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Chiang Mai Province
Thailand’s northern capital is an overnight train ride and light years away from the bustle of Bangkok. Wrestled from Burmese control by the kingdom of Siam, the former capital of the Lanna people is a captivating collection of glimmering monasteries, manic markets, modern shopping centers, and quiet residential streets that wouldn't look amiss in a remote village.
It's more country retreat than mega-metropolis, but this beguiling city still lures everyone from backpacking teenagers to young families, round-the-world retirees and a huge contingent of tourists from China, who are redefining the city's traveler experience.
Historic monasteries and cooking courses are just part of the picture. Get out into the surrounding province to find a jumble of forested hills, great for rafting, hiking, mountain biking and other adrenaline-charged activities. Most visitors will leave the city at least once to interact with elephants, dip into hot springs and wander experimental farms and botanic gardens.
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Top attractions
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Chiang Mai Province.
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Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
Overlooking the city from its mountain throne, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is one of northern Thailand's most sacred temples, and its founding legend is learned by every schoolkid in Chiang Mai. The wát is a beautiful example of northern Thai architecture, reached via a 306-step staircase flanked by naga (mythical sea serpents). The climb is intended to help devotees accrue Buddhist merit. The monastery was established in 1383 by King Keu Naone to enshrine a piece of bone said to be from the shoulder of the historical Buddha. The bone shard was brought to Lanna by a wandering monk from Sukhothai and it broke into two pieces at the base of the mountain, with one piece being enshrined at Wat Suan Dok. The second fragment was mounted onto a sacred white elephant that wandered the jungle until it died, in the process selecting the spot where the monastery was later founded. The terrace at the top of the steps is dotted with breadfruit trees, small shrines, rock gardens and monuments, including a statue of the white elephant that carried the Buddha relic to its current resting place. Before entering the inner courtyard, children pay their respects to a lizard-like guardian dragon statue known as 'Mom'. Steps lead up to the inner terrace, where a walkway circumnavigates the gleaming golden chedi enshrining the relic. The crowning five-tiered umbrella marks the city's independence from Burma and its union with Thailand. Pilgrims queue to leave lotus blossoms and other offerings at the shrines surrounding the chedi, which are studded with Buddha statues in an amazing variety of poses and materials. Within the monastery compound, the Doi Suthep Vipassana Meditation Center conducts a variety of religious outreach programs for visitors. Rót daang (literally 'red trucks') run to the bottom of the steps to the temple from several points in Chiang Mai, including from in front of the zoo (per person 40B) and in front of Wat Phra Singh (per person 50B), but they only leave when they have enough passengers and prices may very depending on the driver's mood. Travellers can also work out a private ride with a rót daang, taxi or using the Grab Car mobile application. Many people cycle up on mountain-biking tours from Chiang Mai, and you can also walk from the university.
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Wat Chedi Luang
Wat Chedi Luang isn't as grand as Wat Phra Singh, but its towering, ruined Lanna-style chedi (built in 1441) is much taller and the sprawling compound around the stupa is powerfully atmospheric. The famed Phra Kaew (Emerald Buddha), now held in Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaew, resided in the eastern niche until 1475; today, you can view a jade replica. This was possibly the largest structure in ancient Chiang Mai, but the top of the chedi was destroyed by either a 16th-century earthquake or by cannon fire during the recapture of Chiang Mai from the Burmese in 1775 (nobody knows for sure). Like most of the ancient monuments in Chiang Mai, Chedi Luang was in ruins when the city began its modern renaissance, but a restoration project by Unesco and the Japanese government in the 1990s stabilised the monument and prevented further degradation. As you wander around the chedi you can easily spot the restoration work on the four naga stairways in each of the cardinal directions. The base of the stupa has five elephant sculptures on the southern face – four are reproductions, but the elephant on the far right is the original brick and stucco. The restorers stopped short of finishing the spire, as nobody could agree what it looked like. In the main wí·hăhn (sanctuary) is a revered standing Buddha statue, known as Phra Chao Attarot, flanked by two disciples. There are more chapels and statues in teak pavilions at the rear of the compound, including a huge reclining Buddha and a handsome Chinese-influenced seated Buddha barely contained by his robes. The daily Monk Chat under a tree in the grounds always draws a crowd of interested travellers. If you enter the compound via the main entrance on Th Phra Pokklao, you'll pass Wat Chedi Luang's other claim to fame, the Làk Meuang.
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Wat Phra Singh
Chiang Mai's most revered temple, Wat Phra Singh is dominated by an enormous, mosaic-inlaid wí·hăhn (sanctuary). Its prosperity is plain to see from the lavish monastic buildings and immaculately trimmed grounds, dotted with coffee stands and massage pavilions. Pilgrims flock here to venerate the famous Buddha image known as Phra Singh (Lion Buddha), housed in Wihan Lai Kham, a small chapel immediately south of the chedi (stupa) to the rear of the temple grounds. This elegant idol is said to have come to Thailand from Sri Lanka and was enshrined in 1367. The chapel is similarly striking, with gilded naga (serpent) gables and sumptuous lai·krahm (gold-pattern stencilling) inside. Despite Phra Singh's exalted status, very little is known about the Phra Singh image, which has more in common with images from northern Thailand than with Buddha statues from Sri Lanka. Adding to the mystery, there are two nearly identical images elsewhere in Thailand, one in the Bangkok National Museum and one in Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat. Regardless of its provenance, the statue has become a focal point for religious celebrations during the Songkran festival. As you wander the monastery grounds, note the raised temple library, housed in a dainty teak and stucco pavilion known as Ho Trai, decorated with bas-relief angels in the style of Wat Chet Yot. The temple's main chedi, rising over a classic Lanna-style octagonal base, was constructed by King Pa Yo in 1345; it's often wrapped in bolts of orange cloth by devotees.
