We will be in Chiang Mai from Dec 22-26. We are staying at yaang come village. I am thinking about the itinerary for those 4 days and would welcome any suggestions. Right now I am just considering day trips. Thanks to all the fodorites who have help me design our 3 week vacation. This is our first trip to Thailand!

I really thought the cooking class at Baan Thai cooking school was fun. You can take a day or evening class. Hill tribe visits are popular, but I've heard that if you do it as a day trip, you are sort of shuttled in and out. If you have the endurance and desire, you could do a 2 day trek that includes an elephant ride and jungle rafting, along with trekking and an overnight stay in a village. These things can also be done on day trips. If you want to have suits made, do it here rather than in Bangkok, as it's usually cheaper. I used Friendhip Tailors.

Some of the upscale Spas are really worthwhile, if that's your thing. I went to Oasis and it was definitely an oasis. It's more expensive by Thai standards, but worth every penny. I countered this cost with inexpensive, daily foot massages at the night market. Hey, I'll pay anyone $1.50 to rub my feet for half an hour.

Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang is a must
Do Suthep is a must
If you're interested in crafts you could watch various ones being made -- wood, silver, celadon, paper, silk. Just don't go on a group tour since all you will do is be forced to shop.

Gloria,

Where could we watch crafts being made. Thanks in advance.

At the Mae Sa Valley Craft Village you can watch crafts being made and make something yourself.

Landini:

Can you give me any idea how much you paid for a suit at Friendship Tailors?

I paid US$225.00 for 2 woman's suits (jacket and trousers), talked down from $250.00. Six months earlier, my friends paid $150 for a 3 piece suit ( jacket, trousers and skirt for a woman) and (jacket and 2 pair of trousers for a man), but I don't think they tried to bargain.
All of the tailors advertise some ridiculous prices, but these are using cheap fabrics and so-so craftmanship.
Spend the extra money, go for your initial fitting as soon as you arrive and have as many fittings as it takes to make it fit perfectly, otherwise, it's not worth it. They're open until 11:00 at night, so you can just pop in a few times until it's done and then they will deliver it to your hotel.

First buy Nancy Chandler's map of Chiang Mai.
We stayed at the Yaang Come Village Resort for several nights (we heard about thru tripadviser.com just before we left for Thailand) so were there pre-opening. Excellent property, quiet (especially considering by main road), lovely pool, manager is amazing woman, request an upper floor room facing towards garden or pool. The bathrooms are lovely, highly recommend you buy some bath foam if staying a few nights (Boots the Chemist nearby stocks some good stuff), and helpful free use of internet computers (2). The night bizzar is around the corner. The covered night bizzar had best crafts. If you have a special photograph, the artists here are so amazing you can get a picture made up by one of them.
We dropped our laundry across the street - can dig out name from suitcase if you like - goes by weight, ours cost $2, versus hotel prices. You can also take less luggage then or leave space for your purchases! Also shopped for beers, sodas etc nnd stored in the mini-bar which also saves.
Tour suggestions:
First day we left early at 8:30 am for Doe Suthep via hotel car service (we were staying at Rachmanaka the first few nights). The Phoping Palace grounds were open but we didnt' go there. A small waving village is nearby. Also along this route is the Chiang Mai zoo. Get back late morning or early pm to enjoy hotel pool. Late afernoon, early evening arrange for massage at Oasis Spa near old town for traditional two hour thai massage (you may need them to adjust the pressure depending on how comfortable you are). They provide a complimentary pick up/drop off service to your hotel. Dinner at Good EArth restaurant--excellent, pretty and, bonus, at end of drive beside hotel.
Second day you may wish to go to Elephant Camp at Mae Sae if not going to Lampang. Visit larger of the orchid farms, lunch at the Mae Sae Valley Resort (it really is beautiful) and see crafts (or do classes here yourself in batik, etc.) There are also snake farm, monkey part, racing, etc. in this area. Leave early and return early afternoon so use the lovely pool at the hotel.
Third day you head down Bo Sang to the umbrella making town (bring business card holder, suitcase or whatever you'd like them to paint on--not just on umbrellas!). Allow a couple of hours to visit the factory outside and also the one in town and walk the small street. Then on to cermanics factory and then to the hot springs.
Third day, if you go to Lampang, get there by 9:15 am as elephants bath at 9:30/9:45 am. Be sure to take a 1/2 hour elephant ride if you've never done one before-it is enough time and also better than some of the other locations for this activity. Remember to buy some bananas and sugar cane and give some to mahout as transport decides to stop for a munch of leaves during "walk", and sugar cane thank you at end.
We took the metered taxi service (new) to the airport which cost 130 bahts versus the hotel cost of a min. of 400 bahts. All cars/drivers showed up early. As opposed to Luang Prabang where everything ran late.
The best market was the Sunday market which we only found out about once in Chiang Mai--was very under mentioned in the guide books. Charming, local affair best visited between 4:30-6:30 pm.
Also allow time to explore by foot the old town. Near the outside walls of the old town, hire a man with bicycle to take you around the perimeter-takes about 1 hour.

