Chiang Rai overnight trek into the nearby hills

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
7
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
6
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
6
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
9
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
3
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
4
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
65 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
228th/454
Top 50%
continent
Asia
country
Thailand
Length of time
1-2 days
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$50 ($60-$120 in 2024 prices)
Time of year visited
February
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Forests Hiking Hilltop towns
All Tags
Local villages Mountains Rice terraces / terraces Sunrise Waterfalls
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐

Summary

The countryside around Chiang Rai is some of the prettiest in Thailand, and doing an overnight trek into the nearby hills and villages turned out to be one of the nicest surprises of our time in the country.  This isn’t a world-famous trek and it’s not somewhere you go for dramatic, jaw-dropping scenery, but the combination of gentle hiking, rural scenery, village life and excellent weather (Oct-Feb) makes this a really enjoyable 2-day experience.

The trekking itself isn’t particularly difficult. You’re mostly walking through rolling hills, farmland, forest and small villages rather than steep mountains, and the experience is as much about seeing rural Northern Thailand and staying overnight in a village as it is about the walking itself.

Is it worth it?  If you’re in Northern Thailand and you have a couple of spare days, then yes, I think this is a very good use of time — especially in January and February when the weather in this part of Thailand is close to perfect. It’s not one of the absolute “must-do” experiences in the world, but it’s a very enjoyable, easy adventure and a great way to see a different side of Thailand.

In a nutshell:

  • A 2-day / 1-night trek into the hills and villages around Chiang Rai
  • More “pretty countryside” than dramatic mountains
  • As much about the village stay and rural scenery as the hiking
  • Best in January and February when the weather is excellent
  • A really nice way to spend a couple of days in Northern Thailand if you like the outdoors

 

Just down the slope from the Doi Bo Viewpoint, Chiang Rai overnight trek into the nearby hills, Thailand

 

High-level tips:

#1 Go with the 2 days trip – 1 day would just be a bit rushed once you factor in the transport, hiking, food etc, plus you won’t get that sunset feel of being in the village.  3 days – whilst there is a lot of countryside, you’ll see that it is the same few highlight spots that get called out and 3 days will feel quite samesy.

#2 I’d recommend going with Bamboo Tours – we actually went with Rai Pian Karuna, who were well organised and nice but, as with so many of these things, our experience depended on the guide who unfortunately wasn’t great.  After doing a bit of research, Rai Pian Karuna tend to simply get people from the villages (often with very poor english) to walk you from drop off to their village and cook for you at home – which is nice, but it felt a little bit of a waste compared to having a proper guide who showed you more.  Note that Bamboo Tours rated 5/5  on Tripadvisor, whereas Rai Pian Karuna 4.2/5.  Certainly, not the be-all-and-end-all, but indicative.  Both were around 3000B (USD80).

#3 Try to go October to February – the weather is just perfect, with dry heat, bright blue skies, cool mornings and evenings, and hit afternoons.  Plus, March is when they start the burning and you don’t want to be there for that.

#4 Chiang Rai itself is nice as a base, but no more – yes it has the temples and market, yes it has some nice hotels for recharging, but you are there for the surrounding countryside.

#5 The highlight of the nearby area for us was – Mopeds along the Thai / Laos border near Chiang Rai.  Spectacular scenery and something fun about zipping about on the windy roads with a moped.

 

Highlights

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#1 Hiking through the pretty countryside surrounding Chiang Rai and especially at this time of year

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#2 Spending the evening in one of the very basic small villages that will be the home of your guide. Hope you like roosters! (I fantasised about killing all of them at around 4am)

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#3 Seeing elephants as you walk through the area. Some roaming, some unfortunately not

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#4 Stopping for a swim in the beautiful waterfalls dotted all around

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#5 Waking up early for the walk to be the only ones seeing the sunset from the Doi Bo Viewpoint (gets rammed later in the day by the day-trippers from Chiang Rai)

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#6 The rice paddy fields offering a nice verdant contrast to super dry surrounding countryside

Experiences Nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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