Road Trip To Chiang Mai - Route 1 Or Route 11

[dudemeister]

Next time in LOS i hope to visit Chiang Mai, and am looking at the idea of driving the trusty 'SUZI pickup from our house in Sa Keao (East Thailand, near Cambodia) around 900KM !!! The idea being, to stop off here and there on route along the journey. Taking in the sights.

Main towns we will pass through will be Phitsanulok, Uttaradit, (Route 11) or via Nakhon Sawan, Kamphaeng Phet, Tak (Route 1). So basically, maybe i am asking whats best - route 1 or 11?

Anyway looking at stopping overnight at one, as they should be around halfway for the trip.

Can any readers recommend any interesting places worth a look along these routes?

P.S. I need to plan my travels meticulously otherwise I will be at the mercy (again) of the Thai missus and an upside down map! And the journey will be long enough without a detour into Outer-Amphoe-land.

[Cuban]

I need to plan my travels meticulously otherwise I will be at the mercy (again) of the Thai missus and an upside down map!

Teaching map reading can be a rich and rewarding experiance - however there are times and places for such ventures and with one's Thai partner driving across country is probably not one of them.

I would suggest getting the Michelin Thailand road map which is great for large scale inter town travel planning - then support this with a large book format Road Atlas that covers the country in about 150 pages, detail in Thai and English. For your start and end point and any planned interesting places in between it is wise to make color photocopies of those pages. Partly so you can write on them but mostly as it is so much easier to handle a few sheet of paper rather than a full map or book that won't fold 'right' when you nee it to. Some web sites will give street plans of any of the towns/cities enroute that are not covered by the altas, very useful to have these with you when looking for a hotel after dark.

As for route planning - a check list of towns you need to drive through can be enough for the 'missus' to follow and tick off with a pen. That is of course if she is awake, mine prefers to sleep !

There is a Thai web site (link in a similar TV thread somewhere) that gives routes and distances between different places in Thailand. If a Google doesn't reveal it - I'll take a deeper look. Link below.

Assuming you will want to make good distance when you start your trip, I might suggest leaving at around 4-5am, have breakfast en-route and aim for an overnight stop in Sukhothai if you have not been there before. Do the ruins etc. in the morning and then arrive in Chaing Mai by mid-afternoon to check in to your hotel.

Is there any 'family' that live along the way - crashing in on relatives is a very Thai way of breaking up a long trip. I did this once, when I asked when they last saw uncle X the reply was , '...oh about 10 years ago...'

As for Hwy1 vs Hwy11 try one on the way up and the other coming back. (I recall Hwy 11 is the shorter route - but Hwy 1 was a bit faster.)

Don't trust every online map - this Michelin route suggests Khon Kaen to Chaing Mai via Bangkok is the best route!

This is quite a good on-line distance tool to help gauge how far you will get, how long different cities will take. mentioned in other threads and offers a driving check-point style list and displays Google maps English/Thai.

An earlier thread on the subject of maps.

HTH.

[dudemeister]

Thanks Cuban, some good points raised.

Agree with you, up one route and down the other route is the obvious trip to do.

And you are spot-on, she will probably sleep most of the way as usual.

(probably not a bad thing, otherwise we will be stopping at every other roadside food stall)

A look around and stopover in Sukhothai seems the best plan. Will check out the links and threads you gave me - cheers!