The Mae Hong Son Loop: Thailand’s Most Scenic Drive
The number one question that everyone asks about the Mae Hong Son Loop is whether you should do it in a clockwise direction or an anti-clockwise direction. I’ll answer that question shortly, but first – for the benefit of those who may not be familiar with this scenic drive – let’s define exactly what the Mae Hong Son Loop is.
The Mae Hong Son Loop is a 600 km roughly circular drive around the mountains to the west of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand along highways 108 and 1095. Motorcyclists from all over the world come to ride the Mae Hong Son Loop on their ‘big bikes’ (or they can hire them locally) but it’s also a great scenic drive for those on a self-drive motoring holiday.
The driving time of the Mae Hong Son Loop is about 12 hours, but most people do the trip over four days so that they can stop to admire the scenery and waterfalls or spend time in the national parks along the way. The towns of Mae Sariang, Mae Hong Son and Pai provide plenty of accommodation options for the overnight stops.
There is a shorter version of the Mae Hong Son Loop that is only 530 km and takes an hour less to drive. That route cuts off a large section of the southern loop of highway 108 by utilising highway 1009 through the Doi Inthanon National Park and then highway 1192 through Mae Chaem and highways 1088 and 1263 back to rejoin highway 108 about halfway between Mae Sariang and Mae Hong Son.
View from the highway about 20 kms north of Mae Sariang.
Travellers taking that route usually overnight at Mae Chaem instead of Mae Sariang. The appeal of that route is that it enables you to chalk up a visit to the tourist spot known as ‘The Highest Spot in Thailand’ (that’s how it appears on Google Maps) at the end of highway 1009 which is at an elevation of 8,421 ft.
However, the downside of that shorter route is that the road between Mae Chaem and the point where you would re-join highway 108 is narrower than the main Mae Hong Son Loop and parts of it are not in such good condition as the longer route which is an excellent highway all of the way.
My recommendation would be to stick with the main Mae Hong Song Loop route via Mae Sariang, and instead do the Doi Inthanon National Park on a separate day trip from Chiang Mai. It’s only a little over two hours each way from the centre of Chiang Mai to the ‘The Highest Spot in Thailand’.
Now back to the big question: Should you do the Mae Hong Son Loop in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction? The Mai Hong Son Loop reputedly has 1864 bends to negotiate. Most of the hairpin bends and highest elevation stretches of the mountain road are on the northern side of the circuit, so if you want to get straight into the most spectacular parts of the drive, do it in an anti-clockwise direction.
The backpacker town of Pai is one of the overnight stops.
However, if you’ve not had a lot of driving experience in Thailand, it would be better to do it in a clockwise direction so that you have a gentler introduction to the mountain roads. Another reason for doing it in a clockwise direction is if you want to spend more than one night in Pai. There’s not a lot to see in Mae Sariang or the town of Mae Hong Son, but Pai definitely justifies more than an overnight stopover.
By doing the Mae Hong Son Loop in a clockwise direction, you can spend three days on the road with two overnight stops, and then have a couple of days in Pai – or longer if your itinerary allows – before returning to Chiang Mai or heading north to Chiang Rai. The town of Pai is one of my favourite places in northern Thailand to chill out and relax.
Chiang Mai to Mae Sariang
This section of the circuit is just under 200 kms (depending on what part of Chiang Mai you are starting from) and will take about three and a half hours to drive. However, I recommend incorporating a side trip to the Mae Ya Waterfall which will add less than an hour to the overall journey. This large and beautiful waterfall is about 70 kms from Chiang Mai and 15 kms off highway 108.
When I visited it in the first week of September, the waterfall was in full flow and nothing short of spectacular. And what added to the experience was that I was the only person there (a couple of French tourists on a scooter showed up as I was leaving). There’s a 300 baht entry fee for foreigners, but definitely worth the money to see in the rainy season.
A selfie at the beautiful Mae Ya Waterfall in full flow.
After rejoining highway 108 it’s another 30 kms or so down to the town of Hot, and a right turn towards the mountains through the Op Luang National Park where the drive starts to get more scenic. About 40 minutes further on, there is a pine plantation which is worth a quick visit if you are looking for a toilet stop. It’s called the Bo Kaeo Pine Tree Garden on Google Maps and there’s a stall there selling drinks and snacks.
