Chiang Mai, Thailand in 4 days: Anantara resort, Ping River cruise, temples and cooking class

Chiang Mai has a way of making a 4-day trip feel like two completely different holidays. The first two nights were in a riverside resort in a former British consulate compound, with a dawn river cruise on a hand-carved teak boat and an evening walk through the Night Bazaar. After that came an Airbnb, with temples, a cooking class, a massage and a long run of cafes and northern Thai restaurants.

This is the route: Anantara Chiang Mai Resort and its 1921 House, the JAO Ping River Cruise, Wat Ket Karam and Wat Lok Moli, the flower market and Tha Phae Gate, a day around Nimman, a morning at Grandma’s Home Cooking School, and a massage at Fah Lanna Spa. Prices are included wherever I could confirm them.

Day 1: arriving at Anantara Chiang Mai Resort

The resort sits on the banks of the Mae Ping River at 123 Charoen Prathet Road, about 15 minutes from Chiang Mai International Airport, so the first afternoon doesn’t disappear into a long transfer. It’s an easy base for the Night Bazaar, the old city and Nimmanhaemin Road, which are all on the resort’s own list of nearby places.

The property has a history worth knowing. It opened as The Chedi Chiang Mai and was rebranded as Anantara Chiang Mai Resort & Spa in November 2013, becoming Minor Hotel Group’s 100th property in operation. At the time of the rebrand it had 84 rooms and suites, each with a river-facing balcony, a 34-meter riverside pool, a fitness center with river views, and event space for up to 200 guests. Today the resort lists 52 rooms, 32 suites and 25 serviced suites, with the serviced suites across the road and linked by a walkway.

• 🛏️ Deluxe rooms – 50 sqm, with a balcony or terrace over the garden or river, plus a separate tub and rain shower
• 🛋️ Suites – 105 sqm, with indoor and outdoor lounging and dining and garden or river views
• 🏡 Serviced suites – 60 to 160 sqm, with one to three bedrooms, a kitchen, laundry and workspace

The resort also runs cooking classes (Spice Spoons), Muay Thai sessions and the Anantara Spa, and it’s the departure point for the river cruise covered below.

The 1921 House and dinner at The Service

The heart of the property is the 1921 House, a heritage building that began life as the British Consulate. The first British consulate in Chiang Mai was built in 1884 on a 7-rai plot granted by the ruler of Chiang Mai, driven by the growing teak trade in the north. The present building was started in 1917 to a standard Foreign Office design for tropical countries, with a consul’s residence, a courtroom, offices and even stables for elephants, and it became the social hub for the British community. The consulate shut for three years during WWII and for two years from 1970, and it was officially closed and sold in 1978.

Today it’s The Service at 1921 House, with teak-lined halls and river-facing verandahs. The restaurant won Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence in 2021, and it’s best known for its Colonial Dining Experience: a seven-course chef’s table menu in the private dining room, available by advance reservation only. The menu includes tea-smoked Scottish lobster, a foie gras parfait, a fish and chips reinterpretation and Wagyu tenderloin, at THB 4,590++ per person, with an optional beverage pairing for THB 1,190++. That’s the formal route. The house also does afternoon tea on the verandah and a steakhouse-style menu, so you can have a lighter evening there too.

Day 2: breakfast, the JAO Ping River Cruise and Wat Ket Karam

Breakfast at the resort is at Bodhi Terrace, the riverside restaurant, which serves an international buffet from 6:30 to 10:30am with tropical fruit, smoothies, baked goods and made-to-order eggs. It’s also open for lunch (12:00 to 2:30pm) and dinner (5:30 to 10:00pm), with a menu of regional Thai dishes that draws on Malay and Hokkien flavors from the south and Burmese-style curries and Chiang Mai specialties from the north.

