Start from 61 curated places around Chiang Mai, TH, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Rasik Local Kitchen
An intimate five-table Northern Thai kitchen on Sridonchai Road earning Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition for its seasonal, shareable northern plates. The kitchen leans heavily on forest herbs, fermented pastes, and fire-charred proteins rarely seen on standard menus -- beef tongue with chili, northern-style crab fried rice, and rotating curries built from the morning market. One of the few places in the city where the Lanna pantry is treated with the same rigour as the techniques.
Blackitch Artisan Kitchen
A 16-seat chef's table on Nimmanhaemin Soi 7 running a rotating tasting menu that draws from Thai, Japanese, and Chinese technique while sourcing 100 percent of its ingredients from across Thailand. The quarterly menu changes are genuine -- fermentation cracks, curing timelines, and foraging sourcing notes appear on a printed sheet with each course. On Asia's 50 Best Restaurants discovery list and in the Michelin Guide, with a quality ceiling well above any other restaurant in the city.
Trails & outdoors
Monk's Trail to Wat Pha Lat
The most rewarding forest walk from the city, starting near Chiang Mai University and climbing through dense canopy to the hidden jungle temple of Wat Pha Lat before continuing steeply to the summit of Doi Suthep. The lower stretch is shaded and gentle; the upper push above the temple tests anyone not in regular hiking shape. The trail rewards stopping at Wat Pha Lat midway -- moss-covered stupas and a stream that runs through the temple compound -- before deciding whether to summit.
Chiang Mai Old City Wall Route
A low-key 3-km loop tracing the outer moat that encircles the 13th-century Old City, walkable in under 90 minutes without entering a single temple or paying any admission. The northern side is the most atmospheric -- shaded by large ficus trees and used by locals for morning runs and cycling. The four surviving gate towers punctuate the route and the inner moat corner gardens are where Thai families set up for evening picnics.
Things to do
Sunday Walking Street
Every Sunday from late afternoon, Ratchadamnoen Road transforms from a quiet Old City street into a kilometre-long open-air market stretching from Tha Phae Gate to Wat Phra Singh. Hundreds of vendors sell hill-tribe textiles, lacquerware, silkscreened prints, and hand-carved wooden objects alongside food stalls with northern Thai snacks -- miang kham leaf bites, grilled corn, sticky rice in bamboo. The crowd is mixed Thai and foreign but the craft quality is genuinely higher than most tourist markets.
Wualai Saturday Night Market
The Saturday market along Wualai Road -- the historic silversmith quarter south of the Old City moat -- is the market locals prefer over the Sunday counterpart. Fewer tourists, more neighbourhood feel, and goods that reflect the area's actual craft tradition: hand-hammered silver jewellery, ceramics, and textiles made by local artisans rather than imported wholesale. The silversmith workshops along the street operate during the day for those who want to watch the technique.
Landmarks & sights
Wat Phra Singh
The grandest temple complex in the Old City, built in the 14th century to house the ashes of a Lanna king. Its centrepiece is the Phra Singh Buddha image inside the gilded Viharn Lai Kham pavilion, whose walls are covered in intricate murals depicting daily Lanna life. Come at dusk when the gold catches the last light and worshippers arrive with jasmine garlands.
Wat Chedi Luang
The ruined stupa at Wat Chedi Luang once stood over 80 metres tall -- the tallest structure in 15th-century Lanna -- and housed the Emerald Buddha before it was moved to Bangkok. The partially collapsed sides reveal earthquake damage from 1545 and give the site a weathered grandeur that the tidy restored temples cannot match. The City Pillar shrine tucked in the northeast corner draws local devotees all day.