3 Day Enduro Tour: Chiang Dao and Pai

This is the tour Let's Ride names as its most popular off-road ride, and the structure explains why: a loop short enough to fit into a long weekend, with enough variety in the trails that riders come back and do it again. Day one is about 120 kilometres at roughly 70 per cent off-road. Riders meet at the office at nine for briefing and gear fitting and start at ten on a mix of dirt trails, single track and backroads. Lunch is Thai food at a local restaurant. The afternoon offers a choice between simple trails and more technical routes, with the group splitting where that makes sense, before the night in Chiang Dao. Two accommodation options are published: a Thai teakwood lodge with its own restaurant, or a Western-quality hotel for an extra 700 baht. Day two is the hardest at around 125 kilometres and 85 per cent off-road. Breakfast is a buffet at half past eight and the group leaves at half past nine for scenic dirt and gravel with some genuinely fun climbs through mountain forest and farmland. Lunch is noodle soup somewhere remote. The afternoon winds through the mountains into Pai, where the group stays in a three- or four-star resort with the town's nightlife on the doorstep. The final day is the longest at around 150 kilometres and 80 per cent off-road, running gravel and dirt past hill tribe villages and viewpoints with optional technical descents out of the mountains toward the city. There is also a paved alternative for riders who want an easier return. The group is back at the office around half past four for a celebratory drink and a transfer to the hotel. Private groups can extend the loop to a fourth day. The operator is straightforward that off-road percentages are approximate and shift with terrain, weather and group ability, and that riding as a group means shared pacing and the occasional wait. Gear supplied covers helmet, boots, body armour, knee guards, gloves, goggles, jersey and riding pants. The optional daily insurance covers all bike parts from radiators to suspension with no excess; without it, scratched plastics are free but other damage is chargeable.

Three days and about 395 kilometres of mostly dirt, running Chiang Mai to Chiang Dao to Pai and back with the off-road content rising from around 70 per cent on day one to 85 per cent on day two. The trails are a mix of jungle single track, gravel climbs, ridgelines and farmland tracks past hill tribe villages, and the guides split the group where skill levels diverge so faster riders and cautious ones both get a day they enjoy. Bikes are professionally modified Honda CRF300Ls with reworked airflow and exhaust, unrestricted ECUs, revised gearing and suspension and enduro tyres. Let's Ride pitches the tour at novice to advanced riders and charges 24,000 baht per rider, which covers the bike, full armour, accommodation, breakfast and lunch and the guiding. An optional damage waiver runs at 600 baht a day.