Experience a completely off the beaten track hiking experience in Doi Inthanon National Park, just two hours drive from Chiang Mai.
Doi Inthanon is the highest mountain in Thailand and is one of the most beautiful areas of Northern Thailand. On this one or two-day hiking trail, you will witness a variety of interesting jungle flora and fauna, unique to this area of Thailand, as well as come in contact with unique indigenous communities. You will visit cascading waterfalls, eat lunch off banana leaf plates and enjoy incredible jungle viewpoints.
If you’re doing the two-day trek, you will spend the night at a local homestay built by a local hilltribe family of the Karen ethnic minority, as part of our skills development program. From them, you will learn about Karen culture and traditional herbal medicine that’s used in homemade saunas for centuries.
1 Day Trek – Doi Inthanon
Fast Facts:
- Trip Duration: 11 hours
- Total Time Trekking: 6 hours
- Lunch included
- Difficulty: Medium (mix of uphills and downhills)
- Season: Available all year
1 Day Itinerary
- We will pick you up from your hotel or guesthouse between 7-7.30am.
- On the way to Doi Inthanon National Park, we will stop at a bustling market to pick up some local snacks and take a bathroom break.
- Before we reach the start of the hiking trail, we will drive past Hoi Tong Karen Hilltribe village.
- Our trek will last approximately 6 hours and during this time we will walk through the borders of Doi Inthanon National Park and Mae Wang National Park.
- We will stop at a beautiful cascading waterfall for lunch and have the opportunity to have a splash around in the water if you like.
- We will trek by many viewpoints where you will get amazing panoramic views of the rainforest and be able to spot many jungle creatures like monkeys and gibbons.
- On the one day trek, you will visit the farm stay built by a local Karen Hilltribe family and learn more about their culture and traditional medicine.
- We will arrive back in Chiang Mai around 6.30 pm.
Fast Facts:
- Duration: 1 night, 2 days
- Total Time Trekking: 6 hours (Day 1) 4 hours (Day 2)
- Total Kilometres: 12km (Day 1) 6km (Day 2)
- Meals: 4 meals included (lunch and dinner, breakfast and lunch)
- Difficulty: Medium,(mix of uphills and downhills)
- Season: Available all year but if heavy rain occurs for many days, it is not possible.
2 Day Itinerary
Day 1
- We will pick you up from your hostel or guesthouse between 7-7.30am.
- Along the way, we will stop at a bustling local market to pick up some snacks and supplies and take a bathroom break.
- In the van, we will pass by the Hoi Tong Karen Hilltribe village before reaching the starting point of our Doi Inthanon hiking trail.
- On day one, we will hike for around 6 hours through beautiful countryside along the borders of Mae Wang and Doi Inthanon National Park.
- We will stop for lunch by a beautiful cascading waterfall. Here, you can swim and relax and take in the beauty of the rainforest.
- You will also pass many beautiful viewpoints to get panoramic views of the mountains and jungle and you can spot many beautiful birds as well as monkeys and gibbons in the trees.
- In the late afternoon, you will arrive at Churkee Farm Stay, where you are going to be spending the night.
- Here you will spend a relaxing evening and if you like, you have the opportunity to enjoy the traditional herbal steam room that’s been used for centuries by the Karen hilltribe people for health and wellbeing.
- That night, you will sit around a campfire and enjoy a traditional Thai meal prepared by your guide.
Day 2
- Wake up in the heart of the jungle and, if you like, before breakfast take a short stroll to see if the gibbons are in their tree and say hello!
- After a wholesome breakfast, we will start our trek at around 9.30 am.
- On day two, we will trek for about 4 hours through the rainforest.
- We will stop for lunch at a scenic spot along the trail.
- We will reach the end of the trek and leave to arrive back in Chiang Mai at around 5.30 pm.
Please note: This trek cannot run with less than two people. So, if you are booking for 2 people your trek date is guaranteed! However, if you are booking for one person, we will join you with an existing tour. Please select your preferred date using the calendar above and we will contact you to let you know if there is already a tour running on your chosen date, or suggest a nearby alternative date. We will not take your deposit until a date is agreed upon.
Lukasz –
In general trekking was a very good experience. Positives: knowledge of the guide about plants, possibility to try some of them like cinamon, amazing lunch at the Waterfall, food very well prepared in great athmoafere, good organization with transport. Negatives: i was a bit disappointed with the jungle itself, maybe its because of the season but to me it was like a normal forest not a jungle, i know it is not a zoo but I have not seen any Animals as well, i had one day trip and we have not met anybody in the hiltribe Village So there was no chance to speak and have this experience. Aparat from that Tour as described, 6 hours of hiking up and downs, transport, meal, swimming in the Waterfall was not possible because it was small one but really charming.
Niko –
We took part in the two day trek, and we highly recommend going for the over night trip. We were especially pleased with our tour guide Tin with whom it was safe to hike in the jungle, but he also had amazing knowledge about the plants and local culture. More so, he’s also a great cook! Even though the trek was awesome, there were some downsides as well: We didn’t receive all the information needed about the trip, and once we asked the customer support was very rude to us and fairly hard to deal with. If you can get past that, we encourage to take the two day trek!
Luca –
This was the highlight of a one month trip in Thailand. The hike was fun, along a trail not on maps, with loads of insights from the guide and lots of laughter. I did the 2 days and the farmstay was so worth it, finally a real look into the lifes of the hilltribes, completed with lunch, the following day, at a hilltribe family! Thank you so much, it was perfect!
Leila –
This trek was the highlight of our time in Chiang Mai. The hike itself wasn’t challenging, but you need to be prepared. We loved staying in the Hilltribe Village and our guide Tin was amazing. He entertained us with folk tales around the fire and showed us some real Karen hospitality.
Katrina –
We loved the hike, the guide was amazing. It was great to learn so much about the trees and plants in the forest and staying the night was exciting. It was my favourite part of our 2 weeks in Thailand!
Yi Xian –
Really friendly guide who did a great job taking care of us during the 2 day hike and cooked really good food too! Really learnt a lot during the hike and even got to take home some cinnamon from the tree bark. Really enjoyed this hike and it’s such a once in a lifetime hike which I won’t forget.
TingChou Lin –
The two days trekking in Doi Inthanon is the best outdoor experience in my life ! Firstly, I want to recommend the guy “ Jackie Chen” . He is not also good at speaking English but also understand the knowledge of Thai culture, farm skills , insect , animals … it’s too much I can’t write it all. Though I didn’t sleep in the bamboo huts because it’s broken by storm, I still had a wonderful night in home stay . I lived in the traditional house which was built with woods and ate the dinner they cook . It’s very very excellent !!!
Therefore , the view of top is beautiful. Trekking in the jungle can taste many wild plants and fruits . It’s very fun !!
Lauren Kubik –
I loved my overnight trek at Doi Inthanon. The group was small and we all trekked at the same pace. The guides were very friendly and informative about the surrounding nature. Staying overnight is definitely worth it. Bring some extra cash for beers and snacks, but the meals are all included. I highly recommend bringing a book as you will have some downtime after your trek on the second day before you head back to Chiang Mai.