Private Tour | Birdwatching tours in Doi Inthanon & North Thailand
Why?
Being one of the top birding locations in Thailand and mainland Southeast Asia, with some historical and accidental records including, around 500 bird species have been recorded in Doi Inthanon National Park.
Some of the bird species in the country that are only recorded from Doi Inthanon are; ashy-throated leaf warblers, dark-breasted rosefinches and collared grosbeaks. There are many more species that can only be found in Doi Inthanon or in the nearby parks.
Our itineraries are suitable for first-timers as well as for experienced birders targeting specific birds.
What?
Our birdwatching tours in Doi Inthanon are private tours with flexible itineraries accompanied by one of the experienced guides in North Thailand.
We will discuss in advance about what you are after and decide the destinations accordingly. Depending on your experience level and target species, our guide will take you to relevant habitats. If you don't require anything specific, our guide will come up with suggestions.
Where & when
Doi Inthanon National Park entrance is about 1.5 hours from Chiang Mai city center (park entrance about 1 hour), the biggest city north of Thailand with an international airport.
Our birding adventure starts from Chiang Mai city or other agreed locations. The park is open all year round and tours are available throughout the year. Birding possibilities are always good with every season offering different advantages.
Normally, there is not much bird activity during the mid day, for this reason, we recommend our tours to start earliest around 4:30-6 am (depending on time for sunrise) from Chiang Mai City and continue the tour in the late afternoon until 6 pm. As there won't be much bird activity in the middle of the day, our guide will take a long break between 12 - 14:30 pm (no guiding) at a restaurant, cafe or attraction you prefer.
We also offer tours to other popular birding sites in Chiang Mai Province, such as Doi Ang Kang, Chiang Dao, Fang and a few others.
Tour details in short:
- Type: Private tour
- Price: * tbc *
- Group size: 1 or more people
- Grade: Moderate
- Transport: SUV
- Start: 4:30 - 6 am (from Chiang Mai City), depending on time for sunrise
- End: - 6 pm (in the park)
What to bring:
- Long trousers
- Sweater or light jacket (must)
- Rain clothing
- Hiking or sport shoes
- Binoculars
- Photo/camera
- Insect repellent
- Sunblock lotion
- Hat or cap
How much?
For practical reasons, more important because of our guests' different preferences, the rate for our birdwatching tours include the fixed expenses only, see further below what’s included and what’s not.
The prices listed below are for trip to Doi Inthanon National Park only.
| Price per person | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pax | 1-day | 2-days |
| 1 | 11,900 THB | 23,800 THB |
| 2 | 6,800 THB | 13,600 THB |
| 3 | 5,000 THB | 10,000 THB |
| 4 | 4,100 THB | 8,500 THB |
| 5 | 3,600 THB | 7,500 THB |
| 6 | 3,250 THB | 6,900 THB |
| 7 | 3,000 THB | 6,400 THB |
| 8 | 2,900 THB | 6,100 THB |
Displayed prices are per person
Tour rates include:
- English speaking exprrienced guide
- Transportation from/to hotel or other meeting point
- Driver fee
- All entrance fees (paid daily)
- Mandatory local guide fee to walk trails (200-220 Baht for each of the 2 major trails)
- Birding guide (English)
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner (not included if only a day tour and not on the last day of a multiple day tour)
- Coffee/tea break
- Drinking water
- Basic accommodation for guide/driver (for multiple days, if you book room near the park for early morning tours)
Tour rates doesn’t include:
- Accommodation for you
Reviews from our guests
By: Jan Stollenwerk | posted Sun 19 Nov, 2023 | 1-day
We had a wonderful day (12 hours!) with our Birding guide Uthai! We were picked up by a comfy and quite new SUV at 5am at our hotel in Chiang Mai to go as fast as possible to Doi Ithanon NP. During the tour we stopped at several hot spots for birding in Doi Ithanon NP and in the Chiang Mai area. Uthai was a great and very friendly guide with a lot of knowledge about the different species. He knew exactly where to go and adopted fast that we were more into taking good pictures than just watching birds. He provided drinks and food at any time and stopped also at some spots where my girlfriend wanted to go (waterfalls or temples) even though there was no high bird activity expected. In summary, it was a great day and totally worth the money - no doubts, we would do it again.
By: Amit Suneja | posted Sat 18 Nov, 2023 | 1-day
I had a fantastic time on my tour guide. I wish I could have spent more days with him. He is so knowledgeable and really helped me with building my birdwatching skills while also helping me spot amazing birds. We saw a sun bird in our first hour!
He is an excellent guide and a fun person to spend time with.
By: Debbie Fung | posted Fri 11 Nov, 2022 | 1-day
We joined a 1 day birding tour and a trekking tour from Thai National Parks. Both tours were better than expected. When we booked our tour online, everything was answered clearly and mostly within a day. The birding tour guide Don was very experienced and professional. He took us to several spots where he found so many special and rare species for us to see. The trekking tour guide was so thoughtful that he prepared some glutinous rice dumplings for us to eat as snack. He also well explained some special plants in the trail, and history of the temple. Both drivers were nice and the cars were very clean. We enjoyed both tours very much and we would recommend to our friends.
By: Dustin Hinton | posted Sat 15 Oct, 2022 | 1-day
Fantastic tour! Don and the driver were very professional even when the van had problems. They handled my group which include a 3 month old and my older parents. If you want a good birding experience in Chiangmai, this tour will do it.
By: Till Kuhlen | posted Thu 3 Mar, 2022
The two-days birding trip to Doi Inthanon National Park was a fantastic experience. My private tour guide Don is among the best birders in Thailand and speaks good English. With his help, I was able to identify far more than 100 species of birds. He further helped me with creating/uploading the relevant checklists to eBird and provided lots of interesting information. Positive side effect: We stopped at several different locations and gained a good insight in the diverse scenery.
By: Stephanie Deddish | posted Wed 23 Feb, 2022
We did in a birding tour in Doi Inthanon with Don. He was AMAZING!! I am not a seasoned or professional birder at all, and was looking to have someone who could help identify and find species of birds in Thailand. Not only was using the online Thai National Parks website easy with very quick responses, but Don was indeed an expert birder. Don not only took us to multiple spots all the way to the summit, but he also accommodated us wanting to stop at the 2 chedis when birding was quiet in the afternoon - and, of course, we found more birds! I am familiar with the E-Bird birding app, and have an account. Don was gracious enough to send me the next day a list of all of the birds we saw and/or heard that he could identify (turns out, he's one of the few guys helping to build Thailand's E-Bird/Merlin package!). Our list was 54 birds long!! Now that's impressive! I would definitely recommend using Thai National Parks to set up a birding tour, and ask for Don if you can, no matter what your skill level is.