The UK Traveller's Guide to Mae On: Chiang Mai's Most Overlooked District

Every Chiang Mai guide covers the same ground. The Old City and its temples. Doi Suthep on the mountain above the valley. The Night Bazaar. The Sunday Walking Street. Doi Inthanon to the south. The elephant sanctuaries to the north. These are correct recommendations. They are correct because the things they describe are genuinely worth doing. They are also correct in the way that a restaurant's most popular dish is correct: reliable, well-executed, and increasingly familiar to anyone who has been to Chiang Mai before.

Mae On is the district that the guidebooks have not written yet.

Mae On sits east of the city, reached by a road that climbs into highland forest before the tourist itinerary has given it any reason to be there. It does not have a famous temple. It does not have a landmark that appears on Chiang Mai mood boards. What it has is the specific character of highland northern Thailand in its most undisturbed form: forested hills, volcanic soil, agricultural land producing things that the hot lowland plains cannot grow, and a quality of air and light in the cool season that people who have experienced it describe, consistently, as one of the things they most want to return to.

It also has Skugga Estate — a permaculture farm producing award-winning chocolate and coffee, a highland vineyard, a BarBQ Bistro with panoramic plantation views, and a private collection of British classic cars from the 1950s to the 1980s that has no business being in the highlands of northern Thailand and is all the more extraordinary for it.

This is the Mae On article that the guidebooks have not written. It is for the British traveller who has done the standard Chiang Mai circuit, or who arrives knowing they want something more specific than the circuit offers, and who is ready to go east.

What Mae On Actually Is

Mae On (แม่ออน) is a district in the eastern part of Chiang Mai Province, bordering the highlands that separate the Chiang Mai valley from the lowlands to the east. It was established as a separate district in 2008, carved from the San Kamphaeng district that had previously encompassed the area. It covers approximately 415 square kilometres of predominantly forested highland terrain — a density of landscape relative to population that reflects the agricultural rather than urban character of the land.

Mae On is not a tourist district. It does not have a tourism authority office or a dedicated visitor information centre. The infrastructure for independent travellers is minimal compared to the Old City or the Nimman area. This is precisely the point: Mae On is a place where the visitor is a guest in a working landscape rather than a participant in a curated experience, and the quality of encounter that produces is different in kind from what the inner city's tourism infrastructure provides.

The road east from Chiang Mai that serves as the primary access route — the San Kamphaeng Road and its continuation into the highland district — is one of the most rewarding drives in the immediate Chiang Mai area. The transition from urban to suburban to rural to highland agricultural to highland forest happens over 40 minutes in a way that is gradual enough to be felt rather than abrupt enough to be merely noted. By the time a traveller reaches Mae On, they are somewhere genuinely different from where they started.

For couples planning a destination wedding in Chiang Mai, Mae On is not a detour from the main event. It is the main event. The district's combination of privacy, distinctive landscape, and the singular offer of Skugga Estate makes it the most compelling wedding destination in the Chiang Mai day trip radius, and one of the most compelling in northern Thailand.

The Geography: Why Mae On Feels Different

Chiang Mai Province is large and geographically diverse — it covers over 20,000 square kilometres and encompasses everything from the flat agricultural valley floor around the city to the summit of Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest peak at 2,565 metres. Mae On district occupies the eastern highland zone of the province, where the Chiang Mai valley's flat land gives way to the first ridges of the highland terrain.

This geography produces a specific microclimate. The eastern highlands receive more reliable rainfall than the valley floor, which supports a forest cover that the drier western slopes cannot maintain. The mist that sits in the Mae On valleys on cool season mornings — highland forest moisture meeting the cooler nocturnal temperatures of elevation — gives the district its specific visual character: a landscape that is simultaneously tropical and temperate, that looks unlike anything in the lowland Thai plains.

The soil in the Mae On highlands is partly volcanic in origin, with the mineral complexity that volcanic soils provide to whatever is planted in them. This is the agricultural foundation of what Skugga Estate produces. The shade-grown Arabica coffee and the single-origin cacao that have won awards in international competitions are growing in soil that the geology of eastern Chiang Mai Province has been building for millennia. The elevation range in the district — from the valley floor at approximately 300 metres to the highland ridges above 1,000 metres — creates the diurnal temperature variation that is the primary driver of flavour complexity in both coffee and cacao cultivation at altitude.

Visitors who understand this find the district more interesting. Visitors who do not understand it still find the district beautiful. The specific quality of what grows here is inseparable from where it grows.

San Kamphaeng: The Corridor Between Chiang Mai and Mae On

The road from Chiang Mai city to Mae On runs through San Kamphaeng district for most of its length before entering Mae On proper. San Kamphaeng is worth understanding as a destination in its own right and as the context for the Mae On experience.

San Kamphaeng town is a small Thai market town approximately 13 kilometres east of Chiang Mai city. It has historically been associated with Thai craft production — silk weaving, lacquerware, celadon ceramics, and the handmade cotton and linen products that the Chiang Mai region has produced for centuries. The craft workshops that line the San Kamphaeng Road represent a traditional economic activity of the region: the production end of what the Night Bazaar sells, which makes them interesting in the same way that a factory visit is interesting — not for the finished products, which are available elsewhere, but for the sight of the process that produces them.

Silk weaving

Several workshops along the San Kamphaeng corridor maintain working looms and allow observation of the hand-weaving process. The complexity of traditional Thai silk patterns — the way that colour and texture are generated by the specific threading of the warp and weft — is one of those craft processes that rewards direct observation in a way that finished products on a retail shelf do not communicate. The SACICT Thai Craft Support Institute documents the heritage of these traditions for anyone who wants deeper context before or after visiting.

Celadon ceramics

The blue-green glaze of Thai celadon ceramics, derived from the iron content of the glaze and the specific reduction atmosphere of the wood-fired kiln, is a craft tradition with roots in the Chinese porcelain influence on northern Thai material culture. Several celadon workshops on the San Kamphaeng Road maintain working kilns and production facilities open to visitors.

Lacquerware

Traditional northern Thai lacquerware — the layering of natural lacquer on bamboo or wood substrates — is produced in workshops along the San Kamphaeng corridor. The process is slow, requiring multiple layers and drying periods between each, and the workshops that maintain traditional production are becoming rarer as cheaper manufactured alternatives displace them in the market.

The San Kamphaeng craft corridor is best visited on the way to Mae On rather than as a separate destination — a sequence of brief stops along the road that provide context for the agricultural and craft traditions of the eastern Chiang Mai region before arriving at their most concentrated and contemporary expression at Skugga Estate.

San Kamphaeng Hot Springs: The Thermal Landmark of the Mae On Approach

The San Kamphaeng Hot Springs are located approximately 36 kilometres east of Chiang Mai city, at the point where the road begins its climb into the highland forest of the Mae On district. They are the most visited natural feature on the Mae On approach and the standard day trip combination for Thai domestic tourists and regional visitors: hot springs in the morning, Mae On countryside in the afternoon.

The springs are a genuine geological feature rather than a tourist construction. Mineral-rich water emerges from the earth at temperatures of 90 to 105 degrees Celsius — hot enough to cook an egg in approximately ten minutes, which is the demonstration that every visit to the springs includes. The water is channelled into a developed facility that includes public bathing pools cooled to comfortable bathing temperature, private bathing rooms available for hire by the hour, and the natural high-temperature pools where visitors buy eggs from vendors at the entrance and lower them in baskets into the boiling water.

The egg-boiling pools deserve a specific note. This is not a significant culinary event — it is a slightly sulphurous hard-boiled egg — but it is a ritual that every visitor participates in and that produces the specific pleasure of doing something that has been done in this place by generations of visitors before and will be done by generations after. It is also, in the context of a Mae On day, the moment that most clearly signals you are somewhere different from the city.

The springs are open daily from 8am to 6pm. Entry is 100 Baht per person for the general grounds. Private bathing rooms are charged separately and are worth booking in advance on weekends. Thai domestic tourism arrives primarily on weekends and public holidays — visiting on a weekday morning produces a significantly quieter experience. The springs are approximately ten minutes before Skugga Estate on the Mae On road, making them a natural first stop before continuing east.

For couples using the Mae On week as part of a destination wedding itinerary, the hot springs on the morning of Day 2 or 3 — before guests have found their rhythm in the city — is a particularly good group activity. The private bathing rooms accommodate a party of four to six and the communal egg-boiling area is one of those experiences that a mixed group of wedding guests bonds over without any facilitation required.

Skugga Estate: The Centrepiece of the Mae On Day

Skugga Estate sits in the highland forest of the Mae On district, on volcanic soil in Ban Sahakon, at an elevation that creates the diurnal temperature variation its coffee and cacao need to develop complexity. It was founded by Anthony McDonald — a British entrepreneur who has lived in Thailand for over 30 years — as a permaculture farm designed from the beginning to work with the specific character of the Mae On landscape rather than to impose a generic agricultural model on it.

The decision to grow shade-grown Arabica coffee (first harvest 2016), tree-to-bar cacao (launched 2018), wild Assam tea, and — from 2025 — highland wine grapes in Mae On rather than in a more conventional agricultural location is the argument that the Mae On terroir is capable of producing agricultural products of genuine distinction. The awards that Skugga's chocolate and coffee have won at international competitions are the evidence that the argument is correct.

What the estate offers

The Chocolate Lab is where the tree-to-bar process happens: cacao grown on the estate is fermented, dried, roasted, and processed into single-origin chocolate on the property. The Chocolate Bar serves tasting flights, cacao cocktails, and the finished bars alongside an explanation of what makes the Mae On growing conditions produce the flavour profiles they do. For British visitors with any interest in fine chocolate, this is the most direct encounter with single-origin Thai cacao available anywhere in the country.

The Coffee Roastery — built around the estate's roaster known as the Black Pig — processes shade-grown Arabica from the estate's own plantation using experimental methods including Carbonic Maceration that produce flavour profiles well outside the range of commodity coffee. The pour-over bar is the correct place to begin any visit to the estate: the first cup establishes what the Mae On soil and the estate's approach are capable of, and everything that follows makes more sense because of it.

The BarBQ Bistro serves farm-to-table open-fire cooking with panoramic views across the plantation. Open daily from 11am to 8pm. The food is built from estate produce and the best of what northern Thailand's highland farms produce seasonally. For couples planning a wedding at Skugga, a lunch at the Bistro during the pre-wedding week is the most efficient way to introduce guests to the estate before the ceremony day — a low-key encounter with the property that builds anticipation without previewing the event itself.

The Classic Car Gallery is free for dining guests and deserves considerably more attention than most visitors give it. A private collection of pristine British classic cars from the 1950s to the 1980s, maintained in exhibition condition in the Mae On highlands, is the kind of thing that has no rational explanation and is entirely compelling because of it. For British visitors, this is the single most disorienting and delightful element of the estate: the specific texture of British automotive history — the marques, the periods, the design language — encountered 9,000 kilometres from the roads they were built to drive. The Classic Car Gallery at Skugga merits 30 to 45 minutes of unhurried attention.

The ceremonial cacao experience — a guided ritual using ceremonial-grade cacao grown on the estate — is available for groups and individual visitors by booking. For couples incorporating this into a wedding morning, it is a singular way to begin the day. For visiting groups who are simply curious about what ceremonial cacao is and why it has developed the cultural presence it has across wellness travel, the Skugga ceremony is the most grounded and genuine version of this experience available in the Chiang Mai region — conducted with cacao the estate grew itself, in the landscape where it was grown.

The vineyard is young — planted from 2025 — and the wine programme is developing. Walking the vine rows in the late afternoon, with the plantation behind and the hills darkening ahead, is one of the quietest and most distinctive experiences the estate offers. Entry to the farm is free. The cafe and roastery are open daily from 9am to 7pm. The bistro is open daily from 11am to 8pm.

Mae On for Couples: What the District Offers at Each Stage of a Wedding Week

Mae On and Skugga Estate appear at three distinct moments in a well-designed Chiang Mai wedding week, and each appearance does different work.

The pre-wedding visit

A group farm tour and wine tasting at Skugga Estate two or three days before the ceremony introduces guests to the property without previewing the wedding setup. It establishes the estate in guests' minds as a real working place — cacao, coffee, vines, classic cars — rather than an abstract venue. The guests who arrive on the ceremony day already know what the property smells like in the afternoon, what the Bistro food is, and where the vineyard sits relative to the ceremony space. They arrive as people returning somewhere rather than people arriving somewhere new. This is a small thing that changes the quality of the day considerably.

The ceremony day

The full account of weddings at Skugga Estate is on the estate site. What the Mae On context adds: the setting of the ceremony is not a constructed venue imposed on a neutral piece of land. It is a working farm, in a specific ecological district, with a specific agricultural history and a specific quality of light. The ceremony happens inside all of that. The photographs reflect it. The guests feel it. This is what the Mae On district, specifically, contributes to a wedding at Skugga that a hotel wedding venue in the city cannot replicate.

The day after

Recovery day. The Mae On hot springs in the morning for whoever wants them. A late breakfast at the Bistro for whoever wants to return to the estate without the pressure of a ceremony day. The highland drive back to the city in the early afternoon, taking the San Kamphaeng craft road slowly. This is the day that consolidates the week into a memory rather than an itinerary.

For the full planning guide for British couples, read Destination Wedding in Thailand from the UK.

The Mae On Nature Trails: Highland Forest Walking

Beyond the hot springs and Skugga Estate, Mae On district has a network of nature trails through highland forest that are among the least visited walking routes in the immediate Chiang Mai area. The trails pass through forest that is genuinely wild by comparison with the managed parkland of Doi Inthanon or the developed trail system around Doi Suthep — less infrastructure, less signage, less foot traffic, and more of the specific quality that undisturbed highland forest in northern Thailand produces.

For the independent traveller who wants to walk in the Mae On forest, two approaches work reliably. Several Chiang Mai-based trekking operators include Mae On forest trails in their programme — a half-day or full-day guided trek in the Mae On hills, combined with a Skugga Estate visit in the afternoon or morning respectively, makes a physically active Mae On day that covers both the agricultural and the natural dimensions of the district. Alternatively, the area immediately around Skugga Estate has paths through the farm's permaculture planting and the adjacent forest edge that are accessible without formal trail infrastructure. For 30 to 60 minutes of walking in the highland environment before or after the estate experience, ask the estate team for current guidance on the accessible walking areas.

The Huai Tung Tao reservoir, on the western edge of the Mae On district where it borders the city, is a local recreational area with walking paths around the water's edge and the specific visual quality of a highland reservoir in cool season mist. It is less remote than the highland trails and more accessible for visitors without trekking equipment, and it provides a view of the Mae On landscape that the hill trails provide from above.

Local Food in Mae On District: Eating Beyond the Estate

The BarBQ Bistro is the most distinctive dining experience in the Mae On district by a considerable margin. But the district has other food worth knowing about for travellers spending more than a single day in the area.

The main market town of Mae On district has a morning market (talat sao) that operates daily from approximately 6am to 9am and serves the local community rather than tourists. The market sells vegetables, herbs, and produce from the highland farms of the district alongside prepared foods — the specific northern Thai breakfast dishes that do not appear on tourist restaurant menus. For the food-focused traveller willing to arrive at 7am, the Mae On morning market is a direct encounter with the agricultural output of the district and the culinary tradition that the Skugga kitchen draws on. Prices are denominated in Thai Baht at local rather than tourist rates.

The road through San Kamphaeng and into Mae On has a series of roadside restaurants and food stalls serving northern Thai cuisine in the format that local workers and residents eat. Khao soi — the curry noodle soup with crispy noodles on top that is the dish most closely associated with the Chiang Mai region — is universally better at a roadside restaurant in Mae On than at a tourist-facing restaurant in the Old City.

Getting to Mae On: The Practical Details for British Travellers

Mae On is 40 minutes east of Chiang Mai Old City by road. The route is straightforward — one main road heading east through San Kamphaeng and into the highland district — and requires no navigation complexity.

From Chiang Mai International Airport

40 to 50 minutes depending on city traffic. The airport is on the southwest side of the city; Mae On is on the east. Drive through or around the city depending on the time of day.

Transport options

A rental car from the airport or city is the most flexible option for a Mae On day that includes multiple stops and self-determined timing. International agencies operate at the airport; local agencies throughout the Nimman area offer competitive daily rates.

A private driver — available through most Chiang Mai hotels and transport companies — typically costs £25 to £50 for the vehicle for a full Mae On day, making per-person costs very low for a group of four or more. For wedding groups coordinating multiple guests to the estate, this is the cleanest logistical option.

Songthaew from the Old City or Nimman: negotiate the destination and the return before departing. Having the Skugga Estate name and Mae On sub-district address in Thai on a phone screen to show the driver removes ambiguity on the final stretch.

Scooter rental is available throughout Chiang Mai at daily rates of £5 to £10. The Mae On road is well-suited to scooter travel in the dry season. An international driving licence covering motorcycles is technically required.

Google Maps and Apple Maps both navigate accurately to Skugga Estate specifically. Search for "Skugga Farm Mae On" or use the coordinates provided on the estate's location page. The road is well-surfaced throughout.

The Mae On Day: A Suggested Full Itinerary for British Travellers

The following itinerary covers the primary Mae On experiences in a sequence that makes geographical and experiential sense for a day trip from Chiang Mai city.

8:00am — Depart Chiang Mai. Early departure from the Old City or Nimman area. The road east is quieter in the early morning, and arriving at the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs before the weekend tour groups is the most comfortable experience of the springs.

8:45am — San Kamphaeng craft corridor. Optional brief stops at one or two craft workshops on the San Kamphaeng Road — a silk weaving workshop or celadon ceramics facility — for 15 to 20 minutes of observation before the hot springs. Skip this component if the priority is arriving at the springs early.

9:00am — San Kamphaeng Hot Springs. One hour at the springs: public bathing pool or private room, the egg-boiling experience, the mineral pools. Quiet on weekday mornings. Busier on weekends from approximately 10am. Depart by 10:00am.

10:15am — Arrive at Skugga Estate. Farm orientation walk. Coffee at the pour-over bar. Guided tour of the cacao and coffee plantations if pre-booked.

12:00pm — Chocolate workshop if pre-booked, or self-guided Chocolate Lab and Chocolate Bar experience.

1:00pm — Lunch at the BarBQ Bistro. Farm-to-table open-fire cooking with plantation views. Take time with the lunch.

2:30pm — Classic Car Gallery. Free for dining guests. 30 to 45 minutes.

3:30pm — Gift Shop. Estate chocolate, coffee, and tea for the journey home or as gifts.

4:00pm — Vineyard walk. The young highland vines in the Mae On soil. The view across the plantation in the late afternoon light.

4:30pm — Depart Mae On. Return to Chiang Mai by 5:15pm. Evening free for dinner in the Nimman area or Old City.

This itinerary fills a full day without rushing any component. The sequencing — springs in the morning, estate from mid-morning through late afternoon — matches the logic of the Mae On landscape: the thermal geology of the springs providing context for the volcanic soil of the farm, the hot mineral water of one destination connected to the cool highland agricultural character of the other by the ten-minute drive between them.

Accommodation in Mae On District

Most British visitors experience Mae On as a day trip from Chiang Mai city, which is the correct default. The 40-minute drive in each direction is short enough that city accommodation combined with a full day in the district works without compromise.

For travellers who want to extend into the district — to be in the highland forest when the city-bound visitors have left, to experience the Mae On morning mist before the day warms, or to stay near Skugga Estate for multiple days — accommodation options are limited but include highland guesthouses and homestays in the district's villages, a small number of eco-resort properties in the forested highland zone, and cabin rentals directly associated with the Skugga Estate. For extended stays, contact the estate at info@skuggalife.com for current availability.

Mae On and the Multi-Day Chiang Mai Itinerary

Mae On works best as one component of a three to five day Chiang Mai itinerary rather than an isolated destination. The combination that produces the most complete experience of what the Chiang Mai region offers:

Day 1: Arrive Chiang Mai. Old City and temples. Dinner in the Nimman area.

Day 2: Elephant Nature Park northwest of the city — the most reputable ethical elephant sanctuary in northern Thailand, requiring advance booking and a full day. Return via the Nimman food scene in the evening.

Day 3: Mae On day. San Kamphaeng Hot Springs, San Kamphaeng craft corridor, Skugga Estate full afternoon and evening.

Day 4: Doi Suthep temple and the mountain forest above the city in the morning. Sunday Walking Street or Night Bazaar in the evening if the day falls correctly.

Day 5: Departure or extension toward Pai, Chiang Rai, or the quieter hill districts to the north.

For couples incorporating Mae On into a destination wedding week, this itinerary structure provides the guest group with genuine variety — wildlife, thermal geology, highland agriculture, urban culture, highland forests — in a sequence that builds toward the wedding day at Skugga Estate rather than arriving at it cold.

FAQ

What is Mae On and where is it?

Mae On (แม่ออน) is a highland district in eastern Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, approximately 40 minutes by road east of Chiang Mai Old City. It covers approximately 415 square kilometres of forested highland terrain, established as a separate district in 2008. Its primary attractions for British travellers include the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs, the San Kamphaeng craft corridor, and Skugga Estate — a permaculture farm producing award-winning chocolate and coffee, with a BarBQ Bistro, Classic Car Gallery, and highland vineyard.

What is the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs?

The San Kamphaeng Hot Springs are a natural thermal feature approximately 36 kilometres east of Chiang Mai, where mineral-rich water emerges at 90 to 105 degrees Celsius. The facility includes public bathing pools, private bathing rooms, and the natural high-temperature pools where visitors boil eggs. Open daily 8am to 6pm, entry from 100 Baht per person. A standard first stop on any Mae On day trip.

What is there to do in Mae On for a day?

