If you happen to seek for the preferred digital nomad areas, Chiang Mai is certain to look on that listing. If you happen to don’t need to be immediately hooked, don’t look any additional—that is one place so intoxicating that you simply’ll be planning your journey at once. There are numerous professionals of residing in Chiang Mai; it’s no marvel that so many distant employees and vacationers alike flock there 12 months after 12 months.
Having spent a number of months residing in Chiang Mai myself, I’d love to return, and I completely will sooner or later. It’s a sociable place, well-liked with numerous different distant employees and pleasant locals. The professionals of residing in Chiang Mai far outweigh the negatives in my opinion, nevertheless it’s essential to learn about each side of the coin to make your personal knowledgeable resolution earlier than taking the plunge.
15 Pros and Cons of Living in Chiang Mai
For me, Chiang Mai is the jewel in Thailand’s crown. Sure, Thailand is an enormous nation with superb seashores, like Koh Samui and Phuket, and the vibrancy of Bangkok is unbeaten, however there’s nothing fairly like on a regular basis life in the northern metropolis of Chiang Mai. It has its challenges, in addition to its main benefits, and having skilled most that Chiang Mai has to supply, I really feel fairly well-informed that can assist you out.
Pros of Living in Chiang Mai
As a result of I wish to give attention to positivity earlier than anything, let’s begin with the benefits of residing in Chiang Mai. By the tip of this listing, you’ll in all probability have one foot on the aircraft and be planning your first few days in town.
1. A Nice Place to Meet Different Digital Nomads
Definitely, one of the most important professionals of residing in Chiang Mai is simply how simple it’s to fulfill different distant employees. In 2023, an enormous 3.9 million folks handed via the doorways of Chiang Mai airport, with an honest proportion of these certain to be digital nomads. Regardless of while you go to, you’re assured to fulfill loads of different like-minded folks, which is able to make your keep a lot extra fulfilling.
I’ll speak about coworking areas shortly, however most have common social evenings, with a give attention to bringing folks collectively—the identical goes for hostels across the metropolis. It’s really easy to mingle in Chiang Mai, and I met many new associates whom I nonetheless hold in contact with right now. The town affords many nice alternatives to collaborate, but when socializing is all you’ve gotten in thoughts, you actually received’t battle to discover a new buddy or two.
2. Value-Effectiveness
Chiang Mai is a fairly cost-effective place to remain over the long run. For instance, you’ll be able to normally discover an condominium in town heart and even fashionable Nimman, for round 7800-14,000 THB ($220-$390) with utilities on high. If yow will discover a coliving area or just share with one other distant employee, you’ll save much more on lodging.
It’s low cost to eat out too, so long as you follow native meals; in order for you Western-style meals then you’ll be able to count on to pay extra. One of my favourite locations was the Chiang Mai Evening Bazaar, the place it’s attainable to fill your self with road meals for a really small quantity of money. Even espresso retailers are low cost—yow will discover a cappuccino for round 55THB ($1.50), and these are nice locations to work from too.
3. Security
While you’re trying on the professionals and cons of residing in Chiang Mai, you’ll little doubt need to learn about security first of all. I can hand on coronary heart say that I by no means felt unsafe for even a second throughout my keep, whilst a solo feminine traveler. In reality, a 2023 report acknowledged that Chiang Mai is the most secure metropolis to go to in Southeast Asia general.
After all, like another metropolis in the world, you shouldn’t take undue dangers, and frequent sense ought to all the time be practiced. General, nevertheless, Chiang Mai is taken into account a secure metropolis to go to in phrases of low crime charges; supplying you with peace of thoughts when seeing the sights and going about your day by day enterprise. Regardless of this, visitors is a completely separate topic which I’ll speak about later.
4. Nice Web High quality & Coworking Areas
One other of the highest benefits of residing in Chiang Mai is the quantity of coworking areas and the standard of web obtainable. In line with Speedtest, the common add and obtain speeds in Chiang Mai are 169.21 and 198.03 Mbps respectively. I by no means struggled with the web connection as soon as, together with video calls and lengthy intervals on-line.
There are some incredible coworking areas across the metropolis too—Yellow Coworking House is one of my high suggestions, however you’ll discover many dotted round. There are some low-cost choices to select from, equivalent to HeartWork, a coworking cafe that prices a low price for the use of their web for a couple of hours. Once more, these are nice locations to fulfill folks, community, and recharge on inspiration.
