Chiang Mai To White & Blue Temple, Black Museum & Golden Triangle

The day tour to ChiangMai was great. The Temples are stunning. The time at each Temple was just too short. The lunch that was provided was wonderful and abundant. The Tour Guide and the Driver were professional and lovely.

One word to describe this tour is amazing! I love every bit of it even it was long but worth it. Our tour guide Susy did an amazing job and the driver as well.

This was a LONG day! We knew it was going to be a full day but we left the hotel at 7 am and got back at 10 pm and no opportunity to eat dinner. The portion to the Golden Triangle was the issue - 4 hour drive back with a stop at 7/11 for chips etc at the halfway point. Lunch was at 1 so this was ridiculous - everyone was starving by 8 when we got to the 7/11. And the extra trip wasn’t worth the time for the boat ride on the river - nothing to see. Also, that portion and the Long Neck tribe were optional but if you didn’t take them you waited in the van. They should be 2 separate tours - with and without.

One of the marvelous monuments in chiang Rai. We were a group of four friends and we took a minibus early morning from Chiang Mai. The roads from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai are good and white temple is a must visit place

It is a long day but you'll get too see the highlights of Chiang Rai and for that it is worth it. White and Blue temples are truly marvelous. The black house was probably the least interesting attraction. I would remove this if that would allow for more time at the white temple to take more photos. The long neck village experience is so-so. You'll get to see people from different tribes that are refugees in Thailand. The golden triangle was fun for us. Just for the sake of being in between 3 countries and getting to enjoy a beer a the end of a long day.

The places to visit are amazing and the guide was auper helpful and with a lot of info to share with us. Something important is that they need to include some warning that unless you are in Chiang Mai you wont be able to select the extra things. I pay for the visit to the Village and I couldn't do it because they did it before pick me up in Chiang Rai so I pay for something that I could visit.

Very beautiful! Love the blue and white temple. Just a warning, it’s a long trip and the driver drives fast and aggressively.

Kathy, the guide, showed us very interesting things and always had good energy. The only thing we would change is that they put us together with a couple that had scheduled extra activities and we (8 people) had to decide at the last minute if we would pay for the activities (the boat is not worth it, it is see the same thing from land as from the boat) or wait, in the end the activity of fewer hours that we chose due to time ended up being just as long and we spent more, we arrived at Chiang Mai around 10 at night.

Visiting the white temple is a most while you’re in Thailand. It’s an astonishing piece of art. But the best part is the golden triangle with all of the culture and geographical meaning there. I really enjoyed it, but since you have to do quite a lot in a short window of time, the drive back to Chiang mai is really heavy and driving is quite fast and could feel a bit unsafe. But overall I recommend it

The tour guide was amazing. The architecture of each place is unique and breathtaking. My favourite was the white temple or the heaven and hell temple. It was pristine. The golden triangle was a unique experience too. Thanks a lot for making my trip memorable.

Be prepared for a very long day, but you really do see quite a bit. The White temple is stunning and definitely the highlight. There were crowds but not as many as in other sights. Our guide was so professional, funny and helpful throughout the day, even keeping us on track when two other guests were super late to pick-up, hadn't paid in advance and needed to stop at a bank, and were late returning to every excursion. My patience would've been exhausted, but our guide, (Hori?), was so sweet and did her best to keep us on track. My only recommendation would be for the tour company to set expectations with their guests. The two guests were super inconsiderate and would've been better suited with a private guide. Kudos to Hori for maintaining her professionalism and ensuring we all had a great day.

Wendy was absolutely amazing, a lot of driving but worth it. The only thing I would change is the driving, the driver made us feel really unsafe by going really fast, overtaking dangerously, etc

