Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand: 14 must-see places

Under the forest, you walk into cool, vaulted brick tunnels where lit niches hold Buddhas covered in offerings.

The monastery was founded by King Mangrai at the foot of Doi Suthep. Under King Kue Na (1355-1385), meditation tunnels were dug in all four directions. Abandoned during the Burmese occupation, it became a meditation centre in 1949, on 6 hectares of forest.

Allow an hour: the tunnels, the large old chedi above them, the pond where you can feed the fish, and the "talking trees" hung with Buddhist sayings in Thai and English.

A kilometre south of the university, far from the noise of the old city, the site stays almost empty on weekdays.

After the 309 naga-lined steps, the golden chedi appears all at once, ringed by parasols and worshippers circling it barefoot, with Chiang Mai spread out 700 m below.

Founded according to tradition in 1383, the temple stands at 1,073 m, about fifteen kilometres from the city. Legend has it that a white elephant carrying a relic of the Buddha stopped here, marking the spot for the sanctuary.

Allow 1 h 30: the climb by stairs or funicular, a walk around the central chedi, the chapels and the panoramic terrace over the Ping valley.

It's one of the most revered temples in the north, and the only one of Chiang Mai's big sites with a view over the whole city.

Under the midday sun, the white plaster and mirror shards are almost blinding: you cross a bridge over a pit from which hundreds of sculpted hands reach up.

The White Temple is the work of Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, who opened it to the public in 1997 and is still building it. It is as much an artwork as a temple: white stands for the purity of the Buddha, and the murals in the main hall mix film and comic-book characters with Buddhist imagery.

The visit takes about an hour: the bridge of the cycle of rebirth, the main hall (no photos inside), the golden toilet building and the gallery devoted to the artist.

No other temple in the country looks like it: on its own, it justifies the trip to Chiang Rai.

At dawn, above 2,000 m, mist clings to the moss and rhododendrons, and you need a fleece even though it will be 30 °C in Chiang Mai that evening.

Doi Inthanon rises to 2,565 m, the country's highest point, at the heart of a 482 km² national park whose forests have been protected since 1954. Near the summit, two royal chedis dedicated to the King and Queen, Naphamethinidon (1987) and Naphaphonphumisiri (1992), overlook flower gardens.

It's a full day: the summit and its short cloud-forest walk, the chedis, Wachirathan waterfall on the way down, and the Kew Mae Pan trail, which must be walked with a local guide.

Summit, waterfalls, high forest and Karen villages in a single day: no other trip from Chiang Mai packs in so many landscapes, and birdwatchers record hundreds of species here.

In the middle of the old city, a gutted mass of red brick towers over the rooftops: even cut down, the chedi dwarfs everything around it.

Begun in the 14th century and finished in the mid-15th under King Tilokaraj, it stood 82 m tall. An earthquake in 1545 brought down its upper part. The Emerald Buddha, now in Bangkok, was enshrined here in 1468 before leaving for Luang Prabang in 1551.

Walk around the chedi and its stone elephants, then visit the viharn and the city pillar (Sao Inthakin); allow 45 minutes, more if you stay for a chat with the monks.

Its half-collapsed ruin has no equal in the city, and it's a walk from any hotel in the old city.

At the royal temple, the tiered teak roofs sweep almost to the ground, and the gold of the façades shines under the trees while novices sweep the courtyard.

Built in 1345 by King Phayu to hold his father's ashes, Wat Phra Singh takes its name from the Phra Buddha Sihing, the statue brought here around 1400. It was given the rank of first-class royal temple in 1935. A few streets away, Wat Chiang Man, built in 1297 by King Mangrai, is the oldest temple in the city, with its chedi carried by fifteen brick elephants.

Allow 2 to 3 hours, on foot or by bike, to link Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Chiang Man through the little lanes inside the moat.

In a single morning, these three temples sum up seven centuries of Lanna architecture, in wood and brick.

In the Mae Taeng valley, the elephants move in small groups between the river and the fields, and visitors watch from platforms, without riding them.

The sanctuary was founded in the late 1990s by Sangduen "Lek" Chailert, about 60 km north of Chiang Mai, to take in elephants from the logging industry (banned in 1989) and from tourism. It also cares for rescued dogs and buffalo.

A half-day or full-day visit includes preparing food, watching the elephant families and a vegetarian lunch; the park focuses on observation, with no riding or shows.

