Doi Suthep before the mist burns off. The week arranges itself after that.
Which elephant camps actually retired their chains. What a cooking class costs once the market basket is in it. Whether the White Temple is worth four hours in a minibus each way. Reviews of every tour you can book in Chiang Mai.
A mountain temple at sunrise, a feeding morning, a market basket, the road to the summit.
The four bookings a first week here is built around. What each costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01Before the heatDoi Suthep, Wat Umong, and Pha Lat Sunrise TourDoi Suthep and Wat Umong while the valley is still under cloud. The 306 steps are easier at six than at ten.
02The elephant dayElephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo RaftingA feeding morning north of the city, a waterfall and a bamboo raft down the Mae Taeng. The day people fly here for.
03Market, then wokHalf-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang MaiYou pick the basket at the farm before anyone lights a burner. Five dishes, and you will not finish them.
04The summit runDoi Inthanon National Park Eco-Friendly TourThailand’s highest road, two royal chedis and a cloud forest at the top. Take a fleece; it is genuinely cold.
Up the mountain, round the moat, or four hours north. Three temple days, and they are not interchangeable.
Chiang Mai has three hundred wats and you will see four of them properly. Which four depends entirely on which of these days you book. What it costs to board each one.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Doi Suthep and Wat Umong Enchanting Evening Tour
Up Doi SuthepSunrise on the mountain, the naga staircase, the valley under haze.
Wats inside the moatChedi Luang, Phra Singh, and the quiet teak ones between them.
North to the White TempleA long day to Chiang Rai for Wat Rong Khun and the blue one.
Monk chat and meditationAn hour of questions with a novice, or two days of silence.
All 219 temple days in Chiang Mai →
The days out more travellers book than anything else in the north.
Every Chiang Mai tour →What the city is actually known for, and what earns each of these their slot.
1
Half-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang Mai
Learn to cook Thai food from scratch at an organic farm near Chiang Mai, with a market visit, hotel transfers, and vegan options.
From · $29
Read our review →
2
Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo Rafting
from $60
3
Doi Inthanon National Park Eco-Friendly Tour
from $46
4
Elephant Sanctuary & Waterfall Group Tour
from $50
5
Chiang Rai Temples, Karen Tribe and Hot Springs
from $35
6
Cooking Class, Market & Thai Herbs Garden Tour
from $31
7
Authentic Cooking Class with Market & Farm Visit
from $34
8
Elephant Sanctuary Feeding Program Half-Day Tour
from $27
No riding, no hooks. The sanctuaries worth your morning are north of the city, and they fill.
There are more elephant camps within two hours of Chiang Mai than anywhere else in Thailand, and they are not the same place twice. The ones that earn the word sanctuary let the herd graze where it likes, hand you a basket of bananas and keep the chains in a display case. Most run a half-day feeding visit, and a full day that adds a river and a mud pit.
The roof of Thailand, and a waterfall you climb barefoot.
Doi Inthanon puts you at 2,565 metres with two royal chedis, a cloud forest on a boardwalk and air cold enough to want sleeves. An hour the other way, Bua Thong runs over limestone so grippy you walk up the falls without a rope. Both are full days from the old city, and both leave early.
Inside the moat: a walled mile with thirty wats in it.
Everything in the old city →
The Lanna kings laid out a square, dug a moat round it and filled the inside with teak and gilt. It is a mile on a side, the corners still have their brick bastions, and the best hour of any day here is spent walking it before the heat, from the broken stupa at Chedi Luang to the lanes behind Phra Singh.
Seven wats, three hours, one moat
The walk to do on your first morning, while the map is still meaningless. A guide is the difference between photographing a chedi and knowing why the elephants round its base are missing their heads.
The night markets, eaten properly
Chang Phuak gate after seven is stall after stall of khao soi, sai ua and cowboy-hat pork leg. A guide orders in Northern Thai, which is a different language from the menu, and knows which stall closes when it sells out.
Ringside at a stadium fight
Thapae and Kalare run cards most nights of the week, five or six fights building from teenagers to the main event. The wai khru dance before each bout is worth arriving early for.
Six ways to spend a day out of Chiang Mai.
A summit with a cloud forest on it, a herd that comes when you rattle a bucket, a wok and a market basket, limestone you climb barefoot, a minibus north to the white temple, and a raft poled down the Mae Taeng. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
You buy the basket first. That is the whole point of a Chiang Mai cooking class.
A morning class starts at Muang Mai or on a farm plot, naming galangal, holy basil and the small hot chillies, and ends with five dishes you cooked and cannot finish. Afternoon classes skip the market. Evening classes send you home with the curry paste you pounded yourself and an aching arm.
Every cooking class →
What a day out of Chiang Mai actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The north is the cheap end of Thailand and it shows: a lot of the best days here cost less than the taxi in from the airport does in most cities.
Walks inside the walls, the run up to Doi Suthep, cooking classes and a ringside seat at a stadium fight.
