Top Hiking Spots in Thailand Khao Yai Phuket Khao Lak and More

For a lot of people, hiking doesn’t come to mind as an activity to do in Thailand, but actually I think it’s one of the best places that I’ve ever been to for hiking. It has some amazing mountains and some amazing viewpoints.

Khao Yai Hiking in Thailand During Rainy Season

Okay I’m going to start with one that I think should be a lot higher on the list and it’s hiking at Khao Yai. Khao Yai is supposed to be one of the best places to hike in the whole country. It’s an amazing place to see some of the best wildlife Thailand has to offer.

There are gibbons, bears, elephants and snakes. However, on the day that I visited I saw pretty much none of that. I went during rainy season, so the trek was wet, it was cold, it was muddy and worst of all, it was filled with leeches.

Now, I don’t want to freak people out too much. However, if you’re going to go hiking in Thailand during the rainy season, you’d better be ready for leeches.

Big Buddha Hike from Kata Beach in Phuket

The next up on the list is a short hike and it’s the Big Buddha hike in Phuket. This is a really easy hike to do, especially if you’re staying in Kata Beach. I’d recommend starting early because it does get hot and sticky, but you can start as the sun rises.

Walking along Kata Beach, this is an amazing time to see it because there’s very few people there. You’ll then walk through Kata town before beginning the ascent up to the Big Buddha. It does get a bit hot and sticky because the jungle’s quite dense.

However, I do think this is the best way to go see the Big Buddha because you really earn your way up. So it makes it extra special when you get up there and you see the Big Buddha itself. You also get amazing views of Phuket and its surroundings.

And there’s lots of monkeys living there at the top of the mountain too.

Heavenly Cult Hike in Ratchaburi

Number eight on the list is one of the weirdest hikes I’ve ever done and that’s the Heavenly Cult hike in Ratchaburi. Ratchaburi is about a 3-hour drive away from Bangkok and it’s called the Heavenly Cult hike because this was the site of a cult during the 70s and ‘ 80s, I believe, in Thailand. This cult tried to unite all the world’s religions in one place.

So at the top of this mountain you’ll find statues of the Buddha, which is common around Thailand, but you’ll also find a big Jesus statue. There are some Hindu gods. This cult was eventually shut down by the government because they were accused of being communists and started an uprising.

So everyone was moved on. Some people were arrested. However, the statues at the top of the mountain still remain.

Kew Mae Pan Nature Trail in Doi Inthanon

The next hike is a really popular hike to do in Chiang Mai and it’s the Kew Mae Pan nature trail in Doi Inthanon National Park. Doi Inthanon is about an hour and a half drive away from Chiang Mai and it’s actually the highest point in Thailand. A lot of people like to visit it because it’s got the twin pagodas at the top.

To visit the mountain, you can hike back on this nature trail and it’ll take you past waterfalls and rice paddy fields. You’ll end in a Karen village that’s famous for making coffee. When we did this hike it was again during rainy season, but there were no leeches, thank God.

The water was extremely intense. If you look at this waterfall here, it was pretty much out of control. It’s really nice to end in the Karen village with a nice warm coffee, and to see how the rural people live in Thailand.

Koh Phi Phi Viewpoint Hike from Tonsai Bay

Okay, we’re heading south next for another short hike. This is again a very popular one and very easy to do. It’s the viewpoint hike in Koh Phi Phi.

This should take about 45 minutes to an hour to hike up. You actually start from the center of Tonsai Bay, which is right near the pier and where a lot of people are staying. It’s not that much of a natural hike because you simply have to hike up a set of stairs, so it’s not really a nature trail.

However, it does give you an excellent view of Koh Phi Phi. Now, if you know Koh Phi Phi, it’s iconic because of its weird shape in the middle. It’s actually a really thin island and that’s on view from this viewpoint, where you can see the two beaches almost touching each other.

You can also see the massive cliff faces in the distance.

