Although the town of Chiang Dao is famous for its Elephant Training Center, several adventurers have come to these parts for another reason altogether: cave trekking. The Chiang Dao Cave (Wat Tham Chiang Dao) is without a doubt one of the area’s more fascinating sites. Five limestone caverns invite one to uncover its beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, Buddha statues, and votive offerings from faithful pilgrims. Two to three of the caves make for an easy visit on your own, as they’re illuminated by electric lights. You’ll find Buddha statues here, including a 4-metre (13 ft) reclining one. Don’t miss the row of five seated Buddhas in the first cavern, as many travellers find them particularly impressive.
After our cave adventures, we'll head to the Chiang Dao market to gorge on delicious local meals before making our way to the Buatong Sticky Waterfall. While waterfalls are notorious for being slippery (and quite dangerous!), one impressive feature about this natural wonder is the sticky mineral deposits that allow visitors to actually climb up the waterfall without falling off. Feel free to appreciate the scenic landscape while you're at it as well. We'll pass by the Mae Malai Market before returning to hotel/meeting point.
Absolutely incredible tour with Peter. He was super knowledgeable and kind throughout the whole experience. Loved how talkative he was and he gave us great suggestions for the other places we were going to Thailand. Also loved the photos that he took for us!
Excellent tour, with a wonderful guide! The Chiang Dao cave is fascinating from both a natural and cultural perspective. The Sticky Waterfall was much more fun to experience than we expected - definitely worth it!
We just got back from our tour. Somehow we got lucky and found that we were the only people on this tour. We got special “VIP” attention. Our guide, Popcorn, is very easy going. He is kind, patient, easygoing, and knowledgeable. He has a wealth of historical knowledge of the cave and the areas that we drove through. He also shared information about the forestry and landscape. Chiang Dao cave is amazing and breathtaking. A must see. Definitely a different type of “temple”. Because it was just the two of us, Popcorn and Superman (the driver) accommodated our needs and interests. Have to admit, with names like Popcorn and Superman, I knew we were going to have fun!
We got lucky as it is slow season and got our own private tour. Our tour guide Peraset (Peter) is very knowledgable and flexible with schedule. Both cave and waterfall were fantastic. Peter added a scroll at the local market was also a highlight! Peter made it a very special day for us.
Our tour guide Em was very enthusiastic, providing detailed and thoughtful explanations while delivering excellent service. Em adjusted the itinerary based on the needs of the travelers, giving us an even better travel experience. It was truly an unforgettable trip! Highly recommended for everyone to book!
Our group loved the sticky waterfalls at the end, but my wife and I enjoyed most of all the cavern exploration. The story that our guide related to us was very educational and made the experience more enjoyable
We had a fantastic day with Banana (our guide). Teens can be a tough crowd but they really enjoyed the cave - bats, spiders, crickets, amazing stalactites and all. The extended cave tour was definitely worth the extra 300baht and the local guide was great. You go a long way into the cave. Worth knowing that the cave is a temple, so respectful clothing required. We had lunch at the cave area, which was lovely and then went onto the waterfalls. It was an amazing experience walking up a waterfall. The teens did it twice, once was enough for us! Altogether a great day out.
The cave was very humid and hot. There were passages that we had to crawl through to get to the next bigger room. It is possible to skip those though. All in all, we would skip the cave in the future. The sticky falls were a lot of fun. That made the day for us. Our guide Keti was very nice and talkative. We were the only ones on the tour.
Our tour guide Pranom was so awesome! She was friendly and so knowledgeable on the places we went to, telling us facts about the cave and statues there. Since our group was bigger we had a private tour and she gave us destinations where we could also visit. For lunch she took us to a restaurant by the river which was so scenic to have lunch there. The food there was super delicious and very inexpensive!
Our tour guide (Chai) was incredible. He was very knowledgeable and he had such a great attitude. The cave was impressive. We paid the extra to go a little deeper into the cave, and it was worthwhile. The sticky waterfalls were amazing! It was fascinating to climb up them, mind blowing actually. All-in-all it was a great experience, and I would highly recommend.
We had an amazing day on this tour, largely thanks to our wonderful tour guide Em! The group trip was fully booked so my friend and I opted for the private tour and it was so worth it. We felt very taken care of and learned a lot about Thai culture and stories from Em. She is so knowledgeable, friendly, and interesting to talk to. The caves were fascinating and we especially liked seeing all the bats inside when we opted to go deeper into the caves. It’s not “caving” so much as walking around the caves, but we didn’t mind. The sticky waterfalls were so much fun to climb around on and explore. Em also took us to buy local fruits and got us snacks from a local market which was really fun. Highly recommend!
We had a wonderful day, Noi, our guide was absolutely perfect. He speaks English very very well and was a discreet and helpful company all day long!
We had a fantastic day visiting the Chiang Dao Cave and Sticky Waterfall with Noi. Noi was very friendly and told us lots of stories about Chiang Mai. The ride was very comfortable and air conditioned. We ate at some local spots and visited a morning market for fruit and snacks. It was a relaxed and fun day. Highly recommend this tour!
