Lampang

Lampang is a northern province located east of Chiang Mai. The province is fairly popular with Thai tourists who love visiting its famous temples and soaking in the Northern Thai Lanna culture in a place slightly less modern and crowded than Chiang Mai. Lampang city also has small horse-drawn carts that until recently were used as transportation and today survive to carry tourists and be in photos. There are some mountain ranges, waterfalls, caves, hot springs, and national parks in the province, though none as nice as the more famous ones around the North. For us, the highlight of the province is Wat Chalermprakiat – a beautiful temple perched at the top of a forest-covered limestone mountain. It is among the most unique temples in all of Thailand, and one that anyone can appreciate even if visiting temples isn’t their idea of a good time.

When to go

Most of Thailand falls in to the generic high and low season categories, including Lampang.

High season - begins in November and runs through to February, bringing cooler temperatures, lush greenery from the previous months of rain, good air quality, and less rain. The downside is larger crowds and sometimes higher prices for tours, flights and accomodation.

Low season - begins in July and runs through to October. During low season the temperatures are higher, the chance of rain and storms are higher. That doesn't mean it's a bad time to visit though, if you can be flexible, there are deals to be found on flights and accomodation.

Destinations like Lampang in both northern and north eastern regions can be significantly cooler during the high/cool season than central and southern provinces like Bangkok or Phuket. It's a welcome and noticable change in season which may require a wardrobe change, especially at night.

Need more? Read our post discussing the best time to visit Thailand.

Where to stay

Instead of recommending hotels, we think it will be more useful to share our process so you can pick based on your own critera for location, budget and style.

We always start our search on either Booking.com or Agoda. They have an easy to user interface and have some extra benefits for "Genius" and "VIP" users. You can also sometimes pay with credit card in advance if you're playing the cashback or air miles game.

Process:

1. Search for specific province, city or town.
2. Apply rating filters for a minimum rating or either 7, 8 or 9.
3. Apply other filters: budget, fitness, breakfast, etc.
4. If you have a specific location in mind, use map view to browse and make a final selection.

If there are too many properties available to choose from, increase the rating filter for less, higher rated selections.

Final notes: Prices are dynamic. Check the same hotel on both Booking.com and Agoda to see which has the best deal at any given time (go through to checkout to make sure all VAT and service charges are factored in). You can go one step further by calling the hotel and checking the price for booking directly. In our experience this saves money 50% of the time but you have less guarantees.