Chiang Mai: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Chiang Mai was founded in 1296 as the capital of Lanna, a kingdom that was independent of Siam for most of five hundred years and was only absorbed in 1899 — which is why the language here is a different dialect, the alphabet was a different script, and the food has nothing to do with Bangkok. The old city is a square inside a moat, about one and a half kilometres on each side, and almost everything in this walk is inside it. Three hours. Shoulders and knees covered in every temple, and shoes come off at the door.
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A short history of Chiang Mai
In 1296 King Mangrai founded Chiang Mai, 'the new city', as the capital of the Lanna kingdom in northern Thailand, and surrounded it with a square wall and moat, parts of which survive today. Most of the great temples were built here in the 14th and 15th centuries, among them Wat Chedi Luang, whose upper part collapsed in an earthquake in the 16th century. In 1558 the Burmese captured it and ruled it for more than two hundred years, until 1775. It then became a principality subject to Siam, and at the end of the 19th century it was fully annexed. In 1921 the railway from Bangkok reached it, and since then it has been the largest city in the north of the country.
The ten best sights in Chiang Mai
1Wat Phra That Doi Suthep30 baht, 309 steps or a funicular, and shoulders and knees covered
2Wat Chedi Luang50 baht, the chedi was 82 metres before the 1545 earthquake, and the city pillar is in the compound
3Wat Phra Singh50 baht, the Lai Kham chapel has the best Lanna murals in the city
4Wat Chiang ManFree, the oldest temple in the city, from 1296, and the elephant chedi is behind
5Wat Phan TaoFree, built of teak panels from a dismantled royal residence, and quiet
6Wat UmongFree, a forest temple with brick tunnels from the 14th century, and dogs everywhere
7Wat Suan DokFree, white chedis holding the ashes of the Lanna royal family, and monk chat here
8Wat Sri Suphan50 baht, the silver temple, men only inside the ordination hall
9Wat Lok MoleeFree, outside the north wall, and the teak hall is the reason to come
10Wat Chet YotFree, a copy of the Bodh Gaya temple, and a world Buddhist council met here in 1477
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Chiang Mai →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Chiang Mai:
Free walking tours in Chiang Mai
A square city inside a moat
Chiang Mai was founded in 1296 as the capital of Lanna, a kingdom that was independent of Siam for most of five hundred years and was only absorbed in 1899 — which is why the language here is a different dialect, the alphabet was a different script, and the food has nothing to do with Bangkok. The old city is a square inside a moat, about one and a half kilometres on each side, and almost everything in this walk is inside it. Three hours. Shoulders and knees covered in every temple, and shoes come off at the door.
- Tha Phae Gate · The east gate, and the brickwork you see is a 1980s reconstruction — the walls were largely pulled down in the 1920s and used as road hardcore. What is original is the plan: a square moat with a gate in the middle of each side and a bastion at each corner, laid out in 1296 by King Mangrai, who chose the site after watching a white sambar deer and a family of white mice on it.
- Wat Chedi Luang · The chedi was finished in 1481 at about eighty-two metres, the tallest building in the Lanna kingdom, and an earthquake in 1545 took the top third off it — it has been left like that ever since. The Emerald Buddha, which is now the most important object in Thailand and sits in the palace in Bangkok, was kept in a niche on the east side of this chedi for eighty-four years.
- Three Kings Monument · The three figures are Mangrai of Chiang Mai, Ngam Mueang of Phayao and Ram Khamhaeng of Sukhothai, who according to the chronicles planned this city together — which is unusual, because founding myths are normally about one man. Locals leave flowers, incense and bottles of strawberry milk at the feet, and the milk is because an offering should be something the dead would actually want.
- Wat Phra Singh · The small chapel at the back, Wihan Lai Kham, is the one to go into: its interior walls are covered in murals painted around 1820 that show daily Lanna life — markets, tattooed men, women bathing, a British trader in a hat — and they are one of the very few visual records of what this place looked like before photography.
- Wat Phan Tao · The assembly hall is built entirely of teak panels slotted together without nails, and it was not built as a temple: it was a royal residence, taken apart and reassembled here in the nineteenth century. The peacock over the door with a dog beneath it is the seal of the prince who lived in it, and the dog means he was born in the year of the dog.
