Trekking Doi Suthep National Park

From Chiang Mai Zoo make your way up the wide highway that takes you to the top of Doi Suthep. Go past the big mountain wat and past the Royal Palace. Continue until you get to a small hilltribe market at the very top.

Continue through this area for about a kilometer until you come to a fork in the road. To the left is Meo Doi Pui village. You don't want that.

You should turn right and head for Kuhn Chang Khian village (you won't go all the way to that village). A little further up from the fork is a Forest Service shack and a parking area.

Leave whatever mode of transport you came by here and enjoy a leisurely hike along the 4WD dirt track that continues into the mountain.

Now you can let your mind wander far from the bustling city that lies in the valley below. After a 4 km stroll you will come to a very small valley filled with dark green coffee bushes and a sign that says "Fresh Coffee".

Indeed, this is where you can reward yourself with perhaps the freshest Java caffeine you're ever likely to savour. Grown, plucked, roasted and brewed all within a hundred meters of where you sip it.

When you've finished you have two choices. Either go back the way you came (your parked vehicle is about an hour and a half away), or, continue along the 4WD track until you eventually come out at a massive body of water known as Tung Tao Lake.

Note: Bear in mind the lake is quite far and you'll have to come back for your vehicle. Most people do the trail on mountain bikes to go all the way to the lake.