One Day Doi Inthanon National park and Elephant Experience

This long day pairs two of the best things south of Chiang Mai. In the morning you drive up Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain, to see Wachirathan waterfall, stand at the summit, walk around the twin pagodas built for King Rama IX and the Queen and browse a hill tribe market. In the afternoon you come down to Chiang Mai Elephant Home in Mae Wang and spend the rest of the day with the elephants. It suits travellers who want to cover a lot in one day and do not mind an early start.

Pickup is between 07:00 and 07:30. The drive to the park takes about two hours with a coffee stop at a local market. After the mountain you arrive at the camp, change into a camp shirt and sit down to a buffet lunch of Thai food and fruit. Your guide then explains the elephants' history and behaviour before you make vitamin balls, feed the elephants bananas, sugar cane and grass, and spend time watching them. Then it is into the mud for the spa and down to the river to bathe and brush them. You are back at your hotel around 17:30 to 18:00.

The camp sits in a village in Mae Wang district near a national park. It has taken the saddles and chains off its elephants and does not offer riding; you walk with them, feed them and bathe them instead. The park entrance fee, lunch, water and an English-speaking guide are included. Bring a light jacket for the summit, where it is noticeably cooler, and your swimsuit and a change of clothes for the elephants.