- Wat Chiang Man · The oldest temple in the city, built in 1296 on the spot where Mangrai camped while the city was being laid out, so it predates the walls. The chedi behind the main hall is held up by fifteen brick elephants, half-emerged from the base, and it holds two small Buddha images — one crystal, one marble — that are only shown to the public once a year during Songkran.
Up the mountain
Doi Suthep rises steeply behind the city to about sixteen hundred metres, and the temple near its top is the one that matters: the story is that a white elephant was sent out carrying a relic, wandered up the mountain, trumpeted three times and died, and the temple was built where it fell. A road was only built in 1935, by monks who raised the money and recruited villagers — before that, the pilgrimage was a five-hour climb. A full day with a car or a songthaew.
- Wat Phra That Doi Suthep · Three hundred and nine steps up a naga staircase, with the two serpents’ bodies forming the balustrades the whole way — the heads are at the bottom and the tails at the top. The gold chedi at the centre is from 1383 and the terrace around it is the view: the whole city grid, the airport runway and the plain beyond, and on a clear day you can see how exactly square the old city is.
- Bhubing Palace · The royal winter residence, four kilometres further up, and what is open is the gardens — roses, which do not grow in lowland Thailand, which is the point of having a palace at eleven hundred metres. Long trousers are required and they will lend you a sarong at the gate if you turn up in shorts.
- Doi Pui Hmong village · A Hmong village at the top of the road, and the small museum in it is about opium — the hill peoples here grew poppies as a cash crop until the 1970s, when the king’s development projects substituted coffee, cabbages and strawberries over about twenty years. That substitution programme is the reason you now see strawberry stalls all over these hills.
- Wat Umong · A forest temple at the foot of the mountain with brick tunnels dug into a mound in the fourteenth century, lined with faded murals, and monks still meditate in them. In the grounds there is a field of broken Buddha images collected from ruined temples and left stacked against trees rather than repaired — the explanation given is that a broken image is still an image.
- Wat Suan Dok · The field of white chedis here holds the ashes of the Lanna royal family — they were moved into one place in 1909 when the old burial ground was cleared. The temple also runs Monk Chat: on set afternoons you sit at a table with a student monk and ask whatever you want, and they practise their English on you. It is genuinely a two-way arrangement.
- Wat Chet Yot · Built in 1455 as a copy of the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya in India, where the Buddha was enlightened — and in 1477 the eighth world Buddhist council met here and produced a revised version of the Pali canon, which is the main reason Chiang Mai mattered to Buddhism beyond Lanna. Almost nobody visits it.
Markets, khao soi and the river
Northern Thai food is a separate cuisine: it is less sweet than Bangkok cooking, uses almost no coconut milk except in one dish, and is eaten with sticky rice taken in the fingers. The dish the city is known for is khao soi — egg noodles in a curry broth with crisp fried noodles on top, pickled mustard greens, shallot and lime on the side — and it came here with Chinese Muslim traders from Yunnan. Two and a half hours, and the walking streets only happen at the weekend.
- Warorot Market · Three floors and the market locals actually use, open from six in the morning. The ground floor is food, and the thing to find is sai ua: a coarse pork sausage mixed with lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, turmeric and chilli, then grilled over charcoal in a coil. It is sold by weight, it is the northern dish that travels worst, and you eat it the same day.
- Muang Mai Market · The wholesale fruit and vegetable market beside the river, and the hour to see it is four in the morning, when lorries come down from the hills. The produce here is the argument for the north: strawberries, cabbages, coffee and cut flowers that cannot be grown in the lowlands, almost all of it a legacy of the crop-substitution projects that replaced opium.
- Wat Ket Karam · Across the river in the old trading quarter, where the teak warehouses and the Chinese, Muslim and missionary houses are. The temple has a museum that is simply a room of things people gave it over a century — gramophones, war medals, dentures, a stuffed crocodile — catalogued by nobody, and it is a better record of the quarter than any proper museum would be.
