Chiang Mai Itineraries

Day one is a walking day of about 4 km inside the moat. Wat Chiang Man is the oldest temple in the city and nearly empty first thing; Wat Chedi Luang’s ruined brick chedi is the one image everybody remembers, and its “monk chat” tables let you talk to novice monks most days from mid-morning. Wat Phra Singh, at the western end of Ratchadamnoen Road, holds the Phra Singh Buddha and the best Lanna murals in the city. Eat lunch at any of the shophouses around the temple, rest through the heat, and save your feet for the evening.

Day two goes up the mountain. Shared red trucks leave from the stand outside Chiang Mai University’s main gate on Huay Kaew Road and charge around 60 to 100 baht a person each way once the truck fills; a private truck for the round trip with an hour’s wait runs 500 to 800 baht. At the top, climb the 300-odd steps of the naga staircase or take the funicular, pay the small foreigner fee and cover your shoulders and knees. Bhubing Palace, the royal winter residence 4 km further up, has rose gardens open to visitors when the family is not in residence. Back in town, Wat U Mong is a 10-minute Grab from the university, and Nimman is five minutes beyond.

Cost: about 200 to 300 baht in temple fees, 300 to 500 baht in transport, 400 to 700 baht a day on food. Budget 1,500 baht ($45) a day with a hostel bed, 3,000 to 4,000 baht with a mid-range hotel.

Follow the two-day plan, then add a third day built around food.

Morning cooking classes run from about 9am to 2pm. The farm-based schools outside town drive you 30 minutes to an organic garden; the in-town schools walk you through a local market first. Either way you cook four to six dishes, including a curry paste pounded by hand, and eat everything, so skip lunch. In the afternoon, Wat Jet Yod’s seven-spired chedi and the National Museum’s Lanna galleries sit 1 km apart on the northern ring road and take two hours together.

Saturday evening belongs to Wualai, the old silversmiths’ quarter just south of Chiang Mai Gate. The walking street opens around 5pm and the silver temple, Wat Sri Suphan, is usually lit up after dark (the main hall is closed to women, as a sign at the door explains). If your third day is not a Saturday, the khantoke dinner is a set northern meal served on low rattan tables with Lanna dance, roughly 600 to 900 baht per person.

Cost: add 1,500 to 2,500 baht for day three including the class.

The Doi Inthanon day starts at 7am. The summit at 2,565 m is Thailand’s highest point and often 15 degrees colder than the city, so bring a fleece in the cool season. The park charges foreigners 300 baht, the twin chedis built for the late king and queen charge their own small fee, and the Kew Mae Pan nature trail along an open ridge is the highlight when it is open (roughly November to May, with a compulsory local guide). The drive is about 100 km each way, around two hours.

Chiang Rai is a bigger day: three hours each way by road for an hour each at Wat Rong Khun (the White Temple), Wat Rong Suea Ten (the Blue Temple) and the Black House. Tours run 12 to 14 hours. If you have the time, take the Green Bus from Arcade Bus Terminal 2 instead (about three hours, around 200 to 300 baht) and stay a night.

Thailand has around 3,000 captive elephants, and the tour desks of Chiang Mai sell dozens of “sanctuary” days. The word has no legal meaning, so judge each camp on what it lets you do. A genuinely welfare-led day is mostly observation: you walk with a small herd, watch them feed and bathe themselves, prepare food, and learn where each animal came from. Walk away from anything that offers riding (with or without a seat), shows, painting, tricks, chained elephants, baby elephants separated from their mothers, or bathing sessions with dozens of tourists splashing in at once.

Elephant Nature Park, founded by Sangduen “Lek” Chailert in the 1990s, is the best known and stopped bathing and close contact some years ago; it runs single-day visits, overnight stays and week-long volunteer programmes, and books out weeks ahead in the cool season. Ask any operator how many visitors join each group, whether the elephants are ever ridden at other times of the day, and where the money goes. Expect to pay 2,000 to 3,500 baht for a day that meets these standards; a 1,200-baht “sanctuary” is almost always cutting corners.

This route suits travellers who see Chiang Mai as a base rather than the destination. Spend day one in the Old City, then go out every day and come back to the same hotel.

• Day 2: Doi Suthep and Mae Sa. Wat Phra That Doi Suthep at opening time, then down the other side of the mountain to the Mae Sa valley for Mae Sa Waterfall’s ten tiers and the orchid farms. Private car, about 1,800 baht.
• Day 3: Doi Inthanon. As above, with a stop at a Karen weaving village. Continue to Mae Chaem for its handwoven skirts if you have a driver.
• Day 4: Chiang Rai. White Temple, Blue Temple, Black House; or overnight and add the Golden Triangle.
• Day 5: Lamphun and Wiang Kum Kam. Lamphun, 30 km south, has the gold chedi of Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, older than anything in Chiang Mai, and almost no tourists. Stop on the way back at Wiang Kum Kam, the excavated city that preceded Chiang Mai, toured by horse cart or bicycle.
• Day 6 (optional): Chiang Dao. Chiang Dao, 75 km north, has the Chiang Dao Cave (lantern guides wait at the entrance) under the limestone wall of Doi Chiang Dao, and stopping at the Bua Thong “sticky waterfall” on the way.

Allow 1,500 to 3,500 baht a day for transport depending on tour or private car. Doing four long road days in a row is tiring; put a lazy city day in the middle.

For a slower week, swap the long drives for craft villages, workshops and markets. East of the city, the old Handicraft Highway (Route 1006) runs out to San Kamphaeng: Bo Sang’s painted paper umbrella workshops, silk weavers and celadon kilns, an easy half-day by Grab or rented car. South-west, Ban Tawai in Hang Dong is a village of woodcarving shops where you can watch carvers and arrange shipping. Wualai Road’s silversmiths still hammer bowls in open-front workshops on weekday mornings.

Fill the rest of the week with a full-day cooking class, a Thai massage course (many schools teach five-day foundation courses), a batik or indigo-dyeing workshop, the Jing Jai farmers’ market on weekend mornings, and the Chiang Mai University Art Museum for contemporary northern art. Base yourself in Nimman or by the river at Wat Ket, and spend 1,500 to 3,000 baht a day plus workshop fees.

• First-timers: keep the three-day route and add a sanctuary day. Do not try to fit Chiang Rai and Doi Inthanon into the same trip as Pai.
• Families: the Chiang Mai Night Safari (tram tours after dark) and the Chiang Mai Zoo at the foot of Doi Suthep work well with children; the Sunday Walking Street is crowded with pushchairs, so go before 6pm.
• Smoky season (February to April): check the air-quality index each morning. On bad days, swap mountain views for museums, malls and cooking classes, and consider heading south to the islands instead.
• Rainy season (June to October): keep outdoor plans to the morning; waterfalls are at their best, Kew Mae Pan is closed and some mountain roads see landslides.
• Slow travellers: use Chiang Mai as a hub for a loop to Pai (three hours, 762 bends) and Mae Hong Son. The country-level routes are in our Thailand itineraries.
• Festivals: Yi Peng and Loy Krathong in November and Songkran in mid-April fill hotels months ahead and double some prices.