Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai: The Drive on Highway 118

Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai is around 185km and takes about three hours, almost all of it on Highway 118 — a wide, well-surfaced, mostly dual-carriageway road that climbs over one substantial range of hills and then runs down into the Kok valley. It is by some distance the easiest long drive in northern Thailand, and for a nervous first-timer it is a good introduction to a Thai highway.

It is also, frankly, not very interesting. If you have a day rather than a morning, there are two better ways round, and they are covered below.

• DistanceAbout 185km on Highway 118
• Driving timeAbout 3 hours
• Scenic alternativeVia Tha Ton, a full day
• VehicleAny car; 125cc scooter is adequate
• Best seasonNovember to February

The fast way: Highway 118

Highway 118 leaves Chiang Mai to the north-east through Doi Saket and runs almost directly to Chiang Rai. It is a serious road: dual carriageway for most of its length, with hard shoulders, a central reservation and proper signage in Thai and Roman script.

The middle third is the only part that asks anything of you. Highway 118 crosses a range of hills with long, sustained climbs and descents and a series of open bends. There is nothing tight about it — no hairpins, nothing like Route 1095 — but the gradients are long enough that heavy lorries crawl up them in the left lane and gather considerable speed coming down. Crawler lanes are provided on the worst of it.

That is where most of the incidents on this road happen: a slow lorry, an impatient overtake, a bend, and something coming the other way. If you are in a small car or on a small bike, hold the left lane, let the traffic sort itself out around you, and overtake only where you can see all the way through. Overtaking on Thai roads covers the local conventions, which are not the ones you know.

Where to break the journey

Three hours does not really need a break, but there are two stops worth making.

Wiang Pa Pao sits roughly two-thirds of the way, after the mountain section. It is an ordinary market town with a hot spring on the highway edge — the standard coffee-and-toilet stop, and a good place to get out and stretch after the climbs. Coaches use it, so the facilities are decent.

Mae Khachan hot springs, in the hills before Wiang Pa Pao, is the more touristy version of the same thing: geysers, egg-boiling baskets, souvenir stalls and a large car park. It is unabashedly a coach stop and is fine for what it is.

The Doi Saket end is worth a detour on the way out if you are not in a hurry. The temple above the town has a long view back over the Chiang Mai basin, and the reservoir roads east of it are quiet and pleasant.

The interesting way: Tha Ton and the Kok river

If you have a full day, do not take Highway 118 at all. The northern route runs from Chiang Mai up Route 107 through Mae Taeng, Chiang Dao and Fang to Tha Ton, then east on Route 1089 following the Kok river valley to Mae Chan, joining Highway 1 for the last stretch into Chiang Rai. It is considerably longer — think six to eight hours with stops rather than three — and it is a completely different day out.

What you get for the extra time:

• Chiang Dao, an hour and a half out of Chiang Mai, sits under a limestone massif that rises abruptly out of the plain. The cave complex at its foot is one of the better ones in Thailand, and there is a road up to a viewpoint on the flank.
• The Fang valley, a broad agricultural basin with hot springs in the national park above it.
• Tha Ton, a small riverside town with a hillside temple complex, from which longtail boats run down the Kok river to Chiang Rai.
• Route 1089, which follows the river valley east through hill country and is the actual reason to take this way round.

Route 107 north of Chiang Dao is a good two-lane road with some climbing; Route 1089 is narrower and twistier, though nothing severe. Both are perfectly manageable on a 125cc scooter and easy in a car.

Which vehicle

A car is the obvious choice for the fast route. Highway 118 is exactly the kind of road where an air-conditioned vehicle beats a motorbike: long, straight, hot and dull.

On a bike, a 125cc scooter will do it. You will be at the slow end of the traffic on the climbs and buffeted by lorries, and three hours on a scooter seat at highway speed is more tiring than three hours in a car. A 150cc or larger machine is much more comfortable here specifically because of the sustained speed, not because of the terrain.

If you are heading to Chiang Rai to ride the Golden Triangle loop or Route 1148, renting in Chiang Mai and riding across is usually the right call — Chiang Mai has far more choice than Chiang Rai's rental shops. Confirm with the shop that taking the bike out of the province is permitted; most allow it, some do not.

Seasons and conditions

November to February. Cool, clear and dry. The mountain section is genuinely cold early in the morning in December and January, which matters on a bike.

March and April. Burning season. Highway 118 crosses hills that fill with agricultural smoke, and visibility on the descents can drop enough to matter. The road is fine; the air is not.

May to October. Rain, usually in the afternoon. Highway 118 handles it well — it is a modern road with real drainage — but standing water on a dual carriageway at speed is how vehicles aquaplane, and the run-off on the mountain descents is heavy. See the rainy season and flooded roads.

Avoid travelling on this corridor during Songkran in mid-April and over New Year, when it becomes one of the busiest inter-provincial routes in the north and the crash rate rises accordingly. Driving during Songkran and New Year explains what changes.

Fuel, food and practicalities

Highway 118 has plenty of branded forecourts, most with a coffee shop, a convenience store and clean toilets. Thai petrol stations are the service stations here and they are generally good — see service areas and rest stops. There is no stretch on this route where fuel is a concern.

Navigation is trivial: it is one road with your destination signed on it. Coverage is good throughout. The northern route via Tha Ton has more junctions and thinner signage, so download the map first — see navigation apps in Thailand.

Frequently asked questions

Once you are in Chiang Rai, the two trips worth making are the Golden Triangle loop and, if you have three or four days, Route 1148 and the Nan back roads. For the city itself see driving in Chiang Rai, and for the region see driving in northern Thailand.