- Ping River · Until the railway reached here in 1921, everything came and went on this river — teak logs were floated down it to Bangkok, a journey that took months, and the trade is why the British, Burmese and Chinese houses on the east bank exist. The river is shallow and slow now, and the iron bridge downstream was built in 1967 after a flood took the previous one.
- Wualai Walking Street · The Saturday market, on the silversmiths’ street — the Wualai quarter was settled in the eighteenth century by silverworking families brought here from Burma, and some of them are still working. The silver temple at the end of the street, Wat Sri Suphan, has an ordination hall covered inside and out in hand-beaten aluminium and silver, and only men may enter it.
- Sunday Walking Street · A kilometre of stalls along Ratchadamnoen from Tha Phae Gate, every Sunday from four until about ten, and it is the biggest street market in northern Thailand. The practical advice is to arrive at four: by seven the street is shoulder to shoulder and you cannot stop at a stall without blocking it. At six everyone stops where they stand for the national anthem.
Getting to Chiang Mai and getting around
- Chiang Mai Airport · Four kilometres from the old city, and a red songthaew in is about 150 baht
- Chiang Mai Railway Station · The sleeper to Bangkok takes 13 hours, and the second-class berth is the one to book
- Arcade Bus Terminal · Buses to Pai, Chiang Rai and Laos, and the VIP overnight to Bangkok leaves from here
Cheap eats in Chiang Mai
Northern Thai food is its own cuisine and it is not the food of Bangkok: much less sweet, almost no coconut milk, more bitter and herbal, and eaten with sticky rice rolled into a ball in the fingers rather than with a spoon. Four dishes to know: khao soi, the curry noodle soup that came from Yunnan; sai ua, the herb sausage; nam prik noom, a dip of pounded roasted green chillies; and khanom jeen nam ngiao, a tomato and pork-blood noodle soup. A bowl is forty to seventy baht and the best places are a counter and four plastic stools.
- Khao Soi Khun Yai · 40 baht, cash, and go before one
- SP Chicken · About 120 baht for half a chicken, and there are four tables
- Huen Phen · About 150 baht, northern dishes properly made, and the evening room is separate
- Chang Puak Gate stalls · About 50 baht, from five in the afternoon, and cash
- Warorot Market · The ground floor is food, sai ua is sold by weight, and eat it the same day
- Ristr8to · About 70 baht, in Nimman, and there is usually a wait
- Graph Cafe · About 90 baht, a tiny room in the old city, and the cold brew is the order
- Night Bazaar food court · 50 to 100 baht, from six, and this is the easy option rather than the good one
Museums in Chiang Mai
The museums here all answer the same question: what was Lanna, and how is it different from Thailand? The kingdom was founded in 1296, was a Burmese vassal for two hundred years, became a tributary of Siam and was only fully absorbed in 1899 — so the local museums are about a separate culture with its own script, dialect, architecture and food. Most close on Monday, and MAIIAM is fifteen kilometres out.
- Lanna Folklife Museum · 90 baht, closed Monday, and a combined ticket covers three museums
- City Arts and Cultural Centre · 90 baht, closed Monday, and it is in the former provincial hall of 1924
- Chiang Mai National Museum · 100 baht, closed Monday and Tuesday, and the Lanna bronzes are the collection
- MAIIAM · 150 baht, closed Tuesday, and 15 kilometres out at San Kamphaeng
- Wat Chedi Luang · 50 baht, and the pillar building has its own rules
- Wat Phra Singh · 50 baht, and the Lai Kham murals of about 1820 are the reason to go in
- Wat Sri Suphan · 50 baht, men only in the hall, and the workshops are next door
- Baan Kang Wat · Free, about 20 craft workshops in one lane, closed Monday
Nature and day trips near Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai sits in a valley at three hundred metres with mountains on three sides, and the highest point in Thailand is a hundred kilometres away. That geography also produces the city’s worst problem: from late February to April, farmers burn crop stubble across the whole region, the valley traps the smoke, and the air quality is among the worst in the world for several weeks. November to February is the season; the rains are June to October.
