Sri Lanna National Park

Sri Lanna National Park covers forested hills north of Mae Taeng, about an hour’s drive from Chiang Mai city and within reach of the Chiang Dao area. Entry costs 100 THB for foreigners and 20 THB for Thai nationals, payable at the checkpoint near the park headquarters. Most people who come here aren’t hiking at all — they’re heading for Mae Ngat Dam and the floating raft houses moored on its reservoir.

The reservoir is the park’s real draw. Longtail boats run from the dam pier out to clusters of bamboo raft houses (locally marketed as “houseboats”), where you can swim off a floating deck, kayak between the raft clusters, or book an overnight stay with meals included. A return boat trip runs roughly 600-800 THB per boat, so splitting it across a group brings the price down considerably. Beyond the water, the park protects mixed deciduous and dry evergreen forest with a scattering of short trails and small waterfalls near the Mae Taeng side headquarters — modest compared to Doi Inthanon or Doi Suthep-Pui, but usable for a half-day walk if you want tree cover rather than open water.

Watch out: the reservoir level swings a lot between seasons. By the end of the hot season (March-May), low water can strand some raft-house operators or lengthen the boat ride considerably — call ahead if you’re planning a hot-season visit. Rainy season (June-October) fills the reservoir back up but brings afternoon downpours that can cancel boat trips outright.

Wildlife here is genuinely wild rather than staged: hornbills and kingfishers along the shoreline, and — if you’re quiet and early — barking deer or wild boar near the tree line. The forest is dry deciduous rather than dense rainforest, so it thins out visibly by April before the rains green it back up.

Insider Tip: book a raft house through a Mae Taeng or Chiang Mai operator rather than showing up at the pier — walk-up boats exist but availability (and price) is inconsistent on weekends, when Thai families fill most of the raft clusters.

The park headquarters can arrange basic camping if you’d rather stay on land, and the drive up passes Mae Ngud Somboon Chon Dam, the reservoir’s formal name on some maps and signage — the same body of water, same park.