Handcrafted and Customized Private Tours

Wooden temple and garden

Customized private tours vs join tours

All our tours are customized private tours unless stated otherwise. It means that our guide and our vehicle are at your service throughout the trip. Private tours are not cheap, but if you can afford them, private tours are definitely worth it. There are, for instance, more affordable ways to visit Doi Inthanon on a day tour than doing it privately. There are so-called join or join-in tours that are usually small group tours up to 9 persons. You will share transportation with others. These other participants have to be picked up from different hotels and dropped off there as well. It means that you lose precious time, stuck in traffic in Chiang Mai in the busiest times of the day in the morning and late afternoon.

Old chedi with temple customized private tours
Wat Traphang Thong

Meals and activities

The organizing company or the guide will order lunch for you. They will, of course, take into consideration if you are vegetarian, vegan, or if you have other dietary requests. You will have no control though over the food. During activities, you will have to adjust your tempo to what we have scheduled on the tour that you booked. The program will have no flexibility. If you want to stay somewhere a bit longer (or shorter), that will not be possible.

Plates with food Chiang Mai Private Tours
Northern Thai Food

The advantages of customized private tours

If you book a private tour with us, you will have lots of flexibility. You can inform us of the time you want to leave. There will be no loss of time have to pick up or, later, drop off other participants. If there are meals included in the program, we will take into consideration your requirements and your wishes. We will always select the best lunch options that are available.

As far as the itinerary and its activities are concerned, there will be ultimate flexibility. Our guides are very flexible and will make any adjustment you wish to make. Private tours are more expensive but the best way to get the best experience possible. We can customize all the tours we offer on our website according to your wishes and requirements.

Old wooden temple customized private tours
The Shan temple of Wat Mon Chan Sin in February, 2022

Off-the-beaten-track destinations

Join tours in general focus on the mainstream destinations because the tour has to appeal to as many people as possible. We can handcraft a tour based on your specific interests and include destination that never appear in join tours. A good example is weekly Saturday market at Sanpatong aka as the Buffalo Market. This market is one of the most undervisited destinations of North Thailand, an example of a typical rural market. You will see things here you will not find on the wonderful Warorot Market in Chiang Mai proper.

Water buffaloes customized private tours
Buffaloes at the San Patong Market

Customization of tours

Chiang Mai a la Carte offers “a la Carte” tours, which is our specialization. Other words that are often used are “bespoke” or “tailormade“. These terms come from the clothing industry. This is only possible with private tours.