- Doi Inthanon · 300 baht for the park, 100 kilometres out, and bring a jacket
- Wachirathan Waterfall · In the Inthanon ticket, 70 metres, and the spray soaks the viewing platform
- Bua Tong sticky waterfalls · Free, 60 kilometres north, and there are no lifeguards
- Huay Tung Tao · 50 baht, bamboo huts on a reservoir, and you eat sitting over the water
- Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden · 100 baht, 40 kilometres out, and the canopy walkway is 400 metres long
- Mon Jam · 40 kilometres north, terraced flower farms on a ridge, and cold at night
- Elephant Nature Park · From 2,500 baht, booked weeks ahead, and no riding at all
- Chiang Dao Cave · 40 baht plus a lantern guide, 70 kilometres north, and the guides are village women
Things to do in Chiang Mai with kids
- Elephant Nature Park · From 2,500 baht, a full day, and no riding or bathing
- Bua Tong sticky waterfalls · Free, you climb up the falls, and bring clothes that can get wet
- Chiang Mai Zoo · 150 baht, very hilly, and the shuttle inside is worth the extra
- Grand Canyon · From 150 baht, a flooded quarry with jumps, and the water park is separate
- Bo Sang umbrella village · Free, nine kilometres out, and they will paint on anything you hand over
- Royal Park Rajapruek · 200 baht, flat, a tram round it, and pavilions from 30 countries
- Huay Tung Tao · 50 baht, shallow water and bamboo huts, and you can swim
- One Nimman · Free, an open plaza with a clock tower, ice cream, and shade
Holy places in Chiang Mai
There are around three hundred temples inside and immediately around Chiang Mai, and they are working buildings rather than monuments: boys are ordained as novices for a few weeks or years, often to get an education, and the monk you see sweeping is likely sixteen. Rules that matter: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at the hall, women do not hand anything directly to a monk, and never point your feet at a Buddha image.
- Wat Phra That Doi Suthep · 30 baht, 309 steps or a funicular, and open from six
- Wat Chiang Man · Free, the oldest in the city from 1296, and the elephant chedi is behind the hall
- Wat Umong · Free, a forest temple, and the dogs are the temple’s
- Wat Suan Dok · Free, monk chat on set afternoons, and women sit opposite not beside
- Wat Phan Tao · Free, a teak hall from a royal residence, and candlelit during Yi Peng
- Wat Chet Yot · Free, a copy of Bodh Gaya, and the eighth Buddhist council met here in 1477
- Wat Phra That Doi Kham · Free, a 20-minute drive out, and busiest at the weekend
- Wat Phra That Hariphunchai · 20 baht, 26 kilometres south, and the chedi is from 1044
Nightlife in Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is not a late city by Thai standards: bars officially close at midnight and most actually do, and the police enforce it more here than in Bangkok. The drinking is in three places — Nimman for the coffee-and-craft-beer crowd, the riverside for dinner, and the lanes off Loi Kroh for the older bar strip. A large Chang is about eighty baht in a bar and forty in a shop. During Buddhist holidays alcohol sales are banned nationwide for the whole day.
- Nimmanhaemin · The craft beer and cocktail quarter, open till midnight, and the sois are numbered
- One Nimman · Free to walk, bars round a plaza, and live music at the weekend
- Maya rooftop · The bars on top of the mall, and the Doi Suthep sunset is the reason
- Night Bazaar · From six to midnight, and the bars behind it are the old strip
- Chang Khlan · The bazaar road, busiest at nine, and the food courts are open latest
- Riverside · Dinner with live bands on the Ping, and the music stops at eleven
- Santitham · A bottle is about 40 baht, plastic tables, and it shuts by midnight
- Tha Phae Gate · Free, the meeting point, and during Songkran in April it is the water fight
Frequently asked questions about Chiang Mai
What is there to see in Chiang Mai?
The top sights in Chiang Mai are Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Chiang Mai?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Chiang Mai without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Chiang Mai?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Chiang Mai, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: A square city inside a moat.
How do you get to Chiang Mai and get around?
The main ways are Chiang Mai Airport, Chiang Mai Railway Station and Arcade Bus Terminal. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Chiang Mai, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Chiang Mai that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Chiang Mai for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.