CHIANG MAI · THAILAND
Temples, elephants and the mountains of the north.
Cooking classes and the Old City moat, ethical elephant valleys, Doi Suthep’s golden chedi and the long road up Doi Inthanon. Chiang Rai’s temples, jungle treks and the night markets after dark.
Unmistakably the north
What the north keeps for itself.
Beaches and full-moon parties are the south’s. Up here it is the elephant valleys, seven hundred years of Lanna temples, and the kitchen that gave the world khao soi.
No riding, ever
The Elephant Valleys
Chiang Mai is where elephant tourism grew up. In the Mae Taeng and Mae Wang valleys the camps swapped saddles for feeding baskets, and the better ones have dropped bathing too. A day is spent preparing food, walking the herd through the forest and watching them be elephants. Riding is off the table.
- 1 Chiang Mai: Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo Rafting
- 2 Chiang Mai: Elephant Sanctuary & Waterfall Group Tour
- 3 Chiang Mai: Elephant Sanctuary Feeding Program Half-Day Tour
Seven centuries of Lanna
The Walled Old City
For seven hundred years Chiang Mai was the Lanna capital, and its square moat still holds more than thirty temples inside the old walls. The gilded chedi of Wat Phra Singh, the great ruined brick stupa of Wat Chedi Luang, teak prayer halls and saffron-robed novices, all within a morning on foot.
- 1 Chiang Mai: Historic Temples and City Guided Walking Tour
- 2 Chiang Mai: Historic Old City Bike Tour – Morning or Night
- 3 Chiang Mai: Temple And City Walking Tour Part I
The northern kitchen
Khao Soi From Scratch
Northern Thai food is its own thing: khao soi curry noodles, sai ua herb sausage, nam prik and sticky rice. The classes start at a market stall picking herbs and end at your own wok, and they are the single most-booked thing travellers do in the city.
- 1 Half-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang Mai
- 2 Chiang Mai: Cooking Class, Market & Thai Herbs Garden Tour
- 3 Chiang Mai: Authentic Cooking Class with Market & Farm Visit
Start with the standout
The single most popular day in Chiang Mai.
More travellers build their trip around this one than anything else in the north.
The classics
Chiang Mai's Most Popular Experiences
Cooking classes, the elephant valleys, the Doi Inthanon road and the Chiang Rai temples. The days most travellers come north for.
Where to begin
The days a Chiang Mai trip is built around.
Cooking classes, the elephant valleys, Doi Inthanon, the Chiang Rai temples, Doi Suthep and the jungle treks. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big decision
How to meet the elephants.
It is the day most people want to get right. The hills around Chiang Mai are full of elephant camps and they are not all the same. Three ways to spend it, by how hands-on you want to be and how the herd is cared for.
After dark
The city comes out at night.
When the heat drops, Chiang Mai sets up its markets. The Sunday Walking Street fills the Old City’s main road end to end, the Saturday street runs south of the moat, and the Night Bazaar trades every evening. Khao soi and grilled skewers, hill-tribe crafts, paper lanterns and live music until late.
Read the guide: the best Chiang Mai markets →Thailand’s rooftop
The road to the top of the country.
Ninety minutes south, the road climbs to 2,565 metres and the highest point in Thailand. Twin royal pagodas above the cloud line, the Pha Dok Siew trail through rice terraces and cloud forest, and waterfalls the whole way down. Pack a layer; it is genuinely cold up there.
See the Doi Inthanon tours →The mountain temple
Gold above the city since 1383.
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep sits on the mountain that shadows Chiang Mai, its golden chedi catching the first and last light of the day. Three hundred and six steps up the naga staircase, a relic said to have been carried here on the back of a white elephant, and on a clear morning the whole valley laid out below.
Doi Suthep temple tours →Chiang Rai
The temples that don’t look real.
Three hours north, an artist built Wat Rong Khun entirely in mirror-white plaster and glass, a temple that looks carved from ice. Down the road the Blue Temple glows sapphire and gold. A long day trip pairs them with the Golden Triangle and a hot spring on the way home.
- 1 Chiang Mai: Chiang Rai Temples, Karen Tribe and Hot Springs
- 2 Chiang Rai White Temple and Blue Temple Day Tour
- 3 Chiang Rai Temples: Private Tour from Chiang Mai
Into the hills
Jungle trails, waterfalls and bamboo rafts.
Past the last village the forest takes over. Guided treks climb to Karen and Hmong hill-tribe villages, cool off under hidden waterfalls, and float back down the Mae Taeng on a bamboo raft. A half-day gets you a taste; a two-day trek gets you a night in the hills.
See all 28 trekking tours →By place
The north, six ways.
The Old City for the temples and the moat. Doi Suthep for the mountain shrine. Doi Inthanon for the high park. Chiang Rai for the White Temple. Chiang Dao for the caves. Bua Tong for the waterfall you climb up.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
A cooking class if you want the market and the wok. A sanctuary if you came for the elephants. A temple walk, a jungle trek, a bike, a food crawl, the markets, or the river.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
Never been? Here is a first-timer’s long weekend that hits the north without a wasted hour.
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