Includes internal flights, twin shared accommodation, English speaking guides, private cars, sightseeing and meals listed. Excludes visa and travel documents, travel insurance, international flights, local tipping, etc.
This itinerary is to give you a flavor of what is possible. We can tailor this trip to suit your specific needs and expectations. You may alter any aspect of the itinerary from excursions to accommodation.
International Flight: Excluded Welcome to Thailand! Upon arrival in Chiang Mai, our guide will greet you at the airport welcome area and transfer you to your hotel for check-in.
The old city walls still stand verdantly against the course of time, inviting pilgrims to come rest, and explore the lost treasures of the Lanna Kingdom. Established as the capital in 1296AD of the vast “Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields”, Chiang Mai carries a heritage lurking around every quiet cobble-stone alley and corridor. These days, cafes, boutiques, pubs, and spas are auspiciously peppered throughout, while colorful Meo and Akha hill tribes make their daily ritual visit to the valley to offer their handmade tapestries and handicrafts to curious adventurers. The Ping River weaves through the valley to the East of the Old City while a peaceful moat surrounds the time-worn walls.
Accommodation: Anantara Chiang Mai
Day 2: Chiang Mai | Temples of the Lanna Kingdom
Meals: Breakfast In the morning, visit the most prominent temples in Chiang Mai. Start with Wat Phra Singh which houses the famous Phra Singh Buddha image. It features Lanna art throughout and illustrates many famous Buddhist stories. Continue on to Wat Chedi Luang, which once contained the Emerald Buddha. The temple is partially in ruins due to an earthquake in the 1500s. Then stop at Wat Chiang Man which is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai and also houses one of Thailand’s greatest treasures: the Crystal Buddha.
Then continue to Wat Suan Dok, which houses many of the remains of generations of the old Chiang Mai Royal Family. Finally, visit Wat Jet Yot – this peaceful temple is surrounded by green and was built in the Mahabodhi style from India to house the Eighth World Buddhist Council in 1453. You’ll return to the hotel for some leisure in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Anantara Chiang Mai
Day 3: Chiang Mai | Befriending the Gentle Giants of Asia
Meals:Breakfast, Lunch
Today, you will visit an elephant sanctuary in the jungles near Chiang Mai.
First, you’ll learn about the project and hear the amazing stories of each rescued and orphaned elephant. You will have an elephant just under both of your care for the day-with the mahout (elephant guide) to help you learn about your elephant and get acclimated with their behavior and personality. Learn how she became free from abuse and misuse. You’ll be shown how to approach your elephant, what spoken commands she respond to, how to read her body language, and how to check her health. Then have an opportunity to feed her. The mahout will also show you how to ride on her neck(no heavy howdah seats are used) or you can walk alongside your elephant if you prefer.
Asian Elephant
Continue to the nearby river. Here you will have the opportunity to observe or participate in bathing the elephants with the sanctuary staff. The sanctuary has a photographer who will capture these moments in high quality for you throughout the day and provide you with a CD of the experience. Next, enjoy a picnic spread.
After you have said your farewells, return back to the hotel for some leisure time.
Accommodation: Anantara Chiang Mai
Day 4: Chiang Mai | Home-Hosted Cooking Class
Meals:Breakfast, Lunch
Drive to the south of the city to visit Wat Ton Kwen or Wat Inthrawat, one of the finest examples of classic Lanna architecture in Northern Thailand.
Proceed to Hang Dong for an incredible gastronomic experience with the local Ruankaew-Yanon family. You will be welcomed into their home to experience a typical day in the life of a Thai person. You will learn to cook traditional home cooked recipes with authentic Northern Thai flavors. These are different from standard dishes offered in commercial cooking classes. Enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal which you helped create with the whole family. Say your farewells and return to the hotel for overnight.
Accommodation: Anantara Chiang Mai
Day 5: Chiang Mai | Relaxing Day
Meals: Breakfast Enjoy a morning leisure at your hotel.
