Sunday Brunch in Chiang Mai: A Slow Sunday at Skugga Estate

Past the last roundabout the road thins out. Shopfronts give way to fields. Fields give way to low hills. By the time the sat-nav says 30 minutes, the city has stopped sounding like a city, and the plan for the day has shrunk to a table, a menu and a long afternoon.

This is the slow Sunday in the Mae On valley. It has one rule: nothing is rushed. Brunch among the vines at the Vineyard. A short drive to the Farm. Coffee, chocolate, tea and bread, in whatever order the afternoon suggests. Then either the road home, still in daylight, or a night on the estate.

Why Sunday

Sunday in Chiang Mai has a pace of its own, and most of it points the same way. The Sunday Walking Street runs about 1.1 kilometres along Ratchadamnoen Road, from Tha Phae Gate to Wat Phra Singh, and the Old City follows the crowd. It makes a good evening. It does not make a slow day.

The valley runs the other way. Sunday is the day the Vineyard serves brunch and the day the Farm runs its chocolate workshop, so both sites are working at full strength while the city is at its busiest. The Farm is open every day and free to walk in. The Vineyard closes on Mondays, which makes Sunday the last full day of its week, and a sensible one to spend there.

The sequence matters. Brunch sets the pace. The Farm rewards a long afternoon. Reverse the order and the day turns into a schedule.

The valley around the table

Mae On is a district of Chiang Mai province, created in 1994 from six subdistricts split off from San Kamphaeng, and home to about 21,000 people at the 2018 count, according to Wikipedia. Its name comes from the On River, which rises inside a national park in the hills above it. The district holds a cave system, natural hot springs and a waterfall at Huai Kaeo, and the Vineyard sits in the Ban Sahakon subdistrict.

Skugga is two sites in that valley, 1.5 kilometres apart. The estate sits 30 minutes from Chiang Mai city centre, and the drive is the first part of the day. Arrange a car or a driver before you set out, and ask the team about transfers if you do not have one.

Brunch at the Vineyard

Start at the Vineyard. Sunday brunch runs with twenty selections at 1,200 baht per person. Children under 12 pay half. A drinks package of wines and cocktails adds 795 baht per person, for guests who want one. The upstairs dining room sits on the glazed upper floor of the main building. The downstairs room is the more casual alternative, an all-day space that welcomes walk-ins and suits family tables.

The food sits between two traditions. The kitchen cooks European bistro classics with a northern Thai sense of place, and desserts lean on the estate's own chocolate. The food and dining page lists the menus and the booking form. The team confirms brunch requests, so book ahead rather than arriving on the day.

Order slowly. The point of this Sunday is the gap between courses.

The Vineyard also makes its own gin and small-batch spirits, and runs a 45-minute spirit tasting with a chocolate or cheese pairing at 400 baht. It sits well before brunch or in the quiet after it. Ask the team at the table, since it adds an hour to the day and a reason to stay seated.

The walk between

The vines were planted in 2025, and no wine has been produced from them. The wine programme is developing, and the wines on the Vineyard's list are made in partnership with a boutique winery in South Australia. The estate's own wine is still ahead.

Walk the young rows after brunch and the plan makes sense. The vines are small, the rows run straight, and the valley opens behind them. This is a vineyard at the start of its story, and the setting is the point at this stage.

The walk also does a practical job. A slow Sunday needs a pause between brunch and the Farm, and the rows provide one.

The afternoon at the Farm

Drive the 1.5 kilometres to the working farm. Park, walk and let the afternoon organise itself. The estate grows, processes and sells its own coffee, cacao and tea, along with fruit such as avocado, macadamia, lemon and passionfruit, according to Chiang Mai CityLife. Four stops cover most of it, and none of them needs a schedule.

Coffee at the Roastery

The Roastery works with single-origin Thai arabica and runs an experimental series built on carbonic maceration. The method borrows from winemaking. Whole cherries are sealed in a tank, carbon dioxide pushes out the oxygen, and fermentation proceeds without air, as Barista Magazine explains. The cup tastes of it.

Two coffees show the range. Strawberry Fields Forever comes from controlled fermentation and carries pink guava, wild strawberry and cedar pineapple. Drunken Sailor uses natural yeast processing before a light roast, with rum-raisin, dark chocolate and dried fruit in the cup. The Roastery runs guided tastings that compare roast levels, origins and brewing methods, and sells beans to take home. The roastery experience article walks through a visit in full.

Chocolate, made and drunk

Every bar begins with fermentation. Freshly harvested cacao beans sit in a sweet pulp, microbes consume it and the pile heats. According to one craft chocolate maker, this runs for four to five days, and the beans turn from bitter purple to brown as the flavour develops.

The chocolate lab carries the process forward. It turns single-origin Thai cacao into bean-to-bar chocolate through roasting, cracking, winnowing, grinding, conching and tempering. The result earns praise from Time Out Chiang Mai, which writes that the chocolate has depth and complexity like a fine wine, and lists dark bars, rosemary and tomato dark chocolate with lime, and ginger and salt white chocolate among the customer favourites.

A chocolate workshop runs on Sundays, in the morning or afternoon, at 1,100 baht per adult. Book it through the workshops page before you travel. Families with children take the Mini Chocolate Workshop, which is designed for them. The Chocolate Bar serves signature cacao cocktails and smoothies made from the farm's cacao, and it suits the hour when the workshop ends and nobody wants to leave.