"Don’t let limited time stop you ticking off Chiang Rai’s most spectacular sights" - Exactly, our time is limited, but this tour wasted over an hour and a half of my precious time. I did not book to visit the long neck tribe village, but was still taken here; and then they tried the upsell! Sounding a lot like those taxi scams you keep hearing about in Bangkok. I had explicitly not booked to visit them since I just cannot condone and take part of the exploitation of these people for tourism. I'm not preaching or trying to make a statement here; if other people want to see them, by all means (you do you). But that's half an hour waiting in a hot car park with no air con or anything to do. I would have been happy to join the boat ride at the golden triangle at the end, but by then, I was basically done with this tour. Guide said that I will only need to wait for another half an hour for the group to return from the boat ride, but it ended up being an hour! And then it was another 10 minutes in the van waiting for the others as they visited the Giant Buddha. The "guide" only mentioned a few minor details at each place. English was definitely a challenge for him, so getting any sort of useful information out of him was painful. I have to say, he had to be the worst tour guide I had ever encountered, I may as well just hired a private driver or taxi for the day. The van was a bit on the older side (rear wheel suspension was squeaking a lot), but seemed to handle well on the downhill (a thumbs up to the driver's skill). Surprisingly, the thing I enjoyed the most out of the trip was Baandam Museum (Others didn't seem to think so. Most seems to like the White Temple more). I don't think myself as a creative, but Mr. Thawan Duchanee's art really resonated with me. I doubt our "guide" would know much about it. The other "temples" seemed more like tourist traps (I didn't see anyone practicing any kind of meditation, etc). Given they were built pretty recently, they obviously won't have much historical importance. They may have great cultural significance, but I can't really be sure given how our tour guide was pretty hopeless.

The day was packed with activities, so you get to see many things. Everything was very nice and well organised.

Pros : guide is really friendly and great energy. Cons: It's okay but it's a not worth the price. They combined two groups so I spent over an hour of the day waiting for river boat and village parts of the tour without Aircon in the heat by the vans because that wasn't part of the tour I booked. Overall the sites are super packed and are just for tourists so have no substance , culture, history. It's a long way to drive for what it is. They served lunch at 11.30am which was ridiculous because the coffee stop was 10am so we had all eaten. The buffet had few options and almost no protein options just plain rice or soggy pad Thai. We got back to chiang Mai at 9pm and food options on the route were a 7-11 or kiosks.

The value for money really is in the last section of the tour which is the visit to the golden triangle, the boat ride on the Mekong across to donsao, laos and back. The two temples along the way were both underwhelming when you step inside but incredibly eye dilating when you stare at both from the outside. Culturally rewarding seeing the longneck tribe women at their looms and even more rewarding sharing a vehicle with various nationalities and sharing national experiences and other affiliations. Overall, I'd rate this an 8/10 and advice that if you must, take in all the options else you may have to wait around for 30mins at a time while everyone else goes off to complete parts of the trip.

Excellent trip learned a lot about the locations we visited. The guide gave us ample time at each spot and provided excellent explanations

Really bad transport. Old, uncomfortable and dirty van. Operator guide was a little rude with bad attitude. We ended up calling back our own driver to go back to Chiangmai. It’s much more worthy and comfortable. Don’t go for this tour.

Everything on trip. It is good experience to see . white temple is very creative and beautiful. Tour (MM and Happy) is.very helpful to understand of each site and farvorite with ice cream at blue temples

Must do day trip if you are in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai area. Makes for a hectic, long day trip but we'll worth it. The trip has well spaced stops, excellent roads and included a very good lunch (even for vegetarians).

The guide was excellent, we only had a few days, so this tour was very good for us. If we had more time we would have visited the locations for longer on different days.

It was a beautiful but tiring day! Hotsprings, white temple, blue temple, black museum: everything was great ! I especially enjoyed having a lot of free time and the food was very delicious! I haven't visited the longneck Karen village, but the boat tour was nothing special: too bad we didn’t go to see the temple and the triangle symbol... And the road is winding, feeling like a rally! One less star because of the incomprehensible English of our guide :-/

The white and blue temples are must see while you're in Thailand. I enjoyed seeing the Golden Triangle and taking the short boat ride to get to see it all. Its worth the long drive from/to Chiang Mai. I specifically chose this tour because it did NOT have a visit to the Karen village to see the Long Neck women, and they added it in so I had to sit and wait 30-40 minutes for this part of the tour. Not the end of the world but just be aware this will happen. Finally, our tour guide was the best. He was full of information, fun, and even sang a few times for us.

