I have to admit from the outset I normally stay at the Porn Ping Tower when I am in Chiang Mai, which is my favourite hotel in Chiang Mai.
Value for money
On this occasion, however, I was paying for 3 rooms (my Thai family came on holiday with me) so I had to be a bit more budget conscious.
The Galare Guest House, which is not far from the Porn Ping Tower, was excellent and very good value for money for indeed.
Riverside Location
The big selling point of this hotel is its riverside location. The hotel restaurant is riverside and in front of this is a small garden where you can eat and drink. At breakfast and later in the evening it’s a popular place to sit. As well as being riverside, it is also fairly central with the covered night market and the popular Chan Klang Road a two-minute walk away.
A 10 minute walk over the Nawarate Bridge takes you to the bars and restaurants of the Chiang Mai-Lamphun Road, of which we particularly recommend the Riverside Bar & Restaurant. The old town is farther way. It takes about 18 minutes to walk to the Tha Phae Gate marking the start of the old town and the popular Sunday Night Walking Market.
Personally I prefer to stay in the Riverside area rather than the Old Town. Other than the Sunday Night Walking Market, the nightlife and restaurants are better in the Riverside area. The Old Town is, I think, somewhere to visit in the daytime.
Rooms at the Galare Guest House
The rooms at the Galare Guest House are of a fair standard, particularly for the price. The rooms are clean, air-conditioned, have comfortable beds, and functional tiled en-suite bathrooms. The TV is small, but there is a fairly good range of foreign channels on the cable TV service and the free WiFi internet worked fine in my room.
They only appear to have one room type: ‘standard’. I rate the service as friendly and generally efficient. I had no problem when I stayed and the check-in and check-out was done without any delays.
Restaurant at the Galare Guest House
The restaurant has a simple menu and represents extremely good value for money. We ate breakfast there every day, which was pleasant on account of the riverside location.
The continental breakfasts which I had were satisfactory. My Thai family had Thai food every morning which they said was nice.
Happy Stay at the Galare Guest House
Overall, I was very happy with the Galare Guest House. I would stay there again. They do the basics well and for the location I think this is probably the best value for money place to stay. Talking to some of the other guests over breakfast it was apparent that a fairly high percentage of the patrons were return visitors who, unlike me, stayed there out of choice rather than budgetary constraints.