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After our stop in Phuket, we headed to Chiang Mai. This was, arguably, my favorite city. Chiang Mai is in northern Thailand and has a more traditional feel, compared to the city and beach. We spent two full days there and I really enjoyed every minute of it so I hope this Chiang Mai travel guide is helpful!
WHERE TO STAY
Joe and I stayed at the Shangri-La Chiang Mai. I loved the vibe of this hotel. It was chic, classic, and felt very elegant. It was a short walk from the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar (open everyday from 5PM to midnight). We mainly did excursions during this stop so we didn’t explore much else in the neighborhood.
WHAT TO DO + WHERE TO EAT
Elephant Nature Park
Visiting an elephant sanctuary was the top item on our list when planning our Thailand trip. I found out about Elephant Nature Park from a friend. Elephant Nature Park offers tons of different tours. We opted for the Elephant Delight full day option. It visits the Elephant Delight Project (not the Elephant Nature Park, which also has other animals). For our excursion, we prepped food for the elephants, feed them, hiked with them, and bathed them. We were also served a delicious homemade lunch and transportation to/from our hotel was included. If you’re staying out of town, you will need to pay an additional fee. This tour was one of the best parts of our trip! We loved spending the day with three rescued female elephants. They are truly magnificent creatures! If you pick one excursion to do in Thailand, visit an elephant sanctuary.
Cooking School
Our other excursion came recommended from the same friend. We visited Zabb E Lee. We opted for the in town morning class. There is also a version at a farm. Our class included a market tour and transportation to/from the hotel (since we stayed in town). On the market tour, our instructor showed us some of the ingredients we’d be using and we got an opportunity to pick up souvenirs.
We each cooked an appetizer, stir fry, soup, curry, curry paste and dessert. We had several options for the first four dishes and our curry paste depended on the curry we selected. The dessert is mango sticky rice – so good! We got really lucky because Joe and I were the only ones and therefore, got a private class. There were two ladies training and they were kind enough to take photos and videos of us during the class. We each got a cookbook to take home too!
Chiang Mai Night Bazaar
While not something we’d planned to visit, we found out about this night market upon our arrival. The night bazaar is a daily market and was just down the street from our hotel. We visited twice and got a ton of souvenirs there. There was food, gifts, and live music. It’s massive and spans across several blocks. On the walk over, we stopped by Le Dta’wan Market – a great little food plaza. We got these amazing crepes with condensed milk on top. This area is excellent to get a bite to eat and pick up gifts to bring home. I had to include this market in my Chiang Mai travel guide, as it was a fun surprise and definitely worth checking out.
