Wat Ban Den, Sticky Waterfall & the Giant Rain Tree — Private Day Tour
A private full day north of Chiang Mai: a vast gilded Lanna temple, two hours climbing the Sticky Waterfall, and a long-tail boat crossing to a thousand-year-old rain tree almost no visitor sees.
- Duration
- Full day (approx. 10 hours, 08:00 pick-up – 18:30 return)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Max group
- 20 pax
This is the guided, unhurried version of the Mae Taeng valley — a private full day with an English-speaking guide, all admissions, lunch and water included, built around three sites that have almost nothing in common except that each one is remarkable. Pick-up is between 08:00 and 08:30 and you are back at your hotel between 18:00 and 18:30, which is ten hours: enough to do each stop properly rather than photographing it and moving on.
The day opens at Wat Ban Den, a hillside temple complex on a scale that surprises people who assumed they had seen enough Thai temples. Built and expanded over decades, it stacks tiered gilded roofs against the hillside, lines its staircases with naga serpents, and arranges twelve chedis around a courtyard — one for each animal of the Thai zodiac, so that Thai visitors can make merit at the one matching their birth year. Your guide will find yours. Very few coach tours come here, so the complex is usually calm.
Namtok Bua Tong — the Sticky Waterfall — is fed by a spring loaded with calcium bicarbonate, which crystallises onto the rock as the water meets the air and builds a surface of porous travertine limestone. The practical consequence is a waterfall you can walk up, barefoot, against the current, with grip so reliable that people climb it in single file laughing at how easy it is. Two full hours here is a lot of time, and you will use all of it.
The Giant Rain Tree is the piece of this itinerary that almost nobody outside the province knows about. It stands on the far shore of the Mae Ngat reservoir and can only be reached by boat, so the arrival is part of the experience: a private long-tail crossing over flat green water ringed by limestone hills, then a short walk to a single, colossal tree whose canopy spreads wide enough to shade a small village and whose root buttresses have been gripping that bank for centuries. It is quiet, uncommercial and genuinely humbling — the kind of place that makes a group of strangers stop talking. Lunch, all entrance fees, drinking water and the private boat are included in the price, and the tour runs privately for a minimum of two passengers — you are not joining a bus. Bring swimwear, temple-appropriate clothing and a dry change of clothes, and expect a long, varied and genuinely memorable day.
- Private tour with an English-speaking guide — minimum two passengers, no shared coach
- Wat Ban Den, an immense gilded Lanna temple complex with twelve zodiac chedis
- Two full hours climbing Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall barefoot on grippy travertine limestone
- A private long-tail boat crossing of the Mae Ngat reservoir
- The Giant Rain Tree — an enormous ancient tree reachable only by water
- All entrance and admission fees included, with no extras to pay at the gate
- Thai lunch and drinking water included
- Ten-hour itinerary, 08:00 pick-up to 18:30 return, at a genuinely unhurried pace
What's included
- ✓ Private round-trip transport with hotel pick-up and drop-off in Chiang Mai
- ✓ English-speaking guide for the full day
- ✓ All admission and entrance fees
- ✓ Private long-tail boat trip to the Giant Rain Tree
- ✓ Lunch
- ✓ Drinking water
- ✓ Accident insurance
- Additional drinks and snacks beyond the included water and lunch
- Personal purchases and souvenirs
- Temple donations (optional)
- Towel and personal equipment
- Gratuities for the guide and driver
- 08:00
Hotel pick-up in Chiang Mai
Your guide collects you from your hotel between 08:00 and 08:30. The drive north on Route 107 crosses the Mae Taeng valley — rice paddies, orchards and the first ridges of the northern hills.
- 09:15
Wat Ban Den — 1 hour
An hour walking the temple complex with your guide: the great viharn, the ordination hall, the naga staircases and the courtyard of twelve zodiac chedis, with an explanation of the Lanna architecture and the merit-making traditions attached to it. Shoulders and knees must be covered; shoes are removed inside the halls.
- 10:30
Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall — 2 hours
Change at the facilities by the car park, then two full hours on the cascade. Climb barefoot from the base to the top, using the fixed ropes where the flow is heaviest, and swim in the upper pool beside the Nam Phu Chet Si sacred spring. Two hours is enough to climb it several times.
- 12:30
Thai lunch
Lunch at a local restaurant, included in the tour price. Tell your guide at pick-up if you are vegetarian or have allergies.
- 14:00
Private boat to the Giant Rain Tree
Transfer to the reservoir and board a private long-tail boat for the crossing. Between one hour and an hour and a half on the water and at the tree, walking around the base of the canopy and out onto the shoreline. The light on the reservoir in the afternoon is exceptional.
- 16:30
Return to Chiang Mai
Drive back to the city. Drop-off at your hotel between 18:00 and 18:30.
Yes. It runs as a private tour with your own guide and vehicle, with a minimum of two passengers as printed on the brochure. You are not sharing the day with a larger group.
Three ways. It is guided rather than driver-only; it includes lunch, all admissions, water and the private boat; and it adds the Giant Rain Tree, which requires a boat and cannot be squeezed into a half day. It is a ten-hour day rather than six, at a considerably higher price.
It stands on the far shore of the Mae Ngat reservoir, with no road access on that side. The private long-tail crossing is included in the price and is one of the more enjoyable parts of the day.
No. The brochure states that admission fees are included, and Bua Tong charges no entry fee in any case. Carry some cash only for extra drinks, snacks and souvenirs.
Lunch and drinking water are both included. Vegetarian and other dietary requirements can normally be accommodated at the restaurant — tell us when you book and remind your guide at pick-up.
Swimwear under a T-shirt and long shorts or light trousers covers both: the clothing satisfies the temple dress code and the swimwear is ready for the falls. Pack a dry change and a towel, plus flip-flops for the water and trainers for walking.
Broadly yes — the temple is flat, the waterfall is unusually safe to climb and the boat trip is on calm water. It is a long day, however, with a 08:00 start and an 18:30 finish, so it suits families with children who travel well. Tell us your group's ages when booking and we will flag anything worth planning around.