Tea and the lawn

The Tea Bar serves estate-grown teas from forest gardens on the same site, and the open lawn beside it is the quietest seat on the Farm. Sit with a pot. Northern Thailand has its own fermented tea tradition, miang, in which tea leaves are fermented and eaten after meals as a palate cleanser. The Fermentation Trail follows that thread across coffee, cacao and tea in a single day.

Bread, cars and the long way round

The Roll Bar bakes breads, pastries and rolls fresh each morning on the farm, and loaves sell over the counter until they run out. A Sunday visit starts with brunch, so buy the loaf on the way out and eat it tomorrow.

The Classic Car Garage holds fifteen vehicles, predominantly British, from a 1951 MG TD to a pair of 1966 Land Rovers. Walk through it with a coffee in hand. It takes less time than the workshop and suits the minutes between stops.

Three ways to build the afternoon

The Farm gives a slow Sunday three shapes, and the right one depends on the group.

The first is making. Book the chocolate workshop for the afternoon and spend two stops in one place. Guests work through the stages the lab uses and leave with chocolate they made. It suits couples and families, and it gives the afternoon a clear centre.

The second is tasting. Skip the workshop, take the Roastery's guided tasting and follow it with a pot at the Tea Bar. The sequence moves from roasted coffee to fresh tea, and each stop explains the one before it. It suits visitors who want to learn without a task.

The third is wandering. Walk the working farm, look through the Classic Car Garage, sit on the open lawn and buy a loaf from the Roll Bar on the way out. It suits the group that wants the afternoon left empty.

Most Sundays combine the three. Make one stop a plan and let the others fill the gaps.

What to take home

The Farm sells what it makes, which turns the end of the afternoon into a short, useful errand. Beans from the Roastery cover the following week of mornings. A dark bar or a flavoured bar from the chocolate lab covers the gifts. A loaf from the Roll Bar covers Monday breakfast. Nothing on the list needs packing around.

Who a slow Sunday suits

A couple gets a long table and a quiet afternoon in place of a city Sunday. The chocolate workshop gives the middle of the day a shared task, and the rows give the end of it a walk.

A family gets a plan built around small legs. Children under 12 pay half at brunch, the downstairs room welcomes walk-ins and family tables, the Mini Chocolate Workshop is designed for families, and the Farm has a playground.

Friends get a pickleball court at the Farm and a table that nobody needs back. The group can split for an hour, one half at the Roastery and one on the court, and meet again at the Tea Bar.

Visitors from Singapore and Hong Kong, where the flights into Chiang Mai are non-stop and daily, get a first Sunday that does not feel like a tour. It works as the anchor day of a long weekend.

Residents of Chiang Mai are the plan's natural audience. The drive is short, the day is complete, and the city is still 30 minutes away when the afternoon ends.

Stay the night

A slow Sunday ends in one of two ways. The first is the road home, which takes 30 minutes. The second is a night on the estate, which removes the road entirely.

The accommodation brand, Skugga Villas and Suites, operates across both sites. Farm suites are one-bedroom units of 32 to 36 square metres, with access to the pool and the pickleball court. Vineyard villas have four bedrooms across about 150 square metres and sleep eight. A night turns Sunday into a short stay, and Monday at the Farm becomes a slow morning, since the Farm opens every day and the Vineyard closes on Mondays. Coffee at the Roastery, a pastry from the Roll Bar and a last walk before the road back make a better ending than a drive at dusk.

For a longer plan, the three-day itinerary builds this Sunday into a full trip, and 24 hours at Skugga covers a single day in more detail.

Planning the Sunday

Book in this order. Request the brunch first, since the team confirms it. Add the chocolate workshop next, which runs on set days. Settle transport before the day. Save the team's numbers before you set out.

Bring comfortable shoes for the vines and no schedule for the afternoon. Skugga's slow weekends article sets out the idea behind the pace.

Sunday brunch at Skugga: quick answers

What does Sunday brunch at Skugga cost?

Sunday brunch at the Vineyard runs from 1,200 baht per person, with twenty selections. Children under 12 pay half. A wines and cocktails package adds 795 baht per person.

How far is Skugga from Chiang Mai city centre?

The estate is 30 minutes from Chiang Mai city centre. The Farm and the Vineyard are separate sites, 1.5 kilometres apart.

Is the Farm open on Sundays?

The Farm is open every day and free to walk in. The Vineyard is open Tuesday to Sunday and closes on Mondays.

Do you need to book Sunday brunch?

Yes. Brunch is requested through the booking form on the food and dining page, and the team confirms each request.

Can children join a slow Sunday?

Yes. Children under 12 pay half price at brunch, the downstairs room welcomes family tables, the Mini Chocolate Workshop is designed for families, and the Farm has a playground.

Has Skugga produced wine?

Not yet. The vines were planted in 2025 and the wine programme is developing. The wines on the Vineyard's list are made in partnership with a boutique winery in South Australia.

What is there to do at the Farm?

The Farm holds the Roastery, the chocolate lab, the Chocolate Bar, the Tea Bar, the Roll Bar bakery and the Classic Car Garage, with a playground and a pickleball court on site.

Can you stay the night after Sunday brunch?

Yes. Skugga Villas and Suites operates across both sites, so a Sunday can end with a night on the estate.