The JAO Ping River Cruise

The best way to see the river is the JAO Ping River Cruise, run by the resort from its own pier. “JAO Ping” means “king of the river”, and the boats are hand-carved teak vessels: Nam Jai, a scorpion-tail boat for up to 8 passengers, and Nam Jit, a larger pontoon that seats up to 24. Cruises run in several formats, and times depend on weather and advance reservation:

• 🌅 Morning cruise – 9:00 to 10:30am
• 🫖 Afternoon tea cruise – 2:30 to 4:00pm
• 🌆 Twilight voyage – 5:00 to 6:30pm, with canapés and cocktails
• 🍽️ Dinner cruise – 6:00 to 8:00pm, four courses with free-flow drinks

Cruises start from THB 990++ per person. The morning route passes Wat Ket Karam and a multi-faith neighborhood, and includes a dumpling stop at Lung Khajohn, which makes it a good bridge into the rest of the day.

Wat Ket Karam and its neighborhood

Wat Ket Karam is on Charoen Rat Road along the Ping River and dates to 1428, which makes it one of the older temples on this bank. It covers about 10,000 sqm, has the Ket Kaew Chura Manee pagoda in the grounds, and houses a small museum of antiques and old photographs that tell the story of Chiang Mai. The area around it was historically a Chinese trading district, and an old market still serves the community.

Directly opposite is Lung Khajohn Wat Ket, a street-food shop that holds a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide. It serves steamed rice dumplings with coconut milk (khao kriap pak mo) and tapioca dumplings filled with sweet and savory pork and peanut. It’s open Monday to Saturday, 6:00am to 2:30pm, closed Sunday, and cash only, so go early and bring baht.

Flower market, lunch and the Night Bazaar

After the temple the route runs past the flower market. Talat Ton Lamyai sits on Wichayanon Road next to Warorot Market, the city’s oldest and most famous market, and it’s open 24 hours with the busiest period in the evening. It’s known for lotus, orchids, marigolds and jasmine garlands, and vendors make floral decorations for temples and celebrations. Warorot itself is open from 6:00am to 6:00pm, with produce on the ground floor and street food and souvenirs above.

Lunch was back at Bodhi Terrace, which is the easy choice after a morning out on the river and in the markets. Later in the day the route turned into an evening walk through the streets toward the Night Bazaar on Chang Khlan Road and then Tha Phae Gate.

Tha Phae Gate

Tha Phae Gate is the old eastern gateway to the walled city, originally built in 1296 under King Mangrai, the founder of Chiang Mai. Its historical name was Chiang Rueak Gate, and it was part of the fortified wall and moat system. The original gate was demolished in 1948 and the present Lanna-style structure was rebuilt in the mid-1980s. The Sunday Walking Street market starts here and runs along Ratchadamnoen Road, which is worth planning around if your dates are flexible.

Day 3: Wat Lok Moli and moving to an Airbnb

The third day began with breakfast and a visit to Wat Lok Moli, on the north side of the old city’s north moat, about 400 meters west of the Chang Phuak city gate. The temple is first mentioned in a charter from 1367, which gives it a long paper trail. King Kue Na invited ten Burmese monks to spread Theravada Buddhism and housed them here, and in 1527 King Ket commissioned the large chedi, with the viharn built in 1545.

What stands out is the chedi itself. Its brickwork is mostly left bare, unlike the stuccoed chedis at many other temples in the city, and the temple is known for finely carved nagas and a wooden facade. It’s also aligned north to south, while most Buddhist temples face east. The ashes of several members of the Mengrai dynasty were placed here, including Queen Wisutthithewi, who is interred in one of the chedis.

From there it was time to move out of the resort and into an Airbnb. Splitting the trip like this gives you the resort, the pier, the river and the history first, and then a more local base for the rest.

