Bangkok & Highlights of the North

Day 1 - Bangkok

Arrive in Bangkok, transfer to your chosen hotel and spend the rest of the day at leisure

Meals Included - None  

Day 2 - Bangkok

Enjoy ahalf day tour visiting the two most famous attractions in Bangkok; the Grand Palace and Wat Pho The architecture is vibrantly Thai though there are some European designs as well. Brilliantly coloured and gilded, and decorated with intricate detail, the overall effect is dazzling. The palace served as the official residence of the kings of Thailand from the 18th to the mid-20th century. The most famous building on the palace grounds is Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), regarded as the most sacred Buddhist temple (wat) in Thailand.

Meals Included - Breakfast  

Day 3 - Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Take the short domestic fligth to Chiang Mai. Spend the rest of the day at leisure.

Meals Included - Breakfast  

Day 4 - Chiang Saen

In the morning pick up from your hotel and stop at a small local rice noodle factory. Transfer further towards the North and visit the Chiang Dao caves. The cave entrance is set in a small landscaped park with a fishpond (you can feed the carp), and Wat Tham Chiang Dao lies just to the right. Enjoy local lunch at Sanae Doi Luang Restaurant that offers beautiful views of scenic fields, mountains, and trees.

In the afternoon continue to Huai Luek Royal Project, an initiative of His Majesty the King to solve the problems of poverty among ethnic people and deforestation due to the growing of opium by the hilltribes.  Afterwards visit an Akha hilltribe village on the way to your hotel.

Meals Included – Breakfast & Lunch

Day 5 - Chiang Rai

If you wish, at 06:30 transfer to the village nearby to stroll around and to gather goodies to participate in the morning alms giving ritual. Return to the hotel for breakfast and check-out.

Drive up to Doi Tung and visit the Mae Fah Luang Garden, Doi Tung Royal Villa and some ethnic hill-tribe communities nearby.

After lunch at Doi Tung, drive to Doi Tung, down a narrow, steep but very scenic mountain road straddling the Thai-Burmese border to Mae Sai, Thailand’s northernmost city. 

Afterwards, drive to the Golden Triangle area and stop at a vantage point where you’ll have an excellent view of the Mekong valley and the neighbouring countries. Then proceed to a public pier, embark a local motorised boat and cruise on the Mekong River close by the border of three countries, where you can see the simple and traditional lifestyle.

Meals Included - Breakfast & Lunch

Day 6 - Chiang Rai

Visit the Hall of Opium (closed on Monday). You learn and understand how this substance has come to be inseparably entwined with the Golden Triangle. 

Transfer to Wat Pa Sak (Teak Forest temple) in Chiang Saen. The name of the temple represents the character of the premise of which three hundred teak trees were planted at its grounds when King Saen Phu built the temple in 1295. Later visit Baan Dam (Black House), a unique creation of the late national artist, Thawan Duchanee. Part art studio, part museum, part home, Baan Dam is an eclectic mix of traditional northern Thai buildings interspersed with some outlandish modern designs.

After lunch, visit Wat Phra Kaew Chiang Rai once housed the Emerald Buddha, Thailand’s most important Buddha statue which was discovered in 1444. There is now a green jade replica of the image on display. Afterwards we stop by at a local market and enjoy a rickshaw ride to your hotel.

Meals Included - Breakfast & Lunch

Day 7 - Chiang Rai - Chiang Mai

The first stop today is at Wat Rong Khun, the white temple of Chiang Rai. The temple is unusual because of the white colour of the walls and the many windows, the sculptures that are almost frightening, the grotesque statues and the sparkling decorations. Thailand has a strong tradition of rice production. It has the fifth-largest amount of land under rice cultivation in the world and is the world's second largest exporter of rice. Visit a rice mill.

Continue with the sightseeing at Wat Jed Yod, an attractive Lanna era temple complex in the outskirts of Chiang Mai that contains some very unique architecture. Its architectural style shows Lanna, Rattanakosin, Lao, Chinese and Indian influence. Highlight of the Wat Jed Yod is the viharn, where the temple derives its name from. Jed Yod means 7 peaks, referring to the 7 chedis on top of the structure. Then drive up the hill overlooking the city and visit Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, the most sacred temple in northern Thailand containing a holy relic of Lord Buddha. After sunset, the nightly ceremony starts where monks have gathered in the prayer hall to chant Buddhist verses, some so obscure that many monks recite them from memory without grasping their meaning.

Meals Included - Breakfast & Lunch

Day 8 - Chiang Mai

Today your tour concludes with a transfer to the airport.