Doi Inthanon is a band 3 park: 300 baht for a foreign adult, 150 for a foreign child, 60 and 30 for Thai visitors, plus 30 for a car. Doi Suthep-Pui, in the same province, is 100 — the gap is a policy choice, not a mistake. The Kew Mae Pan trail is closed 1 June to 31 October every year and reopens 1 November. The summit is 2,565 m and it is cloud forest, not a panorama. Government bungalows run 1,000 to 8,000 baht a night and are published by name.
What it costs, and the Doi Suthep comparison
Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564 — Royal Gazette, 9 December 2021, in force 7 June 2022 — puts Doi Inthanon in band 3, one of only nine parks in the country at that rate: 300 baht for a foreign adult, 150 for a foreign child, 60 and 30 for Thai visitors. Vehicles are charged nationally at 20 baht for a motorcycle, 30 for a car, 100 for a six-wheeler, 200 up to ten wheels.
The number people find surprising is the one next door. Chiang Mai province holds nine national parks and they straddle the cheapest and second-dearest bands:
| Chiang Mai national park | Fee band | Foreign adult / child (baht) |
|---|---|---|
| Doi Inthanon | Band 3 | 300 / 150 |
| Doi Pha Hom Pok | Band 3 | 300 / 150 |
| Huai Nam Dang | Band 3 | 300 / 150 |
| Doi Suthep-Pui | Band 1 | 100 / 50 |
| Op Luang | Band 1 | 100 / 50 |
| Mae Wang | Band 1 | 100 / 50 |
| Mae Ta Khrai | Band 1 | 100 / 50 |
| Khun Khan | Band 1 | 100 / 50 |
| Pha Daeng | Band 1 | 100 / 50 |
A child is defined in the regulation as three to fourteen complete, or not more than 140 cm tall. A foreigner is anyone without Thai nationality, with no residency test and no resident rate. Free entry goes to monks, novices and clergy of other religions residing in Thailand, Thai persons aged sixty and over, disabled persons, and children under three; Thai students and Thai study groups pay the child rate.
Kew Mae Pan: closed 1 June to 31 October, every year
The park’s best-known walk is the Kew Mae Pan nature trail, a 3.2 km route that climbs through cloud forest and comes out along an exposed grass ridge. It is closed from 1 June to 31 October each year and reopens on 1 November. The stated reasons are to let the trail and its vegetation recover through the rainy season, and visitor safety on wet ground and exposed ridge.
This is a genuine, repeating five-month closure, not a one-off, and the Chiang Mai arm of the Government Public Relations Department treats the 1 November reopening as the formal opening of the Doi Inthanon season. If Kew Mae Pan is your reason for the trip, that fixes your window at November to May.
The rest of the park is not covered by that closure — the summit, the Ang Ka Luang boardwalk, Wachirathan, Siriphum and Mae Ya waterfalls all stay open. And Doi Inthanon has the other kind of closure risk too: like every northern park it sits under the burning-season smoke that closes parks elsewhere at a day’s notice in the hot months.
What is actually at the top
2,565 metres, and a forest rather than a view. The department describes the upper montane forest at the summit as under mist and cold damp essentially all year, dense with moss, old man’s beard lichen, ferns and orchids growing on the trunks, and a floor carpeted in sphagnum. Part of the summit is a spring-fed bog local people call Ang Ka Luang, now crossed by a raised wooden boardwalk built for exactly that ground.
The mountain was formerly called Doi Ang Ka, from a story about a pool in the forest about 300 metres west of the peak where crows liked to bathe. The park was gazetted as Thailand’s sixth national park on 2 October 1972 and covers about 481.89 square kilometres across four districts of Chiang Mai: Mae Chaem, Chom Thong, Mae Wang and Doi Lo.
What lives here is the point. Over 400 bird species, resident and wintering. The Green-tailed Sunbird subspecies angkanensis occurs nowhere else on earth. The Himalayan salamander Tylototriton verrucosus holds on in high-mountain water. Himalayan plants reach their southern limit here — rhododendron, the Inthanon slipper orchid, the parasitic Sapria himalayana — and goral live on the cliffs. Mae Ya, in the south of the park, falls about 260 metres over a hundred or more rock tiers.
