Where to stay in Chiang Mai: the best areas and hotels

Chiang Mai began here in 1296, and the brick walls and moat that marked out the royal city still frame the neighbourhood. Inside is a tangle of quiet lanes hiding more than thirty temples, among them Wat Phra Singh and the vast ruined chedi of Wat Chedi Luang. On Sunday evenings the main street closes to traffic for the Walking Street market, the best in town.

Building heights are restricted, so hotels are low-rise and boutique in scale. The loveliest sits in walled gardens near Wat Phra Singh, built in the style of the Lanna golden age with its own collection of antiques. Others are small, design-led places a short walk from Wat Chedi Luang or the Three Kings Monument, with pools squeezed into courtyards. Nights are quiet; bars close early.

East of the old walls, between Tha Phae Gate and the river, is Chiang Mai's commercial centre. Every evening Chang Klan Road fills with stalls for the Night Bazaar: hill-tribe textiles, carved soap, elephant trousers and a great deal of street food. Warorot Market, where locals buy their sausage and dried fruit, is a few blocks north.

This is where the city's largest hotels are, which means proper swimming pools, spas and family rooms. One five-star is a minute's walk from the bazaar and twelve from Tha Phae Gate; another is set in lush gardens with the airport just two miles away; a third draws on Lanna design near the old city gate. Less charm than the Old City, more comfort, and you can walk to both.

The Ping River slides past the eastern edge of the centre, and its banks are where Chiang Mai's teak merchants and missionaries once built their houses. Many survive around Wat Ket, on the east bank, now turned into galleries, restaurants with terraces over the water and boutique shops. It is a leafy, unhurried quarter, a short walk or tuk-tuk from the Night Bazaar.

The hotels here are the pick of the city for couples. One is built around a colonial teak homestead from the late 1800s, with just 30 suites; another surrounds the old British consulate, now its restaurant, five minutes from the bazaar. Add spa resorts with riverside pools and you have the best case for staying outside the walls.

Nimmanhaemin Road and the numbered lanes off it are Chiang Mai's modern face: a grid of speciality coffee bars, galleries, boutiques, co-working spaces and rooftop bars, with the Maya mall at the top and the university just beyond. It is the favoured haunt of students, digital nomads and anyone who wants a cocktail after ten.

Hotels follow suit. Expect art on every floor, industrial-meets-Lanna design and rooftop pools, plus a small adults-only hideaway of 26 rooms. The Old City is ten minutes away by taxi, and the road up to the mountain temple of Doi Suthep starts here. Choose Nimman if you have been before, or simply prefer espresso to incense.

North of the city the road climbs into the Mae Rim valley, a green fold of rice fields, orchid farms, waterfalls and elephant sanctuaries. Higher still, around Mon Chaem in Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, the air turns cool enough for strawberries and morning mist.

The valley is home to Chiang Mai's most celebrated resort, a village of pavilions set among working rice terraces. Elsewhere there is a Japanese-style hot-spring hotel inside the national park, a jungle resort about an hour from the city where two rivers meet, with private pool bungalows, and simpler lodges with waterfall views. You will need a driver to get about. That is the trade for the peace.