No cab option?

[10years]

I'll be making my first trip in modern history to CNX and would like to know if there are any public transport options into town - other than a taxi meter - such as city buses or songthaews plying more-or-less fixed routes like in Pattaya.

I'll be staying at the new Ibis near CMU.

Thanks

[naboo]

Meter taxis only really operate from the airport, though the meters are virtually never used.

Red songtaews have no fixed route, state destination, if a nod 20B and get in, if a shake then the others in the back aren't going that way. Only red songtaews in the area you are staying, other colours have fixed routes and are 10B-20B. These head out of town in several directions, Hang Dong way, Lamphun, San Kamphaeng, Doi Saket and beyond, Mae Jo and Mae Rim.

[chuang]

Since this is your virgin trip to chiangmai..make history by taking a cab from the airport ...

[10years]

I try to avoid taxis, especially if I don't know the way to my destination, due to a long history of cheating, at least in Bangkok.

This is actually my second "virgin" trip, as I once went there for Songkran 1975.

I only have some faint memories, including riding songthaews and getting splashed. Actually, it was my (female) companion at the time that was getting completely soaked. They more or less left me alone. The famous water wars are nothing new!

[Aussieroaming]

Taxis in Chiang Mai are fixed price to destination if you call the call centre to order, or more negotiable if you get a few taxi drivers mobile numbers and call to see who is available and where you want to go. I've never been in one where the meter was used if installed. The taxi rates are a little cheaper if you book a return up front. Organising through the call centre seems to be 250 baht from pick up to destination and 200 return. So more expensive than Bangkok for smallish journeys where the meter is used in Bangkok versus the flat rate in Chiang Mai.

Red Baht buses are plentiful but still need negotiation and sometimes a long winded trip. Price is variable depending on distance and popularity of the route you want to go.

Daily hire cars start from about 1000 baht /day or 6000 baht by the week for something like a honda city or vios and cheaper again by the month.

Scooters about 300/day or 3000 baht month

[siam2007]

what you can do if you don't have a lot of luggage is walk out to the main road (less than 300 Meters) and wait for a TukTuk or Sawngthaew that has just dropped a Pax at the Airport and was chased away by Airport guards quickly so it could not get a new passenger while inside.

This has worked for me sometimes in the past. But to be honest, the fixed-rate Airport Limo at 120 Baht (was 120 2 years ago, maybe more expensive now?) is not such a huge investment, particularly as the IBIS STYLES is a bit off the beaten track, and I doubt that a Sawngthaew is eager to go there. I always preferred the Airport Limos over the metered Cabs, as there was no annoying discussion or scam attempt when using them. You know the price and that is exactly what you pay.

[elektrified]

Just order a taxi at the airport. It will only set you back about 250 Baht. No big deal. I needed a taxi recently and was surprised that they had (many) taxis at almost 1:00 A.M. That is something new to me at least. They use to close at 10:00 before I think. There had to have been 70 Chinese in the queue at 1:00 A.M. so I guess they adapted the hours to suit the arrivals from China. To Sansai with 7! huge suitcases and 4 of us - 350 Baht.

[naboo]

What time do the Meter Taxis run until? If I wanted one at, say, 2am, would they be available?

[elektrified]

What time do the Meter Taxis run until? If I wanted one at, say, 2am, would they be available?

For pick-up from your home or from the Airport?

[10years]

For the airport limo, do they have a counter or desk in the arrivals area?

For the taxi, is it a flat rate anywhere in the city, or does it depend on where you are going?

For the tuk-tuk or songthaew on the main street, how much should I expect to pay to get to the Ibis, which is opposite Dunkin Donuts, I believe?

I will have only carry-on luggage.

For the return trip from Ibis to the airport, should I get the ph no of the cab that took me to Ibis and ask him to pick me up, or are there many taxis running by on the street like in Bangkok?

If Ibis is a little out of the way, will it be hard to find transportation going that way at night, like from the Night Market area?

[elektrified]

For the airport limo, do they have a counter or desk in the arrivals area?

For the taxi, is it a flat rate anywhere in the city, or does it depend on where you are going?

For the tuk-tuk or songthaew on the main street, how much should I expect to pay to get to the Ibis, which is opposite Dunkin Donuts, I believe?

I will have only carry-on luggage.

For the return trip from Ibis to the airport, should I get the ph no of the cab that took me to Ibis and ask him to pick me up, or are there many taxis running by on the street like in Bangkok?

If Ibis is a little out of the way, will it be hard to find transportation going that way at night, like from the Night Market area?

