Top Things to do in Mae Taeng
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9 Things to Do in Mae Taeng That You Shouldn't Miss
Discover the best top things to do in Mae Taeng, Thailand including Thai Elephant Home, Wat Ban Den, Woody Elephant Training, The Mae Ngat Dam & Reservoir, Huai Nam Dang National Park, Maetaeng Elephant Park, Pong Dueat Geyser, Si Lanna National Park, Wat Aranyawiwake (Baan Pong).
Restaurants in Mae Taeng
1. Thai Elephant Home
Overall Ratings
5 based on 834 reviews
Reviewed By Amanda H - Jacksonville, Florida
My husband and I did the "two hour elephant nursery" and would highly recommend this experience to any visitors to the Chiang Mai area. We enjoyed being able to interact with the elephants while they went about their usual routine; nothing about this experience felt staged or like they were putting on a show for us. The drive to the elephant home is stunning but some of the roads are winding and then turn into a dirt path closer to the camp so be sure to pre-medicate as needed if you get car sickness.
Your guide will also take lots of candid pictures of you interacting with the elephants, which is a great way to remember such a wonderful afternoon.
2. Wat Ban Den
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 112 reviews
Reviewed By A TripAdvisor Member
My boyfriend and I visited this temple whilst staying at the Phusanfah Resport which was only a 5 mins bike ride away. The temples are beautiful some of the nicest temples I've seen, definitely worth the trip to check them out. The pictures I have attached just don't do it justice, go see for yourself!
3. Woody Elephant Training
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 457 reviews
Reviewed By peterandraewyn - Sydney, Australia
Great fun feeding, touching, riding, washing elephants. Practical and safety-conscious training provided with professional elephant trainers close by at all times. The guy running the establishment is friendly and humorous, and is keen to have happy and healthy elephants well into their old age (up to 100 years). The staff were great with our kids, and soon had our nervous 7-year old up in an elephant (with a mahout), giving commands like a pro.
4. The Mae Ngat Dam & Reservoir
Overall Ratings
4 based on 79 reviews
Reviewed By Jet S
The dam was awesome. If you want to get away from the busy cities, head over to this place. It's about 45min(more or less, depends on where you start) ride from Chiang Mai. And it's near Bua Tong Waterfalls (Sticky Falls) too. So you can visit the falls then go straight to the dam. Stay for the night. Sunset is wonderful there. You can bring your own food or order from the restaurant there. Bring mosquito repellant though. :)
5. Huai Nam Dang National Park
Overall Ratings
4 based on 48 reviews
Reviewed By SeattleBasedVagabond - Seattle, Washington
As part of our Mae Hong Song loop, we stayed the first night in a cabin at Huai Nam Dang National Park. This is NOT in the main part of the park - it is ~20 KM closer to Chiang Mai. To get there you must go down a windy dirt road for ~15km, which we did in a mid-sized sedan with no problem. It is best to reserve and pay in advance (which requires a bank-to-bank transfer from a Thai bank account), but it was obvious many people pay in cash when they arrive (presumably only if there happens to be an unreserved cabin). The cabins are big (ours had two queen sized beds + couch + small desk), with full bathrooms, air conditioning (which we didn't need as it is not too hot in the area in December), etc. The door lock was broken, and the three folks who came to replace it couldn't figure out how to install their new one correctly...but we had no real problem from that - I doubt there is much crime...its too far away from civilization.
In addition to some beautiful forest area, there is a geiser field (which seemed small to use since we'd been at a huge one in Chile the prior year, but would be cool for those who haven't seen a geiser for a long time) a short walk away, and there are several natural mineral spring pools, of which we tried two (one marked for women, one marked for men, but both in both). They were warm (near the vent, QUITE warm)...but they were both slimy (which may have been the minerals) and didn't appear to have been cleaned for quite some time. Eventually we got out because we were a bit grossed out, but it is worth trying for a bit. While we didn't try them, there are also a couple small natural mineral spring saunas, which seemed like a unique experience.
This is NOT crowded...except maybe on a true Thai holiday. We were there 2 days before Christmas, and saw only a few other folks...probably mostly folks staying in the ~10 cabins.
