Trekking in Northern Thailand - Practical Information

We have already touched upon trekking in the northern provinces of Thailand ( Chiang Mai , Chiang Rai , Mae Hong Son) quite a bit on the pages of our website. In this article, we decided to collect and summarize all the information so that you can decide for yourself whether it is worth buying organized trekking excursions or going to the mountains and exotic tribes yourself. You will learn: how much trekking in the north of Thailand costs; where you can and should buy organized excursions; what you can do when visiting mountain tribes and what you cant; how to prepare for a hike in the jungle and mountains.

Even taking into account all the disadvantages of organized trekking excursions, we categorically do not recommend going on a hike into the jungle or mountains without a guide. It is dangerous!

Trekking in Thailand is one of the most interesting "entertainments" in the north of the country. It can be said that if you have been to the north of Thailand and have not wandered through the jungle or mountains, have not visited remote villages of exotic tribes - you have not fully got to know the north of Thailand.

You can go on a trekking excursion, or, in other words, a hike, on your own, or as part of an organized individual or group tour. We strongly recommend doing this as part of an organized tour. Before deciding to go trekking on your own, you should soberly assess your strengths. To do this, you need to have hiking experience, be able to navigate the terrain and maps well, and have survival skills. And, ultimately, you just need to have everything you need for a serious hike. In addition, an independent hike in unfamiliar terrain may simply not be interesting, since you will not know the places worth visiting, what to pay attention to. In the case of an organized tour, you will only have to take care of a minimum of personal belongings and suitable clothing. The tour organizers will do the rest for you.

Where and how to buy trekking tours
In popular tourist cities of northern Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Dao , Thaton , Feng , Pai and many others) you can easily buy trekking tours. You can book and buy tours in advance via the Internet, or you can do it on the spot. You will not get a price advantage when buying a tour via the Internet. The only advantage of booking in advance via the Internet is that you can sit at home and calmly read the information about the tour program, reviews and plan everything in advance in time. Pay special attention to planning in time, since on the spot it may turn out that the tour you like does not leave every day, and your time in the north is limited.

The most popular and popular departure point for trekking tours is the city of Chiang Mai. Slightly less popular are the cities of Mae Hong Son and Chiang Rai. Usually, tours from these cities are cheaper than similar tours from other cities. Chiang Mai is especially famous for its large number and cheapness. This is simply due to the large number of offers and the large number of departing groups. It may well turn out that upon arriving in Chiang Rai, which is not visited by so many tourists, you will have to pay twice as much for a tour as in Chiang Mai simply because there are not enough tourists and you will have to go on an individual tour. At the same time, tours from Chiang Mai are famous for their low quality, but more on that below.

Tours vary greatly in program and duration, hence the wide range of prices. In most cases, the tour price includes everything you need: meals, overnight stay in tents or in a special guest house in the village, transfer, elephant riding, porters, etc. Most tours do not include drinks and liquor, tips for guides and porters, repellents, gifts for tribal people, souvenirs. Tour duration can range from 1 day (without overnight stay) to several days. The most popular are 2-day (one overnight stay) and 3-day (two overnight stays) tours.

The cheapest group tours cost from 600 baht per day. But the minimum price for a more or less high-quality group tour starts from 1000 baht per day, and good tours cost about 2000 baht per day. For individual tours you will have to pay several thousand.

The quality of tours, especially from Chiang Mai, can be very disappointing. This is especially true for the cheapest tours. To get a quality and interesting trekking, you should carefully study the tour program (the more places to visit, the better); look at the route on the map (the further from the big cities it goes, the better, as a rule); find out what is included in the tour price.

Don't rush into choosing right away. Visit several travel agencies. Most tour sellers are just middlemen working on commission, so it's quite possible that by going next door you'll find the same tour for a few hundred baht cheaper. Some guarantee of tour quality can be the presence of a TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) license for the guide or agency organizing the tour. Having a TAT gives more chances that the tour will be interesting and eventful. Well, in any case, a cheap tour cannot be good and interesting. Is your disappointment in the trip worth a few hundred baht saved?

It is also worth mentioning that among multi-day tours there are options with overnight stays in villages in the houses of local residents, in tents near the villages or in a special guest house in the village. Romance is romance, but the reality is that in real villages everything is real, including dirt and unsanitary conditions (by our standards). You should be prepared for the lack of basic amenities, including showers and toilets, unpleasant smells from local residents, dirty dishes and poverty. You will be pestered with offers to buy something, for which the whole village may come running. If you still want to experience such pleasure, then it is better to choose an overnight stay in a separate house prepared especially for tourists. The conditions there are better and local residents do not visit there without an invitation.