Guide · Choosing a trek

Jungle trekking in Chiang Mai: the treks compared

Jungle trekking in Chiang Mai comes in many shapes: a night in a hill village, a hard day in the forest, a trail on the highest mountain. Here is how the listings differ.

Check availabilityfrom $96 · free to cancel

Editorial team, trekkingtourchiangmai.comUpdated October 27, 2026Read time: 6 min19 sources

The tour behind this guide 2-day jungle trek with a Karen village night from Chiang Mai 4.7 (1,001 reviews) 2 daysAll meals and a night in a Karen villagePickup available in Chiang Mai from$96per person Check availabilityCancel at no cost until 24 hrs before you set off

Quick answer, by trek

01Overnight with a village: 2 days, a night in a Karen village, elephants and a raft, from $96.
02Hardest single day: About 5 hours of hiking in Doi Saket, groups of up to 10.
03Mountain trail: A 2-hour guided trek on Doi Inthanon, from $35.
04Wildlife walk: Gibbons and a forest trail at Mae Kampong, up to 7 people.
05Rule of thumb: Want a night in the hills: go overnight. Short on days: pick one hard day or one mountain trail.

What a trek out of Chiang Mai usually means

The word trek covers very different days around Chiang Mai. Some listings put you on foot for most of the daylight hours and end in a village where you sleep; others drive you into a national park and walk a marked trail for a couple of hours between viewpoints. Before you compare prices, decide which of those you want; the rest of the choice follows from it: how fit you need to be, what you carry, and how much of the day you spend in a van.

The overnight trek this site recommends is the clearest example of the first kind. It runs 2 days with a small group of up to 12 and guides in English and Thai, and it starts from $96. The route named in the listing goes from paddy fields into bamboo forest, stops for a swim at a waterfall, and ends the first day in a Karen hill tribe village.

The second morning continues on foot for 2 hours to an elephant sanctuary, then a bamboo raft takes over and a 1-hour drive returns you to your hotel at around 4:30 pm. It holds 1,001 reviews with an average of 4.74, and guests rate the guides at 4.8. That mix of walking, a village night and a river is the classic picture of jungle trekking in Chiang Mai, and it is the yardstick for the other options below.

The 2-day trek, as listed

From the old town to the river and back

Day 1, morning

Meet in the old town

Meeting point Baan Meesuk, with pickup available.
Day 1

Market, then the trail

A market visit, then paddy fields, bamboo forest and a waterfall swim.
Night

Karen village

Dinner and a basic night's stay in a Karen hill tribe village.
Day 2, morning

On to the elephants

Breakfast, then 2 hours on foot to an elephant sanctuary.
Day 2, afternoon

Raft and drive back

A bamboo raft, then 1 hour by road, arriving around 4:30 pm.

Overnight treks side by side

Several listings sell a similar night in the hills, and the details matter more than the titles. One trek in Mae Win, in the Mae Wang area, limits groups to 15, sleeps guests in a White Karen cottage and plans about 5 to 6 hours of walking on the first day. It starts from $89 and has 126 reviews. Rooms there are basic and shared, with pillows, blankets and mosquito nets, and you carry your things in a small backpack.

A different overnight format comes from a base camp in Mae Taeng: a guided trek of 2.5 hours to Tard Mok Waterfall, river tubing and a night in a dormitory, with elephant observation as an add-on. It starts from $96. Another overnight programme limits groups to 14, walks 3 to 4 hours on the first day and 2 to 3 on the second, and sleeps in a cottage with a hill tribe family.

If you want more than one night, a 3-day trek with Karen families in the Doi Inthanon area asks for moderate fitness and 5 to 7 hours of trekking a day, with basic camps, no electricity and limited signal. It starts from $148 and has 16 reviews so far. The longer trips have far fewer reviews than the 2-day trek this site recommends, a smaller sample of past guests to judge by.

Reviews

How many travellers have rated each trek

reviews

Number of reviews on each GetYourGuide listing compared on this page.

Side by side

Treks from Chiang Mai at a glance

Trek	Length	Group	Night	Price
2-day village trek	2 days	Up to 12	Karen village	from $96
Mae Win trek	2 days	Up to 15	White Karen cottage	from $89
Mae Taeng base camp	2 days	Not stated	Dormitory	from $96
Karen family trek	3 days	Up to 15	Basic camps	from $148
Doi Saket jungle day	1 day	Up to 10	None	from $54
Doi Inthanon trail day	1 day	10 to 12	None	from $35
Mae Kampong gibbons	7 hrs	Up to 7	None	from $75

Lengths, group limits and nights as each listing states them; prices are starting prices on GetYourGuide and change by date.

