Mar 26, 2024
Very beautiful! Love the... - Very beautiful! Love the blue and white temple.
Just a warning, it’s a long trip and the driver drives fast and aggressively.
Review provided by Viator
Mar 8, 2024
Recommended!!! - Kathy, the guide, showed us very interesting things and always had good energy. The only thing we would change is that they put us together with a couple that had scheduled extra activities and we (8 people) had to decide at the last minute if we would pay for the activities (the boat is not worth it, it is see the same thing from land as from the boat) or wait, in the end the activity of fewer hours that we chose due to time ended up being just as long and we spent more, we arrived at Chiang Mai around 10 at night.
Review provided by Viator
Jan 20, 2024
Architecture gems - The tour guide was amazing. The architecture of each place is unique and breathtaking. My favourite was the white temple or the heaven and hell temple. It was pristine. The golden triangle was a unique experience too. Thanks a lot for making my trip memorable.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Dec 17, 2023
A Long Day, But Crammed With Goodness - Be prepared for a very long day, but you really do see quite a bit. The White temple is stunning and definitely the highlight. There were crowds but not as many as in other sights. Our guide was so professional, funny and helpful throughout the day, even keeping us on track when two other guests were super late to pick-up, hadn't paid in advance and needed to stop at a bank, and were late returning to every excursion. My patience would've been exhausted, but our guide, (Hori?), was so sweet and did her best to keep us on track. My only recommendation would be for the tour company to set expectations with their guests. The two guests were super inconsiderate and would've been better suited with a private guide. Kudos to Hori for maintaining her professionalism and ensuring we all had a great day.
Review provided by Viator
Nov 16, 2023
Great excursion, poor driving - Wendy was absolutely amazing, a lot of driving but worth it. The only thing I would change is the driving, the driver made us feel really unsafe by going really fast, overtaking dangerously, etc
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mar 7, 2024
Beautiful experience with a wild ride - Visiting the white temple is a most while you’re in Thailand. It’s an astonishing piece of art. But the best part is the golden triangle with all of the culture and geographical meaning there. I really enjoyed it, but since you have to do quite a lot in a short window of time, the drive back to Chiang mai is really heavy and driving is quite fast and could feel a bit unsafe. But overall I recommend it
Review provided by Viator
Nov 13, 2023
Full day of activities - The day was packed with activities, so you get to see many things. Everything was very nice and well organised.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 26, 2023
Worthwhile tour - The trip was worthwhile. I was able to see so much in just one day. MM is a great and cheerful guide who knows the answer to all questions. The driver Happy drove pleasantly.
The white and blue temples are absolutely beautiful. Even though it rained, we made the best of it. Visiting the Karen Long Neck Village was very unpleasant for me!! I didn't feel comfortable. The entrance fee of 300 baht is supposed to be used for water, school education and medical care. The "main path" or village square consisted only of stalls for tourists, the women with the metal rings around their necks sat ready for photos, the children all recited the same English sentence to sell their products.
I particularly enjoyed the trip on the Mekong and the visit to the Baan Dam Museum. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for the museum to look at everything in peace.
The lunch was very tasty and there was a bit of everything.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 26, 2023
Okay but not worth the long journey. - Pros : guide is really friendly and great energy.
Cons: It's okay but it's a not worth the price.
They combined two groups so I spent over an hour of the day waiting for river boat and village parts of the tour without Aircon in the heat by the vans because that wasn't part of the tour I booked.
Overall the sites are super packed and are just for tourists so have no substance , culture, history. It's a long way to drive for what it is.
They served lunch at 11.30am which was ridiculous because the coffee stop was 10am so we had all eaten. The buffet had few options and almost no protein options just plain rice or soggy pad Thai. We got back to chiang Mai at 9pm and food options on the route were a 7-11 or kiosks.
Review provided by Viator
Nov 15, 2023
No better than a Taxi (scam included) - "Don’t let limited time stop you ticking off Chiang Rai’s most spectacular sights" - Exactly, our time is limited, but this tour wasted over an hour and a half of my precious time. I did not book to visit the long neck tribe village, but was still taken here; and then they tried the upsell! Sounding a lot like those taxi scams you keep hearing about in Bangkok. I had explicitly not booked to visit them since I just cannot condone and take part of the exploitation of these people for tourism. I'm not preaching or trying to make a statement here; if other people want to see them, by all means (you do you). But that's half an hour waiting in a hot car park with no air con or anything to do.
I would have been happy to join the boat ride at the golden triangle at the end, but by then, I was basically done with this tour. Guide said that I will only need to wait for another half an hour for the group to return from the boat ride, but it ended up being an hour! And then it was another 10 minutes in the van waiting for the others as they visited the Giant Buddha.
The "guide" only mentioned a few minor details at each place. English was definitely a challenge for him, so getting any sort of useful information out of him was painful. I have to say, he had to be the worst tour guide I had ever encountered, I may as well just hired a private driver or taxi for the day.
The van was a bit on the older side (rear wheel suspension was squeaking a lot), but seemed to handle well on the downhill (a thumbs up to the driver's skill).
Surprisingly, the thing I enjoyed the most out of the trip was Baandam Museum (Others didn't seem to think so. Most seems to like the White Temple more). I don't think myself as a creative, but Mr. Thawan Duchanee's art really resonated with me. I doubt our "guide" would know much about it.
The other "temples" seemed more like tourist traps (I didn't see anyone practicing any kind of meditation, etc). Given they were built pretty recently, they obviously won't have much historical importance. They may have great cultural significance, but I can't really be sure given how our tour guide was pretty hopeless.
Review provided by Tripadvisor