Chiang Mai, Thailand

The city of Chiang Mai is a great way to soak up all of the culture of Thailand, in a smaller city than Bangkok.

How to get there from Bankgok: You can take a train, bus or plane to Chiang Mai. However, train and bus will take much longer – and if you’re tight on those PTO days for this trip – fly! The flight was about 1 hour 15 minutes and around $40pp (they may vary in peak times).

Flight tip, in Asia in general: beware of the weight limits. They are NOT the same as international flights to Thailand, and we got royally screwed on all of our flights 🙂 We flew Thai Lion to Chiang Mai. They were THE WORST airline we flew. So rude and they didn’t budge at all on our bag overages. They just laughed at us and mocked our weight overages. I would try to fly Air Asia (which we flew 3 times to other Asia stops and they were lovely and a little more gracious about overages – aka charging us less), or another airline.

When you arrive, you’ll likely stay and play within the Old City “square” (shown below), with the exception of day trips. The whole square area is walk-able, and you’d be surprised how much there is to cover within it! Basically, temples. All the temples.

We stayed in East Old City at the Moondragon Hotel Chiangmai. It’s a small, but great, hotel with a price that’s hard to beat! The location offers free breakfast, a mango shop and café underneath it and the cutest pool hangs. The room was a good size for two people, for a couple nights!

*Pro tip: We use Booking.com for all of our travel accommodations, which is how we found Moondragon. I’ve found that they have the best prices and you can cancel most reservations 24 hours ahead. Most hotels also offer free breakfast through Booking.com, which is huge when traveling for a longer period of time and saving some money on meals, or grabbing snacks for a day of exploring! You can search this exact location, and those around it, at the Booking.com link at the bottom of this page!

In Chiang Mai there is tons to eat and see. Just leave your hotel and start exploring – you’re bound to hit lots of great places. We spent a full day with no direction – just turning by street when we felt like it. Though, you’ll want to make sure that you hit some of the big Chiang Mai temples. Some major ones are in the map below! Many of these locations have multiple temples, and many monks on “campus”. Tourists having a bite to eat and picking their brains about monk-life is a really common sight to see. Too cool!

(If this is your first time to Thailand, or Asia in general – check out our list of things to know when entering Asian culture here.)

Within the square there are also many great markets where you can find everything from handmade gifts to clothing and suitcases (we only know because we over packed and went in search of one 😊) ! Barter, barter, barter at these locations. They expect it. You can also check out the night market, if you’re here “in season” or on the weekend!

Additionally, on virtually every corner there is a massage parlor. They’re $10ish USD for an hour. Twist my arm, right?? It’s insane. We do recommend that you read the description as you walk up to the spa though. We had two during our Chiang Mai stay – the first one was a “traditional Thai massage” where they basically lay all over you (clothed) stretching you out like a toy. It was so hilarious and bizarre and QUITE the experience. The second was a true massage like we envisioned, but we should have read closer what they really were. Regardless, both were amazing and that price cannot be beat. Our only regret is not getting more!!

You’ll want to take a half day trip to Wat Phra That – Doi Suthep. It’s on the top of a mountain, above Chiang Mai. You take a long, winding road up to the top – about a 45 minute drive. If you get car sick, or motion sick, AT ALL, you’ll want to take measures to prepare yourself for this ride up. But it is so very worth it. We would recommend getting there when it opens because bus loads of people start to show up an hour after!

The best way to get there is by songthaew (red truck). The red truck drivers that stop to pick you up know Doi Suthep, and they will either give you a one way price, or our driver gave us a round trip price, and just told us what time to be back at the gates, and he would come back for us. I’m sure they tend to do this all day long, back and forth. But without a phone to call him on, I was weary he would come back (typical American girl trusting NO ONE). Though, he didn’t take payment when we got there, and clearly worked on a trust system that we wouldn’t leave without him. (Oh to trust people this much – refreshing!) Anyways, our driver returned on time, but if he had never returned there are lines of red trucks waiting at the entrance to bring people back down!

We arrived at Doi Suthep shortly after it opened, and it was magical. The place is so serene, especially in the early morning. We walked around the temples in silence, as the gold buildings glistened against the sun. Just incredible. There are a handful of temples at the top, and you could take 1-2 hours exploring them. You likely don’t need more than 2 hours, unless you plan to really take your time, and eat at the cafe at the top.

Beyond exploring the culture and all the amazing food – it’s likely that one of the big reasons you headed to Chiang Mai was to see elephants. There are a couple elephant experiences in local Chiang Mai, but please please please do your research before going to any of them. Most are not practicing ethical tourism for the elephants. Read what to consider here, but the biggest thing to avoid is riding the elephants in a multi-person way, or in a saddle/crate on their backs. If you have a day or two to spare, we recommend a trip to Chai Lai Orchid, about an hour outside of Chiang Mai. It’s an AirBNB with the most magical elephant experiences. Read more on our elephant stay here.

If you’re looking for more cities to explore after Chiang Mai – we recommend Krabi! It’s similar to Phuket, but a bit less tourisy! More to come on our trip there too.