The taxi fare depends on where you are going. But I believe the minimum is 250 THB from the airport. Tuk tuk - just a guess but probably 170-200.

There are not many taxis on the street like in Bangkok. This is a fairly small town. You could ask the driver for his/her number but every time I've done that and called, the person lives in Hang Dong, San Kampaheng, etc. and are not in the city at the time, not working that day, or are occupied taking a fare somewhere. It's best to call the main number of the taxi company the day/night before you want to depart and schedule a pick-up.

I wouldn't worry so much about it. It's only a couple of hundred Baht after all. Just jot down the numbers of the taxi companies. There are 2 that I know of but I don't think the gray taxis run late at night.

[NancyL]

The airport taxis will run out of the airport during the hours that scheduled commercial flights are arriving. Just don't take forever to claim your luggage. I've gotten them as late at midnight and the place showed no sign of closing down for the evening.

You simply go out the door on the north side of the airport, past domestic arrivals. It's all the way past the curbside pickup. At curbside will be a lady with a clipboard and a herd of either passengers or drivers, depending on the supply or demand at the time. If there are a lot of passengers, there will be an attempt to get them into a queue. Simply tell the lady with the clipboard where you're going, how many people and how much luggage. She'll tell you your fare and point out your driver who will lead you to your taxi -- a nice, clean air conditioned vehicle.

I don't know your exact fare, but it should be less than 200 baht.

It may be difficult to locate a song thaew willing to go to the Ibis. They may be more interested in taking groups to more popular destinations in the Old City and Night Bazaar area, where they'd make more than 200 baht for the entire trip with multiple passengers.

[elektrified]

The airport taxis will run out of the airport during the hours that scheduled commercial flights are arriving. Just don't take forever to claim your luggage. I've gotten them as late at midnight and the place showed no sign of closing down for the evening.

You simply go out the door on the north side of the airport, past domestic arrivals. It's all the way past the curbside pickup. At curbside will be a lady with a clipboard and a herd of either passengers or drivers, depending on the supply or demand at the time. If there are a lot of passengers, there will be an attempt to get them into a queue. Simply tell the lady with the clipboard where you're going, how many people and how much luggage. She'll tell you your fare and point out your driver who will lead you to your taxi -- a nice, clean air conditioned vehicle.

I don't know your exact fare, but it should be less than 200 baht.

It may be difficult to locate a song thaew willing to go to the Ibis. They may be more interested in taking groups to more popular destinations in the Old City and Night Bazaar area, where they'd make more than 200 baht for the entire trip with multiple passengers.

When I was there about 3 1/2 weeks ago, they were doing things a little differently NancyL. Instead of the North side door, they had a open counter closer to the East? side of the International terminal. The counter was staffed by about 3 people. We had to wait in a queue with about 70 other people - mostly Chinese. We told them our destination and how many bags/passengers and they gave us a queue card. We had to wait about 20 minutes until they called our queue and a guy came and escorted us outside to where our taxi was awaiting us. Looks to me that with all the late night Chinese arrivals, they had to change things into a more organized system to clear up all the congestion. When we finally got in the taxi it was about 1:20 a.m. There was still maybe 50+ people in the queue at 1:20 a.m. As far as I could see, the North door was already closed and the whole area dark.

[siam2007]

For the airport limo, do they have a counter or desk in the arrivals area?

For the taxi, is it a flat rate anywhere in the city, or does it depend on where you are going?

For the tuk-tuk or songthaew on the main street, how much should I expect to pay to get to the Ibis, which is opposite Dunkin Donuts, I believe?

I will have only carry-on luggage.

For the return trip from Ibis to the airport, should I get the ph no of the cab that took me to Ibis and ask him to pick me up, or are there many taxis running by on the street like in Bangkok?

If Ibis is a little out of the way, will it be hard to find transportation going that way at night, like from the Night Market area?

The taxi fare depends on where you are going. But I believe the minimum is 250 THB from the airport. Tuk tuk - just a guess but probably 170-200.

There are not many taxis on the street like in Bangkok. This is a fairly small town. You could ask the driver for his/her number but every time I've done that and called, the person lives in Hang Dong, San Kampaheng, etc. and are not in the city at the time, not working that day, or are occupied taking a fare somewhere. It's best to call the main number of the taxi company the day/night before you want to depart and schedule a pick-up.

I wouldn't worry so much about it. It's only a couple of hundred Baht after all. Just jot down the numbers of the taxi companies. There are 2 that I know of but I don't think the gray taxis run late at night.