We visited Chiang Rai from Chiang Mai in. a group tour with Leaf as our guide. We knew that it will be a long day since it meant to be 14 hrs tour. However it was fascinating that Leaf managed the group with specific instructions to visit the places and the time to return. On the way in the morning stopped at hot springs for a short break and in the evening at Patta Shop . Had plenty of time to visit the places and taking photographs. Even though we didn’t opt to visit the long neck tribe village, the others in the group visited same. We spent the time enjoying a coffee at the parking area. There’s plenty to see and shop in the Golden triangle area if someone does not join the boat trip. Altogether a fruitful day. The van was comfortable but be ready for a high speed ride . The rest of the visitors were also friendly and very peaceful. Arranged lunch was good and they had arranged vegetarian meal separately for me. The Thailand Tours (tour operator) took an extra mile in returning a jacket that was left in the van by my son, and delivering same to Bangkok after we left Chiang Mai. We were delighted

Much like the famous motel and gift shop on interstate 95 in the USA, the White and Blue temples were built as tourist attractions to draw people to the area. The craftsmanship of the White temple is superior to that of the Blue. I would describe the design inspiration as classic Lana temple meets Liberace. If this is your thing, by all means take this tour! The company is well organized and has scheduled stops for bathroom breaks as well as lunch. And you’ll need them because the drive is 3 long hours through winding terrain each way.

This was a long tour but totally worth the money and exactly what we wanted. We wanted to do Chiang Rai and with two young babies they were understanding and accommodating. Long day but worth it from 7am to 930pm.

Do not recommend. Lots of false information when booking! Trip took from 7AM to 9.30PM, with no dinner. Out of those 14,5 hours, you will spend around just in the car. The temples are extremely rushed, the times advertised here is NOT true. If you dont book any of the extra options it might be less than 3h of activities you will have to sit and wait until the people who booked them return. Even if it's just 2 out of 9 people. Actual time we got to spend at the destinations: Hot spring: 15 minutes (to buy food, go to the toilet, boil eggs. way too short) White temple: 1h, but 20 minutes of those we stood in the sun away from the temple listening to the guide tell us the same thing she had already told us in the car. so really only 40min Blue temple: 35 minutes. Baan Daam msueum/Black temple: 40 minutes Hill Tribe village, which we did not book: were told we'd only had to wait 30min, actually had to wait for one hour in the middle of nowhere. Golden Triangle: actually 30 minutes. Food: -we only got handed water around maybe 2pm -The "Thai cuisine at nearby restaurant" turned out to be a restaurant that was ONLY frequented by tour groups, probably because the tour companies get paid to bring tourists here. no air-condition, barely working fans. The lunch buffet was mediocre at best and tasted more like europeanized "asian fast food" restaurants than actual thai food. the only good thing was the DIY khao soi station but those noodles were so dry who knows how long they've been outside already. -We got no dinner, even tho from the start of the day the tour had been planned for 14hours. lunch was at 12. started driving back around 5.30 Guide told us after 2h we'd stop for toilets and so we could buy ourselves food for dinner. made it sound like we'd stop at a ptt with 7eleven and so on. after 2h30, nothing. asked the guide, told us its another 15minutes to "the store." turns out the guide took a detour (making us arrive after 9pm in chiang mai) to bring us to a "local snack store". no warm food, only expensive (300-500 baht) nuts and so on. Only after i argued with the guide that we really needed something to eat she agreed to bring us to a PTT, but only after spending 10 more minutes trying to talk the tour guests into buying the expensive snacks not telling them we'd have another stop for food. after we got back into the car, she claimed that this stop was "just for the toilets because here there are free"(they're free at many rest stops too) and the plan was all along to go to a PTT for getting food. which was a lie, i had to argue with her for 5 minutes to convince her to bring us there. at the PTT she then disappeared for 10 min without a word, making us even later. i hate leaving negative reviews about guides, but sincerely...this was awful. our tour guide started the tour at 7.30 by loudly giving us a detailed summary of the ENTIRE days schedule for almost a full hour. she also: -claimed that muslims in the south of thailand were "so crazy and dangerous" and that was the only reason that crime there was happening -constantly talked bad about refugees from myanmar -made sinophobic jokes about how covid only happened because "you know the chinese, they eat bats , we dont do that here" -made multiple jokes about girls in Laos and myanmar being "easy" ("you know when you look like you have some money, all the girls there will love you and say 'oh honey'") -whenever me and my friend were taking photos of ourselves in front of the temples, she would follow us and take photos of us (not the group, just singular people) without asking, potentially to use as advertisement for the tour? we do not consent to non-group photos being used to advertise this tour. - preached about how women have to be good to their husbands or they will get bad karma In general, it also seemed like she barely knew the places we went to. EVERY stop started with a lecture on how in buddhism, there's karma, and then she talked about the things we have to do to have good karma. It made sense as an explanation at the first stop, for people unfamiliar with buddhism...but it was repeated at every single one. even at the golden triangle, she maybe talked 1minute about the borders and history (that mostly was joking about how "easy" girls there are and how u can enjoy drugs and play in casinos in laos) and then immediately talked about Karma again after pointing at a Buddha statue. Later on, the chinese speaking tourguid of the group we got merged with for the boat tour got maybe 10minutes to speak too and i learned more from him than in the entire day with our guide. another example was when we went to the blue temple, she told us about the temple for maybe 5minutes? and then went onto talking loudly about how at the black temple afterwards, there's nature surrounding it, and all the kinds of insects exist there and you can eat them. After 30minutes, when we arrived at the next temple she then explained to us that she only talked about this because she saw we were all tired and sleepy after the lunch and how she "wanted to keep us awake so we don't nap". would be nice to let people nap if you see they are tired. the temples were nice, but we had to rush through all of them and could barely enjoy them. we also did the temples RIGHT during the highest hours of the sun so it was impossible to take nice photos (tour should've gone the other way around). it really was not worth the almost full day of sitting in a car. and it definitely was not worth having to listen to the guide repeat the same basic information the entire day. we were really exhausted at the end of a day and did not enjoy this tour. Also important info: while the white temple is advertised here as an art exhibit as well, entrance to it is treated like at normal temples. aka, women need to cover up. so bring a long skirt or you have to rent something there.

