Hopefully off to Thailand at Xmas with Mrs A and boys (16 & 14) for a once off hol. Years ago I did some great trekking on Burmese border so we’re thinking of heading up to Chiang Mai for a week or so … anyone been there recently with recess of activities or companies to use? I did it pre Google so life was easy – turn up and see what’s on offer! But there’s loads of companies offering stuff but we’d like something pretty rugged, authentic, not too sanitised/commercial e.g. trekking, white water rafting etc.

Anyone got any pointers for us to start looking at pls?

Ta

We were up in Chiang Mai last year. Lovely place. We only had a few days so didn’t get to as wild a place as I’d have liked but we found a few good things. The biking with x biking was great. Long singletrack descent through the jungle. We also had a couple of days at Baanchang Elephant Reserve. It was a little touristy but really not too bad. Staying overnight was great as only a couple of other people did. Good fun feeding the elephants, learning to ride without a seat, washing them and just chilling in the jungle. We did do some rafting but it was very tame. Nice scenery though. Also managed a couple of treks, one was DIY and one guided. Both nice but not amazing enough to recommend.

I have a home in Northern Thailand but more Eastern than Chand mai. My suggestion would be to book couple of days MTB with X biking and then leave a week spare in Chang Mai and get the guys from X biking to organise something with locals .Thus missing out the middle men commission and sanitised ? Enjoy it is epic in th north