As we’ve had the chance to explore our part of the world and go on some absolutely amazing trips, we have consistently turned to friends and neighbors for their advice and recommendations. That advice has often made a huge difference in our trips – what can’t be missed, mistakes to avoid, local delicacies. A few times it’s been our turn to share our experiences of a place for the next family setting on their adventures, and I’ve always pulled together scraps of information, assembled from Google photos and Facebook posts. I’d like to make that process a little easier to share, so I’m going to start a series that I’m thinking of as the ‘So you wanna…’ series.

I always hesitate to share recommendations – travel is such a personal experience and what works beautifully for us, may not work for another family. Mileage may vary. But I’ve decided to ditch that hesitation, and just get on with it. Do what you will with these recommendations!

What we did:

Hotel: The Kireethara Boutique Hotel. This hotel is a little outside of town, so if you want to be situated near Chiang Mai’s Old Town, this may not be the hotel for you. We wanted a refuge away from the hustle and bustle of the Lantern Festival crowds where we could have a little more space, enjoy the pool and relax a little bit. This hotel was absolutely perfect for us. The staff were incredibly helpful and welcoming, the rooms were huge (nearly the size of our house), and the restaurant served delicious food all day long. I was able to work without waking up the whole family. We were always able to get a grab car into town for about $6. It’s not a perfect hotel – the finishes are a little dated and we never did get the Wi-Fi to work reliably, but it was perfect for us.

Transportation: We originally had a reservation for a rental car, but Hertz gave our car away before we arrived at the airport, and we never got around to finding a replacement. We never missed it. Most tour operators offer transportation to and from your hotel, and we were able to use the Grab app (the Thai equivalent of Uber) to get anywhere we needed to go.

Communication: We used Nomad (Tim) and Airalo (me) to purchase eSims with 50 GB for about $10. There were a few places in the mountains when we lost service, but overall it was fast and reliable. I was able to do all my work calls with no hitch, since the hotel Wi-Fi wasn’t available. I wanted to give Airalo a try to see how it compares to Nomad. There are minor difference between the two providers, but both have been easy, reliable, and relatively cheap.

Lantern Festival: We’ve heard that other families were able to make reservations at a restaurant to attend a smaller, more serene version of the festival, but we were never able to track down which restaurant or how exactly to do it, so we just bought tickets for the main festival event (Chiang Mai CAD Khom Loy Sky Lantern Festival). Usually I’m allergic to large crowds, so this wouldn’t be my kind of event, but if there’s ever a time to embrace the experience of crowds, the lantern festival would be it. I loved being surrounded by thousands of other people and watching their lanterns swirl up into the sky above us. But… book early. They were nearly sold out when we got our tickets a month ago, and we had limited options. And pay attention to what level of tickets you’re purchasing. Each level of ticket comes with a different mode of transportation to the festival. Families with young kids may not want to ride to the festival in the back of a pickup truck the way we did.

Thai Cooking Class: We did a morning session at Grandma’s Home Cooking School. I can’t recommend this school highly enough – the instructor was fantastic, the setting was gorgeous, and the food was incredible. We booked our tickets through Klook, but I think you can book it a number of different ways.

Elephant Visit: The Patara Elephant Farm came recommended to us as a humane elephant sanctuary and everything we saw confirmed it. The staff explained what elephant conservation means to them, and what they’ve learned through the years about caring for elephants. It was thought-provoking. And it was a lot of fun. We booked directly with Patara, but I think you could also book through websites like Klook or Viator.

Wat Umong: A Buddhist temple compound on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. It includes a stupa and chedi, tunnels dedicated to meditation, sculpture gardens and a lake where you can feed the pigeons and the fish. We really enjoyed it – it was beautiful, peaceful and educational (shh… don’t tell the kids). My favorite part are the ‘wisdom trees’ – the signs nailed into trees all over the compound. They included everything from Buddhist proverbs to quotes from modern movies like ‘Silver Linings Playbook’.

Baan Kang Wat: A picturesque village of shops and workshops of traditional Thai crafts created by modern artists and craftsmen. Give yourself time to join into one of the workshops to try your hand at creating your own art, or enjoy a leisurely lunch in one of the outdoor cafes. It’s a great location to buy gifts for loved ones.

Chiang Mai Circuit: Duke saw a sign for this place when we arrived at the airport and was immediately excited. The track was really well maintained and organized, and they seemed to take safety seriously. But more importantly, they had a whole lot of fun!

PooPooPaper: We were hesitant to try this place, but were very glad that we did. It’s located about 20 minutes outside of town, and was so much fun! We learned a lot about paper making, and about elephants. The setting is beautiful, the staff were friendly, and they even offered an option to order coffee while the kids got to work crafting out of elephant poopoo paper. I think you can book tours through sites like Klook and Viator, but we booked a GrabCar and went on our own.

Things We Would Do Differently:

In short, not much…

• Skip the rental car reservation. If you’re staying in Chiang Mai, a rental car would be more expensive and more stressful than navigating by Grab car.
• Pay attention to where and when we needed a Grab car. We had a few times that it was challenging to reserve a Grab car because we were too far away from the typical touristy spots and it was in the middle of peak times.
• Visit on a Saturday. The best street markets are apparently on Saturdays, and we missed it.
• Visit more specialty coffee shops. There’s one location (Akha Ama) that serves coffee roasted by the company and grown on a single farm operated by a hill tribe in the mountains. Chiang Mai is becoming known for its coffee, but we weren’t able to check out the burgeoning scene.
• Visit Pai. We just didn’t have the time to add a few days in Pai (a mountain village about two hours by car from Chiang Mai). But we’ve heard it’s well worth the visit.
• Try a Prison Massage. We’ve heard that the massages given here by the vocational program at the women’s prison are phenomenal.