The Mae Hong Son loop is a 600km route that takes you on a beautiful journey through Northern Thailand. The route covers several rural, scenic places that are difficult to access by other means. In my opinion, if you’re comfortable on a motorcycle, this trip is well worth your time. James and I completed it over six days.

Typically, riders begin in Chiang Mai, make their way up to Pai, and then continue through Mae Hong Son before looping back to the start. However, if you’re a less experienced rider, it’s recommended that you take the route in the opposite direction, as the southern part of the loop is less challenging than the northern part.

Soni at D2-Bike set us up with two great motorcycles for this trip. I do recommend renting motorcycles and not scooters, because there are some very steep switch backs that you’re gonna want to be able to gear down for.

Part 1: Pai

The first leg of the journey takes you from Chiang Mai to Pai: a 130km, four-hour ride. For us it was five hours, because we missed a turn and drove halfway to Lampang first. Mai pen rai!

This route infamously has 762 turns. The internet is full of bloggers who travelled it by bus and wish they took some Gravol first. That’s a big advantage of riding instead of driving – no motion sickness. The route is challenging but doable – just take your time and enjoy the thrills.

Pai itself – a small mountain town with a laidback hippy vibe – is a fantastic place to stop and stay a few days. I’ll talk about the wonderful hiking in this region in another post.

Part 2: Mae Hong Son

The second riding day, which brings you to the route’s namesake, is once again full of terrifying switchbacks and jaw-dropping views.

If you have a bit of extra time, you can take a small detour on this part of the journey to Ban Rak, a stunningly beautiful Chinese village near the border of Myanmar. Here you can walk the perimeter of the lake, and buy tea and other treats from the local shops.

We had a bit of an incident in Ban Rak where James’s bike wouldn’t start. He had to Fred Flintstone it down a hill to get it to run, and then we were worried it would stall again on the ride to Mae Hong Son. But, we made it to our destination without having to call for backup.

Mae Hong Son is the sort of place where, if you make it here, you can get a certificate that says you made it here. Pick yours up at the Chamber of Commerce.

Part 3: Mae Sariang

On the third riding day, we made it to Mae Sariang: a little town at the southern tip of the route.

Since we didn’t add any extra stops or detours, this was a short, easy riding day, with the whole afternoon for exploring the town. Having some wheels was useful for reaching the town’s many beautiful temples, statues, and lookout points.

Part 4: Back to Chiang Mai

The last riding day was an uneventful ride back to the start of the loop in Chiang Mai. If you wanted, you could add a detour here to Doi Inthanon, but we were anxious to return the bikes to Soni in one piece.

This motorcycle trip was simultaneously one of the most dangerous and rewarding things we did on our three month tour through Thailand.