Since you are SO far away from the main road, they actually have a made-to-order Thai restaurant right next to the cabins. The kitchen closes at something like 6pm or 7pm, so get there early. It was tasty and very, very cheap, by Thai tourist standards (i.e. no more expensive than a normal Thai restaurant focused on non-tourists) - both facts being quite surprising, considering its a monopoly in a 'tourist' area, and rather expensive to haul the food and employees in and out.
Its worth spending a night here. I judge it overall "average" due to the total combination of the accomodations, etc...but that is judging it against other places we stayed that weren't as unique/out-of-the way. For a change, and a unique experience, its worth a trip.
6. Mae Taeng Elephant Park
Overall Ratings
3.5 based on 109 reviews
Reviewed By anotherjason - London, United Kingdom
We arranged our own transport to the park because we wanted to have more flexibility to spend more time at the other attractions. Interestingly it was much more expensive to buy tickets at the door for just the elephant ride, than the whole package price from the hotel that included the transport/elephant ride/raft/food/show. The elephant ride worked out to be quite expensive, but we paid up as we were already there. The ride was not a very good experience, with the grumpy staff, trainer seemly hitting the elephants to get a reaction from the tourists, constantly asking for tips and stopping multiple times to ask you to buy food for the elephants. Overall, this attraction is catered for high volume tour groups and there is very little interaction with the animals.
7. Pong Dueat Geyser
Overall Ratings
4 based on 24 reviews
Reviewed By PretoriaTravelfreak - Pretoria, South Africa
The hot spring is really interesting to see and it is beautiful Gardens and a nice walk through the Gardens. It is however very expensive if you just want to go and see the hot spring. There are probably better places to go and see for cheaper. The road to the hot spring was also in quite a bad state.
8. Si Lanna National Park
Overall Ratings
4 based on 18 reviews
This 1,408-square-kilometer park is surrounded by Valleys and Mountains, offering a variety of tourist attractions including the Mon Hin Lai jungle waterfall, Mae Ngad Reservoir and the Yen Fountain.
Reviewed By BurmaTraveler - Baltimore
We spent 2 nights at the Si Lanna National Park raft houses. Our daughter and son-in-law and the grandkids live in Chiang Mai and we try to visit an "off the beaten path" location each time we visit them. By the way, when searching the internet for information about the park be aware that it is sometimes written "Sri Lanna". The Mae Ngat dam forms a lake that is home to a number of floating or raft houses. There are 3 that are run by the park itself. They can be accessed by foot once you are in the park. There are a number of others that are privately run that require boat transportation to access. We chose the park-run facility since it also gave us easy access to hiking trails and restaurants. We could swim in the lake right off our raft-house porch. You can also arrange kayaking and mountain-biking but our grandkids are a bit young for that. There are a number of boats available to take you on a tour of the lake which is definitely worth doing. The grandkids wanted to go fishing one day so the boat operators put us in touch with a couple who run some of the private raft houses and have a fishing boat for rent. Most of the people running the park and the restaurants do not speak English so be prepared to muddle along if you don't speak any Thai. We don't but our daughter and son-in-law do so we were set. The prices are quite reasonable (6 people for 2 nights at the raft house was about $60 US and the fishing boat for 1/2 day was about $45).
9. Wat Aranyawiwake (Baan Pong)
Overall Ratings
5 based on 5 reviews
Reviewed By Dogs For Sale C
Wat Aranyawiwake, also known as Wat Ban Pong is a monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition of the Theravada lineage of Buddhism located in Mae Taeng, Chiang Mai Province, northern Thailand.
We visited this temple and found so many amazing and different sized temples in the entire facility that is newly constructed. Huge statues of Roosters, dragons, some elephants, dogs, Buddhas and monks.It has very beautiful wooden furnitures, paintings and handicrafts everywhere. This place has shown an amazing craftsmanship of the people in Chiang Mai. It's a totally spectacular place to be.
The place is easy to find. Use Google maps and type the Wat Aranyawiwake and the coordinate location is in the map.
We enjoy and had fun appreciating Thai's passion for culture and arts.
