Visiting Chiang Rai’s White Temple – Why You Shouldn’t Book A Tour

Visiting Chiang Rai’s White Temple is one of the must-see places if you’re visiting northern Thailand.

The architecture of Wat Rong Khun, as the temple is otherwise known by, is one of the most spectacular feats of design you will ever see. There is no lack of detail at this impressive temple.

Upon our visit, I was surprised to learn that this temple was not actually used by local monks. Instead, it was built as a piece of art by prolific Thai artist Chalermchai Kosipipat with the temple being funded by Kosipipat’s selling of his paintings. Construction began in 1997 and was finished in 2008. Nowadays the temple generates an enormous amount of tourist attention due to its ornate design. Regardless of its origin, the temple was one of the coolest buildings we saw in Thailand.

While everything about this temple was truly magical to take in, we elected to go with a tour, which is not something I normally do. We all instantly regretted NOT going to the temple on our own accord, and I want to break down below the reality of taking this oh-so-popular day trip from Chiang Mai, and how you can go visit this incredible place on your own.

How To Get To The White Temple

Most people choose to simply do a day trip to Chiang Rai from the larger city of Chiang Mai. This is the route we also chose to do, however, if you have the time, spending a few days in Chiang Rai would be worth it in my view.

From Chiang Mai Via Tour: There were a plethora of day tours offered in Chiang Mai to see the White Temple. Tours run daily, so I would say you are pretty safe to wait until you get to Chiang Mai to book the tour. Just be sure to book the tour the night before and you should be all set for the following day. We booked ours through the hostel we stayed at in Chiang Mai this way and it was super easy.

You’ll likely leave fairly early in the morning (around 7 AM or so) and arrive in Chiang Rai at around 10 AM. The day tour visit includes seeing the White Temple, Blue Temple and the Black House, as well as lunch (and a stop at a “hot spring,” which is not as exciting as it sounds). We then left Chiang Rai at about 4:30 PM and returned to our hostel around 7:30/8 PM. The total driving time for the trip was about 6 hours, so it’s a pretty long day trip.

My main complaint about the tour is that you were given a limited time at each stop. We only had 45 minutes, in total, to see the White Temple, 25 minutes to see the Blue Temple, and 30 minutes to tour the Black House. The expedited nature of this tour made me not enjoy the trip as much as I would have on my own time, being that I like spending time taking photos. So if you go the tour route be prepared to race through with your camera to capture everything you want to get.

How Much Does It Cost To Visit?

The tour we went through cost around $40 a person, which I thought was fair given it included a shuttle ride there and back, an English-speaking guide (who was a lovely and adorable Thai woman, I might add), lunch, and covered the cost of admission to get into the temples. This tour also does not just bring you to see the White Temple, but the Blue Temple and Black House as well. If you were to visit the temples without a tour, here is how much each would cost for entry.

White Temple: 50 baht entry fee for foreigners. Free for locals.

Blue Temple: free entry

Black House: 80 baht per person

NOTE: Since I’ll be referring to many of the prices of things in BAHT, the simple conversion rate to a U.S. Dollar is $1 to about 36 BAHT.

The Reality of Visiting The White Temple + The Tour

While, like I mentioned before, we went ahead with booking the tour to get to the White Temple, but I wish we did our own tour. We were so insanely rushed the entire time it diminished the experience in my view.

Also, photography is an important part of my travel experience to me, and I just did not get the time I was hoping for at each spot to enjoy the craft.

At all three temples, but especially the white, be warned… social media distorts reality and it was SO crowded at all of these locations. At the White Temple, you have to wait in line and walk through the entryway one by one while a man on an intercom goes “next.” You have about 3 seconds to snap a photo before you start getting yelled at to move along through the temple. And once you go in and leave, you cannot re-enter. We felt like we were being herded by cattle. The other two temples did not have a man directing you over the intercom, but were still insanely crowded and felt rushed.

Another area they bring you to on the tour is this “hot spring” stop, which they make sound like a feature of the tour. This area was a total tourist trap and more like the Thailand version of Iowa’s massive truck stop. This spot really served as a food and bathroom stop during the long car ride.

