Motorcycle Tours in Chiang Mai & Northern Thailand

The short answer

Nomad Bike Tours runs nine guided motorcycle tours out of Chiang Mai, from one-day mountain loops at $209 to an eleven-day expedition across Northern Thailand or into Laos. Bikes, fuel, meals and an experienced guide are included on every tour. No security deposit. No passport held.

Every bike comes out of our own workshop, with our own mechanics behind it — and on the long tours, one of them rides with the group. We run in groups of around five, and a tour goes out whether that is five riders or one.

We are a TAT-licensed Thai tour operator, so a checkpoint is a wave rather than a problem, and every rider is insured under our own Bangkok Insurance accident policy. Not sure which ride you want? Start with how many days you have.

One day

DAY TOURS FROM CHIANG MAI

Out after breakfast, back for dinner. The mountains start twenty minutes from the old city, so a single day is enough for a real one — and it is the honest way to find out what you think of Thai mountain roads before committing four days to them.

1 day

SAMOENG LOOP

The first proper mountain road most riders meet starts twenty minutes from the old city and doesn't stop for 147 km. We ride the Samoeng Loop anticlockwise — climbing early, saving the best corners for the afternoon. On the way: a 700-year-old tunnel temple, a cave you walk into by lamp, forest that closes over the road, and a waterfall the tour buses drive straight past.

From $259 USDLearn more →

1 day

BACK ROADS BONANZA

Everyone rides up Doi Suthep on the paved road with the tour vans. We go up the back of it. 140 km of broken tarmac, dirt and jungle track behind Chiang Mai's own mountain — past a reservoir most visitors never find, up to Khun Chang Khian, a Hmong coffee village at 1,400 m that turns pink with wild cherry blossom every January, and down through the Mae Sa hills. You'll finish the day dusty. That's the point.

From $259 USDLearn more →

1 day

VILLAGE IN THE CLOUDS

An easy 109 km east of Chiang Mai that ends 1,300 m up, in cloud. Mae Kampong is a tea and coffee village built along a stream, where the houses are wooden, the waterfall runs through the middle of town, and the café terraces hang out over a valley that fills with mist most mornings. The road there is gentle enough for a first-timer on a scooter and pretty enough that you'll stop more than you planned.

From $209 USDLearn more →

Four to eleven days

MULTI-DAY MOTORCYCLE TOURS

The routes people come to Northern Thailand for: the Mae Hong Son Loop, the empty roads of Nan, and — for riders with a fortnight — the whole North in one ride, or the crossing into northern Laos. Hotels, meals and luggage transfer are handled; you ride.

4 days, 3 nights

MAE HONG SON LOOP

1,864 curves on Route 108 alone — the number every rider quotes, and they come from the other side of the world to ride it. Then there are the 762 on the Pai road. Four days and 713 km the way we run it — over the summit of Doi Inthanon at 2,565 m, past Wachirathan Waterfall on the climb, up to Ban Rak Thai, a Yunnanese village pressed against the Myanmar border, through the gold Shan temples of Mae Hong Son, and home the long way through Pai.

From $999 USDLearn more →

6 days, 5 nights

RIDER'S PARADISE

Ask a Thai rider where the best roads are and they will say Nan. Six days and 942 km to find out why — north to the white, black and blue temples of Chiang Rai, along the Mekong to the Golden Triangle where three countries meet, then up the switchbacks to Phu Chi Fa, where you climb before dawn and watch the sun come up over a sea of cloud. After that, south into Nan itself: the ancient salt ponds at Bo Kluea, and mountain roads that stay empty for hours at a time.

From $1600 USDLearn more →

11 days, 10 nights

THE LAST FRONTIER: LAOS

Cross at Huay Xai and the tarmac stops being a promise. Eleven days and 1,673 km through the north of Laos — dirt highways, river crossings, limestone mountains that come straight up out of the rice, and villages a long way from the nearest anything. You'll sleep under the cliffs at Nong Khiaw, swim the turquoise pools at Kuang Si, walk into caves the war left behind, and spend two rest days in the UNESCO streets of Luang Prabang, because the road there earns them. This isn't a tour — it's an expedition.

From $2499 USDLearn more →

11 days, 10 nights

NBT SUPER LOOP

Most riders come to Thailand and choose: Mae Hong Son or Nan. This is both, welded into one ride — 1,381 km over eleven days, with a rest day in the middle because by then you'll want one. Thailand's highest mountain, a Yunnanese tea village on the Myanmar border, Pai, the temples of Chiang Rai, sunrise above the clouds at Phu Chi Fa, the empty mountain roads of Nan, and a last night on the water at Phayao. It is the whole North, ridden slowly, in the order it deserves.

From $2750 USDLearn more →

Two other ways to ride

NOT RIDING, OR RIDING ALONE

Not everyone in the party rides, and not everyone wants a group. Both of these are proper products with their own pages, not add-ons buried in a booking form.

No licence needed

PILLION TOUR

You don't need a licence, experience, or even the desire to ride — just hop on the back of your guide's bike and take in the scenery. Same route, same stops, same adventure, no handlebars required.

From $259 USDLearn more →

Ride your own pace

SELF-GUIDED SUPPORT

Ride Northern Thailand at your own pace, with experienced local support always within reach. Curated routes, map pins, daily advice, and live WhatsApp assistance — freedom, without being left on your own.

From $100 USDLearn more →

WHICH TOUR IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Side by side, shortest first. If you are new to mountain roads, start at the top — the Samoeng Loop is the ride this valley recommends first, and nobody here will tell you otherwise.

Tour	Length	Who it suits	From
Village in the Clouds	1 day	Easy — no experience needed	$209 USD
Samoeng Loop	1 day	Easy — no experience needed	$259 USD
Back Roads Bonanza	1 day	Intermediate	$259 USD
Mae Hong Son Loop	4 days, 3 nights	Beginner-friendly	$999 USD
Rider's Paradise	6 days, 5 nights	Beginner-friendly	$1600 USD
The Last Frontier: Laos	11 days, 10 nights	Intermediate	$2499 USD
NBT Super Loop	11 days, 10 nights	Beginner-friendly	$2750 USD
Self-Guided Support	Ride your own pace	Any level — you set the pace	$100 USD
Pillion Tour	No licence needed	No riding experience needed	$259 USD

Prices are per rider. Where a tour takes a passenger, the two-up price is on the tour’s own page.

Read the roads first

ROUTE GUIDES

Measured distances, real fuel stops, seasons →

The paperwork side

BEFORE YOU RIDE

Licence, IDP, insurance and deposits →