We arrive at evening by rental car and asked for a vacant room. The reception say 3000 baht for one night. We went to look at the room, and no view, and no particular good room. We say goodbye and went to a hotel near the city of Mae Chan 600 bht, and good too.
Geir and Jee

This hotel is really for Thai folks and some adventurous europeans. We did not meet any Americans here. In an effort to support local craftspeople, many of the room's appointments and accessories are handmade. Even the bags for feminine products were of handmade paper! The view over the valley was tremendous and the food was fresh and offered lots of vegetables which is something we did not get elsewhere in Thailand (surprised us). Don't miss the museum tribute to the King's mother. It is beautifully done. What an inspiration she should be to us all..... seems she singlehandedly curtailed the opium trade.

Stayed at this hotel (also known as Baan Ton Nam 31) in September 2009 during the rainy season. My room was in the building behind the one shown on the hotel website so I didn't really get much of a view which didn't matter really because most of the time the clouds, mist and rain sent visibility down to about 100 meters.
My room #339 came with TV (CNN, BBC World News, HBO Movies, Star Movies), mini bar with a limited selection, comfortable bed, A/C, wardrobe, ensuite bathroom with power shower and a balcony. The hotel is at the bottom of a VERY steep hill which is bad enough to walk down let alone walk up! A shuttle mini bus took me up the 1/4 mile hill to the public restaurant where breakfast and dinner were served. The food here was OK and had to do as there was nowhere else to eat.
The airport transfer is quite expensive - one way was 1500B (about £30). Apart from the Royal Villa (basically an empty Swiss style chalet) and the Mae Fah Luang Gardens, there isn't much else to do, especially in the rainy season. The border town of Mae Sai is about a 30 minute drive away and another 20minutes gets you to the Golden Triangle.

We stayed here for our second night as part of a fantastic trip organised through the Doi Tung Development Project that I found on their website. Our room was nice and had a great view from the balcony, we couldn't get the water hot enough in the shower though. Breakfast was served at the lodge and the food was just adequate but the evening meal was served at a restaurant up the hill where the spread they gave us was huge. The property is located very near the Royal Villa, Mae Fah Luang Garden and Princess Mother Commemorative Hall, high in the mountains with stunning views. Many of the attractions up here are impossible to reach in a full sized coach so you get few westerners and most visitors are Thai families, we were woken quite early by the children playing outside on the lawn. Throughout our tour we were privately escorted in a mini bus and we really enjoyed it. The Doi Tung Project is a royal initiative that helps local villagers into legitimate trades when they would have previous only had opium production to rely on. I would highly recommend this tour, just don't expect the lodges you stay in to have all of the facilities of a hotel.