Wat Pha Lat: Chiang Mai’s Hidden Gem

For this post, we are going to start off with an unpopular opinion: if you are only going to see one temple on Doi Suthep Mountain, it should be Wat Pha Lat — and not the much more popular Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a.k.a. “Doi Suthep.”

This is not to take anything away from Doi Suthep, which is spectacular in its own right. If at all possible, we would fully recommend that travellers visit both temples. They’re on the same road from Chiang Mai, with Wat Pha Lat nestled about halfway up Doi Suthep Mountain, and Doi Suthep perched on its peak. So visiting both is very doable, even if you only have a few hours.

That said, we want to emphasize just how incredible Wat Pha Lat actually is, especially given that most tourists drive right by it on their way to Doi Suthep without even realizing it’s there. We almost made the same mistake ourselves, but our driver recommended that we stop and we are so glad he did. We would go so far as to say Wat Pha Lat is criminally underrated in Chiang Mai — it was by far our favourite out of all the temples we’ve visited so far (and we’ve seen a lot!).

Wat Pha Lat is located part of the way up the mountain, so the views across Chiang Mai can be less spectacular than from Doi Suthep — although they’re still pretty epic, especially since many of the viewpoints overlooking the city at Wat Pha Lat are framed by lush jungles. But the plus side is that you are more likely to actually see the view over the city from Wat Pha Lat. When we visited, it was well below the clouds while Doi Suthep was inside them (and usually is during the rainy season), so being below the cloud cover on this occasion actually served to improve our view. But truthfully, the views are not what made this temple experience stand out for us.

For us, what made Wat Pha Lat spectacular was the way that it was built so that it fully embraced the nature surrounding it. It felt as though it was integrated into the middle of a mountain forest, with hidden waterfalls and ancient temple buildings, shrines, and statues tucked away amidst the jungle surrounding them. Our kids loved discovering the moss-covered relics hidden among the foliage as we followed the meandering paths through the woods. The whole place seemed magical, and it was made much more so because there were very few other people there — so we had ample opportunity to quietly contemplate the pristine beauty of this place without being surrounded by mobs of tourists jostling to get the perfect shot for their Instagram or TikTok accounts. Which is actually kind of ironic, since Wat Phra Lat is probably the most “Instagrammable” place we’ve ever seen — it’s truly an influencer’s dream-come-true.

We spent about an hour at Wat Pha Lat with our 5- and 7-year-olds, and we could all easily have spent another hour there exploring it, if our driver (who was playing tour guide for us) hadn’t been rushing us along. Most of the paths were pretty wide and clear, and our kids were easily able to get to the various temples and walk the mountain trails unassisted. Having a stroller or other accessibility restrictions would be a problem here (as it would also be at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, given the 309 stairs up to the top of the mountain), but if you had a baby or child carrier it would be fine. For the more adventurous, you can apparently also hike up to Wat Pha Lat by taking the “Monk’s Trail” from the base of the mountain, stopping at beautiful outlooks over Chiang Mai along the way, but we didn’t have a chance to try this so can’t speak to how kid-friendly the path up would be.

Getting to Wat Pha Lat takes under half an hour from Chiang Mai via car. We opted to take a Grab car up, which was going to cost around 350 baht up to Doi Suthep (~10 USD), but our driver quickly negotiated a return rate of 700 baht (~20 USD) in cash (as opposed to on the Grab platform). This probably meant less insurance coverage, but we were comfortable with the arrangement and liked the idea of having a driver waiting for us when we were done. We then paid him an extra 200 baht to stop at Wat Pha Lat on the way back. We may have paid more than we had to — and you could no doubt do the trip much more cheaply if you were to take a songthaew both ways, but we had a comfortable trip with no headaches, and felt that this option was a bit safer for the kids than the alternative. There was no entry fee for Wat Pha Lat. (Apparently some of the best things in life really are free!).

If there’s only one thing you do while visiting Chiang Mai, we highly recommend visiting Wat Pha Lat. We fear that this hidden gem may not stay hidden for much longer, so make sure you get there before the influencers find it!