Bhubing Rajanives Palace

Bhubing Rajanives Palace is the Thai royal family’s winter residence on Doi Suthep, roughly 20 minutes past the temple on the same mountain road. The building itself stays closed to visitors — what’s open is the palace grounds, chiefly a rose garden and fern collection that only really thrive at this elevation. Entry is 50 THB for foreign adults (10 THB for children), 20 THB for Thai adults, and the palace typically shuts to the public from around January through March whenever the royal family is in residence.

The rose garden is the reason most people come — dozens of varieties planted specifically because Chiang Mai’s mountain air is cool enough for them to flower, something impossible at lowland temperatures. A short walk further in, the Fern Garden (started in 1993) holds a dense collection of ferns native to Thailand’s highlands, laid out along shaded paths around a small pond and pavilion. None of it is manicured into formality — paths wind between beds rather than along straight axes, and pine trees mixed among the flowerbeds give the whole site a noticeably cooler, more temperate feel than anywhere else near Chiang Mai city.

Watch out: the palace closes completely, without exception, whenever the royal family is staying there — typically during the cool season window of January to March, though the exact dates vary each year and aren’t published far in advance. Turning up to a locked gate after the drive up the mountain is a common complaint in visitor reviews; check current status before you go rather than assuming last year’s dates still apply.

Insider Tip: Arrive at opening, 08:30, if you want the gardens to yourself — tour buses from the city start arriving mid-morning and the narrow garden paths get congested fast once several groups overlap.

Bring a light jacket if you’re coming straight from the city — the elevation drops the temperature noticeably, especially in the early morning before the sun clears the ridge. Songthaew and tour transport from central Chiang Mai run the full route up Doi Suthep, or a private car makes it easy to pair the palace with Wat Phra That Doi Suthep and Doi Suthep-Pui National Park in a single half-day.