Plenty of places call themselves "sanctuaries" while offering elephant rides: not this one. Check on the official website that the programme you choose doesn't include bathing with the animals.

Inside, everything is cobalt blue: walls, pillars, ceiling, and at the centre a large white Buddha that seems lit from within.

Work began on 27 October 2005 on the ruins of an abandoned temple, and the main building was completed on 22 January 2016. It was designed by Phuttha Kabkaew, known as Sala Nok, a student of Chalermchai Kositpipat, the creator of the White Temple. Its name means "house of the dancing tiger".

The visit takes 30 to 45 minutes: the main hall, the blue nagas on the stairway and the statues in the garden.

Less famous than the White Temple, it's often preferred by travellers for its calmer atmosphere and its colours.

At the end of the road, the fretwork roofs of two Burmese-style temples are reflected in Mae Hong Son's small lake, often wrapped in morning mist.

The loop links Chiang Mai, Pai, Mae Hong Son and Mae Sariang over about 600 km of mountain roads; local legend credits it with 1,864 bends, a number printed on T-shirts more than measured. Mae Hong Son, capital of a province bordering Myanmar, keeps a strong Shan culture, visible in its temples Wat Jong Klang and Wat Jong Kham.

It takes 4 to 5 days by car, with stops at waterfalls, caves, hill villages and viewpoints, sleeping in Pai, Mae Hong Son and Mae Sariang.

Few coaches, villages that still live to the rhythm of their markets: the loop shows a far more rural Thailand than Chiang Mai.

In the evening, the main street closes to cars and fills with skewer stalls, fruit-juice stands and live music spilling out of wooden bars.

A small town in Pai district, Mae Hong Son province, it sits on the Pai River, about 146 km north-west of Chiang Mai on the road to Mae Hong Son. A former market village, it has become the most popular stop for travellers in the mountains in twenty years.

Stay two nights for the hot springs, waterfalls, the valley's rice fields, the World War II bridge and Pai Canyon at sunset.

If you make only one stop in the mountains outside Chiang Mai, make it this one: everything is within 15 km of the centre.

At nightfall, Ratchadamnoen Road turns into a river of lamps and coloured awnings, where you shuffle between stalls of silk, soap and skewers.

Every Sunday, the street runs from Tha Phae Gate right across the old city to Wat Phra Singh, closed to traffic. The courtyards of the temples along the way, Wat Chedi Luang among them, fill with food stalls.

Allow 2 to 3 hours to walk it, eating your way through the temple courtyards: khao soi, sai oua, mango with sticky rice, fresh-pressed juices.

It stretches across the whole width of the old city, with regional crafts, marked prices and the feel of a neighbourhood party.

The ochre earth ridges are sometimes no wider than a footpath, with gullies on either side and the Pai valley glowing red at sunset.

The canyon, called Kong Lan in Thai, is a set of ravines and ridges carved by erosion, beside Route 1095, a few kilometres south of Pai as you come from Chiang Mai.

Walk the ridges for 30 minutes to an hour, then sit on a promontory to wait for the sun to set over the mountains.

Ten minutes by scooter or songthaew from central Pai, no other viewpoint in the valley is easier to reach.

From the bank at Sop Ruak, you watch the wide brown Mekong swallow the Ruak, with Myanmar to the left and Laos opposite.

The Golden Triangle is the mountainous region shared by Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, centred on this confluence. From the 1950s it was one of the world's largest opium-producing areas.

Allow 2 hours: the viewpoints over the three countries, the opium museum, and perhaps a short Mekong cruise; the historic town of Chiang Saen, a few kilometres away, has temple ruins.

The site works better combined with Chiang Saen than as a trip on its own: together, they tell the story of the Chiang Rai region.

After the brightness of the White Temple, the black teak pavilions, hides, horns and skulls laid out on tables feel distinctly unsettling.

Baan Dam is a private art museum designed by artist Thawan Duchanee, who added to it for nearly forty years, from 1975 until his death in 2014. It gathers more than 40 buildings over about 16 hectares, including a large central pavilion 44 m long built between 1999 and 2009.

Wander for an hour between the Lanna-style pavilions and the stranger buildings, shaped like shells or white domes.

The dark counterpart to the White Temple, Baan Dam tells the story of Northern Thailand's contemporary art alongside it.