Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai

Green Bus departures leave Chiang Mai's Bus Terminal 3 (the Arcade complex, a ฿100–150 Grab from the Old City) and run the divided highway north in 3 to 3.5 hours. Express X-class gives you a modern coach with a toilet; V-class VIP drops to 24 wide seats with a snack thrown in. Buy at the Terminal 3 counters, on the Green Bus site, or through booking platforms — counter fares run cheaper, online buys you a reserved seat without the trip to the terminal.

Arrival geography is worth knowing: buses call first at Chiang Rai's Terminal 2, seven kilometers south on the superhighway, before terminating at Terminal 1 — the old station right downtown beside the Night Bazaar, walkable to most old-town hotels. Stay on until Terminal 1 unless your accommodation is out by the highway; if you do end up at T2, shared songthaews shuttle into town for pocket change.

Wat Rong Khun — the White Temple — sits just off the highway about 13 km before Chiang Rai, and the single most-asked question on this route is whether the bus stops there. Scheduled services don't: a sightseeing stop is a tour-product feature, not a Green Bus one. You have two clean ways to do it. The simplest: continue to Terminal 1, drop your bags, and take the local bus back out — it leaves from the downtown terminal, costs ฿20–30, runs every 20–60 minutes through the daytime, and stops in front of the temple. Doing it as a half-day trip from Chiang Rai also means seeing it without your luggage in tow.

The alternative: a private car for the intercity leg (฿1,950–3,000) with a White Temple stop negotiated in — sensible for groups, and the driver waits while you visit. Day tours from Chiang Mai that hit the White Temple, Blue Temple, and Black House in one loop exist in quantity, but they return to Chiang Mai; they're a different product than actually relocating to Chiang Rai.