Doi Inthanon National Park Day Trip with Twin Pagodas & Waterfalls

Everyone in Chiang Mai will tell you to visit Doi Inthanon, and for once the hype is earned. At 2,565 metres it's the highest point in Thailand, and the drive up is half the fun. The heat of the city fades, the air gets cooler, the forest changes shape, and somewhere around the middle you notice you haven't checked your phone in a while.

We start low, at Mae Klang Waterfall. It's wide and loud, and if you stand at the front you'll feel the mist on your face. Bring a rain jacket or just accept that you might get a little wet. It's a great warm-up and a good first photo stop of the day.

Then we climb to the top. You'll want the obligatory photo at the summit sign, and ask your guide about the little shrine nearby. The mountain is named after King Inthawichayanon, the last ruler of Chiang Mai, and his story is a nice surprise for most visitors. A short walk away, the Angka Nature Trail is an easy wooden boardwalk through mossy cloud forest, with ferns, moss on everything, and signs about the plants and birds you're walking past. It's quiet and cool, and it's a lovely break from the car.

Next up are the Twin Royal Pagodas, built to celebrate the 60th birthdays of the late King and Queen of Thailand. They sit in landscaped gardens high above the valley, and on a clear day the views are huge. Even when clouds roll in, the pagodas look pretty mysterious. Please wear something that covers your shoulders and knees.

By then you'll be hungry, so lunch is at a hillside restaurant with a proper sit-down menu (at your own expense). Your guide takes your order on the way down so the food arrives quickly. After that we visit Ban Mae Klang Luang, a Karen village surrounded by rice terraces, where we taste local coffee and tea and you can buy a bag to take home if you like. It's a slower, friendlier stop and a good chance to learn how people here live and farm.

The finale is Wachirathan Waterfall, an 80-metre drop that thunders into a rocky pool. On sunny afternoons you often get a rainbow in the mist. After that, we head back to Chiang Mai and drop you at Central Airport Chiang Mai around 6:30 PM, tired and happy, with time to find dinner.

We keep our groups small, with a maximum of 9, so you get a proper guide rather than a megaphone. TripGuru provides water in glass bottles and offsets carbon emissions on every tour.