Makkha Health & Spa Chiang Mai (Ancient House) — Local services in Chiang Mai Province

Absolutely superb experience. Cherrie is a talented and experienced massage therapist. She turned me into a noodle. I did a body scrub, aromatherapy massage, and Thai herbal ball massage and it finally got rid of the accumulated 30 hours of airplane/airport + 60 miles of walking in a week + overnight train soreness I've been dealing with. I feel like I got all new muscles. I also fell in the street last night and skinned my knee to the high heavens. Cherrie was able to work around the bandages even during the body scrub, and put a hot compress over it during the herbal ball massage as well.

The spa itself is gorgeous. I chose Ancient House because of how pretty it is. There are koi in the pond outside for you to watch while they're prepping your service, or while you're eating mango sticky rice after. The entire staff, including the drivers, were kind and professional. The entire environment is very welcoming, despite the luxury environment.

There was an American dude throwing a hissy fit like a child in the lobby over this, so let me preempt y'all: if you have a medical condition, they are not allowed to provide a contraindicated service. It's a liability thing. Thai massage can be intense. It CAN injure you if you have existing conditions. Yanking on an arthritic joint because it temporarily feels better is bad for you - arthritis also inpacts the soft tissue around your joints. I would know, as I have arthritis in 60% of my joints. Hence, no Thai massage. So don't get mad at an excellent spa because they're actual professionals and not just chiro hacks. I got an amazing massage despite my arthritis because I didn't ask for...

In my 30+ years of getting spa treatments, I have never been more disappointed in a service. The girl that did my service (Indian Head Massage) had no clue what she was doing. Her technique was absolutely terrible. Her speed and pressure were so inconsistent and off. Complete waste of money and a complete waste of an hour of my vacation, not to mention the money this place charges. I could have had 5 massages somewhere else for the price of this one, with great technique. I couldn't wait for it to be over. As a matter of fact, I was actually going to end it early, but in consideration of my wife having the same treatment next to me, I chose not to leave the treatment room. They offered us to shower after our treatment with no towels in sight. So, of course, we skipped doing that as well. Shuttle pick up was late picking us up at our hotel and was non-existent to take us back to our hotel, so we ended up walking back to our hotel. Treatment started late as well. At the end of the day, the experience of the place is important but not nearly as important as the treatment itself. Note to Makkha, train your staff to live up to your name and price point. I wasn't even interested in discussing it with the manager because I was so done with this place. Find other cheaper places to go that have...

Great massage, but some details could be better

Booking was a bit frustrating, as my friend and I were trying to schedule separately for the same time. After a lot of back-and-forth messages, I was finally moved to the Ancient House location with her. Makkha has several facilities close to each other, which is convenient, but can make booking confusing.

The Ancient House itself was charming, and I was placed in a large room with several floor beds — though I was the only guest there. Unfortunately, the window was open and there was quite a bit of outside noise (possibly from a nearby school, at one point even a bullhorn), which made it hard to fully relax.

That said, the massage itself was wonderful. Afterwards, we were treated to a sticky rice dessert and tea, and they also sell some lovely products onsite. Overall, a solid experience — I’d recommend, though I suspect another one of their locations might offer a...