Bangkok to Chiang Mai, door to door

For most trips between Bangkok and Chiang Mai, we would fly. It is the quickest option by a wide margin, fares can be low, and Chiang Mai's airport sits on the edge of the city.

The rest of this page explains why, and when the night train or the bus is the better choice. It compares the whole journey, from a hotel in central Bangkok to one in central Chiang Mai, because the hour and a quarter on the flight timetable is only a quarter to a third of the whole trip by air.

The short answer

At a glance

Door to door, not gate to gate

A flight is timed from gate to gate. A traveller's day runs from one bed to the next. This is what each option takes once you add the parts the timetable leaves out.

• Getting to the departure point, and into town
• There before departure
• On board

1. Flight About 4 to 5½ hours

   45 minutes to 1¼ hours to the airport, 1½ to 2 hours there before departure, 75 to 85 minutes of scheduled flight time, then 30 to 45 minutes for bags and the ride into town.

2. Night train About 14 to 15 hours

   30 minutes to an hour to Krung Thep Aphiwat, Bangkok's main train station, half an hour there before departure, 12 hours 35 to 12 hours 40 minutes on board (trains 9 and 13), then 15 to 30 minutes from Chiang Mai station.

3. VIP bus About 11 to 12½ hours

   30 minutes to an hour to Mo Chit 2, Bangkok's northern bus terminal, half an hour there before departure, 9¾ to 10½ hours on the road, then 15 to 30 minutes from Chiang Mai's Arcade terminal.

0 h3 h6 h9 h12 h15 h

These are our working assumptions, not timetable promises: a start in central Bangkok, an end at a hotel in or near Chiang Mai's Old City, ordinary traffic and no delays. Bangkok traffic can add a lot to any leg made by road. The upper end of the airport time follows Suvarnabhumi's advice to arrive about two hours before a domestic flight; check-in and bag drop close 40 to 60 minutes before departure, depending on the airline.

The two Bangkok airports share one bar because, from the city centre, neither is reliably quicker to reach. Suvarnabhumi has the Airport Rail Link from Phaya Thai, in the city centre; Don Mueang has the State Railway's Dark Red Line commuter trains from Krung Thep Aphiwat; by road, it depends on where you start. Which airport is closer is a question about your hotel.

Even at the slow end of each range, the order does not change: flying takes about a third of the time of the train. What changes is the framing. A flight is a half-day trip, not a hop, and much of the train's time is the night you would spend in bed anyway.

Flying, and what to check first

Several airlines fly between Bangkok and Chiang Mai every day, with scheduled flights of 75 to 85 minutes. That competition can keep fares low, but the cheapest fare on a search page is not always the cheapest trip.

Check the airport. Bangkok has two: Suvarnabhumi (BKK) and Don Mueang (DMK). Most low-cost flights to Chiang Mai leave from Don Mueang, including those of Thai AirAsia, Nok Air and Thai Lion Air. Suvarnabhumi has Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways, but also the low-cost Thai VietJet, and Thai AirAsia flies from both. The airline's name will not always tell you the airport; the ticket will.

Compare the final price. Baggage allowances vary by airline and fare. Some low-cost fares include no checked bag; others include a small allowance. Compare the final fare with the baggage you actually need, then add any seat you want to choose and the ride to the airport before deciding which flight is cheaper.

Look at the departure time. A very early flight can mean leaving your Bangkok hotel in the middle of the night. A later flight that costs a little more can be the better trip.

Getting to the airport. For Suvarnabhumi, the Airport Rail Link runs from Phaya Thai, in the city centre, to the terminal's basement level, from 05:30 to midnight. For Don Mueang, the State Railway's Dark Red Line commuter trains run from Krung Thep Aphiwat to Don Mueang station, which connects to the airport. Otherwise it is a taxi or a Grab, the ride-hailing app, and the traffic decides.

Landing in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai International (CNX) is about four kilometres from the Old City. Grab has a desk in the terminal and marked pick-up points, and there are taxi counters, metered or fixed-price.

From Chiang Mai airport into town

The night train

Trains to Chiang Mai leave from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, Bangkok's main station, formerly known as Bang Sue Grand. Since January 2023 they no longer leave from Hua Lamphong, the old central station. The MRT Blue Line's Bang Sue station is beneath the terminal.

Five trains a day leave for Chiang Mai. For a night in a berth, the two to look at are train 9 and train 13, which leave in the evening and arrive in the morning; train 9 has the newer sleeper carriages. Train 51 also runs overnight but arrives close to midday.

Sleepers, booking and arrival

First or second class. First class is a two-berth compartment with a door; you can book a single berth or the whole compartment. Second class is an open carriage of upper and lower berths, each with a curtain, and costs less. Lower berths cost a little more than upper ones. Classes vary by train; D-Ticket shows what each one carries.

