Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son
Lanna hills
Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son over the mountain road — nine hundred bends, tea houses, hill-tribe kitchens and a night in a teak stilt house.
Day by day
A shape, not a schedule. Every one of these is rewritten around the people travelling it.
Chiang Mai
In late, dinner in the old city at a place with six tables. Nothing scheduled — the altitude and the quiet do the work.
Markets, then up
The wet market at six with a cook, then out of the valley. The road starts bending and does not stop.
Mae Sariang
Halfway, on the Yuam river. Shan temples, a slow evening, nobody.
Into Mae Hong Son
Mist in the valley until nine most mornings. A teak stilt house, a hot spring, and a market that is Burmese as much as Thai.
Villages, on foot
Walking between Karen and Shan villages with a guide who grew up in one — lunch in a kitchen, not a restaurant.
Pai, or not
Pai if you want the company, the long way round if you do not. We will tell you honestly which you are.
Down
Back to Chiang Mai the fast way, with a coffee stop at a grower's above the road.
What it includes
Included
- Every stay, chosen against the standard
- Private guiding and a driver where the roads ask for it
- Boats, transfers and internal flights
- One designer, start to finish
- A 24-hour line while you travel
Not included
- International flights
- Travel insurance — required, and we do not sell it
- Visas where they apply
- Personal spending and tipping
Suppliers on this route are held to the standard published on the homepage. Where a place is on our list because we trust the person running it rather than because we have slept there ourselves, we say so when we suggest it.
Start with a conversation.
Four questions, a minute of your time, and a designer reads it within one working day.
Begin planning