Transport
Getting to Chiang Rai is as easy as taking a 1 hour 20 minute flight from Bangkok or a 3 hour bus ride from Chiang Mai. Recently Air Asia, a discount airline, started flying to Chiang Rai and is offering flights for as little as 400 baht one way. Take a look at www.airasia.com to see if there are any cheap flights available. The other airline flying to Chiang Rai is Thai Airline. They have dropped their price from 2650 baht to as little as 1400 baht in order to compete. From Bangkok, there were 6 flights daily in busy season but this seems to be changing regularly. Check the Thai website to get the most up-to-date flight info. During high season from November until February, it can be difficult to get a flight so you should book ahead. If you need a reservation, let us know when booking and we will see if we can help. We can also arrange transport from the Chiang Rai Airport to your hotel if we know your flight information.

To save money when coming from Bangkok, you can also get a bus from Mo Chit Mai bus station. The trip takes about 12 hours and the cost ranges from 470 baht for an aircon bus to 700+ for the VIP aircon bus.

Another option for the more adventurous is to take a river boat in Laos. Start in Vientienne, and work your way to Luang Prabang by bike, bus, motorcycle, etc. From Luang Prabang get a leisurely slow boat (fast boats are excessively noisy and not very fun) all the way to Huai Xai (lots of different spellings) which takes 2 days. From there all you need to do is cross the river and viola, you are in Thailand and can easily get a bus to Chiang Rai. The bus takes about 1.5 hrs.