Explore Royal Park Rajapruek, a beautiful garden park in Chiang Mai
You can easily spend three hours here with family! It’s really a perfect trip for everyone. Grandma will love the flowers, the kids will love the freedom to move around, parent’s will enjoy taking an affordable ‘trip around the world’ as you walk through the international gardens, and it’s all wheel chair accessible!
If gardens are your thing, then definitely see the listings of the other beautiful gardens in Chiang Mai.
Top things to see and do with kids at Royal Park Rajapruek
Ride an elephant!
No worries, they aren’t real elephants, but riding the elephant statues can be fun too! There are a bunch of various sized elephants so everyone, big and small can climb up and take that perfect photo.
Visit the royal pavilion
The Royal Rajapruek pavilion is dedicated to the previous king of Thailand, King Rama IV. In fact the whole garden park was created in his honour. It’s a bit of a climb up to the temple, but the bonus is that it is also wheelchair accessible (one of the few places in Chiang Mai that is). You’ll need to ask for access from a staff member when you enter the park and they will accommodate your needs.
The climb or ride up is worth it. Inside the temple is one of our favourite spots to visit and we head up here every time because it’s so nice and cool. No matter the time of year, there’s always a cooling breeze rushing through the windows. The tile floor is cool as well on your bare feet. The inside is also beautifully decorated and you get a fabulous view of the gardens.
Explore nations from around the world
The international gardens are modeled after the World Expo in that there are gardens that represent the flora of certain well-known nations from around the world. For some reason, Mars is considered a nation (a future one maybe?!) and its dedicated building has some pretty awesome info in it about outer space!
Each nation’s garden is actually an agricultural experiment to see if non-native plants species may be able to grow in Thailand. Make it a challenge to visit as many countries as you can in one visit!
Go to the playground at Royal Park Rajapruek
The outdoor playground is just so much fun! It’s really large and has a nice sandy bottom for kids to run around on or jump into from the monkey bars. There are swings, slides, seesaws and more! It’s best to play here during the morning or later afternoon hours as it won’t be so hot.
Visit the butterfly sanctuary
Right next to the playground is the butterfly sanctuary. Here you can see the life cycle of a butterfly from pupae to fully winged beauty. If you’re lucky, a butterfly may even land on you to say hi!
Stop in at Bug World
As you leave the sanctuary, you immediately enter Bug World. It’s a bite size version of Siam Insect Zoo where lots of bugs are on display, but you cannot interact with the insects as you can at the Insect Zoo. It’s got interactive displays and handy information to take in. Watch out at the end though, there are live tarantulas on display!
Eat at the Royal Flora Kitchen restaurant
It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it’s lovely spot to enjoy lunch. You can access it from the garden park by mentioning to the security guard that you will eat and return to the park. The restaurant has lovely food and drinks, washrooms and is kid friendly!
Food and drink
The food is really healthy – made with organic ingredient grown at the Royal Project farms in the same vicinity. It’s also kid friendly with bit size snacks an tailored food designs. How cute is that rice teddy bear?!
Food prices are slightly high (chicken sing 95 baht, spring rolls 90 baht, ice 70 baht) but you are getting high quality ingredients. Drinks were tasty with smoothies and juices on offer from around 70 baht
Seating
They’ve got high chairs! There’s also patio seating in the garden or covered seating in the open air restaurant area. It’s nice and cool as they have fans blowing and misters surrounding the building. It’s a really nice spot for a bite of lunch while you take a break from exploring Royal Park Rajapruek.
Experience the gardens and greenhouses
Thailand is home to some of the most beautiful and fascinating flora in the world. It is showcased so well throughout the park, especially in the orchid garden. In the greenhouses you’ll be welcomed into temperate or cooler climates where you can experience flowers from the UK, Canada, and more.
Visit the gift shop
Well, this isn’t actually a choice anymore! They’ve redesigned the exit so that you have to go through the gift shop, but it does actually have some lovely things that aren’t tacky! The items are fairly affordable too.
Map of Royal Park Rajapruek Chiang Mai
Getting around the gardens
The gardens at Royal Park Rajapruek are massive. There are four ways to get around the gardens.
Walk
The first and most obvious way to get around is to walk. This is great exercise but may be difficult for little legs over a long time. Also, on hot days, you’ll be sweating like mad within a few minutes.
Take the tram
The tram is included in the ticket price which is great! It makes stops every 15 minutes and operates in a hop on hop off method. When the park is busy though, you may have to wait for two trams to go by before you can get a spot.
Rent a bicycle
Bicycles cost 60 baht for an hour to rent and require that you leave a valid ID as collateral. You used to be able to bring your own bicycles into the park to ride on, but as of January 2019, you can no longer ride your own bikes! This is a mistake on their part because they don’t even have children’s bicycles available for rent, only adult sized ones and there are also no baby bike seats.
Hire a golf cart
Near the entrance you can inquire about hiring a golf cart. It appears to come with a driver or private tour guide as well. Inquire about costs if you are interested but I’m fairly certain it’s expensive at between 300 – 400 baht per hour.
How to get to Royal Park Rajapruek Chiang Mai
The park is located south of the city very close to the Chiang Mai Night Safari and Cup Fine Day. Please see the location link below!
If you are visiting Chiang Mai then the best ways to get here are to take a Grab or to take a songtaew. While if you live here, it’s best to just drive. There is plenty of parking and parking is free when you pay entrance to the park. Simply show your parking ticket and have it stamped when you purchase tickets.
Hours: Daily 8 am – 5:30 pm
Entrance fee:
Tourist prices: Adult 200 baht. Child 150 baht (100 cm – 140 cm). Under 100 cm FREE
Local prices: Adult 100 baht Child 70 baht (100 cm – 140 cm). Under 100 cm FREE
Good for ages: all ages!
Accessibility: wheelchair and stroller accessible
Website: http://www.royalparkrajapruek.org
Phone: 053-114-110 ext 5
Location: Google Maps
Things to consider
There’s plenty to do with children and family in this vicinity. There’s the Chiang Mai Night Safari, Rabbit Union, Cup Fine Day, Wat Doi Kham, and Baan Suan Kafe. You can easily fill an entire family day out from breakfast to dinner in this small area of Chiang Mai!