Three kinds of trek

A village night, a hard day or a gentle trail

Chiang Mai: 2-Day Jungle Trek with Elephant Farm & Raft Ride

This page's pick

2-day village trek

Jungle, Karen village, raft

Length: 2 days
Group: Up to 12
Price: from $96

Check dates

Chiang Mai: Doi Saket Hidden Jungle Trek & Waterfall

Most walking

Doi Saket jungle day

About 5 hours on foot

Length: 1 day
Group: Up to 10
Price: from $54

Check dates

Chiang Mai: 2-Days Jungle Trek, Waterfalls and Karen Village

Second village trek

Mae Win overnight

White Karen cottage

Length: 2 days
Group: Up to 15
Price: from $89

Check dates

Decision helper

Which trek fits your trip?

Pick the line that sounds like you, then read that listing.

I want a night in a hill village I want the hardest day trip I can get I have one day and want mountains I would rather look for wildlife I want two or more nights

The 2-day trek

A Karen village night, all meals, an elephant sanctuary and a bamboo raft.

Doi Saket

About 5 hours of hiking on a path the listing calls challenging.

A Doi Inthanon trail

A 2-hour guided trek plus the pagodas and the highest point.

Mae Kampong

A small group of up to 7 looks for released gibbons with a caretaker.

The Karen family trek

3 days, 5 to 7 hours of walking a day and basic camps.

trekking in Doi Inthanon or Phu Kradueng rewards travellers with panoramic mountain views

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT Newsroom)Source 1

One hard day in the forest

If Chiang Mai trekking in 1 day is all your schedule allows, the useful question is how much of that day is spent walking. The Doi Saket trek is the most walking-heavy day trip here: a 1.5-hour drive, then about 5 hours of hiking from a mountain village through jungle to a waterfall where you can swim, in groups of up to 10. The listing calls the path challenging and recommends hiking shoes and a good level of fitness.

Its reviews average 4.97 across 225 ratings, and it starts from $54. A gentler option, sold as a high mountain day trek, plans 4.5 km of hiking on undulating ground with an optional extra 2.5 km, in groups of up to 12, and is back in the city at around 5 PM. It warns that air quality can be poor from haze in the hot season.

Neither of these sleeps out, so you keep your hotel and pack only a day bag. What you give up is the evening: the campfire, the meal cooked in the village and the early start in cool air are the parts of an overnight trek that a day hike cannot copy. If you are on your first visit to northern Thailand and unsure about sleeping simply, a single hard day is a fair test of how much you enjoy the forest.

Map

From the old city to the roof of Thailand

First the hills around Chiang Mai where the treks and hikes go, then Doi Inthanon with its summit, pagodas, trails and falls.

Map of the hills around Chiang Mai with Doi Suthep, Doi Inthanon, Mae Wang and Mae Kampong — Around Chiang Mai

Map of Doi Inthanon National Park with the summit, the twin pagodas, the trails and the main waterfalls — Doi Inthanon

1
Chiang Mai old city
Start of the site tour: the meeting point is Baan Meesuk in the old town, with pickup available.
In Google Maps ↗
3
Doi Suthep temple
Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep stands at 1,056 metres, an easy half hour drive from downtown.²
5
Thailand's highest summit
The top of Doi Inthanon, at 2,565 meters.³
In Google Maps ↗
6
Mae Wang
Mae Wang District is one of the districts Doi Inthanon National Park covers.⁴
In Google Maps ↗
7
Mae Kampong
Ban Mae Kampong, a village in Mae On District, won the PATA Gold Award 2010 in the culture category.⁵
In Google Maps ↗
8
Summit stupa
The stupa of King Inthawichayanon stands at the summit, linked to the visitor center by an elevated walkway.⁶ ⁷
In Google Maps ↗
9
Twin pagodas and Kew Mae Pan
The Great Holy Relics Pagodas near the top; TAT lists give the nearby Kio Mae Pan Nature Trail as closed from 1 June to 31 October.⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰
In Google Maps ↗
11
Pha Dok Siew
Pha Dok Siao Waterfall has 10 tiers and lies about 1 kilometer on foot from the park headquarters.¹¹ ¹²
In Google Maps ↗
12
Mae Klang Luang
Ban Mae Klang Luang, a hill tribe village on several Doi Inthanon day trips.
In Google Maps ↗
13
Siriphum Waterfall
Twin falls reached on foot through the flower plots of the Inthanon Royal Project.¹³
In Google Maps ↗
14
Wachirathan Waterfall
About 70 to 80 meters high, at milestone 20 of Highway 1009.¹⁴ ¹⁵
In Google Maps ↗
15
Mae Klang Waterfall
Flows all year into large pools; rainy-season currents make swimming perilous.¹⁶
In Google Maps ↗
16
Mae Ya Waterfall
Thirty tiers and approximately 260 meters in height.¹⁷
In Google Maps ↗
17
Mae Pan Waterfall
Four tiers and over 100 meters tall, about 400 meters on foot from the ranger station.¹⁸
In Google Maps ↗

