Ellipse Boutique Phayao — Minimalist White-and-Wood Rooms and a Rock-Waterfall Garden in Quiet Ban Tom
Most of Phayao's accommodation falls into two camps: in-town hotels and lakeside resorts on Kwan Phayao. If you'd rather have a café-pretty design stay for a few thousand baht, look at Ellipse Boutique Phayao. It's a small 14-room resort in Tha Wang Thong, out in the Ban Tom area — a little removed from town and the lake in exchange for quiet. What guests mention most is the white-and-wood minimalist rooms that photograph well from every angle and the central garden built around an artificial rock waterfall and a koi pond. Worth noting: the resort picked up a Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice award despite being fairly new.
Ellipse Boutique Phayao is a small design-led resort that opened only a few years ago, with just 14 rooms arranged around a central garden in Tha Wang Thong, on the Ban Tom side of Phayao. The rooms run a clean white palette against pale wood, and the TV wall features a diamond-patterned woven-bamboo panel set in a teak frame — closer to craft work than a standard hotel fit-out. Each room has air conditioning, a small fridge, a kettle, a flat-screen TV, and a terrace looking onto the garden or the fields behind. Light-toned wood floors and sheer curtains mean the morning light comes in soft, which is part of why people keep reaching for a camera.
The real centrepiece here is the central garden. There's a tall artificial rock waterfall with water running down into a koi pond, and a winding brick path that threads past frangipani trees and mature plantings. In daylight the sun lands on clear water; in the evening the garden lighting gives it a warmer feel, and it's a pleasant loop to wander and photograph. One thing to flag up front: there is no swimming pool — the waterfall and koi pond are the visual centrepiece instead. Anyone arriving expecting to swim will need to recalibrate, but for quiet and good corners to sit in, the garden does its job.
One guest described it as "a room nicer than the price suggests, with a quiet waterfall garden to walk in at dawn — like sleeping inside a café," and barely any traffic noise.
Breakfast is served à la carte at the resort's café, which has a slatted-wood counter, woven-bamboo upper cabinets, and an espresso machine on the bar — it genuinely reads as a café rather than a hotel buffet line. The menu leans Thai, plated to order: rice bowls with a main, fresh-shrimp pad thai, neatly arranged with fresh greens. Several reviews note the food is made fresh and tastes good, not mass-catered. The upside of cooked-to-order is that dishes arrive hot; the trade-off is that when several rooms come down at once, you may wait a little. If you're a group, order with some time to spare.
The in-room bathrooms match the bedrooms in style: a dark stone vanity with a round vessel basin, a black-framed mirror, clean and simple. Hot water and basic toiletries are provided. On the shared side there's free on-site parking, which matters because you'll need to drive here, and free Wi-Fi throughout. To be straight about it, this is a small resort built for rest — there's no fitness room, no full spa, and pets aren't allowed. What you get instead is a good-looking room, a quiet garden, and privacy.
The location is in Ban Tom, roughly a 10-minute drive from central Phayao and the lake. Wat Tilok Aram out on Kwan Phayao and Wat Si Khom Kham (Phra Chao Ton Luang) are both around 3 km away by car. Right by the resort you'll find Wang Thong Farm and the freshwater fishery station within walking distance. The plus is the quiet and privacy; the minus is that there are no restaurants or convenience stores within walking range, so you'll need to drive out. If you're flying into Chiang Rai airport, it's about 90 minutes on a straightforward road.
On scores and price: Ellipse holds 9.3/10 from 81 Agoda reviews and earned a Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice for consistently strong feedback. Guests praise the clean rooms, the design, and the quiet above all. The caveats to know are the lack of a pool and the out-of-town setting that needs a car. Rates start around ฿900/night for a Standard room, which is genuinely good value for a room finished to this standard. In the cool season (November–January), when Phayao sees more visitors, prices climb and the 14 rooms fill quickly, so book ahead. The short version: if you're road-tripping northern Thailand and want a quiet, photogenic design stay in Phayao for a few thousand baht, Ellipse is hard to beat in this town.
Summary from Booking & Agoda
- ✓ Rooms genuinely good-looking and clean — white-and-wood photographs well
- ✓ Quiet and private, good for resting
- ✓ Rock-waterfall garden and koi pond are a nice space to wander
- ✓ Free on-site parking
- ! No swimming pool
- ! Out of town — no restaurants within walking distance
- ! Few rooms, so peak dates sell out fast
- ✓ Room nicer than the price suggests — minimalist white-and-wood
- ✓ À la carte breakfast cooked fresh and nicely plated
- ✓ Staff attentive and friendly
- ✓ Entry rate accessible for a design room
- ! No pool and no fitness room
- ! Really need your own car to be convenient
- ! Breakfast can be slow when busy
- 💡If you want to swim — there's no pool here, only the rock-waterfall garden and koi pond to walk around → for a pool, look at a lakeside resort like Naga Tara or M2 Waterside instead
- 💡If you don't have a car — the resort sits in Ban Tom outside town with no restaurants or shops within walking distance → arrange a ride-hail or rental and pick up some food before you check in
- 💡If you want the brightest, most photogenic room — request one whose terrace faces the garden or the fields behind for soft morning light → specify a garden-facing room at booking, as some face the internal path