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Talat Warorot
Chiang Mai's oldest public market, Warorot (also spelt Waroros) is a great place to connect with the city's Thai soul. Alongside souvenir vendors you'll find numerous stalls selling items for ordinary Thai households: woks, toys, fishing nets, pickled tea leaves, wigs, sticky-rice steamers, Thai-style sausages, kâab mŏo (pork rinds), live catfish and tiny statues for spirit houses. It's easy to spend half a day wandering the covered walkways, watching locals browsing, and haggling for goods that actually have a practical use back home. You'll know you've arrived at the market when traffic comes to a standstill and carts laden with merchandise weave between the cars. The location by the river is no coincidence; historically, most of the farm produce sold in Chiang Mai was delivered here by boat along Mae Ping. Immediately adjacent to Talat Warorot is Talat Ton Lam Yai, the city's main flower market, and to the south are more bazaars, full of 'wet and dry' foodstuffs, fabric vendors, Chinese goldsmiths and apparel stalls. The northern end of the bazaar area is thronged by fruit vendors selling bushels of lychees, longans, mangosteens and rambutans. Săhm·lór (three-wheel pedicabs, now rarely seen in the city) wait to shuttle shoppers home with their produce.
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Wat Phan Tao
Without doubt the most atmospheric wát in the old city, this teak marvel sits in the shadow of Wat Chedi Luang. Set in a compound full of fluttering orange flags, the monastery is a monument to the teak trade, with an enormous prayer hall supported by 28 gargantuan teak pillars and lined with dark teak panels, enshrining a particularly graceful gold Buddha image. The juxtaposition of the orange monks' robes against this dark backdrop during evening prayers is particularly sublime. Above the facade is a striking image of a peacock over a dog, representing the astrological year of the former royal resident's birth. The monastery is one of the focal points for celebrations during the Visakha Bucha festival in May or June, when monks light hundreds of butter lamps around the pond in the grounds.
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Nam Tok Bua Tong (Sticky Waterfall)
Ever walked up a waterfall? An increasingly popular day trip from Chiang Mai to Si Lanna National Park's 'Sticky Waterfall' allows visitors (with no magic powers or even climbing skills) to do just that. The secret lies not in the cartoonish-looking, mysteriously clingy rocks, but in the calcium-rich spring above that feeds the three-tiered, 100m waterfall. That water leaves mineral deposits on the rocks, preventing slippery stuff (like algae) from growing. After you climb the scenic, forest-flanked chutes, why not have a picnic at the top? You can also hike to the spring; the start point is the sign at the top for Namphu Chet Si. Plenty of locals and travellers arrive at the falls via motorbike, but be aware that the 60km trip can take up to two hours. Other options include chartering a rót daang for around 1000B, or visiting with a guided tour. Most tour operators in the city offer the trip, sometimes in combo with Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, and prices can vary based on group size. If you're driving, take Rte 1001 east and look for the sign for the waterfall. Make a right, and it's about 3km to the parking lot.
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Wat Pha Lat
A hidden jungle temple tucked into the mountain along the way to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Old stone structures, intricate carvings, naga -flanked stairways and Buddhist statues dot the serene grounds, and a walkway over a sheetrock waterfall affords postcard-pretty views of Chiang Mai. The temple was seldom visited before 2018, but word of its beauty spread among travellers and expats, and the Monk's Trail (a jungle path from the city to the temple) is now an open secret. As the story of the temple goes, in 1355 a white elephant belonging to King Kuena took a break to rest on the future site of Wat Pha Lat before dying at the future site of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The king ordered temples constructed on both sites, and the hidden jungle temple became a rest stop for monks making the pilgrimage to the larger, more opulent temple. After the road was constructed in 1935, Wat Pha Lat became a monks' residence and meditation site. Note that there are no food stalls or shops here, which for many visitors is preferable.
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Lanna Folklife Museum
Set inside the former Provincial Court, dating from 1935, this imaginative museum re-creates Lanna village life in a series of life-size dioramas that explain everything from lai·krahm pottery stencilling and fon lep (a mystical Lanna dance featuring long metal fingernails) to the intricate symbolism of different elements of Lanna-style monasteries. A week-long combo ticket also covers entrance into the Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre and the Chiang Mai Historical Centre.
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Wat Umong Suan Phutthatham
Not to be confused with the small Wat Umong in the old city, this historic forest wát is famed for its sylvan setting and its ancient chedi, above a brick platform wormholed with passageways, built around 1380 for the 'mad' monk Therachan. Keep an eye out for the Sri Lankan–style stupa, and as you wander the arched tunnels, look for traces of the original murals and several venerated Buddha images. The scrub forest around the platform is scattered with centuries' worth of broken Buddha images. The attendant monks raise cows, deer, chickens and, curiously, English bull terriers, and in the grounds is a pretty artificial lake, surrounded by gù·đì (monks' quarters). Check out the emaciated black-stone Buddha in the Burmese style, behind the chedi.
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