Being the gateway of Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is one of the most popular choices of many tourists when visiting Thailand. You can easily arrive to Chiang Mai from Bangkok by several ways such as train, plane and bus. Here are details of how to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai – hope it will help you in order to start an interesting journey.
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1. Going to Chiang Mai by plane
Chiang Mai International Airport welcomes thousands of tourists from many different countries every day. However, the most commonly used flights are still flights from Bangkok to Chiang Mai of many airlines such as Nok Air, Air Asia (departures from Don Muang Airport), Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways (departures from Suvarnabhumi) with the length of each flight about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour and a half.
From the airport, you can move into the center of the Chiang Mai city by many different means:
- If you have much luggage and want to quickly come to a hotel, you can reach the taxi desk (near the gate) to take yourself one. This way will be faster than going out to look for a taxi.
- If you like to go by songthaew of tuk-tuk, please wait for their passengers getting off before climbing up because they will not be allowed to go into without passengers.
- If you are going toward Old City, you should look for the bus shuttle every 20 minutes
- You can also rent a car or limousine of the airport to visit the city.
2. Going to Chiang Mai by train
Chiang Mai train station is the familiar destination of many tourists when coming to Northern Thailand.
There are about 10 train trips every day and one of the longest trips which attract a lot of tourists is the train to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (about 12 hours). You can arrive at Hua Lam Phong station to catch the train to Chiang Mai.
Except for holidays, you can easily purchase tickets at the train station. The ticket prices going from Bangkok have 3 classes along with accompanying facilities.
The 3rd class ticket is very cheap, you have to sit on a hard chair with no air-condition within half a day.
The 2nd class ticket costs 600–700 baht including bed and fan.
The 1st class ticket price is about 700-900 baht with air-condition and bed.
It is necessary to know that on festival seasons like Loy Krathong, you will difficultly buy a good ticket while the prices are higher than usual.
Despite being located in the city, Chiang Mai train station is quite far from hotels as well as attractions. Therefore, you can take a taxi, songthaew or tuk-tuk (cost about 100-200 baht depending on time) so as to get into the center.
When traveling in Chiang Mai, you can consult the railway below:
- Nakhon Phing Express ½ Bangkok – Chiang Mai –Bangkok
- Super Express 9 Bangkok – Chiang Mai
- Super Express 12 Chiang Mai – Bangkok
- Super Express 13/14 Bangkok – Chiang Mai – Bangkok
- Express 51/52 Bangkok – Chiang Mai – Bangkok
- Rapid 109 Bangkok – Chiang Mai
- Rapid 102 Chiang Mai – Bangkok
- Local 407/408 Nakhon Sawa – Chiang Mai – Nakhon Sawa
Opening hours: 24/24
Address: Chiang Mai train Station (Chiang Mai Railway Station), Charoenmueang Road, Wat Ket district, Chiang Mai city.
3. Going to Chiang Mai by bus
The bus station in Bangkok is located at Mo Chit, you can come here from anywhere of the city by BTS system (Mo Chit is the N8 in the Sukhumvit line).
At the bus station, you will see many buses, with seats, beds and air-conditions, running from 5:30 to 22:30.
Some bus firms can be listed such as Nakhonchair Air, Sombat Tour, Green Bus Thailand, Siam First Tour, each of them departure every one hour.
A ticket for a VIP bus trip costs about 500-700 baht (on holidays and crowded-passenger day, the prices are higher). You can departure right after buying a ticket during the day or you can make sure to have a good ticket if you book a few days in advance, especially on holidays.
Every bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai lasts at least 7 hours. Therefore, the ideal option tourists usually choose is the last trips that will be overnight in order to save time and costs by sleeping on the bus.
After arriving at the Chiang Mai bus station, you can continue to look for the local bus to visiting neighboring provinces or you also can catch a taxi, tuk-tuk, songthaew to downtown Chiang Mai. Every trip from the bus station to the centre is about 15 – 20 minutes lasting. The price which is agreed before going is 100 – 200 baht.
Some other destinations you can visit from Chiang Mai bus station is Pai (3 hours), Lampang (1.5 hours), Chiang Rai (2.5 hours), Lampoon (1 hour) and Sukhothai (4 hours).
Opening hours: 24/24 every day
Another way to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and vice versa is the car rental (if you have a license)
The distance from Chiang Mai to Bangkok is about 700 kilometer.
This solution is not much cheap; however, it is almost convenient and fast because you can go wherever and whenever you want without worrying about time.
If you drive a car, you will come across Highway 34, Highway 1 and Highway 11 to arrive in Chiang Mai.
Hope this article “How to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai” will somehow help you have a merry journey.
Read also: USEFUL TIPS FOR YOUR CHIANG MAI TRIP IN 2019