Erawan Waterfalls Hike in Kanchanaburi

Number five is the Erawan Waterfalls in Kanchanaburi. Personally, I think this is one of the best waterfalls I’ve ever seen. Now, it’s not the biggest by any means.

But what makes this waterfall unique is that it lasts for a really long length. So it’s about 2 or 3 km long and it’s a series of cascading waterfalls. To start the hike I actually recommend getting there early because it’s quite a popular tourist destination.

I would get there early and first of all, hike to the top. Don’t stop at each of the pools. Hike up, see it all first and then when you’re at the top, you can actually hop in these pools to cool down.

Again, it’s pretty dense jungle, so you’re going to get hot and sticky so by the time you jump in it’s going to be really refreshing. The seventh tier of the waterfall is at the top, but this is one of my favorite ones to dip in. You can then hike to the top, head back down and dip in each of the pools.

They have these really turquoise-colored waters, I think from some of the minerals in the rock. One of the kind of creepy things about this is there are fish in the ponds, and they do like to nibble at your feet. That is a bit weird.

You can even slide down some of these waterfalls. So it’s a really interesting hike that you get to cool yourself down with afterwards.

Three Day Elephant Trek in Chiang Mai

Now, the longest hike on this list was in Chiang Mai. This was a three-day hike. We spent two nights staying in the jungle on two separate spots.

I did this about 6 years ago, so I don’t have the names of the villages. However, there are a lot of trekking companies that you can do this type of hike with. Just check them out in Chiang Mai.

What I like most about this trek was that you got to bathe and feed elephants out in the wild.

Nan Province Rice Paddies Trek

So number three on my list is perhaps the least touristy place to trek in the whole list. This is in a province called Nan Province. A lot of tourists don’t really go there.

It’s in northern Thailand. It’s absolutely beautiful. I wish more tourists did visit there, although that’s part of its charm that there’s not a lot of people going there.

As part of this trip, I stayed in a town called Pua and Pua is this really stunning village with absolutely amazing rice paddies. We spent the day trekking through these rice paddies. We almost got lost in this trek because all the rice paddies kind of look the same.

But it’s absolutely amazing. We were just walking towards the mountains that never seem to get that much closer. There were some amazing viewpoints that we hiked up as well to get a view of the rice paddies below.

For some people, I would definitely recommend checking out Nan Province.

Golden Triangle Trek in Chiang Rai

Okay, number two on my list is the Golden Triangle up in Chiang Rai. The Golden Triangle is the area between Laos, Thailand and Cambodia and it’s known as a drug trafficking region. It’s known as a place to grow opium.

What was really cool about this trip is we got to stay with one of the hill tribe people. I believe it’s the Akha tribe, and they cooked us some of the best food we’ve ever had. This is probably the most difficult hike on the list.

We hiked for about 8 or 9 hours one day and 7 hours the next. It was quite steep. There were waterfalls.

There were some amazing views. There were some rivers we had to cross. We saw some amazing wildlife.

There was a huge snake that we saw. There were some insects. I don’t usually think spiders are that beautiful.

But we saw these really pretty golden orb spiders. And then that night we got to stay in this wooden hill tribe and it was absolutely amazing. Even though it’s such basic accommodation, you have the best night’s sleep because you’ve done one of the biggest hikes that you’ve ever done during the day.

Khao Lak Jungle Hike and Wildlife

Okay, number one on my list of top hiking spots in the whole of Thailand is Khao Lak. Khao Lak is probably my favorite hike that I’ve ever done. We did a one day trek to one of the waterfalls there.

The thing that sticks out most about this is the wildlife. During the trek we found flying lizards, saw a wild bee, saw fish, and saw all kinds of different insects. Again we got to cool off in this massive waterfall, which was really nice.

We stayed in the jungle in this really cool accommodation. In the middle of the night we saw this huge reticulated python, which is probably the coolest animal I’ve ever seen. It was a really long snake, about 3 m long, but really peaceful and really cool to look at.