Chiang Mai/ Things to do
Things to do
in Chiang Mai.
4 trips worth booking and 7 places you can simply turn up to. Different things, checked differently.
Worth booking
Tours and experiences.
Each operator is judged on its own score, never averaged with the others running the same trip. Our bar for a tour is 9.0 out of 10 and at least 50 reviews. Anything below it is left off rather than quietly rounded up.
01wildlifeResearched PickA Chiang Mai elephant sanctuaryChiang Mai has a great many elephant venues. Four clear our scoring bar, and what they have visitors do with the elephants differs more than their names suggest.10.09,510 reviews02foodResearched PickA Chiang Mai cooking classHalf a day at a cooking school, usually with a market visit first, cooking four or five dishes and eating them. Chiang Mai has a great many of these, and four clear our bar with ease.9.84,635 reviews03cultureResearched PickThe White Temple day trip to Chiang RaiA long day from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai province for the White Temple, the Blue Temple and usually the Black House, with much of it on the road.9.62,787 reviews04natureResearched PickA Doi Inthanon day tripThe standard day out of Chiang Mai: waterfalls on the way up, the twin royal pagodas, the summit, and usually a hill-tribe market, with the driving done for you.9.61,358 reviews
Just turn up
Places you visit.
A temple and a waterfall have no guest score, and no honest way to get one. These pages tell you where the place is, what we confirmed and when, and what we could not confirm. We will not borrow a tour operator's rating and let it look like the waterfall's.
01natureResearched PickDoi InthanonThailand's highest mountain, a long drive south-west of Chiang Mai, with the twin royal pagodas, waterfalls on the way up and a cloud forest at the top.No guest score exists02natureResearched PickThe Sticky WaterfallsA tiered waterfall north of Chiang Mai whose limestone is so grippy you can walk straight up it, and one of the few sights in this guide that is officially free.No guest score exists03foodResearched PickThe Sunday Walking StreetEvery Sunday evening the city closes Ratchadamnoen Road from Tha Phae Gate to Wat Phra Singh and fills it with stalls, with a smaller Saturday version on Wua Lai Road.No guest score exists04foodResearched PickWarorot MarketChiang Mai's big central market, Kad Luang, by the Ping River, where the city buys its sausages, chilli pastes, dried fruit and everything else.No guest score exists05cultureResearched PickWat Chedi LuangThe ruined giant chedi in the middle of the Old City, broken by an earthquake centuries ago, and home to the city pillar.No guest score exists06cultureResearched PickWat Phra SinghThe Old City's most important temple, at the western end of Ratchadamnoen, home to the Phra Buddha Sihing image and a textbook piece of Lanna architecture.No guest score exists07cultureResearched PickWat Phra That Doi SuthepThe gilded temple on the mountain above Chiang Mai, reached by an 11km road and a naga staircase, and the one sight nearly every visitor to the city makes.No guest score exists