Sylvis Hostel Chiangmai

Would 100% recommend Sylvis Hostel, not only is it one of the cleanest hostels I’ve stayed in but it has a great atmosphere and good location in Chiang Mai. The staff are all lovely and the owner Bo made our trip! (we came back 3 times in one trip we loved it)

Sylvis is the best hostel in Chiang Mai and probably the best in Thailand. Ran by great people, super clean, good location and a good social life while not forcing you into organised fun every night like other hostels.

Back pain like I have NEVER known. I’ve slept on college dorm mattresses, broken couches and forest floors that were way more comfy than these beds. Out of 10+ years of staying in hostels these really were the worse beds I’ve ever slept in. It is literally like sleeping on a rock. If you sleep in any other position besides flat on your back you’re in a world of hurt. Unfortunately this really threw a wrench in my plans during my 3 days here, I couldn’t explore as much of the city, having transformed into old hag grimhilde (completely hunched over) from a terrible night sleep. Music stops consistently around 12:30 but it is a party hostel. It’s decently loud at night but I didn’t have an issue with that. The hostel doesn’t have much in the way of a kitchen so reheating meals/preparing anything other than a PB&J is a struggle (no plates/cutlery nothing). The staff seemed to be very preoccupied hanging out with each other, sometimes hard to get a hold of or to know who was actually working there but they were always friendly besides that. I went with the hostel for the lantern festival and it was a beautiful event regardless but the staff were very unorganized and frazzled. No one knew what they were doing re: lanterns and there was barely any instruction given. I know it must be hard to wrangle a group that big but this experience means a lot to people who travel to Thailand for it so some more care could have been put into it for sure. On one of the days I was there they had all the dorm doors wide open, it seemed to be they were fixing the AC units but it was way too easy for someone to creep into the rooms and steal stuff. Lockers don’t fit anything more than a 40L backpack (mine barely fit), and there was no small locker for valuables. Plus side: washrooms and showers were consistently clean! AC always worked in the room. Outlets always worked in the room!