Chiang Mai Travel Forum

Hi, I am planning to do an overnight trek tour in Chiang Mai (needs to be in Chiang Mai rather than Chiang Rai) with minimal walking! Can anybody recommend tour companies they used? So far I am leaning towards buddy tours (any info on them would be good). I know the tribes will be developed to an extent, but I am after a tour that doesnt exploit them (or exploit me!). Any info appreciated.

Jes - New Zealand

I have taken several tours out of Chiang Mai. I got them after I arrived in Chiang Mai from one of the many travel agents. Travel agents act as representatives for the tour companies. You choose your tour and the following day the tour company picks you up at your hotel and returns you there when the tour is over.

Some local hotels in Chiang Mai have tour desks too! Hotels are good for tour information but the private travel agents will probably be cheaper. For Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai it is real easy to get a tour!

Kinda hard not to exploit Hill Tribes, without tourism money their life would be worse off! The tour company pays a small fee to allow you to see these villagers in their rural surroundings. Many tours stop at some of the Long Neck Villages on the way to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle area. (Some of the villagers return to a regular Thai style houses with TV's and motor bikes after the tours stop.)

I imagine you are going to do the smart thing of spending a couple days in Chiang Mai first and then go out on a tour. Find the nearest couple of travel agents closest to your hotel and compare what they have on their menu of choices and pick the one you like best! So far, in over 10 years I have never been screwed out of tour or even a plane ticket that I purchased in Thailand!

Good luck.

Majority of the tour companies don't do responsible tours, and that's a well-known fact that has been documented. The locals often get very limited financial benefit from these companies. I know coz I studied about tourism in Thailand.

I suggest you to contact REST, a well-known responsible tour organization in Thailand that offer true eco-tours that offer a better cultural interaction as well as more benefits to the local communities through fair wages and community projects in the area. http://www.rest.or.th/cbttours/destinations.shtml

When you book your tour with a travel agent, it doesn't necessarily mean they will actually run the tour. So I just hope you don't end up with the company called "Nice Place". They'll lie to you, screw-up your itinerary, and milk you bone dry. A gentleman with us was supposed to only take an overnight trek but when we arrived in Chiang Mai early morning from an overnight bus ride, he was told the trek would not start until the next morning. He had to cancel his tour... with no refund, just attitude. We were also given a lot of faulty information by this company so we said bye-bye, then we booked our tour someplace else. Good thing we only paid for the bus ride.
We came across "Thana Adventure Tour". It was a lot cheaper here, with honest and friendly staff. We booked this tour from from "Top Thailand Adventure Tour" in front of Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai.