Full-Day Photography Tour in Chiang Mai

Had a fantastic day. Anan was very knowledgeable and helpful. Learnt about Thailand culture. Great photographic experience. Highly recommended

While it was lovely to have a private trip, we found a lot of other options in country that gave us the same photo opportunities at considerably less cost. In addition to paying $150 per person for the trip, we were required to pay for gas for the vehicle, lunch for the driver and the guide, and tips. Part of my disappointment had to do with my own unrealistic expectations. When the description of the trip said that we would go to remote hill tribe villages, I had envisioned grass huts and traditional Thai dress. We got the reality which was a cluster of concrete buildings with satellite dishes and cell towers (in a beautiful mountain setting). In defense of the trip organizer, the trip did start with an option to go to a living hill tribe museum (500 additional baht per person) that provided several different tribes in traditional dress in traditional setting which would have provided us the desired photo opportunities, but it was staged and artificial feeling. We opted to not go there thinking we would see “the real thing”. Whoops, photos lost! The Thai countryside was beautiful. The Thai people we met while on the trip were amazing and were willing to be photographed. The guide and driver were kind and accommodating, and we did end up with some great photos. BUT, once we got in country and discovered how inexpensively we could organize a private trip, we realized that this trip was way over-priced. We had friends that hired a private English speaking driver to take them to several of the same areas that the photography tour covered for about 1/3 of the price. Having a guide there to ensure folks were OK with our photography of them was great, and going into an active farm and rice field to take pictures of the workers was great, but I feel like our taxi driver could have done the same thing for substantially less. Here is my two step recommendation instead…1) have a private taxi take you to the museum, tigers, and elephant camp-you should expect to pay about 1000 baht for the driver, then 1500 or so baht for entry to the activities 2) coordinate a private trek (3000 baht/person) to the waterfalls, hike, and bamboo raft (bring a dry bag for your good camera equipment and bring a waterproof camera for the rafting experience) You will have comparable photo opportunities (plus the adventure of the trek) at a much lower price.