5. Pleasant Locals
You’ll discover some of the friendliest folks in the world in Chiang Mai and loads of locals who need to inform you about their traditions and customs. Whereas it may be tough with the language barrier generally, it’s not one thing you’ll be able to’t overcome. I had many conversations with espresso store and meals stall homeowners and even made some native associates.
Locals in Chiang Mai are very accustomed to worldwide guests, and I by no means felt something apart from totally welcome. So long as you do your greatest to immerse your self in the normal methods, you’ll meet folks from all walks of life. After all, you’ll be able to assist your self somewhat by studying a couple of phrases in the native language.
6. Excessive-High quality Healthcare
One of the most important advantages of residing in Chiang Mai is the accessible, high-quality, and reasonably priced healthcare. This must be one thing you concentrate on irrespective of the place in the world you’re. In Chiang Mai, you’ll discover public and non-public hospitals, each of that are reasonably priced in comparison with different nations.
I needed to go to Ram Hospital in Chiang Mai after tripping and injuring my arm. I anticipated it to be an advanced course of, nevertheless it was fortunately tremendous simple, and there have been English-speaking workers. After all, be sure you have good medical health insurance, and you received’t have any issues if a health-related difficulty occurs to come up.
7. Lots to See and Do
There are such a lot of issues to see and do in Chiang Mai throughout your day off. I puzzled what I’d do in my spare time as town doesn’t have a seashore, however I shouldn’t have even questioned it—I used to be by no means bored for a second. I cherished strolling across the evening markets, and there are a number of: the Sunday Strolling Market is vibrant and enjoyable and is all the time a very good choice.
A day journey to Inthanon Nationwide Park is a must-do in addition to a tour across the temples in town, equivalent to Wat Umong. I additionally advocate a day journey to Sticky Waterfall, which is a superb strategy to beat the warmth. If you happen to’re a nature lover, there are some nice climbing trails round, together with Huai Cho Reservoir Loop, which I actually loved.
8. Fantastic Climate
Heat climate is undoubtedly one of the professionals of residing in Chiang Mai. Throughout the 12 months, the common temperature not often dips under 22°C/71°F. August is the rainiest month, with the wet season stretching between Might and October. Throughout this time, there are various heavy showers, however they’re usually short-lived, and the climate sometimes clears up in a short time.
April and Might are the most popular months, with common highs of 30°C/86°F, and fortunately, most locations have air-con and loads of followers! Through the wet season, it will probably turn out to be somewhat humid, however I didn’t really feel it was too overwhelming. Waking as much as the solar most days is certainly a plus and one of the main pulls towards Chiang Mai.
9. A Cultural Place to Discover
The factor I appreciated most about Chiang Mai is that though it’s very easy to search out dwelling comforts, it’s a very cultural place with a distinct method of life. Simply strolling down the streets and seeing the fantastically embellished temples and tuk-tuks passing by exhibits you that you simply’re in virtually one other world. I’ve already talked about the evening markets, however these are a beautiful strategy to simply immerse your self in the tradition.
Absorbing the native tradition is a superb concept, and by doing this, you’ll respect your time in Thailand way more. Thai tradition is wealthy and simple to find out about; native folks will fortunately present you their traditions so long as you present respect always. I don’t suppose I’ve skilled tradition in another nation as a lot as I did right here, and it’s one of many the explanation why I need to return.
10. Superb Meals
One of the main advantages of residing in Chiang Mai is the meals, undoubtedly. It’s very simple to strive native delicacies, and the native markets are an awesome place to begin. Thai road meals is scrumptious and extremely low cost, serving to you to maintain money in your pocket. I developed a severe love of Pad Thai in Chiang Mai and I turned way more adventurous with attempting new issues.
Khao Neow Ma Muang, or sticky rice and mango, is one of my favourite dishes and it’s really easy to search out from road distributors. Thai meals can be actually wholesome and made with the freshest produce. I took a cookery class, and I realized a lot about native delicacies; I’d extremely advocate it if you wish to throw your self into native life and strive one thing new.
Cons of Living in Chiang Mai
Nowhere in the world is 100% good, and there are some cons of residing in Chiang Mai you have to remember of. They’re not main deal breakers, a minimum of not for me, however they’re issues that might have an effect on your keep should you’re not clued up beforehand.