Meh. Not really worth the long trip in my opinion from Chiang Mai. Felt very gimmicky and we were just surrounded by kids taking a bunch of IG photos or whatever kids these days do.

Although it involves a lot of driving around- and the drivers drive super fast- it was worth it for us! We got all the famous white and blue temples, the bonus black museum that was very cool, ate all the icecreams (don’t mias the blue one it’s delish!- had a nutritious lunch and then we opted to visit the long neck tribe, and hope we helped by buying some trinkets there, and even took the short boat ride on the golden triangle limit zone. All in all, a full day. Our tour guide was nicknamed “Smile” and she smiled a lot and made sure we kept to the schedule on time and provided good information on the temples and sights to visit. I would totally recommend! The pick up is in the small minivans and if you have long legs do not take the front row seats. My knees hurt and I had to move to the 2d row which was fine. Have fun!!

The tour description says 12 hours but it is actually 14 hours. Should be advertised as going to art exhibits. The places were cool but not worth the long travel hours for us. Also the tour gave us the option of choosing to not go on the boat ride or to the long neck village but you don’t get a choice, everyone has to go to it all and you can wait for everyone if you want. The golden triangle could easily have been cut out and it would have cut down on 3 hours of the trip. We couldn’t even hear much explanation because of the noise of the boat engine. Also, we got back to Chiang Mai at 9:30pm and they didn’t let us stop for dinner. We only got 15 mins at 711, so we were so hungry and tired by the end. Our guide was very nice and knowledgeable but the tour should be structured differently so it’s not as long and you get a choice to what you want to see or it should be advertised differently.

The tour was very disappointing and very rushed. Were meant to spend 1 hour at each tour, however was only given 30 mins for each and the tour guide didn't even take us to the final destination on the itinerary. The temples themselves were amazing, however I'd thoroughly recommend visiting them on your own if possible.

White temple and Blue Temple are the favorites. The boat trip on Mekong is waste of time and money and we did not book it in our original booking. We did not know that we will be mixed in a group where some people booked the boat trip. We did not want to separate so we paid the money in the last minute and wen ton the boat ride, which is just a total waste... except for this, the rest of the trip was beautiful and well managed.

