Planning a first trip to Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

Most first trips to Thailand try to do the beaches and the north in the same ten days, and lose two of them to airports. Choose one axis. This is the northern one: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai — city, mountains, and the temples in between.

Bangkok: three days is the right number

Day one belongs to the river. The Grand Palace and Wat Pho, home of the forty-six-metre reclining Buddha, sit side by side and take a full morning; a cross-river ferry then puts you at Wat Arun, which is best in the last hour before sunset when the porcelain-studded spire turns amber.

Day two is markets and street food — Chatuchak if it is a weekend, Wang Lang or Or Tor Kor if not, and a night market for dinner. Day three is either Ayutthaya, the ruined former capital ninety minutes north by train, or the Damnoen Saduak floating market, which is touristy and still genuinely photogenic if you go early.

Use the BTS Skytrain and the river boats rather than taxis. Bangkok traffic can turn a four-kilometre trip into an hour.

Chiang Mai: slow down here

Chiang Mai is walkable inside the old moat, full of small teak temples, and cool enough in the evening to sit outside. Doi Suthep, the mountain temple above the city, is the one unmissable half-day; go early and the terrace is quiet enough to hear the bells.

Give the city at least three nights. A cooking class, a morning market, an afternoon at a waterfall and a night bazaar fill them easily, and Chiang Mai is where most travellers realise they have stopped checking their watch.

The elephant question

Do not ride elephants, and be wary of any camp that offers bathing sessions on demand. Riding requires the animal to be broken to accept a saddle, and constant bathing exists for photographs, not welfare.

Look for genuine sanctuaries: no riding, no performances, limited daily visitor numbers, herds that can move away from people, and transparency about where each animal came from. You watch, you help prepare food, you keep your distance. It is a better hour than any ride.

Chiang Rai and the White Temple

Wat Rong Khun — the White Temple — is not an ancient site. It is a contemporary artwork begun in 1997, mirrored, blindingly white and full of unexpected modern detail inside. Photography is not allowed in the main hall, which is precisely why people remember it.

Chiang Rai works as a long day trip from Chiang Mai, but an overnight is more civilised and lets you add the Blue Temple and the Golden Triangle without spending six hours in a van.

Costs, seasons and small logistics

Street meals run roughly 50–80 baht, a good sit-down dinner 300–600, an internal flight between Bangkok and Chiang Mai often under 2,000 baht if booked ahead. November to February is the cool dry season and the best window; March and April are hot and, in the north, hazy from agricultural burning; the rains from June bring short heavy afternoon storms rather than all-day grey.

Cover shoulders and knees at every temple, carry slip-on shoes because you will remove them constantly, and get a local eSIM at the airport instead of roaming.

Our First Encounter with Thailand departure runs 7–16 May 2027 and covers this exact northern route, at $4,200 per person with an installment plan spread over six months.