Introducing The Chiang Mai Brief: A New Guide to the City

Chiang Mai is one of the most written-about cities in Southeast Asia, and one of the worst served by that writing.

Search almost any practical question about living here and you’ll get the same three results: a listicle written by someone who spent a fortnight in the city in 2018, a forum thread where the actually useful reply is buried on page four, and a page of content marketing from a visa agency dressed up as advice. None of it tells you what you need to know, and quite a lot of it is now wrong.

That gap is why we’re starting The Chiang Mai Brief.

What we’re building

An independent English-language publication and city guide for people who live in Chiang Mai, spend extended periods here, or are planning to visit properly rather than passing through.

It has two halves, and they work differently.

News and updates covers what’s changing — new openings, closures, transport changes, event dates, immigration procedure shifts. Time-stamped, dated, and useful right now.

The guide library covers what doesn’t change quickly — which visa fits, what the city actually costs, which neighbourhood suits you, how to get around, where to eat, and how to handle burning season. Evergreen, but revised rather than abandoned when the facts move.

What we’re not

We’re not a travel blog. We’re not selling tours, property, insurance or visa services. We don’t take payment for inclusion in a guide, and where a commercial relationship exists on a page we’ll say so on that page.

We’re also not going to pretend the city is flawless. Chiang Mai has a serious seasonal air quality problem, a rental market that catches newcomers out, and a set of bureaucratic procedures that will consume mornings of your life. Writing honestly about those is more useful than another piece about how magical the temples are — and the temples are, in fact, magical, which is exactly why they don’t need our help.

The name

“Brief” is the promise. We want you to be able to skim a page and come away knowing what actually matters, then go deeper only where you need to. Length is not a virtue.

How this is organised

Six sections, built around what people actually search for:

Section	Covers
Living in Chiang Mai	Visas, cost of living, renting, healthcare, banking, remote work, air quality
Neighbourhoods	Where to stay and live, inner areas and outer
Eat & Drink	Northern Thai food, restaurants, street food, coffee
Things To Do	Temples, culture, markets, shopping
Travel	Local transport, day trips, the airport
Events	Festivals and the annual calendar

Everything links across. If you land on a guide about opening a bank account, it’ll point you to the visa guide that explains why the branch is asking for a Certificate of Residency, and to the cost of living guide that tells you what you’ll be spending once the account is open.

What happens next

We’re publishing the guide library first, because that’s the part with the longest shelf life. News and event coverage builds from there, and The Chiang Mai Brief newsletter will share whatever is genuinely worth knowing when there is something useful to send.

If you live here and something in our guides is out of date, tell us. That’s the whole mechanism by which a resource like this stays accurate, and readers spot changes long before we do.

Start with the part of the city you’re trying to figure out — Browse the neighbourhood guides