The “hot spring” was this concrete tub of water in the middle of a parking lot where you could purchase boiled eggs from locals who had cooked them in the water. Everything else at the stop was also extremely touristy and consisted of many knick-knack and clothing shops. However, the Chinese-style dumplings we got were delish.

What I Would Do Next Time

If I had it to do over, I would book one of the early morning buses to Chiang Rai from Chiang Mai and plan on spending the day and evening there by booking a hotel for the night, and leaving by bus back to Chiang Mai in the morning. This would have allowed us plenty of time to navigate around Chiang Rai, as well as see the temples outside of the prime tour hours. We would have been at our own pace, and less likely to run into crowds, being that we could have walked through them outside of the tour schedules.

If you choose to heed my advice and go it alone, here is how you would go about doing a self-tour to Chiang Rai and the White Temple.

Bus Schedules From Chiang Mai To Chiang Rai & Back – How To Book

One of the best sites to find bus and train times in Southeast Asia is 12Go.Com. Here, you can add your departure and arrival destination, date, and either a 1-way or round-trip ticket, and select from the options that come up. There are usually buses leaving from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai at 7 AM for about $7-10, one-way, most days. The trip will last about 3 hours and 45 minutes, and you’ll arrive around 11 AM. The return trip should cost you about the same.

Where to Stay In Chiang Rai

While I didn’t end up staying overnight in Chiang Rai, here are a few options I found to consider for your overnight stay in the city.

NOTE: My prices detailed below are subject to the mock dates I selected. Your final price may be a bit higher or lower depending on your specific dates, but this just gives you a ballpark.

Budget Hotel (My Pick) – Baan Mai Kradan Hostel, Chiang Rai (Book on Hostelworld)

$24 dollars for a private room and $8 for a dorm. This hostel looks like a ton of fun with fluffy white bedding, free breakfast and bike rentals. This hostel is well located in downtown and close to markets and other attractions in Chiang Rai. This is probably where I would have stayed this place looks awesome.

Luxury Hotel – Riva Vista Riverfront Resort, Chiang Rai (Book on Agoda)

For those looking for a luxury hotel experience, I found this gorgeous hotel on the riverfront in Chiang Rai. This hotel is a 5-star resort and on Agoda it says it’s booking starting at only $83 a night, which is insane. This hotel would easily be hundreds of dollars a night in the U.S.. This hotel looks incredible with a spa onsite, swimming pool, breakfast and transportation services.

How To Get Around To The Temples

Once in Chiang Rai, I think one of the best ways to get around the city, and Thailand in general, is by taking a Grab to where you need to go.

Grab in Thailand is like our version of Uber, except I actually think the app is way better. It’s insanely cheap, way cheaper than taking a Tuk Tuk, and you have options like getting picked up by a female driver for solo female travelers and even getting picked up by a moped!

While I didn’t call a Grab while in Chiang Rai, based on my other trips in Thailand I would think it wouldn’t cost you more than $10 bucks to get around to each of the temples. Many of the Grab drivers will even offer you a deal if you book them for a two-way trip, since they secure more business and you get a discount on your return trip. You can try to communicate to your driver upon pick-up that you are trying to do a tour of all the temples, and see if they could be open for a day rate. This happened to us a few other times when we took Grab in Thailand.

Below is a map of where the White Temple is located in relation to the other temples.

When To Visit The White Temple On A Self Tour

Since the tour groups begin their day in Chiang Rai at the White Temple, I would save it for the afternoon and your last stop of the day. The order of tour visitation at the temples goes to the White Temple, lunch near the White Temple, the Blue Temple and then The Black House. I would think doing these in reverse order would put you away from most of the crowds.

Final Notes

While I’ve spent this post detailing why not to book a day tour to the temples, I want to add that the actual tour company and guides were wonderful. Our tour guide, a local Thai woman, was very kind and spoke a lot about the history of Chiang Rai. So she was great. It was just the expedited and touristy nature of the tour that really turned us off to it.

As always, feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I hope you enjoy your trip to Chiang Rai.

Till our next adventure dear friends,

Kira