We chose Joy’s House due to its excellent ratings on tripadvisor and for the Children’s shelter the owners founded just up the road that provides a home, education and training to 45 underprivileged children from the hill tribe villages of Northern Thailand and Burma.

Address

114 Sanpeesue Village Mu9, 50300 Chiang Mai, Thailand

Dates stayed

7th October 2017 for six nights.

As it was officially the wet season the place was very quiet.  We find this a good time to travel as crowds and prices are down and the rain whilst heavy is short lived and usually falls during the night.

Price

31,600 Baht (1,295 AUD) for two people.  This included:

• 6 nights accommodation
• breakfast and lunch
• 5 day Thai massage course with a certificate
• 1 hour welcome massage
• 1 welcome dinner
• airport transfers
• free use of bikes

Location

Joy’s House is located about 15 km (a 20 minute drive) from the centre of Chiang Mai town however there is a free shuttle that runs from Joys House into town twice a day (10am and 6pm) whilst catching a taxi, tuk tuk or songthaew back will cost between about 200 and 400 Baht depending on the time of day and the taxi driver.  It does mean though that when you’re at Joy’s, there aren’t many options for meals other than eating at the House.  As our rate included breakfast and lunch anyway we found this wasn’t a problem.

Parking

Self parking is free.  It’s not secure or under cover but crime is low in Thailand.

Check-in/Check-out

I’m not sure there are strict rules about check-in and check-out as we were picked up from the train station at 7:30 in the morning and able to check in straight away.  We were even invited to eat breakfast there that day.

WiFi

WiFi is available for free in the rooms and elsewhere at Joy’s.

Room

The rooms at Joy’s are large and all are decorated differently.  There are a few different room types to choose from.  We were upgraded to a luxury room which contained a lounge room with sofas and a coffee table which the more basic rooms didn’t have.  It also had tea and coffee making facilities.  All rooms were airconditioned, had a TV, a mini fridge, bathroom and the usual toiletries.

Grounds

Joy’s House is surrounded by tropical gardens and you can’t help feeling anything but relaxed. A number of statues and ornaments add to the aesthetics.  An outdoor pool with comfortable seating provide the opportunity to cool off or just sit back and relax.  Joy’s House has a few resident dogs and cats which are very cute and entertaining to watch.  We managed to catch some hilarious footage of a couple of them.

Hotel Facilities

• spa centre
• massage courses
• yoga classes
• outdoor pool
• two outdoor undercover eating areas – one for breakfast, the other for lunch and dinner
• bikes to use free of charge

What’s nearby

As mentioned previously, Joy’s House is a bit out of the way but these are some of the things you can do and see without travelling too far:

• say hello to the children at the shelter just up the road and see how the place operates
• visit one or several of the markets in town
• visit one of the many beautiful wats
• get a massage from an ex inmate or blind person (we did both)
• ride in a tuk tuk and a songthaew
• eat mango sticky rice
• do a tour of the silk factory and maybe purchase an item or two to bring back home.  This was further away but worth the trip. We arranged for a staff member from Joy’s to take us there and bring us back.

Pros

• staff are very friendly and are happy to accommodate individual needs, unlike a larger chain
• excursions and day trips can be arranged with the staff
• large rooms that were clean and comfortable
• some of the profits go into helping children from the shelter
• on our last night a couple of the staff played guitar and sang to the guests as we were eating our dinner.  It was lots of fun and really added to the atmosphere.

Cons

• We were a little disappointed in the range of food at breakfast.  There were no Asian options until we asked a few days in when the staff introduced a tasty fried rice dish.
• Being located a bit far from town meant relying on shuttles and taxis to get to markets, shops and eateries.
• The welcome dinner was promoted as eating with the family but we were seated at a table by ourselves as were other guests and there didn’t appear to be any “family” dining.

Summary

We enjoyed our stay at Joy’s House.  The staff were very friendly and the place was nice and clean.  The rooms were large and although the selection wasn’t huge, it was nice to have breakfast and lunch included.  I just didn’t feel that close connectivity with the “family” as advertised.