Many older travellers enjoy visiting parks and gardens when touring Asia’s cities. That’s not just for the relaxation and quiet respite that they can provide from the hustle and bustle of the cities, but because walking or jogging in a park provides much needed exercise when travelling, especially when eating or drinking more than usual.

Parks and gardens also provide a safer environment in which to walk or jog because many Asian cities have busy streets, with motorcycles and scooters darting in and out of the traffic, and sidewalks that are not as well maintained as in more developed countries. Open drains and broken drain covers have resulted in many exercise walkers or joggers ending up in emergency rooms.

Most cities in Thailand have large parks where both locals and visitors congregate for daily exercise in the early morning and late afternoon, but northern Thailand’s two most visited cities – Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai – have something better. They each have magnificent showcase botanic gardens where you can both exercise and enjoy a back-to-nature experience at the same time.

Both gardens are located at elevation outside of the city, meaning that it is cooler to walk there than in the city, and in the cooler months of the year (November to February) it is comfortable to jog there at any time of the day. In the warmer months, the gardens provide a lot of shade which is often missing from city streets.

Chiang Mai’s showcase garden is called the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden and is located at Mae Rim, a 45 mins drive northwest from the centre of the city. It sits at an elevation of between 600 metres and 900 metres on the northern flanks of the Doi Suthep-Pui mountain. There is a conservation area of natural vegetation that extends up to 1,200 metres, but that’s not accessible to the public.

It’s northern Thailand’s premier botanic garden and for those interested in tropical and sub-tropical plants, it’s easy to spend the best part of a day there exploring all of the different sections of the garden and getting some good aerobic exercise on its fairly steep slopes.

It’s a very large garden occupying about 1,000 hectares and has a loop road that climbs from the main entrance up to the glasshouse complex located at an elevation of 860 metres. It takes more than an hour to walk from the entrance to the glasshouses (and it’s an uphill climb) so most people drive their car on the loop road or use the hop-on hop-off tram that operates on demand.

But for serious walkers, there are many beautiful trails through the gardens that will take you from one section to the next. The ‘Waterfall Trail’ which passes by the Mae Sa Noi waterfalls is a popular one and will take you up to the ornamental gardens below the glasshouse complex. There is also a longer ‘Arboretum Trail’ (which has a lot of steps) that takes you through many different species of trees and palms.

For serious walkers there is a ‘Climber Trail’ that can take anything between one to two hours to complete, along which are featured many different species of vines and climbers. The best months to walk this trail are November to February because that’s when most of the climbers are in flower.

There are two shorter trails. The ‘Banana Avenue’ trail is an easy and interesting walk along flat terrain along which are planted about 200 different species of bananas from around Southeast Asia. The ‘Fern Garden Trail’ is the other short one and is very ‘Instagrammable’. However, be careful if it has been raining. There is a lot of moss growing on the pathway and it can become slippery when wet.

Most visitors to the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden will want to do the canopy walk. It’s about halfway up the loop road (if you drive the circuit in a clockwise direction as most people do) between Banana Avenue and the glasshouse complex. There’s a large car parking area in front of the entrance to the canopy walk.

There are no swinging ropeways on this canopy walk. It’s a solid mesh steel walkway that’s wheelchair accessible that takes you to a viewpoint overlooking a heavily forested valley. The return route brings you out into a small souvenir shop next to the entrance that has some interesting items for sale. It takes only 10-15 mins to walk each way.

The highlight of any visit to the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden for those interested in plants is undoubtedly the glasshouse complex. There is a large conservatory for tropical rainforest plants, another for dry desert plants, and smaller greenhouses that display orchids, bromeliads, ferns, carnivorous plants, water plants and medicinal plants.

There’s also an interesting display house of indigenous products made from plant materials. These are mostly items that are produced in the hill tribe villages that are located around northern Thailand. Some of the items are what might be described as ‘village antiques’, whilst others are items that are still in daily use.

Adjacent to the parking area above the glasshouse complex there is another souvenir shop and some food stalls. However, if you are thinking of having lunch before or after your visit to the botanic garden, there are better options for cheap local food along the river just down the road from the main entrance.

You’ll see these restaurants on the left-hand side when driving from Chiang Mai. You won’t miss them because there are usually attendants standing by the side of the road waving cars into the parking areas for the riverside restaurants. Some of them have mounted bamboo platforms on rocks in the middle of the river, creating a unique local dining experience.

Entry to the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden is 100 baht (about $3) for foreigners but free if you are over 60. There’s an additional 100 baht fee for taking a car inside. If you are arriving by songthaew, then you can use the hop-on hop-off tram which costs 30 baht per person.

Chiang Rai’s showcase botanic garden is a little further out of the city than the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden is from Chiang Mai. The garden is shown on most maps as the Doi Tung Palace and is located about an hour’s drive north of Chiang Rai (on a good road) at Mae Fah Luang. It’s named as such because it used to be the summer residence for the mother of the late King Bhumibol.

The botanic garden around the teak palace is also known as the Mae Fah Luang Garden and is a smaller and more formal garden than the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden. However, it’s at a higher elevation (around 1,000 metres) and being much further north (almost on the Myanmar border in fact) it’s usually several degrees cooler than the Chiang Mai garden. There are more temperate climate plants grown here, and many travellers say the garden reminds them of Switzerland.

The views from the Mae Fah Luang Garden are even more impressive than those from the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, and there’s also a canopy walk called the Doi Tung Tree Top Walk. However, this one comprises swinging cable bridges, so may not appeal to everyone. A safety harness is provided so it’s not possible to fall off, provided you have hooked your harness correctly to the safety cable.

The length of the walking trails in the Mae Fah Luang Garden are much shorter than those in Chiang Mai, but this garden has the added bonus of an interesting palace to visit (although photography is not allowed inside the palace which is rather disappointing). Despite its smaller size, it’s still a great garden for exercise (even if you do have to walk several circuits) but more suited to walking than jogging.

For those interested in orchids, the Mae Fah Luang Garden has one of the best displays of Paphiopedilum orchids in Thailand. These orchids, commonly known as ‘slipper orchids’, can flower at any time of the year but the best displays are from the end of the rainy season (October) and into the cooler months that follow.

Entry to the garden is 90 baht for foreigners and the same price for entry to the palace. The canopy walk is an extra 200 baht. Given its distance from Chiang Rai, this garden is more suited to visits by those who have a rental car (or car with driver) because the cost of a songthaew from the city is likely to be prohibitive.

Both botanic gardens are included on many organised tours from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, so if you are not driving yourself or hiring a motorbike or scooter, then check with local travel agents as to which tours include these gardens.

All images: © David Astley