Things to do in Chiang Mai – How to discover what to do in Chiang Mai

Are you looking for things to do in Chiang Mai? Planning a trip and wondering what to do in Chiang Mai? It is always hard to get the best advice before you arrive in a new place. You probably have limited time to explore the area. You therefore need to plan ahead in order to make the most of your visit. This article will help you find the best things to do in Chiang Mai during your next visit.

tripadvisor Chiang Mai

You might start your investigations on tripadvisor. Tripadvisor Chiang Mai offers much more than just hotels and guesthouses. Try searching in Google for tripadvisor Chiang Mai tours. There are certainly plenty of choices available and therefore this seems like a great place to start your search. However you will also find that there are so many things on offer that it is still hard to make the right decisions.

Best things to do in Chiang Mai

So you might go for something like the 15 best things to do in Chiang Mai in order to narrow down the choices. The problem here is that the offerings are often the older more established things to do in Chiang Mai and you could easily be missing out on more interesting and unique Chiang Mai activities.

Refine your searches

You will probably try and refine your search some more.  Try adding in specific interests. Maybe you like to ride motorbikes. Adding in motorbike tours to your search criteria will get you a great selection of bike trips in order to have a better chance of finding just what you are looking for.

The more you refine your searches for things to do on your vacation the more likely you are to discover the hidden gems. Tripadvisor Chiang Mai is dominated by the more mainstream trips and tours. Just searching for the top things to do in Chiang Mai may not be the best way forward.

Use Filters

One way to narrow down the choices is to use the filter system in tripadvisor. For example you can select Things to do from the main menu and then use the filters in the left column. Maybe select ‘Classes and Workshops’ for example. We can now select something like ‘Lessons and Workshops’ or ‘Cooking Classes’ in order to reveal some exciting alternatives.

Reviews for things to do in Chiang Mai

Tripadvisor search positions are largely based on reviews. However they are focused more on quantity that quality. When you are deciding what to do in Chiang Mai the tripadvisor reviews are a great resource but are you seeing them for the best things to do? You are likely to find the more mainstream tourist attractions. Many of these have been around for ages and feature the popular touristy places and activities. For many travellers these are exactly the things that they are trying to avoid.

Using Facebook

You can also try searching in Facebook. In some ways you are more likely to locate more unusual and special things to do in Chiang Mai. Try searching for Chiang Mai photo tours for example. You will find DLC Photo Tours here. You could try looking up special groups. I tried Thailand travel groups and found some interesting travel and tourism groups. The same is true for Chiang Mai travel groups. These groups can put you in touch with real people that have better insights into what to do and where to go.

You can also use more specific searches in the Facebook search box. Try Chiang Mai Eco elephant tours or Chiang Mai cooking school. You will find interesting pages of things to do in Chiang Mai that you might have missed in tripadvisor Chiang Mai.

Tour Booking Sites

Nowadays you can look for and book more than just your flights, hotel and car rental online. There are now many other sites than tripadvisor that are dedicated to booking tours and activities all over the world.

Viator

Viator has more than 60000 tours ad activities in over 150 countries and over 1000 destinations. It is packed full of revues. Of course it was acquired by tripadvisor in 2014 so it has many of the same tours that you find searching on tripadvisor Chiang Mai.

It is very easy to select Thailand and then Chiang Mai in order to get results. As with tripadvisor you then need to use the filters in the left column to narrow down the selection. Try something like ‘Cultural and Theme Tours’ for example.

Get Your Guide

What we like about the selection of things to do in Chiang Mai on Get Your Guide is that it gives plenty of information about who actually runs the tours, trips or activities. They certainly have a good selection of activities in Chiang Mai and therefore well worth a visit.

Other tour booking sites include City Discovery  and Expedia (Things to do).  Tours By locals is a bit clunky but when you do arrive at the Chiang Mai section it seems to offer some activities that do not feature in the bigger websites.  Its main focus is guided tours.

Google Search

Unfortunately Google tends to be dominated by the big online tour websites and affiliate marketers. These travel bloggers and review sites all have an agenda, namely selling the tours that they review. You can try Lonely Planet, Travel Fish, Geeky Explorer, NOMADasaurus, The Crazy Tourist and Bucket List Journey. These sites look like they give great insider information and indeed some of them really try to do so. However you are constantly aware that the recommendations will include the best affiliate marketing links because that’s how they make money. You will also be distracted by the constant bombardment of adverts.

Our advice is to search through to pages 3,4 and 5 in Google if you search for things to do in Chiang Mai. You will start to find the funkier travel bloggers down here but they still have an agenda. If you search for best things to do in Chiang Mai or top things to do in Chiang Mai you will fall further into the affiliate marketing review sites.

Get creative with your searches

Whenever you search for travel related information you will find yourself inundated with affiliate marketing. Bloggers can make such a lot of money by linking people through to the booking engines. This makes it really hard to find more interesting and unique things to do. Try using more diverse search terms. Follow your interests. For example if you are into yoga try yoga Chiang Mai. Now you will start to find actual providers that you can contact directly for the best information.

Are you interested in experiencing the elephants of Chiang Mai? Search for Eco elephants Chiang Mai to get beyond the pages of booking engines and affiliates.

DLC Chiang Mai Holiday Photos

At DLC Photo James de la Cloche offers something quite unique. We offer Chiang Mai photo tours set against the backdrop of this exotic and beautiful city. We offer professional portrait photographs shot in nature with elephants for example. You can combine fabulous professional photoshoots with amazing and special insights into Chiang Mai.

We are local and so we know all the best places to visit and the best things to do in Chiang Mai. You won’t always find them in the travel websites.

We try to avoid marketing through the booking engines although you will find us on tripadvisor and we do recommend that you take a look at what people are saying about our service. Check out our galleries. We much prefer to deal direct with our customers because we can offer a great deal of flexibility and create amazing experiences in Chiang Mai.

James was our vacation photographer during our honeymoon at the Chai Lai Orchid in Chiang Mai. James helped us create an incredibly memorable experience for our honeymoon. He followed us to temples (including a magical temple deep in the jungle) and did two sessions with elephants at the sanctuary. His photographs are beautiful and I can’t wait to see them on our wall! James is a very skilled photographer, but he is also a lot of fun to spend your special moments with! He is great with both humans and elephants!!

We did a photo tour with DLC & James was fantastic! We did the FD3 package, but opted to forgo the traditional Thai costume and choose our own outfits. James & his team were wonderful with helping us to find flattering poses and beautiful backdrops. Everything came back absolutely incredible and promptly at that. We could not have imagined them turning out so well! Our family and friends have been raving nonstop about them, even still almost 4 weeks later. He sent us hundreds of stunning pictures and helped highlight his favorites/some of the nicest ones. We are so incredibly pleased and would undoubtedly recommend you to use them for any and all of your photography/videography needs!

We know how hard it is to find the more unique things to do in Chiang Mai. Tripadvisor Chiang Mai is a good start and the travel bloggers and review sites can be useful. At the end of the day using creative search terms in Google probably produces the best results. We hope that this article helps you to decide what to do in Chiang Mai. Please get in touch for further information.