Chiang Mai is known for its legendary “Siam Lanna” massage techniques dating back to the Lanna Kingdom. In the afternoon, you’ll enjoy a royal relaxation treatment at the top-rated spa in Chiang Mai. Transfer to Zira Spa – an award-winning spa inside a beautiful Lanna-style refurbished mansion. You’ll enjoy your choice of either an aromatherapy massage(oil) or a traditional massage(non-oil) for 1 hour.
Continue to the night markets to explore the interesting curios, trinkets, silks, and jewelry created by the hill tribes in the surrounding highlands. Return back to the hotel for leisure and overnight.
Accommodation: Anantara Chiang Mai
Day 6: Chiang Mai | Alms Giving | Tea Plantations & Hmong Hill Tribe
Meals: Breakfast Rise early morning to join locals in visiting a Buddhist monastery. You can watch or participate in offering alms to Buddhist monks at Wat Srisodain. Return to the hotel for breakfast.
Then take a trip up in the hills and visit a tea plantation. Take a seat above the terraces flowing with arched rows of green tea shrubs while you sip on a fresh cup of hot Oolong. Explore the tea plantation to learn a little about the process of cultivating and harvesting tea. Then continue to a Meo hill tribe village. Have the opportunity to see their unique apparel and simple way of living. Meo families take a great deal of pride in their herbal gardens.
After seeing their home and making a new friend, return back to Chiang Mai.
Northern Thai Teaplanation and Hill Tribes
Accommodation: Anantara Chiang Mai
Day 7: Chiang Mai – Bangkok | Flight to Bangkok | Leisure
Internal Flight:Included Meals: Breakfast Relax sometime in the morning.
In the afternoon, take a flight to Bangkok. Upon arrival, our guide will greet you at the airport and transfer you to the hotel for check-in. Then you are at leisure to explore the Chao Phraya riverfront, go shopping, or visit a Muay Thai boxing gym on your own.
Accommodation: Mandarin Oriental
Day 8: Bangkok | Bangkok by Boat
Meals: Breakfast In the early morning, take a traditional longtail boat to Wat Arun – the Temple of the Dawn to enjoy a stunning view and explore the gem of Bangkok.
Continue to one of the must-see sights, the spectacular Grand Palace, undoubtedly the city’s most famous landmark. Built-in 1782- and for 150 years the home of the Thai King, the Royal court and the administrative seat of government – the Grand Palace of Bangkok is a grand old dame indeed, that continues to have visitors in awe with its beautiful architecture and intricate detail, all of which is a proud salute to the creativity and craftsmanship of Thai people.
Within its walls were also the Thai war ministry, state departments, and even the mint. Today, the complex remains the spiritual heart of the Thai Kingdom. Within the palace complex are several impressive buildings including Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), which contains the small, very famous and greatly revered Emerald Buddha that dates back to the 14th century. The robes on the Buddha are changed with the seasons by HM The King of Thailand and forms an important ritual in the Buddhist calendar. Thai Kings stopped living in the palace around the turn of the twentieth century, but the palace complex is still used to mark all kinds of other ceremonial and auspicious happenings.
Then return to the hotel for some leisure time in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Mandarin Oriental
Day 9: Bangkok | Colors of Bangkok | Cycling Trip
Meals: Breakfast Join a morning cycling adventure through Bangkok!
First, you’ll ride through some of the poorest communities in Bangkok. What they don’t have in wealth they definitely make up for in warm smiles. Continue to the Chao Phraya River to cross by boat. On the other side, you’ll ride through the shaded trails of the “Green Lung of Bangkok”. It’s an isolated outcropping of land which is full of vegetation, coconut and banana trees, and wildlife. Stop for a small meal. Then continue to a Buddhist temple isolated from the city. Monks perform their daily rituals and tasks wearing bright saffron robes.