Getting there, and sleeping inside
The department’s own directions from Chiang Mai city: take the Chiang Mai–Hot road to about kilometre 58; before Chom Thong market, turn right onto the Chom Thong–Doi Inthanon road, about 48 km to the top. At kilometre 8 a left turn of roughly 1 km reaches Mae Klang waterfall. The park headquarters is at kilometre 31.
| Unit | Zone | Sleeps | Baht / night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inthanon 101 (Khao Tok Ruesi) | Dong Son camping zone | 23 | 6,500 |
| Inthanon 105 (Ratchaphruek) | Dong Son camping zone | 10 | 3,500 |
| Inthanon 102 / 106 (Kularb Daeng, Kularb Khao) | Dong Son camping zone | 8 | 3,000 |
| Inthanon 107-109 (Dao Rueang, Butsabong, Nonsi) | Dong Son camping zone | 2 | 1,000 |
| Inthanon 201 / 202 (Kham Daeng, Kham Khao) | Headquarters zone | 10 | 8,000 |
| Inthanon 203-205 (Khun Klang 2-4) | Headquarters zone | 6 to 11 | 2,000-3,000 |
| Inthanon 401 (Siriphum 1) | Doi Pha Tang zone | 6 | 2,500 |
| Inthanon 931-934 (youth camps) | Mae Pan falls / Huai Sai Lueang zone, shared bathrooms | 15 | 1,500 |
Camping on your own tent is 30 baht per person per night; a park dome tent for three without bedding is 225, with a pillow at 10, a sleeping bag at 30 and a mat at 20. At 1,300 metres and above this is the one place in Thailand where that bedding line is not optional — the Dong Son camping zone is genuinely cold on a clear December night, and frost on the summit is a normal winter event. Accommodation is discounted 30 per cent Monday to Thursday outside public holidays.
What we could not confirm
- The mandatory-guide rule on Kew Mae Pan. It is widely stated that the trail may only be walked with a local interpreter-guide, for a fee, in groups of limited size. No government page we could reach today states the rule, the fee or the cap. Assume you will be asked to take one and budget for it, but we are not printing a price.
- Opening hours and any summit-road curfew. Not obtainable from a departmental source today.
- The two royal chedis near the summit. They are not run by the park, and we could not confirm their opening times or their separate admission charge from the body that operates them, so we have left both out rather than guess.
- Whether the 1 June to 31 October dates ever shift. The same window has been announced repeatedly, and the reopening has been reported as 1 November, but each year is announced separately. Check before travelling in late May or early November.
- Everything on the department’s own park pages. On 7 September 2026 nps.dnp.go.th and portal.dnp.go.th were unreachable from two networks, the first timing out at the TCP level. Fees and accommodation rates here come from the Royal Gazette text of the regulation, and the park description from the department’s news service quoting the Office of National Parks’ own book.
Frequently asked questions
300 baht for a foreign adult and 150 for a foreign child, against 60 and 30 for Thai visitors, plus 30 baht for a car or 20 for a motorcycle. That is band 3 of Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564, published in the Royal Gazette on 9 December 2021 and in force from 7 June 2022. Only nine of Thailand's national parks sit in band 3, and Doi Inthanon is one of them; only Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin cost more. Doi Inthanon is not on the list of five parks carrying an extra special-rate zone under the September 2022 announcement, so 300 is the number. Worth knowing before you plan a Chiang Mai week: Doi Suthep-Pui, on the city's doorstep, is a band 1 park at 100 baht for a foreign adult - the same province, a third of the price.
Every year from 1 June to 31 October, reopening on 1 November. The closure is announced by the park to let the trail recover through the rainy season and for visitor safety, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has published it in those terms; the Government Public Relations Department's Chiang Mai service treats the 1 November reopening as the start of the Doi Inthanon tourist season. That is five months of the year in which the park's best-known walk - a 3.2 km loop through cloud forest and out along an open ridge - is simply not available. If Kew Mae Pan is the reason you are going, go between November and May. The rest of the park, including the summit, the Ang Ka boardwalk and the waterfalls, is not covered by that closure.
The summit is 2,565 metres above sea level, the highest point in Thailand, and it is not a view - it is a cloud forest. The Department of National Parks describes the upper montane forest as under mist and cold damp essentially year-round, with moss, lichen, ferns and orchids on the trunks and a floor carpeted in sphagnum. Part of the summit area is a spring-fed bog that local people call Ang Ka Luang, now crossed by a wooden boardwalk nature trail. The mountain was formerly called Doi Ang Ka, from a story about a forest pool roughly 300 m west of the peak where crows liked to bathe. People who arrive expecting a panoramic viewpoint are often disappointed; people who arrive expecting a Himalayan forest ecosystem sitting at 18 degrees north are not.