There’s also a coffee shop another 40 minutes along the highway at the Huai Kung Viewpoint. The service there is slow and indifferent, but there are some nice views over the rice fields from the viewpoint. The Huai Kung Viewpoint is about 500 metres after crossing the border between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces.
From there it’s another 40 minutes to Mae Sariang, but if you are travelling in the month of November, set your navigation to Thung Bua Tong Doi Mae Hor which is about halfway to Mae Sariang. There are hills and valleys of sunflower fields there, and when they bloom in November, you’ll definitely want to stop for a photo.
The teak guest house where I stayed in Mae Sariang.
Mae Sariang is a small town on the Yuam River. There are about a dozen accommodation places that you can prebook ranging in price from 450 baht per night to 1,500 baht, as well as a number of cheaper backpacker places that are not on hotel booking sites. I stayed in one of the traditional teak guesthouses on the road parallel to the river.
It's worth staying in one of the teak houses for the experience if you’ve not done it before. However, if you are a light sleeper, you may be better off staying in more conventional accommodation because the rooms in a teak house are not soundproof, and the floors creak whenever someone walks on them.
Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son
The second day’s drive from Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son town is 160 kms and takes about three hours. Most people doing the Mae Hong Son Loop elect to do one of two side-trips on this day – either to Salawin River southwest of Mae Sariang or to Ban Rak Thai to the north of Mae Hong Son town. Each side trip adds about 40 kms each way and it takes about an hour each way to drive them.
Salawin River is near the village of Mae Sam Laep on the Thanlyin River. ‘Salawin’ (or ‘the Salween’) is the name that Thais give to a stretch of the river that forms the border between Thailand and Myanmar to the west of the Salawin National Park. From Mae Sam Laep you can hire a longboat to take you on a ride down to the mouth of the Moei River where you can visit a Karen village on the Thai side of the border.
Ban Rak Thai is a popular side trip from the Mae Hong Son Loop.
The river journey is a scenic one and it’s well off the beaten tourist track, whereas the side trip to Ban Rak Thai (which is also on the Myanmar border) attracts a much higher number of tourists doing two- or three-day trips from Chiang Mai. As you’ll need a couple of hours at each of these side-trip destinations, it’s impractical to do them both in one day. Of course, if you are not limited for time, you could stay an extra night in either Mae Sariang or Mae Hong Son town and do them both.
The drive to Mae Hong Son town is through forests, fertile farmlands, rolling hills and some mountain sections with hairpin bends after the Mae La Luang Viewpoint which is a little over halfway. There’s a coffee shop and restrooms at the Mae La Luang Viewpoint. There is also a good hot spring about half an hour after the viewpoint. It’s shown on Google Maps as Nong Haeng Hot Spring and there’s usually very few people there.
Mae Hong Son town itself is quite large as it’s the provincial capital. In the middle of the town there is a reservoir lake called Nong Chong Kham and on the southern side of the lake is a temple called Wat Chong Kham. The architecture and artworks contained inside are somewhat different to other Buddhist temples in Thailand and is definitely worth a visit.
The view from Sang Poy Cottage north of Mae Hong Son town.
Most people overnighting in Mae Hong Son choose accommodation that is within walking distance of Nong Chong Kham as there is a large night market in the streets around the temple. The best time of the day to take photographs of Wat Chong Kham is just before or after sunset as you can often capture beautiful reflections on the still water of the lake.
However, I chose accommodation that was out of town near the Su Tong Pae Bridge as I wanted to capture photographs of this famous bamboo bridge early in the morning before other tourists arrived. I stayed at the Sang Poy Cottage about 500 metres from the entrance to the bridge and walked there shortly after dawn before even the monks started crossing the bridge from Wat Tham Poo Sa Ma on the other side of the rice fields.
The small temple is nothing out of the ordinary but the grounds around the temple are interesting to visit and it’s worth the effort to walk across the whole bridge and up the rickety wooden stairs to the temple. The bamboo bridge is supposedly one of the longest in Thailand and was built to enable the monks living in the monastery to access the nearby village of Ban Gung Mai Sak.
