Anantara Golden Triangle Resort & Spa
Chiang Rai, Thailand
Worth getting out of bed for
Room rates here include a visit to the Opium Museum, as well as one daily activity from your choice of visiting the elephant camp, going on the Three Country Tour, taking a cooking class or enjoying a spa treatment.
Time at the elephant camp is a must: have a mahout teach you how to handle the enormous beasties, go on a trek by the river or through the forest, rice fields and bamboo groves, join in with elephant bathing time or discover tips for surviving in the forest from the mahouts. The camp is designed like a traditional mahout hill village and sits right beside the resort.
We also recommend the Three Country Tour – a longtail boat trip on the Mekong River, which calls in at the ancient walled city of Chiang Saen and other villages, and a visit to the excellent Hall of Opium Museum across the road from the resort, which charts the history of the region's infamous drug trade. Once those are ticked off your list, enjoy northern Thai cooking classes, yoga, hiking, mountain biking, and trips to Doi Tung mountain, local villages, markets and temples.
After all that adventure, treat yourself to some well-deserved pampering at the Anantara Spa, which includes serene teak treatment rooms with private ensuite showers and steam rooms, plus soothing views of the Mekong River, verdant Burmese valleys and the hills of Laos. Enjoy an exotic fruit peel, a herbal soak in a terrazzo tub on your own terrace or a signature four-hand massage in an outdoor sala refreshed by cooling breezes. You can even sip ginger tea in an oversized swing.
Diary
February Chinese New Year usually falls in February and is widely celebrated. April Thai New Year and the annual Songkran water festival is held from 13 to 15 April. Expect to get very wet and most shops and businesses will close. November Loy Kratong one of Thailand’s most beautiful festivals. Held on the first full moon of the 12th lunar month, it celebrates the river goddess with small handmade boats (kratong), lit with candles, floated on all waterways. December The King’s Birthday on the 5th is a revered public holiday (it’s also the Thai father’s day) and usually ends with fireworks.
Current offers at Anantara Golden Triangle Resort & Spa