Its species. The department records over 400 bird species in the park, resident and winter migrants, and one of them - the Green-tailed Sunbird, Aethopyga nipalensis, subspecies angkanensis - is found nowhere else on earth. The Himalayan salamander, Tylototriton verrucosus, lives only in high-mountain water bodies. The Himalayan flora reaches its southern terminus here: rhododendron, the Inthanon slipper orchid, and the parasitic Sapria himalayana. Goral live on the cliffs. The park covers about 481.89 square kilometres across four districts of Chiang Mai - Mae Chaem, Chom Thong, Mae Wang and Doi Lo - and was gazetted as Thailand's sixth national park on 2 October 1972. The largest waterfall, Mae Ya in the south of the park, drops about 260 metres over a hundred or more rock tiers.
The department's own directions: from Chiang Mai city take the Chiang Mai to Hot road to about kilometre 58, and before reaching Chom Thong market turn right onto the Chom Thong to Doi Inthanon road, which runs about 48 km to the top. At kilometre 8 of that road a left turn of about 1 km reaches Mae Klang waterfall. The park headquarters is at kilometre 31. Allow well over an hour from the city for the drive itself, longer in the cool season when the summit road is busy - and dress for it. This is the one place in Thailand where a visitor in shorts is genuinely uncomfortable, and where frost is a normal winter event rather than a novelty.
It is the obvious one, and unusually good. Doi Inthanon is a day trip from Chiang Mai city, Doi Suthep-Pui is effectively in the suburbs at a third of the price, and Huai Nam Dang and Doi Pha Hom Pok are weekend range. That density of protected land inside two hours is one of the real, concrete reasons people choose Chiang Mai over Bangkok, and it is worth weighing against the thing that pulls the other way - the northern burning season, which fills the same valleys with smoke in roughly February to April and is the single biggest complaint from long-stay residents. Both facts are true at once and they land in the same decision.
Related guides
- National parks in Thailand — the bands, the booking system and the rules that carry a fine.
- Chiang Mai — the base nine national parks are reachable from.
- Cost of living in Chiang Mai — what a northern base actually costs.
- Trekking in Thailand — the protected areas and the guide rule.
- Erawan National Park — the other band 3 park most people visit.
- Khao Yai National Park — the Bangkok weekend, and its double fee.
- Thailand’s seasons — the cool months, and the smoke months.
- Explore Thailand — the section this guide sits in.
Nine national parks inside two hours
That is the real argument for a Chiang Mai base, and it is worth weighing against the burning season with both facts on the table.
Sources & References
- Royal Gazette, vol. 138 special part 301 Ngor, 9 December 2021 - DNP Regulation B.E. 2564 on service fees. Schedule 1 places Doi Inthanon in band 3 at Thai adult 60 / child 30 and foreign adult 300 / child 150, and places Doi Suthep-Pui in band 1 at 20 / 10 and 100 / 50; Schedule 2 sets vehicle rates; Schedule 4 and its annex set camping and bungalow rates including every Inthanon unit by name and zone
- Department of National Parks news service, 2 June 2022 - the band lists with the province of each park; Doi Inthanon, Doi Pha Hom Pok and Huai Nam Dang are the three Chiang Mai parks in band 3, while Doi Suthep-Pui, Mae Wang, Mae Ta Khrai, Op Luang, Khun Khan and Pha Daeng sit in band 1
- Department of National Parks news service - 'The most of the national parks' EP.01 on Doi Inthanon, drawn from the Office of National Parks' own book (ISBN 978-616-316-504-6): summit 2,565 m, formerly named Doi Ang Ka, about 481.89 sq km across Mae Chaem, Chom Thong, Mae Wang and Doi Lo districts of Chiang Mai, gazetted as Thailand's sixth national park on 2 October 1972; the Ang Ka Luang boardwalk; over 400 bird species; the Green-tailed Sunbird subspecies angkanensis found nowhere else on earth; Mae Ya waterfall at 260 m; the Kew Mae Pan nature trail at 3.2 km; and the driving directions with the headquarters at km 31
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment - Doi Inthanon National Park announces the closure of the Kew Mae Pan nature trail to let nature recover, 1 June to 31 October
- Government Public Relations Department, Radio Thailand Chiang Mai - the Kew Mae Pan nature trail reopening on 1 November, treated as the opening of the Doi Inthanon tourist season
- Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) - Doi Inthanon is the site of Thailand's highest peak at 2,565 metres above sea level
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
