Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai Highlights: White Temple & Golden Triangle (5D4N)

Itinerary

ARRIVAL IN CHIANG MAI - LANNA TEMPLES & DOI SUTHEP

Arrive at Chiang Mai Airport, meet your local English-speaking guide, and transfer to your hotel for check-in. Free time at leisure.

Pick up from your hotel lobby and depart to Wat Chedi Luang, built in the late 14th century. Once the tallest monument in Chiang Mai, it originally housed the Emerald Buddha, Thailand’s most sacred religious relic.

Continue to Wat Phra Singh (1345), renowned for its stunning Lanna-style viharn and the finest scripture repository in Northern Thailand.

Depart for Doi Suthep Temple, one of Northern Thailand’s most sacred temples, built in 1383. Perched 1,050 metres above sea level, its golden chedi enshrines holy relics of the Buddha, with panoramic views over Chiang Mai and the Ping valley. Ascend the 306-step Naga staircase, symbolising the spiritual journey towards nirvana, or take the tram to the summit. Afterwards, return to your hotel.

ELEPHANT CARE - A HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE IN CHIANG MAI

09.00 Hrs. Pick up from your hotel lobby and depart to Elephant Care Center for a memorable elephant care experience. Upon arrival, visit the Elephant Culture Museum and learn about the important role of elephants in Thai society, their lifestyle and ongoing conservation efforts.

Continue with a hands-on activity by feeding the elephants bananas and sugar cane. Enjoy close interaction while observing their gentle nature and natural behaviour. Next, take part in the elephant poo paper production process and discover how recycled elephant dung is transformed into eco-friendly paper products. Afterwards, learn about traditional herbal treatments for elephants and make your own herb and fruit nutritional vitamin balls, a healthy snack the elephants love.

Conclude the experience by watching the elephants bathe under the waterfall. You may choose to simply observe or help wash the elephants for a fun and refreshing activity.

Lunch is provided at a local restaurant. Afterwards, return to your hotel.

JOURNEY TO CHIANG RAI - WHITE TEMPLE & LANNA ART

08.00 Hrs. Check out from your hotel and depart to Chiang Rai by road (3 hours’ drive) along picturesque scenic routes through several beautiful northern mountains. On the way, visit the local Hot Spring at Mae Ka Chan Town for a short break, watching locals boil quail’s eggs.

Arrive in Chiang Rai and visit White Temple (Wat Rong Khun), designed by a celebrated national artist. Its distinctive white main building, decorated with fragments of reflective glass, can be seen glimmering from afar.

Lunch is provided at a local restaurant.

Continue to Blue Temple (Wat Rong Suea Ten), designed by a local Chiang Rai artist, its striking blue main building reflecting a new philosophy of Buddhist art.

Depart for Black House (Baan Dam Museum), the home of a celebrated national artist known for eerie sculptures crafted from horns, bones, reptile skins, and traditional woodcraft, spread across 32 Lanna-style pavilions.

Visit Wat Huay Pla Kang, home to the tallest statue of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, standing 79 metres tall, and the Nine-Story Pagoda, its layered roofs decorated in Chinese style with dragons. Afterwards, transfer to your hotel for check-in and leisure time.

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE - BORDERLANDS, LOCAL CULTURE & CHIANG SAEN

08.30 Hrs. Pick up from your hotel lobby and depart to Long Neck Karen Village, home to women who wear brass rings around their necks, a tradition originating from Shan State in Myanmar.

Continue to Mae Sai Town, the Thailand–Myanmar border and the northernmost point of Thailand, with local markets selling Myanmar goods.

Lunch is provided at a local restaurant.

Visit the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet, marked by a golden Buddha statue and panoramic Mekong River views. Continue to the Opium Museum, displaying the history of the region’s opium trade.

Conclude at Chiang Saen Town, an ancient city dating to around 1328, with ruins of temples, stupas, and the old city wall and moat. Afterwards, return to your hotel.

FAREWELL TO CHIANG RAI

Check out from your hotel and depart to Chiang Rai Airport for your flight to the next destination.