Take a boat ride back across the river and continue to the last stop, a Muay Thai gym – where you can see aspiring champions training hard in the Bangkok heat. Return to the hotel for some leisure time in the hot afternoon.
Accommodation: Mandarin Oriental
Day 10: Bangkok | Ayutthaya Kingdom Discovery
Meals:Breakfast, Lunch Start early and transfer North to the Ancient Kingdom of Ayutthaya. Start by visiting Wat Phu Khao Thong – a temple outside of Ayutthaya started by the invading Burmese who built the base when they overtook Ayutthaya and was finished by Siam who later took back their city. Continue to Ayutthaya and start with the Royal Palace and Royal Temple – dating back to the 14th century. Continue to the nearby Viharn Phra Mongkol Bopit where the largest bronze Buddha in Thailand is housed.
Wat Chaiwatthanaram of Ayutthaya – 17 Days Thailand Cambodia Luxury Tour Biking Culinary Class
Enjoy a Thai lunch and some free time. Have a short visit to Wat Lokaya Sutha – the image of the reclining Buddha. Then continue to the Royal Palace at Bang Pa In, which is the Summer Palace of the Thai Royal Family. Return back to the hotel in Bangkok for leisure time.
Accommodation: Mandarin Oriental
Day 11: Bangkok | Leisure Day | Street Food Tour and Night Life
Meals:Breakfast, Dinner Morning and afternoon at your leisure to relax and explore the fascinating city on your own.
In the evening, you’ll be picked up to explore the bustling Chinatown a popular tourist attraction and a food haven. Upon this 1-km strip packed with market stalls, street-side restaurants and a dense concentration of gold shops. Continue the journey to Pakklong Talaad, the biggest wholesale and retail fresh flower market in Bangkok. Drive to Wat Suthat and The Giant Swing.
From here, we continue on foot passing Bangkok Metropolitan Office to Democracy Monument. You’ll enjoy dinner at Hotel D’ Moc’s restaurant, then travelling by tram around Ratanakosin area with the fantastic views of “The Must-See” attractions in Bangkok, Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, The Golden Mount, Wat Ratchanaddaram, The Democracy Monument, The City Pillar Shrine, The Grand Palace, Wat Pho, National Theatre and Santi Chaiprakarn Park.
End up the night by exploring the Khao San Road for its famously described as “the center of the backpacking universe”. After tour completed, you’ll transfer back to the hotel.
Accommodation: Mandarin Oriental
Day 12: Bangkok – Siem Reap | Leisure | Flight to Siem Reap
Internal Flight:Included Meals: Breakfast Board an afternoon flight to Siem Reap. Upon arrival, our guide will greet you at the airport and transfer you to your hotel for check-in.
Siem Reap is a quaint town in Cambodia and the gateway to the vast remains of the Angkor empire. Discover the Royal Gardens on your own with ancient trees home to a colony of giant fruit bats. Take a stroll along the scenic riverside and visit the night markets to find unique souvenirs. You may also want to spend the evening with a visit to Pub Street with several restaurants and bars that stay open late into the night. Many restaurants have live entertainment in the evening.
Accommodation: Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa
Day 13: Siem Reap | Angkor Thom Ancient Capital by Bicycle
Meals:Breakfast, Lunch Enjoy a relaxing cycling tour in the morning in ancient Angkor Thom – a stone city built around the time of Angkor Wat.
South gate of Angkor Thom – 17 Days Thailand Cambodia Luxury Tour Biking Culinary Class
The biking tour will start at the South Gate – a photogenic bridge at the gateway of the stone city of Angkor Thom which has made its way into many Hollywood movies. Angkor Thom which was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer Empire. Enter the stone city and explore shaded trails and ancient monuments. Visit Bayon Temple where you will be surrounded by 216 gigantic stone faces which fame as “Khmer Smile”, you will also visit the Terrace of Elephants, the Royal Palace and the Terrace of the Leper King. Stop your cycling trip with a visit to the local monastery to chat with monks and see their daily life.