A full Mae On day covers the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs in the morning, optional craft workshop stops along the San Kamphaeng corridor, and Skugga Estate from mid-morning through late afternoon. At Skugga: guided farm tour, Chocolate Lab, Coffee Roastery, BarBQ Bistro, Classic Car Gallery, Gift Shop, and vineyard walk. Entry to the farm is free.

Is Mae On worth visiting for a day trip from Chiang Mai?

Yes. For the British traveller who has covered the standard Chiang Mai circuit or who wants something off the established itinerary, Mae On is the most distinctive day trip available from the city. The combination of the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs, the highland forest landscape, and Skugga Estate's farm, chocolate, coffee, and Classic Car Gallery produces a day genuinely unlike anything else in the Chiang Mai day trip radius.

How is Mae On different from other Chiang Mai day trip destinations?

Mae On is an agricultural district rather than a tourist district. It does not have a famous temple, a national park, or a well-developed tourism infrastructure. What it has is the specific character of highland northern Thailand in its most undisturbed form: forested hills, volcanic soil, and crops that the lowland plains cannot grow. Skugga Estate in Mae On is the most concentrated expression of this character available to visitors: a working farm producing award-winning chocolate and coffee from the highland terroir, with a Classic Car Gallery that reflects the personality of its British founder as directly as the cacao reflects the personality of its soil.

What is Skugga Estate?

Skugga Estate is a regenerative agritourism farm and hospitality destination in Ban Sahakon, Mae On, 40 minutes from Chiang Mai Old City. Founded by British entrepreneur Anthony McDonald, the estate grows shade-grown Arabica coffee (since 2016), single-origin cacao processed tree-to-bar in the Chocolate Lab (since 2018), wild Assam tea, and — since 2025 — highland wine grapes. The estate has a Coffee Roastery with specialty pour-over bar, a Chocolate Bar serving cacao cocktails and tasting flights, a BarBQ Bistro with farm-to-table open-fire cooking, a Roll Bar Bakery, a Gift Shop, and a Classic Car Gallery housing a private collection of British classic cars from the 1950s to the 1980s. Entry is free. Open daily.

How do I get to Mae On from Chiang Mai?

Drive east from Chiang Mai Old City through San Kamphaeng, past the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs, and into the Mae On highland district. The drive takes approximately 40 minutes. Transport options include rental car, private driver hired through a hotel or transport company, scooter, or negotiated songthaew. Google Maps navigates accurately to Skugga Estate — search "Skugga Farm Mae On" or use the estate's location page for coordinates.

What is the best time of year to visit Mae On?

November through February is the cool, dry season — the optimal period for highland walking, outdoor dining, and the full range of outdoor activities in the Mae On district. The morning mist in the Mae On valleys during this period is among the most visually distinctive experiences the district offers. March is manageable. The rainy season (June to October) produces intense green landscape and highland mist but afternoon rain is reliable and affects some outdoor activities. Monitor Air4Thai for air quality in March if considering that month — agricultural burning can produce haze in the northern highlands.

Is Mae On suitable for couples planning a wedding in Chiang Mai?

Mae On is the most compelling wedding district in the Chiang Mai region. Skugga Estate hosts vineyard weddings for 10 to 100 guests with one event per day, ceremony and reception spaces set against the highland landscape, farm-sourced catering, and optional ceremonial cacao experiences for the wedding morning. The district's privacy, visual distinctiveness, and the singular character of the estate make it the answer to the question of where in Thailand a wedding should feel like it could only have happened in one place. Enquiries open for 2026, 2027, and 2028. Contact vineyard@skuggalife.com.

Are there places to stay in Mae On district?

Accommodation in Mae On is limited compared to Chiang Mai city. Options include highland guesthouses and homestays in the district's villages, a small number of eco-resort properties in the forested highland zone, and cabin rentals at Skugga Estate for guests who want to be on the farm itself. For extended stay enquiries contact info@skuggalife.com.

About Skugga Estate

Skugga Estate is a private vineyard and permaculture farm estate in Ban Sahakon, Mae On, Chiang Mai — 40 minutes from the city, 30 minutes from the airport, and a different world from either. The estate hosts vineyard weddings and corporate retreats alongside ceremonial cacao ceremonies, bean-to-bar chocolate workshops, specialty coffee, farm dining, and a private collection of British classic cars. Entry is free. Open daily.

One event per day. Wedding and event enquiries open for 2026, 2027, and 2028.

Contact the estate at vineyard@skuggalife.com or read the Destination Wedding from the UK guide and the Destination Wedding from Australia guide for the full picture of what a Skugga wedding involves.