Chiang Mai airport to the old city: a ten-minute ride, priced
Article updated: 2026-09-21
Best rate USD · Chiang Mai: 33.18 — Super Money Chiangmai — Loi Kroh Road · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details
Chiang Mai’s airport is unusually close to the place most visitors are staying. The old city — a walled square about a kilometre and a half on each side, with Tha Phae Gate on its eastern edge — is 3–4 km away, a ride of 10–20 minutes in normal traffic. Nimman, the café district, is about the same. There is no long drive, no motorway toll and no negotiation with any stakes.
That changes what the arrival-day problem is. At Phuket the question is how not to pay a fortune for a long ride. At Chiang Mai the question is how not to pay double for a short one, and the answer is worth knowing mostly because it is so easy.
The options
Airport taxi counter. Inside the terminal, a counter sells fixed-fare tickets: roughly 150–200 baht to the old city. You hand the ticket to the driver outside and there is nothing else to pay. This is the default and it is fine.
Ride-hail apps. Roughly 100–160 baht for the same ride, with the usual pickup-point arrangement. Cheaper than the counter by the price of a coffee, and useful if you have data on landing and want a specific pin dropped at a guesthouse down a lane.
Red songthaew. The red shared pickups that are the city’s informal bus network sometimes wait outside arrivals. Roughly 40–60 baht per person to the old city if one is there and going your way. Cheapest by far, slightly random, and best with a small bag.
Hotel pickup. Many hotels and guesthouses offer to meet you for 150–300 baht. The higher end of that range is the hotel’s margin on a ride that costs a hundred and fifty from the counter downstairs, so it is worth the money only for the convenience of a name board and a driver who knows exactly which soi to turn down.
A pre-booked transfer. Fixed price, driver waiting with your name. At this distance it is a modest premium over the counter, and the case for it is narrower than at the other airports: late arrivals, when the counter queue is long and the songthaews have gone; groups of four or five with luggage who would otherwise need two cars; or anyone who simply wants the first hour to run without thinking. Outside those cases the counter does the same job.
| Option | Rough cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Songthaew | 40–60 baht per person | If one is waiting |
| Ride-hail app | 100–160 baht | Needs data |
| Taxi counter | 150–200 baht | Fixed ticket, no extras |
| Hotel pickup | 150–300 baht | Convenience, not savings |
| Pre-booked transfer | Check current price | Late arrivals, groups |
The spread between the cheapest and the dearest option here is a hundred or two hundred baht. Do not spend the flight worrying about it.
Once you are inside the walls
The old city is walkable, and most of what a first visit wants — the main temples, the Sunday walking street, the night bazaar just outside the eastern wall, the food — is inside or within a short walk of the square. You will not need a car for the city itself, and a songthaew or a short app ride covers Nimman and the river.
What you will want to arrange are the days out. Doi Suthep, the temple on the mountain above the city; the elephant sanctuaries; a cooking class; a day in the countryside. These are booked either online or through the hotel desk, and the online price is often lower for the same operator, frequently with free cancellation up to the day before. The hotel desk is convenient and usually honest, but it is adding a margin, and a booking made from your phone the night before is the same tour for less. Check the current price on both before you commit — for a sanctuary visit the difference can be a few hundred baht per person.
Money on landing
Chiang Mai’s airport counters are worse than the town’s, as airport counters everywhere are. The gap matters less here than in Bangkok or Phuket because the ride is so cheap: two hundred baht for the taxi is all you need in your pocket, and that is not a sum worth agonising over the rate for.
So change the taxi fare at the airport, or nothing if you have a few baht left from Bangkok, and do the rest in the city. Chiang Mai has several money changers with published rates, mostly along the eastern edge of the old city and around the night bazaar, and the Chiang Mai page shows what they are quoting today. What the airport is posting is on the Chiang Mai airport page.
The ATM alternative works, with the usual flat 220 baht fee per withdrawal on foreign cards. On a short stay that fee is a few per cent of a single withdrawal; if you are going to use a machine, use it once for a large amount rather than three times for small ones.
Who does not need any of this
- Anyone who has been to Chiang Mai before. Walk out, take a songthaew or an app, done.
- Anyone travelling alone with a cabin bag in daylight. The counter ticket is the whole answer.
- Anyone whose guesthouse is already sending someone. Check the confirmation email before you pay for a second ride.
The transfer worth pre-booking in Chiang Mai is not the one from the airport. It is the car for the day out, and that one is worth ten minutes of comparison the evening before.