Booking. Tickets go on sale 180 days before departure on D-Ticket, the State Railway's official website and app, and can be bought until three hours before departure. You need an account, and each ticket carries the traveller's name and passport number: it cannot be transferred or renamed. Pay by card or by PromptPay, Thailand's QR payment system. The terms ask you to print the ticket, so carry a printout with your passport.

If the sleepers are sold out. Try the other evening train (9 or 13), or second class instead of first. Otherwise, fly, or take a VIP bus.

On board. Alcohol is banned on trains and in stations. Train 9's newer carriages include a dining car, but bring water and something to eat in case it is closed. The State Railway allows 40 kg of luggage per passenger in second class and 50 kg in first. The UK government's travel advice notes that people have had things taken from their bags while asleep on trains and buses, so on either, keep your passport, phone and money with you.

Arriving in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai station is on the east bank of the Ping River, about three kilometres from the Old City. From there it is a short ride into town by Grab or by songthaew, the red pick-up trucks with bench seats.

In the rainy season. Floods and landslides occasionally close the northern line. Trains were cancelled for a day in September 2026, and a landslide shut the section between Lampang and Chiang Mai in September 2024. In the wet months, check D-Ticket or the State Railway's call centre, 1690, before you set off.

Songthaews and Grab, explained

The VIP bus

Buses to Chiang Mai leave from the Bangkok Bus Terminal (Chatuchak), better known as Mo Chit 2, north of the city centre. Most leave in the evening and arrive in the morning after about 9¾ to 10½ hours on the timetable; a few run by day. In Chiang Mai they arrive at the Arcade bus terminal, about three kilometres north-east of the Old City.

By VIP bus we mean the premium classes, whatever each company calls them, and they are the ones to book. Transport Co., the state-owned operator known in Thai as Bor Kor Sor, runs a VIP class with 24 seats per coach, listed as VIP 24 when you book. Nakhonchai Air sells First Class and Gold Class; Sombat Tour sells Supreme. The best of these coaches have three seats across instead of four, a deep recline and a toilet on board.

At the two operators whose fares we checked, the VIP classes cost 924 baht (Transport Co.'s VIP 24) and 1,028 baht (Sombat Tour's Supreme); Sombat's standard classes start at 661 baht. Book on the operator's own website or at the terminal. Nakhonchai Air, for one, also boards at its own station on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, so check where yours leaves from.

The bus suits travellers who would rather go by road, and it has a practical advantage when the sleepers are sold out: there are far more departures each evening than there are night trains.

By car

Bangkok to Chiang Mai is roughly 700 kilometres by road; the bus companies give 713 km. Allow nine to ten hours of driving with only short stops. In a single day that is a long and tiring drive, and we would not recommend it. If you want to go by road at your own pace, split it over two days with a night on the way.

Want to break the journey?

Two towns are on the railway itself, and a third is a detour by road. Breaking the trip means buying two tickets, and usually doing one of the legs by day.

Ayutthaya. A former royal capital, a World Heritage Site, about an hour north of Krung Thep Aphiwat. Every Chiang Mai train stops there.

Lampang. A provincial town about two hours before Chiang Mai. Every Chiang Mai train stops there too.

Sukhothai. Not on the railway. Its historical park, also a World Heritage Site, is about an hour to an hour and a half by road from Phitsanulok, where the Chiang Mai trains stop. It is a detour that needs a night, not a stop between two trains.

Chiang Mai to Bangkok

The same options work in the other direction. Three things are worth knowing.

Night trains arrive early. The three southbound overnight trains leave Chiang Mai between 15:30 and 18:20 and reach Krung Thep Aphiwat between 05:10 and 06:30, well before most hotels will let you check in. They stop at Don Mueang station on the way, beside the airport, about a quarter of an hour before Krung Thep Aphiwat.

Book both directions together. In high season, book the return berth at the same time as the outward one; sales open 180 days ahead in both directions.

Watch the airport if you are connecting. If you fly out of Thailand from Suvarnabhumi, a Chiang Mai flight that lands at Don Mueang means a transfer across the city. A flight into the same airport saves it.

What we would take

For a normal trip between Bangkok and Chiang Mai, we would usually fly: it is fast, it is often competitively priced, and the airport is close enough to the city that the last leg is short.

Before booking, we would compare the final price with the baggage we need, and confirm whether the flight leaves from Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang.

We would take the night train when the journey itself is part of what we want from the trip. A berth also replaces a night in a hotel, though that does not necessarily make the train cheaper; compare it with the flight's final price.

The VIP bus is a comfortable way to travel by road, and a good option when the sleepers are sold out.

How we checked this

Train times come from the State Railway of Thailand's own timetable, and the booking rules from its D-Ticket site. Bus times and fares come from the operators' published timetables, baggage rules from the airlines' own sites. We checked them in October 2026. Schedules, fares and airline routes change, sometimes at short notice, so confirm with the operator before you book.