Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden

The Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden covers about a thousand hectares of hillside at Mae Rim, north of Chiang Mai, from around 500 to 1,200 metres up; it opened in 1993 and was renamed for the queen in 1994, and functions as a research institution as much as a public attraction. A road loops uphill through native forest plots to a group of glasshouses on a ridge, each holding a different system: rainforest, arid plants, orchids, ferns, carnivorous species. The other reason to come is the canopy walkway, a steel bridge running more than five hundred metres through the treetops over twenty metres up, the longest in Thailand, with sections that flex underfoot as you cross. Nature trails run below it through mixed deciduous forest. This is a garden built on a slope, so a car or the shuttle matters more than it should.

What to look for

• The canopy walkway - a long steel bridge through the treetops on the lower slope.
• The glasshouse group - rainforest, arid and orchid houses on the top ridge.
• Native plant plots - Thai forest sections arranged by family and habitat.
• The uphill loop road - viewpoints back down over the Mae Sa valley.

When to go

The cool season from November to February is the most comfortable, and the orchid house peaks in the rainy months. Come in the morning: the glasshouses turn into ovens by early afternoon and the ridge often clouds over later in the day. Allow three hours as a minimum, and considerably longer if you plan to walk rather than drive between sections.

What to expect

The garden is spread over a hillside, and walking all of it in the heat is a serious undertaking; without a car you depend on a shuttle that runs to its own schedule. Foreigners pay more than Thai visitors and vehicles are charged separately. The canopy walkway sways enough to bother some people. Labelling is uneven once you leave the glasshouses.

Nearby

The Mae Sa valley waterfalls and the road up to the ridge at Mon Cham.

Key facts