Chiang Mai

Service that remembers birthdays, in a big old-school hotel a short walk from the Night Bazaar.

A calm riverside address where the gardens and the old colonial building do most of the talking.

Polished international-brand comfort by the Night Bazaar, with a rooftop bar that earns its keep at sunset.

Right on Rachadamnoen, so Sunday Walking Street starts at the front door and you never need a songthaew.

Northern Thai done properly on Nimman, with a queue at dinner that moves faster than it looks.

Northern Thai cooking in an antique-stuffed old city house, and dinner is the meal to come for.

Get there before 1pm or the khao soi's gone, and the bench you sit on won't be yours alone.

Free Bird Cafe is Chiang Mai's feel-good vegan institution — a bright café whose profits fund Thai Freedom House, a language and arts centre for refugees from Myanmar and hill-tribe families.

Go at first light, before the tour vans arrive, and the golden chedi and the whole Chiang Mai valley are yours.

Free, open all hours, and best after dark when the brick gate is lit and the square fills up.

Free hilltop temple where the crowd is mostly Thai worshippers, and the giant white-and-gold Buddha is visible for miles.

Come after dark, when the lighting turns the broken chedi into the most dramatic thing in the Old City.

Chiang Mai's original mall, faded and cheap, and far more useful than the shiny ones up the road.

Get there around 7pm, before the crowds land, and browse the whole stretch before you buy anything.

Come for the fourth-floor food hall, stay because you've forgotten what you actually came to buy.

Air-con, cheap food courts and a rooftop with mountain views at the top of Nimman.

Tram rides after dark are the whole point here, and they deliver, but the car park walk is brutal.

Boil your own eggs in a geothermal stream, soak your feet, then camp overnight if you fancy it.

The loudest, wettest waterfall on the Doi Inthanon road, and the easiest one to actually get close to.

Show up by seven or you'll be standing in the road listening through a doorway.

Backpacker party central in the Old City, dead before nine and heaving by eleven.

A Nimman institution: live Thai covers up front, a proper club at the back, packed after 10pm.

Rooftop drinks above the Melia, best timed for the hour before sunset while it's still quiet.

Chiang Mai's most quietly radical massage address: a social enterprise that trains and employs women rebuilding their lives after incarceration, giving them a licensed trade and a fair wage.

Green Bamboo Massage is the old city's word-of-mouth favourite — a leafy garden compound on a quiet Moon Muang lane where a short roster of genuinely skilled therapists work through Thai, oil, and herbal-compress massages at neighbourhood prices.

Old town spa at the polished, pricier end, and worth booking days ahead if you want a decent slot.

Pay a bit more than the Old City average and you get lemongrass tea, an indigo-toned room and a proper therapist.

Duty-free shopping center inside Chiang Mai Airport, open daily 6am–midnight for departing and arriving passengers.