Walking the Su Tong Pae Bamboo Bridge in the early morning.
The previous afternoon I did the side trip to Ban Rak Thai after arriving from Mai Sariang after lunch. The road to Ban Rak Thai passes the Su Tong Pae Bridge so the location of my accommodation was very convenient. Ban Rak Thai sits at an elevation of 1,800 metres, close to the Myanmar border, and the road up to the village winds through thick forests.
Many people have called Ban Rak Thai ‘the most beautiful village in Thailand’ but that’s primarily because of the picture postcard views of Chinese-style bungalows that have been built in a tea plantation overlooking the artificial lake. Around the lake there are teashops and souvenir shops. It’s touristy, but picturesque, and most travellers say it’s worth the side-trip.
Mae Hong Son to Pai
The drive from Mae Hong Son to Pai is the shortest of the four-day loop – only a little over 100 kms – but it takes at least two and a half hours because it is winding up and down through mountains, hills, and river valleys all of the way. It’s arguably the most scenic part of the loop. The Ban Luk Khao Lam Viewpoint at the halfway mark offers almost endless views of the rugged mountains over the border in Myanmar’s Shan state.
The road reaches an elevation of about 1,450 metres at the Doi Kio Lom Viewpoint about 20 kms out from Pai. The views from here are almost as impressive as those from the Ban Luk Khao Lam Viewpoint so many tourists who are staying in Pai, but not doing the Mae Hong Song Loop, will make the short trip to the Doi Kio Lom Viewpoint and back. That’s why there is a noticeable increase in traffic on the road from that point.
Green rice fields viewed from a roadside coffee shop en route to Pai.
There’s a misconception that because Pai is reached from either Mai Hong Son or Chiang Mai along winding mountain roads, the town itself is located high in the mountains. However, that’s not the case. Pai is only 500 metres above sea level. It’s located in a wide valley surrounded by low mountains which is why it gets very hazy during the months of March to May when farmers burn-off stubble in the fields from their harvested crops.
Pai is known as Thailand’s ‘hippie town’ and it’s not unusual to see hippies walking through the town dressed as they did in Kathmandu in the 1960s. Pai is still very much a backpacker destination, but its laid-back Bohemian atmosphere is attracting more mainstream tourists these days on day tours and overnight packages from Chiang Mai.
The town is not large. It’s located on the Pai River and there is a wide range of accommodation options both in the town and on the other side of the river which can be accessed across bamboo bridges that are built at the beginning of the dry season. During the rainy season, the bridges get washed away and access to accommodation on the other side of the river is across a road bridge.
There’s a big choice of western and local cuisines to eat in Pai.
There are some excellent restaurants, cafes, and coffee shops in Pai, many of which are located along Walking Street which also hosts a busy night market. Pai seems to have more cannabis shops per capita than anywhere else in Thailand, and there’s a lively bar scene at night too. It’s why so many backpackers arrive for a couple of nights and stay for a couple of weeks.
In the valley around Pai there are many more accommodation options including home stays and farm stays, and some interesting tourist attractions including waterfalls, a hot spring, a Chinese village, and a large white Buddha on a hillside from which there is a good view over the whole of the valley (but it requires tackling around 350 steps to get up there).
For travellers on a 4-day Mai Hong Son Loop itinerary, there’s usually only time to have a look around town, maybe check out one of the valley attractions if you arrive early enough in the afternoon, go to the Pai Canyon for sunset, and then visit the night market in Walking Street before choosing a restaurant for dinner (if the street food in the night market hasn’t already tempted you).
Sunset view from one of the safer spots at Pai Canyon.
The Pai Canyon is the top ‘must-do’ visit on the Mai Hong Song Loop. It’s not one big canyon as the name might suggest. It’s a lot of small canyons between narrow laterite pinnacle ridges that have been formed from hundreds of years of erosion. The ridges wind their way down through open dipterocarp forest. It’s an unusual geological formation that some visitors say looks like a scene from another planet.
Over the years, visitors to the Pai Canyon have worn paths along the tops of these ridges. Walking along the ridges is extremely dangerous as the path is only 30 cm wide in some places with a 30 metre near-sheer drop on both sides. There are no handrails along the ridges and no safety rails at any of the sheer cliff drops. The excitement of walking the ridges is what attracted many thrill-seekers in the early backpacker days of Pai.
