The most family friendly hotel in Chiang Mai? Staying at the Shangri La CM with kids.
We figured that if we’d be dragging the kids around to temples and the old city in Chiang Mai that we should have somewhere fun to stay at and cool off at and this luxe hotel was so amazingly child friendly but not stupidly expensive as hotels go. Here are some things we loved about it;
The most family friendly hotel in Chiang Mai? Staying at the Shangri La CM with kids.
- We figured that if we’d be dragging the kids around to temples and the old city in Chiang Mai that we should have somewhere fun to stay at and cool off at and this luxe hotel was so amazingly child friendly but not stupidly expensive as hotels go. Here are some things we loved about it;
- At check in the kids instantly received a sweet fabric elephant key ring and a children’s passport to colour in. You can earn stamps for joining in the kids activities or dining {even breakfast counts} and then at 3 stamps you earn a cookie, 5 a smoothie from the pool bar & 8 ice cream! They loved this.
- There was a kids soft play room with craft activities twice a day. I’d say these were a little disappointing compared to what I’d seen on their website but they enjoyed them nonetheless and it was free so can’t complain. It was unclear on the childcare, it seemed you could drop them off without a parent for the hour of activities which we saw some people do but it didn’t seem very official/they didn’t get signed in or out properly or really supervised!
- The breakfast buffet was unreal. Almost everything you could wish for, all such high quality, locally made preserves, proper pork sausages - rare to find outside of the UK, sourdough, amazing Thai/Indian sections, a whole noodle soup station, even ice cream. We had such a feast every morning. It’s open from 6.30-10.30am. {and also we snuck a few bits out each day for the inevitable ‘I’m hungry’ cries about 30 mins after we leave no matter how much or little our kids eat!}
- It has the biggest pool in Chiang Mai, although it was on the cooler side for our kids and they ended up loving the smaller heated whirlpools more but we found it so refreshing! There was an outdoor wooden play area, kids splash zone & a big water slide.
- We loved coming back from a day of exploring to spend the rest of the afternoon in a cabana.
- The hotel will email to ask your bed configuration beforehand, we had a sofa bed, an extra bed and a cot and the kids rotated through a mix of all options ha. They also left a GIANT, literally life size cuddly teddy bear in the room at check in as a surprise which they adored and had Disney bedding & left sweet treats and kids bathroom amenities! So cute.
- It was located just a 10 minute walk to the night market but not super close to the old walled city so expect a bit of a walk or use a grab/tuk tuk/red truck to get around.
- There’s a gym which says it’s only open 8-8 but you can ask for 24 hour access if you sign a waiver.
- If you’re looking to book, book as a circle member to get extra perks & save money.
You can find the Shangri La Chiang Mai here.
I’ll share more about everything we got up to in Chiang Mai in a different post. We had 5 nights there but could have got away with 3 or 4.