Jewels of Thailand

Wel­come to Thai­land! We’ll meet you at Chi­ang Mai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port and trans­fer you to our hotel in the old town. We’ll build our bikes and in the evening, we’ll enjoy an assort­ment of Thai cui­sine for dinner.

If pos­si­ble, it is advis­able to arrive a day or two ear­ly in Chi­ang Mai to prop­er­ly adjust to the time dif­fer­ence. Spend some time strolling around the old tem­ples and mar­kets, and rid your­self of any jet lag after the long flight with a tra­di­tion­al Thai massage.

After break­fast, we’ll review the week’s itin­er­ary and then embark on a 2‑hour dri­ve to the Mae Lao — Mae Sae wildlife con­ser­va­tion area. 

We’ll start with an easy and scenic morn­ing ride; a mix of fire roads and nat­ur­al sin­gle­track, and have a tasty lunch at a local restaurant.

The after­noon ride will be a long, thrilling descent most­ly on sin­gle­track. We’ll enjoy din­ner at a favourite restau­rant near the end of the trail, before head­ing to our sim­ple yet won­der­ful bun­ga­lows for the night, locat­ed on the moun­tain top of Huai Nam Dang Nation­al Park.

Set your alarm for sun­rise; you won’t want to miss the spec­tac­u­lar show. Wak­ing up above the clouds the locals refer to as “The Sea of Mist” is a sight to behold.

After break­fast, we’ll shut­tle deep into the Huai Nam Dang Nation­al Park to embark on an epic ride: a fun roller coast­er of nat­ur­al sin­gle­track. We’ll call in at a remote hill tribe set­tle­ment on the way to a well-deserved lunch. Time and lungs per­mit­ting, a shut­tle and short ride, most­ly down­hill, can be added in the afternoon.

We’ll trans­fer to Pai, a love­ly hip town best known for its street mar­kets, health spas and bohemi­an atmos­phere, and we’ll check into our beau­ti­ful glamp­ing resort for the night.

Today we’re at a more relaxed pace. After break­fast, we’ll trans­fer a short dis­tance out­side Pai for a  remark­ably scenic ride through the wide-open countryside.

Enjoy beau­ti­ful panoram­ic views before descend­ing a super flowy trail through the for­est that will take us all the way to the out­skirts of Pai. From there we ride back into town for lunch.

In the after­noon, we’ll start head­ing back to Chi­ang Mai. Along the way we’ll stop for anoth­er short, roller coast­er ride in the Mae Lao — Mae Sae Preserve.

Today we’ll trans­fer to the San Kuu ruins high up on Doi Pui, and ped­al up to the summit.

We’ll ride two trails in the area: the short but very tech­ni­cal north ridge and the trail lead­ing west. After a late lunch, we’ll vis­it Wat Doi Suthep, a remark­able 14th-cen­tu­ry gold­en tem­ple and a must-see for any­one vis­it­ing Chi­ang Mai.

For the more adven­tur­ous among us, we’ll have an option­al night ride down Doi Suthep Moun­tain! We’ll strap on night lights to han­dle­bars and hel­mets (pro­vid­ed by us), and take an easy but fun trail down, most­ly on fire roads with some fun sin­gle­track sec­tions, with great views of Chi­ang Mai at night along the way.

Well rest­ed, we’ll trans­fer south­west to the Mae Wang Nation­al Park, home to Thai­land’s high­est peak (2565 m).

The morn­ing ride strings togeth­er sev­er­al short and punchy climbs and descents and ends with an incred­i­ble, long flow­ing down­hill that ends at an old temple.

The after­noon ride shares the descent but we approach it from a dif­fer­ent direc­tion and take care of the ele­va­tion gain from the com­fort of our sup­port vehicles.

Today we’ll don our trekking shoes for a chal­leng­ing, stren­u­ous 700m ver­ti­cal hike through the lush for­est on the north side of Doi Inthanon, Thai­land’s tallest peak. We’ll arrive at a rocky out­crop and an ancient, long-for­got­ten stu­pa. Once we reach the sum­mit at 2200m, where we’ll break for a pic­nic lunch to take in our surroundings.

Luck­i­ly for us, a mer­ry band of ded­i­cat­ed local porters will car­ry our bikes up a dif­fer­ent trail. Once reunit­ed with our steeds, we’ll nav­i­gate our way down a spec­tac­u­lar trail offer­ing breath­tak­ing views, with an unfor­get­table ridge along the way.

The after­noon ride has a siz­able climb, but the descent is a fast, flow­ing trail that ends near a unique tem­ple with steep stairs.

We’ll shut­tle high up to a remote vil­lage, and vis­it the local hill tribe school. After shar­ing high fives with enthu­si­as­tic kinds, a shad­ed fire road climb and descent will lead us to a seclud­ed farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty. It marks the start of sin­gle­track heaven.

A short but super steep lung buster sep­a­rates the two parts of the descent. The ride con­tin­ues in a dried-up riverbed and then an undu­lat­ing dirt road that takes us behind the nation­al park gates. Lunch will be served in front of the spec­tac­u­lar Wachi­rathan waterfall.

The after­noon ride starts with a chal­leng­ing sin­gle­track climb that merges with (and repeats) the morn­ing’s descent. We’ll get picked up at a scenic area just past the riverbed before trans­fer­ring back to Chi­ang Mai.

Today is a well deserved down­hill day. We strap on (at a min­i­mum) knee pads, dou­ble-check our brakes, and spend a day shut­tling down­hill runs of Doi Suthep mountain.

The nat­ur­al trails here are long, steep and gnarly, but we will guide you down at a com­fort­able pace. Trail selec­tion will be made depend­ing on the trail con­di­tions, but a typ­i­cal day would include the local favourites: Gee’s House, Bam­boo and ATV trail.

In the evening, we’ll rev­el over a deli­cious cel­e­bra­to­ry din­ner and reflect on our adventures.

After break­fast and our final good­byes, we’ll dri­ve you to the Chi­ang Mai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (CNX) a few hours before your depar­ture flight.