Many people have been injured, and a few have died, walking the ridges of Pai Canyon, and everyday dozens of people still do it for the thrills. I did walk one of the narrow ridges, not knowing in advance how dangerous it was. It was one of the most terrifying things that I’ve done in my life. Older travellers should not attempt to walk on the narrow ridges. Instead, they can enjoy the views from the wider ridges at the top of the canyon or walk on some of the hiking trails below the ridges.
The Pai Canyon is located 8 kms to south of the town just off the main road. If you are doing the loop in an anti-clockwise direction, you’ll see the entrance to the canyon on the left as you come into the valley, so you may want to visit it before reaching Pai if it’s not too hot. It does get busy at sunset.
Some of the Chinese houses within Santichon Village.
If you have time to do one of the valley attractions in the afternoon, I recommend Santichon Village (also known as the Chinese village) about 5 kms to the east of Pai on the road to the Mo Pang Waterfall. The village was originally founded by people from China’s Yunnan province who fled over the border to Thailand during the Chinese Revolution of 1949.
The village used to attract curious tourists, so around 2005 a small cultural centre and park was built to cash in on this interest. It’s definitely touristy but if you have an interest in Chinese culture or sampling local foods from Yunnan, you should find enough there to warrant a short visit. A lot of Thai tourists hire traditional Chinese costumes from shops in the village and walk around the park whilst companions take photos of them against various backdrops.
Pai to Chiang Mai
The last section of the Mai Hong Son Loop back down to Chiang Mai is around 135 kms and will take about three hours to drive. There are 762 curves on this section and more hairpin bends than on the first three days. You’ll pass the Ta-Pai Memorial Bridge on the way out of the valley, a couple of kilometres after the turnoff to Pai Canyon. It’s worth a quick stop to read about the history of this WW2 bridge.
For the next two hours after passing the bridge you will need to focus on your driving because there’s a lot more traffic on this section than any other part of the Mai Hong Son Loop. Watch out for tourist van drivers cutting corners as they rush day-trippers up to Pai from Chiang Mai. Fortunately, there are far fewer accidents on this road than might be imagined, but it’s not a road on which you can afford to lose full concentration.
The Ta-Pai memorial WW2 bridge just south of Pai town.
There are two viewpoints where you can stop to stretch your legs and admire the mountain views – the Rak Chang Viewpoint about an hour out of Pai, and the Kong Gnam Viewpoint about 20 minutes further on. After the Kong Gnam Viewpoint you’ll tackle the tightest hairpins pins, and once you pass the Witch’s House coffee shop on your right, you can congratulate yourself that you’ve accomplished the most difficult section of the Mai Hong Son Loop.
The Witch’s House is worth a quick photo stop, but if you’re looking for high quality coffee, then the 32 Coffee Hill Café on the left-hand side about 15 minutes further on is a better option. They have some lovely gardens that you can wander around after your coffee and the restrooms there are very clean.
After that it’s an easy one hour 15 mins drive back to Chiang Mai which is still fairly scenic (with one short hilly section) for the first half hour or so. If you don’t have plans for the afternoon in Chiang Mai, then an easy side-trip from the route back would be to visit the Mae Sa Waterfall and the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden. This adds only one hour to the day’s driving time (30 mins each way).
The beautiful view from the Doi Lhung Chiang Dao Viewpoint.
If you are not returning to Chiang Mai but travelling on to Chiang Rai instead, consider an overnight stop at Chiang Dao. This will enable you to break a 6-hours’ drive into two more leisurely 3-hours’ drives as there are lots of interesting places to see along the way, irrespective of which of the three alternative routes to Chiang Rai that you take (I like the northern route the best).
There are plenty of accommodation options around Chiang Dao to suit all budgets (my favourite is the Villa de View about a kilometre past the entrance to the Chiang Dao Cave), and you will have time to drive up to the Doi Lhung Chiang Dao Viewpoint. From there you will have a spectacular view of Thailand’s third highest mountain which equals any of the mountain views that you will have enjoyed on the Mai Hong Son Loop.
Header image: © Lab Photo. All other images: © David Astley