Eating and drinking around Nimman

The rest of day three was a food crawl. Here’s what was on the route:

• 🍽️ Kiat Niyom – lunch at a Thai restaurant at 23 Siri Mangkalajarn Road Lane 13, in the Nimmanhaemin area. It does a la carte Thai fine cuisine, from single plates to sharing dishes, open daily 10:30am to 9:30pm, with most meals under 500 baht. Listed highlights include crispy pork, a salmon spicy salad and a golden eggs salad
• ☕ Graph One Nimman and Homm Wan – the cafe and snack stops
• 🥗 Ginger Farm Kitchen – at One Nimman on Nimmanahaemida Road, open daily 11am to 10pm. It started as a salad farm and runs on a “farm-to-city” idea, with home-cooked Thai food, a particular fondness for northern dishes, organic and free-range ingredients and no MSG

Klom Sleep Salon was also on the route between lunch and the cafes, and the day finished at the lake below.

Ang Kaew Reservoir

The day finished at Ang Kaew Reservoir, an artificial lake inside the Chiang Mai University campus at the foot of Doi Suthep. It was built in 1962, two years before the university officially opened in 1964, where the Huai Kaew and Huai Ku Khao streams meet. It’s about 12 hectares, with a walking and jogging path around it, and it’s best at sunrise and sunset when Doi Suthep reflects in the water. Bird Island, a small island in the lake, is a nesting site for night herons from July to August.

Day 4: cooking class and a massage

Grandma’s Home Cooking School

The last day started with Grandma’s Home Cooking School. Courses are listed at 1,190, 1,390, 1,500 and 1,790 baht. The Local Northern Thai Cooking Class (full day) runs about 6 hours from 9:00am to 2:30pm for 1,500 baht. It begins with a tour of a local market, teaches 6 traditional dishes including northern Thai sausage and coconut pancakes, and includes a visit to the school’s organic farm. Hotel pickup and drop-off is included within 10 km of downtown Chiang Mai. Formats and prices differ by course, so check the school’s website for the one you want.

A massage at Fah Lanna Spa

After the class, the next stop was Fah Lanna Spa. It has three branches – Night Bazaar, Old City and Nimman. The original Night Bazaar branch, near the Ping River on Loi Kroh Road, opened roughly a decade before 2019 and was later rebuilt at nearly triple the size. Traditional Thai massage there started at 350 baht per hour as of a 2019 report, so prices have likely moved since. The brand has won Best Luxury Garden Spa at the World Luxury Spa Awards and a Thailand Tourism Award Gold.

The trip ended with dinner at Ka PaO.

What things cost

The mix of resort and Airbnb keeps the budget flexible. These are the prices I could confirm:

• 🚣 JAO Ping River Cruise – from THB 990++ per person
• 🍷 Colonial Dining Experience – THB 4,590++ per person, plus THB 1,190++ for the pairing
• 🍳 Grandma’s Home Cooking School – 1,190 to 1,790 baht, 1,500 baht for the full-day Northern class
• 💆 Fah Lanna Spa – Thai massage from around 350 baht per hour at the Night Bazaar branch (2019 price)
• 🥟 Lung Khajohn Wat Ket – the lowest MICHELIN price category, cash only
• 🍜 Kiat Niyom – most dishes under 500 baht

Room rates at the resort move with the season, so check live prices for your dates. Anantara hotels take part in the Anantara DISCOVERY program run through GHA DISCOVERY, which pays cash-back in D$ rather than points: 4% at entry level up to 7% at the top tier on eligible spend, with D$1 worth USD 1. The D$ can be used on rooms, dining, spa treatments and experiences, and they expire after 12 to 24 months depending on your tier.

Best time to visit

The most comfortable window for Chiang Mai is November to February, when it’s dry and cooler, which suits long days of temples and walking. March and April bring heat and the northern burning season, when smoke and haze can affect air quality, so check conditions before booking. May to October is the rainy season, with greener scenery and fewer visitors. November is also when Loy Krathong and the Yi Peng lantern festival usually fall, with exact dates following the lunar calendar. Songkran in mid-April turns the city into a water fight, which is either the reason to go or the reason to avoid it.

Frequently asked questions

📹 Video by ST Travel