Caves and waterfall were both fantastic - spectacular novel environments and good exercise. Make sure to opt for the local guide to go through the dark part of the caves, that was the best part by far! Our guide was flexible in our itinerary and made great suggestions.
Great trip, Sunny was a very attentive and interesting guide for the group, highlight of the tour was the sticky waterfall, it's challenging but loads of fun.
We really enjoyed this tour. Not only were the caves interesting and the Sticky Falls were a lot of fun, our guide, Tim, really made this a special day. He was engaging, informative, and made sure everything went well. On the drive out to the caves he answered all our questions about Thailand so we really learned a lot about the country and the culture during the drive. He met all our needs and let us control the pace. Thanks, Tim, for a great day!
The trip was amazing, we were provided with professional guide Leo, who has very nice sence of humor. I was feeling like Indiana Johns. Yours is full of adventures and I definitely recommend it!
it was one of the most interesting adventure I had - visiting the cave with the guide with oil lamp . You will see different beautiful shapes created by the nature during the time. The cave is 'live' as they say, it is peaceful - and you really feel it.
The cave and the waterfall was nice to see. I had a lovely guide Arty. We had some good conversations and it was nice talking to her. Also she speaks very good English. Arty was my favorite guide from my whole trip.
An outstanding adventure. Nun is an outstanding guide. Extensive educational background including studying as a monk, degree in hospitality and excellent command in English it couldn’t be better. We had a private tour. Trekking the Chiang Dao Caves and climbing up the Butong waterfalls seems daunting for seniors like me. Nun encouraged and guided us so that we were able to complete our adventure safely. Strongly recommend this tour but only in small private groups.
This trip to the caves and Waterfall was amazing, our tour guide sammy was great and so friendly we had a lovely time. The market was also so good!
It was an excellent join-in tour although I was the only one joining that day! That made it a very personal experience. The Caves are really nice and I actually recommend doing the full tour including the inner-caves (try joining a group of folks already there if you are not a group already). The Sticky waterfall was good as well, it's a wonderful wonder of nature. The guide Chaowit was amazing too - friendly and with excellent English! Highly recommended
We visited the caves as a couple a guide showed us around. It is beautiful and it remains a place of worship, respect this place is important.
Ein unvergesslicher Tag! Zur verabredeten Uhrzeit wurde ich von meiner Fremdenführerin Nom und dem Fahrer abgeholt. Ihre sympathische und offene Art hat mich direkt begeistert. Auf dem Weg zu dem Höhlen von Chiang Dao haben wir an einem Markt angehalten. Dort habe ich einen Überblick über die frischen und regionalen Produkte erhalten und was in der Region um Chiang Mai angebaut und verzehrt wird. Es gab auch eine Kostprobe von leckerem Mais. Die Höhlen von Chiang Dao waren fast leer, als hätte ich sie für mich alleine. Eindrucksvolle Naturgewalt und ein spiritueller Ort. Die Stalaktiten und Stalakmiten sind wirklich sehenswert! Das Highlight dieser Exkursion war für mich auch gleichzeitig eine persönliche Herausforderung. Das kann man frei wählen, ob man mit einem Local Guide und Gaslampe die Tour durch die Tageslichtlosen Höhlengänge unternehmen möchte. Es ist dunkel, man muss darauf achten wohin man tritt und es muss durch enge Öffnungen gekrochen werden. Beobachtet von unzähligen Fledermäusen. Aber ich habe mich sehr sicher und gut aufgehoben gefühlt. Eine positive Erfahrung. Der Ort ist sehr speziell, dort kommen viele Menschen zum beten zusammen. Der nächste Programmpunkt war die Fahrt zum Sticky Waterfall. Es gab vorher ein leckeres Mittagessen und dann ging es gut gestärkt zur Besteigung des Wasserfalls. Es war einfacher als ich dachte und hat einen großen Spaß gemacht! Wirklich eine tolle Erfahrung, denn der Stein ist wirklich rau, so dass man trotz des Wassers darauf laufen kann. Ich bin froh, diese Erfahrung und Abkühlung genossen zu haben. Dann ging ein schöner, ereignisreicher Tag zu Ende und ich muss sagen: meine Erwartungen wurden übertroffen. Nom hat mir einen wunderbaren Tag bereitet in einer freundschaftlichen Atmosphäre mit vielen interessanten Gesprächen. Ich konnte viel über Land und Leute lernen. Ich empfehle diese Tour und im besonderen Pranom Tapor als Fremdenführerin. Alleine für sie würde ich jederzeit wieder zurück nach Chiang Mai kommen!
Good healthy food and good cheap massage in every corner of the old town. Kind people and many nice excursions are available starting from Chang Mai. Don’t miss the best restaurant Hot Pot Panda which is proof that super good food can be cooked without sugar and msg.
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