The full days: a sanctuary morning with a river attached, the Doi Inthanon summit road, the long haul north to Chiang Rai.
Private drivers for a whole day, multi-day runs up to Pai and the Golden Triangle, and the once-a-trip splurges.
Three things that only happen around Chiang Mai.
Gilded temples and good street food run the length of Thailand. A waterfall with grip, a novice monk who wants to practise his English on you, and dinner cross-legged at a low lacquer tray do not.
The Sticky Waterfall
An hour north of the city the Bua Thong falls run over a mineral crust laid down by the spring above them, and the rock grips a bare foot the way dry stone never does. People walk straight up the cascade, against the water, holding nothing. There are ropes bolted alongside and almost nobody uses them. Entry is free, the pools at the bottom are cold, and the only real hazard is the smooth green algae on the boulders at the edge.
- 1Elephant Sanctuary, Long Neck & Sticky Waterfall★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,262 reviews
- 2Sticky Waterfall & Angel Waterfall Park Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,371 reviews
- 3Bua Thong Sticky Waterfall & Huge Cave & Buffet★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,049 reviews
Monk Chat
At Wat Suan Dok and Wat Chedi Luang the novices set out tables in the late afternoon and sit there to practise their English. You can ask anything, and they will ask what your country is like and how much a motorbike costs there. It is not a performance and there is no charge. If an hour is not enough, the same temples run two-day retreats up the mountain where the whole point is that nobody speaks at all.
- 1Wat Phra That Doi Suthep spiritual Sunrise Tour with an Ex-monk★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 798 reviews
- 2Spiritual Sunrise Wat Doi Suthep, Pha Lat, Alms & Meditation★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 674 reviews
- 3Elephant Sanctuary, Monk Trail & Doi Suthep Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 563 reviews
The Khantoke Table
A khantoke is a low round lacquer tray, and northern dinner is what fits on one: sticky rice you roll in your fingers, hung lay curry with ginger and tamarind, sai ua sausage, a chilli dip and crisp pork skin. You sit cross-legged on cushions around it while the dancers work through the Lanna suites and then the hill-tribe ones. It is the only meal in Thailand served at ankle height on purpose.
- 1Khan Toke Traditional Meal & Dancing Performance★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 864 reviews
- 2Traditional Khantoke Dinner and Show from Chiang Mai★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 103 reviews
- 3Chiang Mai Traditional Khan Toke Meal & Cultural Performance★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 55 reviews
Four northern bookings that will not wait.
Most of Chiang Mai can be arranged over breakfast for the following morning. These four run on herd sizes, the number of woks in a kitchen, a mountain gate and one long road that leaves at first light.
- 01Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo RaftingThe good sanctuaries cap the morning at a dozen or so visitors, because the herd sets the number. In high season they go a fortnight out.
- 02Doi Inthanon National Park Eco-Friendly TourThe summit road runs through a national park with a gate, an entry fee and a cloud-forest boardwalk that shuts in bad weather. The minibuses leave the city before seven.
- 03Half-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang MaiA class is capped at the number of burners in the kitchen, usually eight or ten. The ones with their own farm plot fill first.
- 04Chiang Rai Temples, Karen Tribe and Hot SpringsChiang Rai is four hours each way. The day runs on one departure, at first light, and it goes without you.
February to April the valley fills with smoke. Plan the indoor half of the week.
After the rice harvest the fields north and west of the city are burned off, and because Chiang Mai sits in a bowl the smoke has nowhere to go until the first rains break it in May. On the worst mornings the mountain simply is not there. The answer is the one locals use: start early, then get under a roof. A kitchen, a massage table, a covered market, a workshop, a boxing ring.
By how long you have got
By kind of day — temple, herd, kitchen or mountain
Walls, mountain, herd, kitchen, then the long road north: how a first Chiang Mai week runs.
The old city
Elephant sanctuary
Doi InthanonThe newest Chiang Mai tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Chiang Rai Wonders: White, Blue & Red Temples and Hot Spring
Read our review →
Private Chiang Mai City Tour including Wat Doi Suthep, Wat Suan Dok (SHA Plus)
Read our review →
Chiang Rai White Temple Blue Temple and Hill Tribe Village Tour
Read our review →
Phoenix Zipline Adventure Park – Chiang Mai Thrills
Read our review →
Chiang Mai Mae Ping River Cruise and Thai Farmer House Visit
Read our review →
Private: 3 days 2 night trip: ChaingMai-Chaingrai- The Golden Triangle trip
Read our review →
Monk trails hike, Wat Phalat, Monk chanting, Wat Doi Suthep.
Read our review →
Chiang Mai Pai Full Day Sai Ngam Hot Spring, Pai Canyon, White Buddha, Santichon
Read our review →
Private Airport Transfer in Chiang Mai to/from Chiangmai Town
Read our review →
Full Day Thai Cooking Class in Organic Farm and Market
Read our review →