1. Visas Can Be Tough to Get
One of the most important disadvantages of residing in Chiang Mai is that getting a visa over the long run is usually a problem. It’s in no way not possible, however the necessities are a lot stricter than they was and there’s so much of paperwork concerned. Rules change usually so it’s essential to double-check earlier than you propose to journey to keep away from discovering your self in a difficult state of affairs.
General, most individuals can go to Thailand for 60 days on a vacationer visa, however this varies in keeping with nationality so, once more, double-check. You’ll be able to then apply to increase this for an additional 30 days should you select to. To assist make your particular state of affairs somewhat simpler to grasp, you’ll be able to enter your passport particulars into this web site and discover out what your choices are.
2. Potential Language Barrier
When you’ll discover English audio system round vacationer websites and in coworking areas, should you enterprise away from these areas you’ll probably expertise a slight barrier. I by no means bumped into too many issues, however I did have to make use of Google Translate a couple of instances, which could be irritating, particularly should you’re looking for essential data otherwise you need assistance.
I made a decision to view this as an awesome excuse to be taught a couple of phrases of Thai. You don’t should be fluent to get by, however the fundamentals will serve you effectively should you enterprise into rural areas otherwise you meet somebody who doesn’t converse nice English. I discovered that talking even just some phrases made folks need to assist me be taught much more, and they appeared to understand my makes an attempt, irrespective of how unhealthy!
3. Burning Season
For me, one of the most important downsides of residing in Chiang Mai is the burning season. In reality, many individuals both keep away from the realm throughout this time or depart and return as soon as it’s over. Burning season occurs between January and April throughout a lot of northern Thailand, when farmers burn their fields to prepare for the subsequent rising season and harvest.
Throughout this time, air high quality is fairly poor, and it will probably make even strolling round pretty tough. Some years are higher than others, however there’s a basic haze over the whole metropolis between these months it doesn’t matter what. If you happen to’re somebody who suffers from respiratory points, equivalent to bronchial asthma, you may need to keep away from these months and go to when it’s over.
4. Site visitors
It’s no shock that in 2019, Chiang Mai ranked as primary on the listing of most harmful locations to drive in Thailand; It even beat Bangkok, which is sort of shocking should you’ve ever been to the capital. One of the cons of residing in Chiang Mai is attempting to navigate visitors, and should you select to drive, you’ll should be very cautious certainly. Even strolling could be perilous as there are only a few respectable sidewalks.
Chiang Mai’s roads are famously congested, and many individuals driving scooters weave in and out of the visitors or drive at excessive pace. Personally, I most popular to get round through public transport, and I by no means discovered it tough to make use of; it definitely works out cheaper than fuel and offers a extra genuine expertise. I used the songthaew very often and I even made some associates on there.
5. Twin Pricing
Many individuals see this as one of the downsides to residing in Chiang Mai, however I personally don’t thoughts it an excessive amount of and can perceive why it occurs. Twin pricing signifies that as a foreigner, you’ll be charged extra for some sights than a neighborhood particular person, and generally the distinction could be fairly vital. I’ve observed twin pricing in many different nations, however not as clearly as I skilled in Thailand.
It’s annoying, however what you need to bear in mind is that native wages are significantly lower than what most foreigners obtain and these costs mirror that. The excellent news is that this solely occurs on admission charges and you received’t see it on markets, public transport, or common day by day purchases. It’s one of the stuff you merely have to just accept, nevertheless it’s a draw back all the identical.
Is Living in Chiang Mai Value It?
Like anyplace else in the world, there are professionals and cons of residing in Chiang Mai. It’s manifestly apparent that my listing has much more professionals than cons, and that’s not an accident. Your complete expertise of residing in Chiang Mai was constructive sufficient for me to see these downsides as small annoyances slightly than massive deal-breakers, with the exception of the visa difficulty.
As one of the preferred locations for digital nomads, Chiang Mai has one thing for everybody and delivers all of it with a cultural and genuine vibe. Typically it’s frenetic and loud, different instances it’s peaceable and chilled out—the whole metropolis is a contradiction in all one of the best methods attainable. It’s additionally the primary place to fulfill different folks, some of whom might find yourself your greatest associates for all times.
I can’t wait to return; when are you going?