Best Neighborhoods in Chiang Mai for Expat Families
Planning a move to Thailand? Come join us in Chiang Mai! Chiang Mai is popular with expat families for good reason. The city offers a unique…
Discover your dream life in Chiang Mai
Explore curated maps and guides. Get expert advice from your CNXlocals.
Chiang Mai time:4:55 PM
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Moving to Chiang Mai
Thinking about the big move? Start with the visas, schools, neighborhoods, and logistics nobody warns you about. Start with the guides →
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Exploring the City
Here for a season, or just settling in? Browse our directories of cafes, kid-friendly spots, and neighborhoods, mapped and vetted by people who actually go. Explore the directories →
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Find Your Neighborhood
Old City buzz or Hang Dong quiet? Walkable or leafy? Find the part of town that fits your life. Explore neighborhoods →
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Get Local Expert Help
Stuck on something specific? Book an hour with Lily and skip weeks of Facebook-group guesswork. Book a consultation →
Start here
Family Relocation Guides
Local guides for families are our bread and butter: visas, neighborhoods, schools, and the everyday logistics of raising kids here, from people actually doing it. Start with these five.
Beyond the free guides
Book a Chiang Mai Relocation Call
CNXlocal is the passion project of a real Chiang Mai family, and we offer free guides to share our love and support the community.
When you’re exhausted from reading or you want a quick answer from someone trustworthy, you can book a call with Lily — a Chiang Mai native who’s consulted for the Thailand Tourism Authority and personally guided dozens of families through their move.
By the end of the call you’ll have clarity on your visa options, advice on which neighborhoods best suit your lifestyle, and real answers from a local.
$100 for an hour’s chat — money-back guarantee.
Book a consultation What families tell us
Families Just Like Yours
We loved Chiang Mai as nomads but weren’t sure it’d work as a family of four. Lily covered everything: housing, transportation, kid-friendly cafes, weekly family meetups. We came in hopeful and left even more excited. If you’re considering the move, have a chat with Lily.
I was planning a three-month family stay and needed real guidance: short-term housing, local rental practices, childcare, the small stuff like SIM cards and budgeting. Lily’s advice was practical and tailored, right down to which neighborhoods suit families and when to book around the Lantern Festival. I went from stressed to genuinely excited.
We came to Lily to talk about moving to Chiang Mai and got way more than expected. Every question about neighborhoods, culture, and costs was answered clearly. It gave us a lot more confidence in our decision. Know the reality of a place from people with both a local and expat view. 10/10.
Your Local Guides
About CNXlocal
Behind CNXlocal is a husband and wife team: Lily, a Chiang Mai native with local roots, and Kris, a Canadian developer who traded the grind for the lush landscapes of Chiang Mai in 2018. Lily’s insider knowledge and Kris’s tech-savvy expertise form the backbone of our platform, ensuring you have the most authentic and user-friendly Chiang Mai resource at your fingertips.
Welcome to CNXlocal.
Read more about us Around town
Neighborhoods & Directories
The guides up top are for reading: our opinionated deep-dives on visas, neighborhoods, and settling in. The directories are a different animal: living, browsable collections of real places, each pinned to where it actually sits on the map. Get to know the city by area, then dive into the cafes, kid-friendly spots, and more.
Where to live
Neighborhood Guides
Old City, Nimman, Hang Dong and beyond — who each area suits, what it costs, and what the brochures leave out.
Caffeine included
Cafe Directory
Dozens of work-friendly cafes, vetted in person — wifi, power, and whether your laptop is actually welcome.
Bring the kids
Kid-Friendly
Play cafes, parks and pools that genuinely welcome children — road-tested by our own toddlers.
Coworking, condos and moobans coming soon.
Want our maps on your phone?
The directories above, bundled as Google Maps for daily navigation — cafes, neighborhoods and kid-friendly spots in your pocket. Free; just drop your email and they’re yours.
Made for ourselves
Tools & Applets
Built to help plan a move — and to make daily life here a little easier. Run the numbers, pick a visa, see what’s on at the cinema.
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Cost of Living Calculator
Build a realistic monthly budget for life here.
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DTV Eligibility Checker
A few questions to check your DTV eligibility.
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When to Visit
Weather, festivals, and dodging burning season — month by month.
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Showtimes
What’s on at Chiang Mai’s cinemas.
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Area Converter
Make sense of local land units — rai, ngan and wah.
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Humidor Guide
Store cigars right in the tropical humidity.
However you found your way here — planning a move, plotting a long stay, or just curious — we hope something on this site makes Chiang Mai feel a little more like home. Everything here is created with love, and we’re adding to it all the time. Browse the guides, make use of our maps and tools, and if you need a little more help, get in touch.
— Lily & Kris