On the way back, stop to see the Killing Fields of Wat Thmei. Our guide will relay to you about the history of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, and the war. Cambodia is still healing from these atrocities.
Accommodation: Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa
Day 14: Siem Reap | Floating Villages at Tonle Sap | Water Filtration Donation
Meals: Breakfast In the morning, start with an ox-cart ride through Cambodia’s green countryside where you’ll see many coconut trees, rice fields, and water buffalo. After that, continue the trip to the largest lake in Southeast Asia, the Tonle Sap. You’ll take a boat ride to Kampong Phluk which means, Harbor of the Tusks due to its history in the elephant trade several centuries ago. You’ll also see the mangrove forests nearby. After the tour, you’ll return to your hotel to relax for rest of the day.
Then go to visit a small village to donate a slow sand water filtration system. You’ll have a chance to meet with the village families. The water filtration system will be able to provide potable/drinking water to the whole village. We can also arrange to have your logo or names painted on the filter ahead of time. The installation staff will instruct the villagers on how to maintain the filter.
Optional recommendation: We recommend that if you have any used children’s books in your home that you no longer need, you may bring them with to donate to the children in the village. This can impact the village children to focus on their education and provide them English reading materials not available from their school.
Day 15: Siem Reap | Bayon Vintage | Angkor Wat Temple
Meals: Breakfast For your last day in Siem Reap, you’ll experience the temple relics in a way that will really let you feel like you’ve escaped the 20th century and traveled a thousand years back to a time when life was simple and nature was surreal.
After breakfast, you’ll be escorted by a classic 1930s fully restored Citreon. Circle around Bayon temple and stop for photos with the classic automobile if you like. Then continue back to the South Gate.
From there, you’ll go for a gondola ride through the moats of Angkor Thom to see the vast ruins of the Khmer Empire at its peak. Close your eyes and smell the sweet perfume of the Romdoul flowers growing wild on the shore mixed with the scent of lotus flowers bobbing in the water.
Angkor Wat Temple – 17 Days Thailand Cambodia Luxury Tour Biking Culinary Class
World-famous Angkor Wat Temple
Finally, be prepared today to enjoy one of the Wonders of the Ancient World: Angkor Wat. At this point, you most probably have gotten glimpses of the towers over treetops and the gates in front in passing. But now you’ll finally get to satiate that curiosity that’s grown in the last few days. Enter Angkor Wat and learn about the stories and amazing architecture that has stunned archeologists leaving more questions than answers. Angkor Wat possesses some of the most intricate and longest stone carvings in the world. This complex is four times the size of the Vatican City making it the largest religious site in the world. Spend the morning adventuring through the many passages, levels, and exploring chambers that once housed one many treasures of the ancient world. It will be an experience you won’t forget. Return to the hotel around noon for leisure time.
As evening approaches, enjoy a relaxing spa treatment at Bodia Spa – an award-winning spa in Southeast Asia.
Accommodation: Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa
Day 16: Siem Reap | Leisure | Private Countryside Dinner
Meals:Breakfast, Dinner Relax in the daytime. You can also explore the city or visit a souvenir on your own.
Nearing dusk, you’ll go to a private dinner at a traditional wooden villa in the countryside surrounded by dragonfruit orchards and rice fields. Tiki torches and live traditional music will welcome you. Start with cocktails and canapes. Then enjoy an exquisite evening dinner while you chat and reflect on the fond memories you have collected over the last few weeks. Return to the hotel when you are ready.
Accommodation: Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa
Day 17: Siem Reap | Farewell!
Meals: Breakfast Today our guide will transfer you to the airport before your onward flight and will bid you a fond farewell. Thank you for traveling with us!
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It's easier than ever to get going! Request a quote today!
One of our Travel Experts will reach out to you and assist you with an itinerary and quote. Also, feel free to leave your phone number and we will give you a quick call just to say hello and clarify any questions we have about your inquiry.
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