250 for a Cab to downtown ? 200 for a TukTuk ? Now that would have to be one giant rip-off, almost Samui-style. I have to admit I haven't been to CM since 2013, but at that time the Airport Limo cost 120 Baht fixed price to downtown - it's just 3-4 KM to all downtown destinations, after all !The metered Cab is almost NEVER cheaper as they charge 50 Baht (back in 2013) on top of the metered fare out of CNX Airport. Plus if you have a shady character as a driver, he may even start some additional rip-off attempt. No such thing when using the Airport Limo. YES they have a counter inside the airport, as soon as you exit the luggage-belt area, you will detect their counter easily. Ibis Styles is out of the way for sure (we are talking about the IBIS STYLES, right ? Don't know of a regular IBIS in CM), should not be a problem during daytime to hop on a shared Sawngthaew, but Tuktuks in the evening will probably come with a pricetag.

In case someone finds my report is outdated and things have changed dramatically since 2013 (maybe due to the invasion of Chinese mainland hordes ?), please correct me.

Edited May 1, 2015 by siam2007

[NancyL]

The airport taxis will run out of the airport during the hours that scheduled commercial flights are arriving. Just don't take forever to claim your luggage. I've gotten them as late at midnight and the place showed no sign of closing down for the evening.

You simply go out the door on the north side of the airport, past domestic arrivals. It's all the way past the curbside pickup. At curbside will be a lady with a clipboard and a herd of either passengers or drivers, depending on the supply or demand at the time. If there are a lot of passengers, there will be an attempt to get them into a queue. Simply tell the lady with the clipboard where you're going, how many people and how much luggage. She'll tell you your fare and point out your driver who will lead you to your taxi -- a nice, clean air conditioned vehicle.

I don't know your exact fare, but it should be less than 200 baht.

It may be difficult to locate a song thaew willing to go to the Ibis. They may be more interested in taking groups to more popular destinations in the Old City and Night Bazaar area, where they'd make more than 200 baht for the entire trip with multiple passengers.

When I was there about 3 1/2 weeks ago, they were doing things a little differently NancyL. Instead of the North side door, they had a open counter closer to the East? side of the International terminal. The counter was staffed by about 3 people. We had to wait in a queue with about 70 other people - mostly Chinese. We told them our destination and how many bags/passengers and they gave us a queue card. We had to wait about 20 minutes until they called our queue and a guy came and escorted us outside to where our taxi was awaiting us. Looks to me that with all the late night Chinese arrivals, they had to change things into a more organized system to clear up all the congestion. When we finally got in the taxi it was about 1:20 a.m. There was still maybe 50+ people in the queue at 1:20 a.m. As far as I could see, the North door was already closed and the whole area dark.

Thanks for the heads up. Last time I got a taxi was about 3-1/2 weeks ago, but I was seeing someone off on that late-night Korean Air flight, but after he went thru the security check around 9 pm, I went to the north door and had no problems getting a taxi. It was in between flights and no passengers were around. Actually, come to think of it, the taxi people looked a little surprised to see me, with no luggage, so maybe they were in the process of closing that door for the evening.

I'll get a chance to check it out "for real" next week. I'll be taking a little short trip and returning on Chiang Mai on that late night Korean Air flight direct out of Seoul. I'm not looking forward to the thought of not getting a taxi until 1:20 am off of a flight that arrives around 11 pm.

[Konini]

Earlier this week I saw the sign for 160 for anywhere downtown, which means 180 to Rimping Condo, but as it was lunchtime we just got a songteow for half that. I know a lot of people don't like songteows compared to taxis, but I'd rather give my money to them than the taxi drivers. It was 120 last year, huge price rise, and the last time we got a taxi we waited for ages for one to pull up - couldn't understand as there were dozens of them just sitting in the holding area. OK, so it was only about 10 minutes, but I couldn't find any shade and we didn't have water, so it seemed like much longer. 10 minute wait isn't acceptable really.

Red songtoews charge a little more for going to or coming from the airport, less for coming from the airport as they aren't allowed to wait and will therefore be going back without a fare. Often they don't even bother to try it on.

[10years]

Yes, I'll be staying at Ibis Styles.

They sent me an email saying they could arrange a shared van for B200 if one's available. Not sue what they mean by the last part.

[siam2007]

Yes, I'll be staying at Ibis Styles.

