mosquitos if you hang out there in the evening.
Finally, one of the treats about Thai domestic tourism is seeing the attractions that one wouldn't find in large cities. The hotel helped us locate excellent silversmithing villages, the most famous place for the iconic "sua moh hom" shirts, and various temples and natural attractions.
If you come to Prae phoomthai garden is the best choice. Good location with traditional nothern Thai style (lanna). Friendly staff (can speak english but not fruent) comfortable room but not huge space (enough for 2 person). Not too crowded and resonable price. Must try phoomthai cocktail. This cocktail has good taste yellow color sweet and a little bit sour.
The Poom Thai garden Hotel is a nice quite small hotel out from the centre of town. The staff here are really pleasant and helpful. The lobby area which is open to the garden has fee WiFi and is a pleasant place to catch up on emails etc until dusk when anti mosquito lotion I found to be essential to try and prevent the little things using you as a drinks dispenser. The Thai food was quite good but the choice of refreshments was very limited with only a few of the listed items on the menu being available. The room was clean and comfortable and accessed via an elevator. Breakfast which was included in the price was buffet style and not particularly good with items like fried eggs being on the cold side. I enjoyed the hotel overall and would certainly go back.
The hotel is extremely well located, close to town, yet set back far enough from the road to be quiet and peaceful, The exterior is relatively new and particularly pleasing on the eye, the lobby/reception has the potential when completed of being extremely tasteful. The rooms are compact but fair to good, with decent, if a little worldly-worn furniture. The spacious balcony is nice and overlooks the well tended gardens. Bed was comfortable and I slept well.
The shower room is a minor negative, small and claustrophobic. The only real problem I had with The Phoom Thai Garden Hotel is the food: Man, it's inedible. I ordered a club sandwich, which purportedly came with french fries, What actually arrived was two slices of untoasted bread, the cheapest Thai sausage that 7/11 has to sell and a fried egg that I'm sure was left over from a breakfast sometime around the turn of the year, oh yeah and 78 liters of Mayonnaise. Substitute the french fries for several sorry slices of off-color melon and there we have my dinner. When I vented my feelings, the retort from the anorexic, effeminate member of staff was terse: "Sorry French fries finish", this was 7.15 pm, the slaughter by food mediocrity didn't commence until 7! My wife's noodles were equally dire by the way! Breakfast, now don't get me started! 14/20, and yes I would stay in the future, but there will be a heatwave in Siberia before I dine at this hotel again.
Note that this hotel is miles out of town. Also, I did not stay here.
I'm still not exactly sure what happened. I had emailed a reservation for a standard room at 800b for two nights (I had not noticed, but it was for a twin room). They showed me a twin room - I was travelling alone so I asked if they had a double room. They showed me a double room that looked EXACTLY the same as the twin room. and told me that I could only have it for one night. I said that was OK, and then they asked me for 1,300b - almost twice the price. They had a copy of my reservation email and were waving it at me.
It was all a bit weird if you ask me. However, for 800b I think the rooms were acceptable. There is renovation work being carried out on the ground floor (June 2012), so it should look shiny new.
