Itinerary
Six stops, one evening, walkable. The night you'd take a friend on a Friday in Chiang Mai.
17:30 — Aperitif · Santitham · $ · Cocktail Bars
Coffee-and-cocktail bar from the Akha hill-tribe community. Start polished. Order something stirred and bracing — a martini, a manhattan, or whatever the bar's house spec is. You're warming up the palate, not chasing trends.
22:00 — The destination cocktail · Old City · $ · Live Music
Heritage live-jazz bar from 2011. This is the room you booked for. Lights are lower, prices higher, drinks are tightly built. Stay an hour, no longer.
23:30 — Late-night listening · Nimmanhaemin · $$ · Hidden Gems
Cocktail-and-craft-beer bar with a tight rotating menu. Move to a music room. Jazz, soul, or a DJ at modest volume. You want a soundtrack, not a club.
01:00 — Last drink · Santitham · $$ · Craft Beer
Craft brewery taproom in Santitham pouring twelve house taps and the city's most adventurous local beers. End on something simple. A clean martini, a Negroni, a whisky and water. Tip your bartender. Walk home or take a quiet cab.
The order matters. We start polished, peak in the middle, end somewhere quieter than we started. You can swap any room for a closer alternative — every bar listed has at least two backups within a five-minute walk.
Total time: about seven hours. Total spend: depends on you, but plan £80-£150 per person across the night. Save this page, send it to whoever you're meeting, and treat the timings as guidance, not gospel.
Each stop links to the full bar page if you want to dig deeper. Treat timings as guidance — adjust to your pace.