Couple of items- the Mae Sae Valley Resort is actually further along from the elephant camp and the Botanic gardens than is shown on Nancy's map.
They also had a cooking class.
If you are there at Christmas, find out about closings, if any, for the holidays.
Agree on the evening leg massages but only go to those places that show a price.

Also, the cost of transport varied. At Rachmanka they have a sedan and driver with comfortable uniform. Cost a little more.
We ended up hiring a driver thru Mr. Lee's advert. Turned bout to be great, spoke reasonable English (we could communicate) and he knew where everything was and made useful suggestions only. Cost for Lampang trip was 1000 bahts plus 500 bahts for petrol. We visited the elephants, the wat in the town and stoped in Lamphun to see the Wat there before returning at 4:00pm That was a long day.
For trip to Mae Sae Valley Resort area was 1000 Bahts total.
The drive to Bo Sang stopping at the silk factory back, cost 800 bahts thru hotel driver-minivan, but after that all prices felt so outragious we looked elsewhere and found Mr. Lee's and meter taxi service.

Smeddum,
Thanks so much for all of the great information and descriptions. We stayed at Rachamankha last year & are staying at Yaang Come Village in February. How would you compare the two? Do you have more information for Mr. Lee & how to get in touch with him -- website or e-mail?

Landini, Where is Friendship Tailors located?

The Rachmanaka is so aesthetically pleasing--beautiful with everything so picture perfect that you want to weep from the perfection. The pool sheer serenity and the restaurant food fabulous, even for my veggie husband. Old City location, near Sunday market and Oasis Spa, is perfect and peaceful. The roosters wake you in the morning. The downside - the rooms were on the dark side-reminded us of the cave hotels in Santorini. Fine for a few nights. On tripadvisor someone had recommended requesting an upper floor room/suite which have more light so you get the best of both worlds. We could hear people occassionally thru the one adjoining wall we had. The staff were great and their new driver quite a pleasure. Very sharp, keen guy who was a hairdresser in a previous life.

Yaang Come Village - beautiful entrance way (they were just finishing their customized handmade hotel signage when we were there), The pool is lovely but gets quite hot so opt for a little shade--we had the hotel guy move the umbrella in the concrete stand! (After that everyone was zoming into those chairs so believe they will move them all soon.) Restaurant food we only had for breakfast and occasion lunch, but the Good Earth restaurant is fabulous and at bottom of garden along with small coffee shop, one of the few places around that can give you cappuchino to go.) The downside - the rooms facing the back did not have good views-we had them move us to the front. Would recommend you pay more/request an upper floor room for privacy and light. Each room has a small balcony with built in seats. If you are on the ground floor, request a room facing garden in the second last building. The bathrooms are huge and the tub amazing adjoining an enormous glass enclosed shower stall. A toilet and small urinal. There were a lot of mosquitos when we were there but due to recent flooding and construction I think it was worse now than in future. Even so, I got very few bites. (maybe cos I'd bought some addional mossie lotion made by Rachmanaka, actually smelled good to!) They put out smoking cords in the hall outside and every morning and night we had them spray our room which pretty much resolved that issue until they kept the door open while cleaning the room each morning!
Gave nightly turn down service also. The front desk staff are wonderful and willing to make your stay the best it can be. They were really a pleasure. The manager knows her stuff and has connections if you need help getting something done. Location handy for night market plus 10 min. walk to old town.
Driver - actually we found the low tech way while at the hotel, didn't like the price being quoted the second day by the hotel driver so looked in a local publication and found the ad for Mr. Lee. Called, he seemed honest and sincere and the driver was a pleasant surprise. Mrl Lee's mobile phone: (01) 724-6093. One reason we liked him, his ad (which I'm looking at doesn't seem to have a website)listed pricing for each location and mentioned that insurance was included. His driver, Sompong. English is still a little limited but he is smart and eager to please. We would use again. He told us he has a volvo but we were driven in a minivan which was clean and updated.
For smaller trips use the metered taxi for trip to airport; and the blue buses or tuktuks around town.