Open the map in Google Maps

Checklist

What to sort before any trek

For a day hike

Proper hiking shoes
Enough water for the first stretch
Sun hat and sunscreen
Insect repellent

For a night in a village

A jacket for the evening
Swimwear, towel and a change of clothes
Toiletries in a small daypack
Cash for drinks and small purchases

Cost calculator

Compare the cost for your group

Enter your walkers and a trek to see what it comes to.

2-day village trek2 daysfrom $96 Mae Win overnight2 daysfrom $89 Doi Saket jungle day1 dayfrom $54 Doi Inthanon trail day1 dayfrom $35

People 2

Total from$192

each from $96

Check availabilityfree cancellation

Starting prices come from GetYourGuide, converted with European Central Bank rates; booking reveals the exact figure.

Video

A day of jungle trekking in the hills of Chiang Mai

The video loads only when you tap play.

Mountain trails and wildlife walks

Some treks are really park days with a trail in them. The most reviewed is a Doi Inthanon trip that includes a 2-hour guided trek on the Pha Dok Siew trail, the twin pagodas, the highest point of Thailand and a Karen village, with 1,158 reviews. It starts from $35, and its groups are 10 to 12 guests in a joint tour.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand names trekking in Doi Inthanon among the country's daytime adventures for its panoramic mountain views.¹ Our pages on the Doi Inthanon trails and the park itself go into which path each listing uses and when the trails close. Expect more time in the van on these days: the park lies around 90 minutes' drive from the city.¹⁹

The other branch is a slower walk with a reason to stop. At Mae Kampong, a small-group day of up to 7 people walks a forest trail and looks for gibbons released in a rehabilitation project, with a caretaker. It carries 804 reviews averaging 4.94. Sightings are not promised, as the animals are wild and roam freely.

Eco trekking and how to walk respectfully

Many operators describe their trips with the word eco, and Chiang Mai eco trekking is a common search. Read that word as a promise to check, not a guarantee. The overnight trek this site recommends says it supports local communities and asks guests to respect the environment and be ready for a physical tour. The 3-day Karen trek asks guests to dress modestly in villages and always ask before photographing people.

Those two requests are a good rule on any trek. You are walking through land that people farm and live on, and a village night is a stay in someone's home rather than a guesthouse. Keep your voice down at night, take your rubbish back with you, ask before you photograph anyone, and accept that meals and beds are simple. Small groups make this easier, and every listing states its group limit.

Riding is a separate question you should settle before booking. The overnight trek this site recommends lists riding the animals as not allowed, and its elephant stop is described as a sanctuary visit with feeding and bathing. If elephants are part of your plan, read each listing's own description of that stop, and see our page on elephant and trekking days for how the combined trips differ.

How to choose in five minutes

Start with nights. If you want to sleep in the hills, the choice is between the 2-day trek this site recommends, the Mae Win trek with a White Karen cottage and the Mae Taeng base camp trip; compare them on group size, hours walked and whether elephants or water activities are included. If you prefer your own bed, choose between a hard forest day, a mountain trail and a wildlife walk.

Next, look at inclusions. The 2-day trek includes all meals, which the listing counts as 2 lunches, 1 dinner and 1 breakfast, plus basic accommodation, the sanctuary visit and the bamboo rafting, but not drinking water. That last point matters on a long day in the heat: carry enough water for the first stretch.

Last, look at the cancellation rules and where you meet. Every listing compared on this page offers free cancellation up to 24 hours before, so you can hold a date while you plan the rest of the trip. The 2-day trek meets at Baan Meesuk in the old town, with pickup available as an option.

Your trek