Chiang Mai: Sticky Waterfall & Mae Ngat Boat Tour

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.00 (22 reviews) 100% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/18

Duration8h

GroupUp to 12

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

You Can Walk Up These Waterfalls—and the Rest of the Day Gets Stranger

You visit a renovated Buddhist temple complex, take a boat across a peaceful reservoir surrounded by jungle hills, climb the mineral-rich Sticky Waterfalls where the rocks grip your feet, and walk through a working local market where tourists are rare. Hotel pickup and an English-speaking guide are included, and the tour runs rain or shine—tropical showers usually pass quickly, so bring a light rain jacket if you're going during wet season.

Step-by-step itinerary

Temple, boat trip, waterfall, market visit

Visit Wat Ban Den temple
Boat trip on Mae Ngat reservoir
Explore Sticky Waterfalls
Stroll Chedi Mae Krua Market
Return to Chiang Mai

The Experience

The rocks at Bua Thong are actually sticky. That's not marketing language—the calcium deposits from mineral-rich springs have built up over decades so the limestone doesn't slip under your feet the way normal waterfalls do. You walk up them. It's disorienting at first, then oddly fun. The Sticky Waterfalls sit about an hour from Chiang Mai city inside Si Lanna National Park, and they're the centerpiece of a full-day tour that pulls you through the rural side of northern Thailand most visitors never see.

The day starts with a pickup from your hotel in the Old City (or from Thapae Gate if you're staying outside the regular service area), then heads straight to Wat Ban Den. The temple complex is massive—one of the largest in Chiang Mai province—and what strikes you first is how new everything looks. That's because a new abbot arrived in 1988 and rebuilt the whole thing from donations. The structures follow traditional Lanna style, but they're sharp and clean. You walk through courtyards with seated and reclining Buddhas, past shrines to the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, and the quiet is real. No crowds, no souvenir stalls. Just the place itself.

After the temple, you board a boat on the Mae Ngat reservoir. The dam was built in the 1980s for irrigation, but it's become a refuge for locals wanting to escape the city. The water is still, ringed by rolling hills and thick green. You're on the water for a while—long enough to actually breathe. Then comes the market stop at Chedi Mae Krua, which is not set up for tourists. It's where people from the surrounding villages buy vegetables and meat and fish. You walk through, see how the day actually works for them, and it's a good reminder that tourism is a thin layer on top of everything else.

The Sticky Waterfalls come last, which is smart pacing. By then you've been moving for hours and the chance to actually climb a waterfall—to grip the rocks and walk up the tiers—feels earned. The water is cool and the forest around it is quiet. You can stay as long as you want before heading back to Chiang Mai, which takes another hour. The whole day is roughly eight hours from pickup to drop-off, and you'll need to be ready to leave on time—the guide waits ten minutes after the scheduled start, then begins whether you're there or not.

What’s included

Air-conditioned vehicle transport throughout the day.
hotel pickup and drop-off within the Old City service area.
English-speaking guide.
boat trip on the Mae Ngat reservoir.
entry to Wat Ban Den temple.
access to Bua Thong Sticky Waterfalls.
stop at Chedi Mae Krua local market.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by WanderSiam

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see the rural Chiang Mai that most day trips skip—temples, water, and a working market—without arranging transport, finding the sites yourself, or timing the stops. The fixed itinerary and guide handle all of that, and the pickup from your hotel means you don't negotiate getting out of the city.