I’m really upset and angry because this tour has been long, boring and tiring. First of all the van was not comfortable and old , the tour guide terrible and the lunch cheap. We visited many things, but we spend more time in the parking area waiting for the guide then visiting interesting place. The program that I booked was not respected; instead I had to wait a part of the group for 1 hour ( in the parking are) while they did the boat tour on the Mekong river that I was not interested to do ( in fact I choose this tour because there was not the cruise… ). At the end the duration of the tour was of 14 hours, too much!!! I lost the possibility to visit an interesting area: to know the people tribes and enjoy the nature!

very long day but I expected that- the tour was great- spoke english well and were very helpful- i would recomend it

Excellent tour with a very enthusiastic guide. Great way to see many of the temples. Was also impressed by the lunch offered which was delicious. Would recommend although be prepared for a long day

Long day tour but able to experience everything with small tour groups and a great guide Stopped first for short break at hot springs then off to white temple then break for lunch before blue temple baan dam museum and finished with boat tour to golden triangle

The tour was great, the lunch was amazing. I'm so glad we were able to visit this place. I hope we can revisit again in the future.

The whole experience was amazing and we had a good time. We loved the scenery and our tour guide was great

Professional with fair prices... They are so kind and supportive... I enjoyed it a lot in it and experienced a fantastic trip...

Die Reise war sehr schön aber das Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis war nicht ok. Andere Anbieter haben ähnliche Touren deutlich günstiger. Unser Guide sprach zwar Englisch und war freundlich aber gab nicht all zu viele Informationen.

The trip was worthwhile. I was able to see so much in just one day. MM is a great and cheerful guide who knows the answer to all questions. The driver Happy drove pleasantly. The white and blue temples are absolutely beautiful. Even though it rained, we made the best of it. Visiting the Karen Long Neck Village was very unpleasant for me!! I didn't feel comfortable. The entrance fee of 300 baht is supposed to be used for water, school education and medical care. The "main path" or village square consisted only of stalls for tourists, the women with the metal rings around their necks sat ready for photos, the children all recited the same English sentence to sell their products. I particularly enjoyed the trip on the Mekong and the visit to the Baan Dam Museum. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for the museum to look at everything in peace. The lunch was very tasty and there was a bit of everything.

Es una excursión un poco larga, pero merece la pena. Los templos son una pasada. La casa o museo negro un poco decepción, pero el azul y el blanco aunque estén hechos para el turismo son obras de arte. Después, el triángulo dorado es curioso y merece la pena conocer un poco sobre los distintos países fronterizos. Se da un paseo corto por el río Mekong, que tiene buenas vistas

The trip is strenuous due to the length of time, but worth it - I think - already. The total pure journey time is over 7 hours, but in a comfortable van. But that is also what the tender says, if you do not want to do that, you have to stop it. However, in my view the temples are very worth seeing and the Black House Museum is also amazing. I can't rate Long Neck City, I haven't booked it and I think it's unpleasant. It looks like it used to at the fair, where all the abstruses of life were displayed for money...

The guides were very kind and easy to understand and it was a very good tour! The Golden Triangle was inspiring to see Laos and Myanmar over the river! Thanks for charging your phone and taking pictures! It was also easy to go sightseeing as the bus explained the highlights and recommended foods!

The blue temple is something impressive and all in blue with gold decorations. On the road we see the image of Buddha with his first 5 disciples and various representations of Buddhism. Worth a visit.

The guide who gave us the tour nobody understood his English. So we didn't understand your explanation. And I think they could give the talk in the van heading to the temples since when we arrive they give us little time to tour and still wait for the explanation of the guide takes a lot of time.

Todo es muy hermoso en realidad, claro que vale la pena visitar esos templos, solo que se hace bastante pesado el regreso. El viaje en bote fácilmente se podría omitir o cambiar x el museo del opio. 4 horas y media seguidas de vuelta son una pesadilla con un chofer que maneja como rápido y furioso… seriamente temí por mi vida. La comida es como a medio dia y después ya… hasta las 10-10:30 pm hay w sobrevivir de snacks que tienes que comprar. En conclusion, si vale la pena ir pero si tiene opción de hacer un tour privado y omitir cosas pues mejor

The day is long with a lot of minivan travel. You have to be comfortable with that because the road is not smooth! Sin9n the 2 temples are beautiful and worth the trip. The.blackhouse is a fairly large area and a curiosity to see. For the Golden Triangle, the temple is more to see than the boat tour (this is my humble opinion). The driver took care of picking up and taking people back to their hotel; very good point!

Beautiful, interesting temple complex with quirky figures. great garden. well frequented but it was still quite pleasant thanks to extensive terrain. But if a pure commerce temple, has nothing to do with religious. purpose is to earn money which for good purposes and art preservation is reissued