60-acres property surrounded with lush greenery and intense traditional architecture. Great service from airport transfer to check out. This hotel has excellent Chinese, French and Thai restaurants and offers spa goers a serene oasis of relaxation. The kid’s club boasts a variety of recreational activities for kids, including paddy fields for buffalo riding and rice planting. Perfect place to relax, play and unwind.

Likes – sumptuous dining, fun program for kids and spa treatments fit for a king

Dislike - more a personal dislike than the fault of the hotel, the villas are built using Thai wood and hence create a dim atmosphere in the rooms.

Rooms – mostly 2-storey Villas with a few blocks of Colonial Suites. The Villa is like a village house, with its own living room, dining area, bedroom, bathroom and patio. Practical amenities such as shampoo, toothbrush, cotton bud etc as available in the rooms, so is bottled water for drinking.

Dining – Akalinga restaurant serves international cuisine and is the place for buffet breakfast. Standard American breakfast with a small selection of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Middle Eastern breakfast items. Some of the items are not served daily and the kitchen alternate dishes. There are 3 other restaurants: Farang Ses (French), Fujian (Chinese) and the Thai restaurant, serving authentic cuisine in exquisite décor. You must try the dim sum for lunch at the Chinese restaurant. Reasonably priced for the quality they serve.

Spa – if you have 3 hours (plus THB11k) to spare and willing to take 2 showers, go for the Lanna Ceremony treatment. The body scrub, jacuzzi, herbal steam, wrap and massage will leave you floating in heaven. All other shorter treatments are just as good but do go for the Thai massages. There is a resident Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) doctor available for consultation. And yes, the abhyanga massage is great too!

Kid’s Club – offers a variety of activities for kids between 4 to 9. They have a great rice planting activity that includes buffalo riding as well. The club houses many educational toys and a humble insect “farm”. If they had a playground, it would make the place more attractive to kids.

Service – no complaints but you will need to be more inquisitive if making travel arrangements at the Travel Desk. Some of the staff are not familiar with hire rates.

Overall, we would visit again!

Not to mention how they are above five-star standards, the architecture in Dhara Dhevi is what you could not find elsewhere. Join the cultural walking tour, and you will feel appreciation of those invaluable rare collections in this place.

If you can afford their rate, you must not miss this place. That's all I can say.

PS. Dont miss dinner at Farang-Ses, and the best (and yet so cheap) macaroon in Thailand at Oriental shop in Kad Dhara.

This place is just magical. Within minutes of arrival, we felt our heart rates began to slow down by the calming of sight and sound. The villa we had in our prior visit was not available, we were given Villa 11. We even like the layout better than the last one. We had the upstairs to ourselves. We asked for an extra bed for the kids downstairs. It was a bit cool during the time of visit, we made no use of the pool.

Despite being told that the hotel is 95% full during Chinese New Year, the complex did not feel like it. (Thought at breakfast time, it definitely showed). We rented bicycles, and the kids loved exploring the complex on their own early in the morning and at night.

Had my spa treatment as usual. The kids did Muy Thai (kick boxing) and some paper crafts. Our Villa backs up to where the Albino buffalo get fed daily while the carer play a traditional flute to it. My kids enjoyed running freely to see/ride it with permission each morning.

Love love the myriad options for breakfast. There were plenty healthy options to choose from. Most staff recognized us from the prior visit. We did not dine at the restaurants during this visit. Staff are charming and professional with arrangements for activities (in/out of hotel) and with restaurant suggestions and booking. Ms. Aritsara should be commended for her work with us.

We stayed for 5 amazing nights at the Dhara Dhevi Mandarin Oriental at the being of January.
We visited with our 3 Children 10, 12 and 16 and what magical experience for us all.
The Spa was like entering paradise, my 16 year old son and I had a wonderful massage.
Our 12 year old learn't to make yogurt at the Kids Club and them we were able to eat it the next morning at breakfast.
Our 10 year old had eventful stay, after collecting a push bike from the gym he proceeded to ride in to one of the moats, but was rescued in minutes by worried staff who dusted him off allocated him another bike, laundered his T-shirt [which appeared in our suite beautifully cleaned the next day] The 10 year old also caught a Gastro bug while visiting and one night he vomited every where, our Butler was amazing he cleaned up the mess, disinfected the area and all with a smile he was fantastic, while I attended to the child.
We were lucky the weather was amazing for January and the pool was our favourite area.
We were waited on by wonderful pool staff from the moment they saw us entering the area.
Our next stop was Phuket and our choice of hotel was a far cry from the WONDERFUL
Chiang Mia Mandarin Oriental.
What an amazing time we had in a interesting city and a wonderful hotel.
We cant wait to re visit SOON.