Central Festival Chiang Mai

Central Festival is one of Chiang Mai's newest shopping centers and is also one largest and most impressive. The huge structure oval, dubbed "Lanna Futuristic", is situated on 70 acres of land to the north-east of the old city, just off the Highway Chiang Mai-Lampang. The six-storey building extends over 250,000 sqm of floor space with more than 300 stores and outlets selling the widest variety of goods such as local clothing, handicrafts, sport equipments, jewellery, books and fashion brands from all over the world. As most shopping centres in Thailand, you can also find sections of the mall dedicated to phones and electronic items, grocery stores and bank branches that stay open on the weekend. In addition to the wide range of stores, Central Festival Chiang Mai also houses a huge range of services, like hairdressers, massage parlours, beauty centres and pharmacies, as well as many entertainment, drinking and dining options, including a food court, plenty restaurants, a myriad of coffee shops and ice-cream parlours, a cinema complex and even an ice rink. Although the mall has a large section dedicated to local handicraft products and clothes, the majority of outlets at Central Festival are renowned brand name shops including Mango, Zara, Esprit, H&M, Uniqlo, Sephora, the North Face, Hush Puppies, Lacoste, Lee, and many more. The main anchor stores include: Central Department Store selling everything from perfumes, cosmetics, clothing, bags, shoes and fashion accessories; Tops Supermarket located on the ground floor where you can purchase both western and Thai products; PowerBuy where you will find electronic items like mobile phones, televisions, laptops, computers and accessories; SuperSports selling sports equipment and apparel; B2S is a Thai bookstore where you can find a large section of English books; and Major Cineplex located on the fifth floor which is a movie theatre with 10 screens, as well as an IMAX 3-D, which shows the latest blockbuster movies in both English and Thai. Another unique feature at Central Festival Chiang Mai is the ice-skating rink named Sub-zero Ice Skate located on the third floor. In addition to the food court and few restaurants on the first floor, including a Wine Connection branch, most of the eateries are on the fifth floor and most of these are Thai-Japanese fusion and Korean style BBQ. You can reach Central Festival with a red songthew or a tuk-tuk; a songthew ride will cost you around 40-60 baht per person from the old city, while a tuk-tuk ride costs about 150-200 baht. If you get there by scooter or car, there is a large parking lot in the basement floor. Since the shopping centre is a little away from the center of town, there is a free shuttle service that runs from the mall into the Nimman area dropping people at various locations as follows: Furama Hotel, Chiang Mai Orchid Hotel, Victoria Hotel, S17@Nimman, Hug Nimman, Kantary Hill Hotel, Yantarasri Resort, U Nimman Chiang Mai, Chang Noi Herb and Eastin Tan Hotel.Read More