Veranda High Resort Chiang Mai - MGallery Collection

You're trading convenience for a view here, and I think that's the right trade. This is an MGallery property, Accor's design-led badge, which in practice means it looks and feels like a boutique place rather than a chain box, with local character worked into the architecture and interiors. It sits up on a hillside at Ban Pong, so the pool and the common areas look out over the valley instead of a parking lot.

Facilities are resort-scale rather than boutique-scale, with two restaurants, a bar, a spa, a gym, and the infinity pool that most people come for. The mood is unhurried. If you want to walk out of the lobby into the old town, this isn't your hotel. If you want somewhere to come back to at the end of a day of temples, it works well.