They sent me an email saying they could arrange a shared van for B200 if one's available. Not sue what they mean by the last part.

why bother with a VAN that is maybe not even available (probably the Hotel has its own Van, but could be someone else has chartered it for a daytrip or another Airport drop-off/pic-up.)

Just head to the Airport-Limo counter after your arrival, tell them your destination and off you are.

chances are that it is not more expensive than a metered Cab, as there is a surcharge of 50 Baht (as of 2013, that is) for trips out of the Airport by metered Cabs already, plus the drivers of the metered Cabs in CM have been known to frequently take their passengers/victims on a ride in more than one sense.

keep things simple - "simplify your life" - enjoy your stay - sawatdee krab - chok dee

[Konini]

why bother with a VAN that is maybe not even available (probably the Hotel has its own Van, but could be someone else has chartered it for a daytrip or another Airport drop-off/pic-up.)

Just head to the Airport-Limo counter after your arrival, tell them your destination and off you are.

Agree about the hotel van, but do airport limo's not have the airport surcharge on them? How did they sneak that pass the taxi drivers Mafia association?

[pgrahmm]

Taxis are different here...there are 2 staffed counters at the baggage claim area - pick one and tell your destination... they'll give you a chit with the cost and queue number....you then go out the door to the taxi lot and get you a cab to your hotel - pretty neat and tidy with no negotition/language barrier with/at the cab.....when gone over a few days we use cabs over leaving a car there.....really pain free + have gotten English speaking drivers and grabbed their number for future use.....

[10years]

Will the limo/taxi desks know where the Ibis Styles is?

What about tuktuks and songthaew drivers when I want to go back to the hotel from downtown?

Is there a landmark or place name that I could use if they don't know the hotel's location?

[siam2007]

Will the limo/taxi desks know where the Ibis Styles is?

What about tuktuks and songthaew drivers when I want to go back to the hotel from downtown?

Is there a landmark or place name that I could use if they don't know the hotel's location?

Of course the Airport Limo counter know where the IBIS STYLES, a rather big Hotel with more than 100 rooms, is located.

My godness they didn't start doing transport business only last week..... you won't get lost, I promise !

[Lordfoul]

If someone doesn't know the Ibis Styles, just tell them "near Chiang Mai Phucome" (POO-KUM). It is a very old and well known hotel just across the street.

If you go by AOT transport (located outside the domestic wing) it will cost a flat 200 Baht, no wait, no share, to your hotel. This will likely be the easiest and least expensive option.

Will the limo/taxi desks know where the Ibis Styles is?

What about tuktuks and songthaew drivers when I want to go back to the hotel from downtown?

Is there a landmark or place name that I could use if they don't know the hotel's location?

Edited May 6, 2015 by Lordfoul

[10years]

Thanx everybody for all the info - I made it to the Ibis safe and sound after a "tour" of the city.

There is some good news and bad news.

I was a little confused about whether the airport limo and the AOT limo were one and the same, but that is a moot question now. Apparently all limo services have been discontinued. There are a couple taxi meter counters inside the terminal, and the taxis are outside the exit on the left end of the terminal.

However, there is now an airport shuttle. I was shown 2 routes with one including the Hotel CM Phucome. The shuttle is outside the other, far end of the terminal, past the international area. There is a little desk just outside the exit. It's a little confusing cause the girl asks if you're looking for the "taxi", but she means the shuttle. The shuttle I rode on was a minivan. It didn't seem like the van was operating on a fixed route.

When the girl asked where I wanted to go, both she and the van driver gasped and then looked at each other, as if I had said Mae Hong Song or Chiang Rai. The ticket seller asked the driver plaintively about it, and he agreed to take me if I essentially paid double. One ticket is B40 for the touristy area. I had to pay for 2 tickets.

The van dropped off all the other passengers at their cheap guesthouses in the Dusit D2 area. I was the only one staying at an actual hotel

Then he delivered me right to the front door of the Ibis. No hassles. I asked the driver about the return trip and eventually he gave me a slip of paper.

While the van driver knew where the Ibis was, the girls at the AOT desk didn't and the rot reds don't either, so the pointer about the Hotel CM Phucome really came in handy, except one rot red driver gave me a leer. Apparently there is some kind of massage parlor in it, which I have yet to explore

[10years]

PS.

According to a sign at the desk, the shuttle runs every half hour from 7 am to 10 pm.

However, I only got a quick look at the sign so maybe someone can confirm this.

[elektrified]

Unbelievable. An entire thread and 24 replies over a 200 Baht cab fare. Don't lose any sleep over it.