A Guide to Chiang Mai with kids.
This was our final stop on our Thailand trip and it did not disappoint. FULL of colour and culture, I couldn’t believe how different this rice paddy surrounded, temple filled old city was to the beachy islands. Our children aged almost 4 and almost 6 were in awe and absolutely wide eyed at all of the Monks they spotted walking around, the intricately decorated, beautiful old temples, tuk tuks and we discovered some incredible natural playgrounds. Here’s a guide on what to see and do…
A Guide to Chiang Mai with kids.
- Where to stay: Shangri La Chiang Mai was a luxe, super family friendly oasis in the city. It had a splash park, water slide, huge pool, kids passports where they can get stamps to get free treats, a huge bear in the room, kids bedding & amenities. INCREDIBLE breakfast buffet too. Book as a circle member for better prices & perks. See this separate blog post for more on it here.
Visit:
- The Coconut Market, open Friday/Sat/Sun 8am-2pm. It’s an artisan market with fab food, a mini goat petting park, live music, face painting & the dreamiest setting set in a coconut grove with little bridges through it & huts to sit in. I bought a gorgeous dress here. We went a bit early on the Friday so not everything was open but I imagine it’s a buzzy place at a weekend or later in the day.
- Elephant poopoo paper park & make your own paper from you guessed it - elephant poo! 🐘💩. Our kids loved this 45 minute session learning how to turn boiled elephant poo into coloured, textured paper and we had a really engaging guide for it. We prebooked a slot on their website but you can also just turn up. Gorgeous grounds full of banana palms & paper decorations, a great play area and sweet cafe. There’s also a huge fish feeding pond. Just be aware that you pay for the class but it doesn’t include any items. The class ends by choosing items to decorate but these are an extra. We didn’t mind, it was so cute and fun to get to make our own notebooks that will be a special keepsake too but just seemed a bit £!
- The Ginger Farm CM. Book a rice planting workshop here - one of the best parts of our whole trip or just visit for the farm to kitchen amazing food & dream dream setting. There are little bridges over lotus flowers & lily pads, rice paddies, animals to see, plants, huge bananas growing & flowers everywhere. The play area & restaurant almost reminded us of an Australian vibe. We loved our morning here & stayed after for lunch and to play more. There’s an epic hay jumping barn & sand pit area too. For the rice planting workshop the kids got to wear the cutest traditional uniform & hats, learn all about rice, light a fire, go out to the garden to pick blue butterfly pea flowers to then cook & dye rice with. They fed chickens, collected eggs, met and could ride buffalo, plant rice - their favourite bit and also slide down a mud slide. It was really well done & then they got served their rice as part of lunch.
- Triplets eat play, the most amazing bamboo playground & restaurant. We had some pizza, pad Thai and raspberry smoothies here and the kids loved playing on the epic play spaces.
- Hike the monks trail to Wat Pha Lat, a jungley mountain temple, it’s just about doable with kids but try to go when it’s not too hot! We actually got a taxi from the top rather than carry them back down again. The temple was so special.
- Chat with monks & feed the fish at Wat Jetlin, the most child friendly temple in the old walled city with bamboo bridges and huge catfish!
- Walk around the old walled city, there are temples on pretty much every street. We loved all of the street food. Make sure you go and visit this sweet lady for 50thb mango sticky rice.
- Our hotel had such an impressive breakfast spread that we actually didn’t need to eat out too much there but I had these places on my shortlist that I’d heard were good - Da’s Home Bakery, Adirak Pizza, Khun Kae’s Juice Bar, Hummus Chiang Mai, Chouquette Bakery & Cafe, Artisan Sourdough by Apple Fahey, Din Cafe.
- Visit a night market for souvenirs and amazing street food. There are a few around and they typically start around 5pm. The weekend ones are meant to be especially good.
- Go to the free, interactive NARIT space museum to learn all about space, science and the stars. We did this in between the temple & our elephant paper poo slot.
- We didn’t make it to Baan Kang Wat but it was on my list! As was Wat Umong, Fernpresso at the lake, Hauy Tang Reservoir & the sticky waterfalls.
- For a rainy day, The Haven Playground looked like a good option.
Get around;
- we used the Bolt app & never paid more than £2 for a journey even 30 mins long. We flew in & out of Chiang Mai International airport from Krabi and then to Kuala Lumpur for our flight home.
Think about;
- If I was planning our trip again then I’d try to visit Chiang Mai first, before the beachy part of our trip! We had 5 nights in Chiang Mai but probably could have got away with 3 or 4.
- Dress appropriately for the temples, especially for adults. There are signs at most which say visitors won’t be allowed in if you show your shoulders or knees. The kids wore shorts as we were out all day & they’d have got hot but I did take cover ups for them, we felt bad that they were in shorts but the Monks didn’t have an issue with it. Maybe children are exempt?
- look up the burning season which can be very polluting around March/April time although it’s supposedly meant to be regulated this year & starting later though
- If you need help planning a trip to Thailand, family travel planner @littlevoyageurs is the expert and helped us decide on visiting Chiang Mai based on her fab suggestions of things to do.