Is Chiang Mai good for cycling?

Chiang Mai is one of the highest-ranked destinations for digital nomads. This year, I got tempted to see how would it be to live and work from here. In this short piece, I’ll share my opinion on one particular aspect of such life: Is Chiang Mai good for bike (bicycle) riding?

I’ll admit that at first, I was utterly disappointed with the cycling experience here. After a few days, I adapted a bit. But if you expect an outstanding experience, maybe this text allows you to tune up expectations a bit – hopefully without killing the enthusiasm. So, allow me to elaborate 🙂

Cycling in Chiang Mai: the good parts

Jungle near Chiang Mai (Doi Suthep area)
A bicycle allows exploring and reaching places that would otherwise be hard to find. Like this cool jungle near the Doi Suthep road 🙂

Here is what I liked about my bike riding experience:

  • The weather (in the dry season, at least). In February and March it is just perfect. It is pleasantly warm, as presented in the diagram of average temperatures in Chiang Mai. There is no rain. The humidity level is comfortable.
  • Some outskirts and suburban areas have good roads for cycling. For example:
    • The Chiang Mai University campus feels like a city within a city. It has bicycle paths and little traffic on the roads.
    • The Doi Suthep mountain and National Park adjoin the city and have a great road to cycle (assuming you like to cycle uphill ;))
  • You can rent a bicycle cheaply. I got mine for 1500 THB for 2 weeks (which is about $3/day). There were much less bicycle rental places than I expected in a popular tourist destination, but Google Maps still shows few possibilities.
  • People are nice, also when you bike 😉 I saw no signs of impatience on the road. Instead, I saw many smiles, thumbs up, friendly comments.

Cycling in Chiang Mai: the bad parts

A cloud of smog over Chiang Mai, as seen from a scenic Doi Suthep road. March 2023.
  • Air quality in the burning season is awful. From what I hear – this happens year after year. While I was enjoying the views, I was sadly aware that health-wise, it’d be much better to sit at home.
  • The road infrastructure in the city and how it is used is definitely not bicycle-friendly, compared to what I know best (Warsaw, Poland). I don’t want to rant about it, but it can be a challenge to walk on foot or cross the street. Using a bicycle is a level of difficulty higher. Bicycle paths are very rare. The pavements suitable for riding a bike are also very rare. Streets have high levels of traffic, and even if there are some roadsides, they are shared by parked vehicles, driving vehicles or food trucks.
  • The street system makes it difficult to go from place to place because many streets are not connected. What I mean is that there are some big main streets which I find unsuitable for cycling, and then there are side-streets branching off those main streets but often ending in a dead-end. Finding a bicycle-friendly path between two points on a map is no easy task.
  • Stray dogs (of which 99,9% seem harmless) apparently don’t like my bicycle too much. Maybe they are not accustomed to seeing one. Perhaps I was just unlucky, but one attacked me on my first day on the bike, which was terrifying. I tried to mitigate it later by carefully observing all dogs and staying at a distance (to not cross into “their” territory), and with such safety measures, I had no more incidents of this kind.

Given all the above, I used my bicycle much less than I expected, once every few days. I usually preferred to walk somewhere or use a songthaew or other taxi service if it seemed too far.

See how it looks for yourself (on a video)!

I’ve compiled a short video for you to see just how it looks. I’m not forcing any thesis here, it shows some good parts and some bad parts:

Thanks for stopping by! If you’d like to add something to the topic yourself, be my guest and comment 🙂

2 thoughts on “Is Chiang Mai good for cycling?”

  1. Hey Paweł! Thank you for sharing your experience. Im going to move to Chiang Mai for 3 months and I’m cyclist so it’s very helpful to read. Stray dogs are problem in whole Thailand. Even Bangkok I got dangerous situation with them. Have you been using any coworking spaces there?

    Reply
    • Lucky you, have a great time!
      Regarding co-working spaces, I only attended a meetup at a Yellow Coworking Space. It seemed a nice space with a laid back atmosphere, positive impression overall. But I can see that there are plenty other options to choose from, some of them with better ratings, so if I was choosing a place to work for 3 months I’d do more research 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Comment