Just outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand lies a unique water park called Grand Canyon Water Park. It is not your traditional water park. It is an old limestone quarry that has been filled with water. The water park offers a floating aqua park, kayaking, ziplining, floating trampolines, wakeboarding and much more! This place was one of the funniest days we had while visiting Thailand for a month. Honestly, I’m not sure if I have ever laughed so hard in my life!
I visited Chiang Mai, Thailand’s Grand Canyon Water Park in July 2019 with my boyfriend. I had read mixed reviews about the place, but one of my friends went and told me it was fun so we went anyway! It was a great way to spend a day actually enjoying the heat of Thailand. Even though we applied sunscreen, we were extremely sunburnt by the time we left. So be sure to bring enough sunscreen and reapply often for this fun day in the sun!
Where is the Grand Canyon Water Park in Chiang Mai?
The Grand Canyon Water Park is located a bit outside Chiang Mai, Thailand. It takes about 30 minutes to get there by taxi from Chiang Mai city center.
The exact address is: 202 ถนนเลียบคลองชลประทาน Tambon Nam Phrae, Amphoe Hang Dong, Chang Wat Chiang Mai 50230, Thailand
What is there to do at Grand Canyon Water Park?
Grand Canyon Water Park offers a full day of adventure! You can pretend you are on the American TV show Wipe Out while bouncing around on the floating aqua park. You can kayak around the large canyon or you can go ziplining above and watch everyone swim. You can slide down two different water slides that are 10 meters long and shoot you 10 meters into the water! You can do flips into the water from the floating trampoline or you can jump off from the 10 meter high diving platform. You can also try out the “Aquaskipper” that uses your weight to float across the water. All of this is included in the basic entrance ticket! If that isn’t enough, and you want to spend a little more, you can also add on wakeboarding for an hour!
Travel Tip: Don’t have a GoPro yet? You can rent one from the water park to record your fun adventure!
While enjoying the water park, everyone has to wear a life jacket since it is basically a giant lake. They also have lockers, showers, lifeguards and swim suit rentals available at the water park.
We thought we would spend all day here, but after about 4 hours we were exhausted and sunburnt so we decided to head back into Chiang Mai. We had a blast though, we felt like little kids again for a day just playing and enjoying the sun. We were both also very sore the next day from using muscles we haven’t used in a long time, but it was well worth it for how much fun we had!
How much does it cost to visit Grand Canyon Water Park?
Even if you’re on a strict backpackers budget like we are, you can easily visit Grand Canyon Water Park. There are several different packages to enter the Grand Canyon Water Park. They differ if you want to pay for the transfer to their park, if you choose to go wakeboarding, and if you want the prepaid lunch which comes with a locker and shirt. You can easily book this online the day before your visit (or earlier if you’re better at planning than us!)
The basic and cheapest option is 550 Thai Baht (about $17.95 USD). This includes all-day entry to water activities, life jacket, floating aqua park, kid zone, kayaking, giant slider, one round zipline, and accident insurance.
To include wakeboarding (without the lunch set) is 1,050 Thai Baht ($34.27). This includes one hour of wake boarding and all-day entry to water activities, life jacket, floating aqua park, kid zone, kayaking, giant slider, one round zipline, and accident insurance.
The one day package option is 1,000 Thai Baht (about $32.63 USD) and includes all-day entry to water activities, life jacket, floating aqua park, kid zone, kayaking, giant slider, one round zipline, accident insurance, lunch set, one locker, one t-shirt, and a beer or fruit juice.
All of those options are also available with transfer to their water park from your hotel, costing an additional 200-300 Thai Baht (about $6-9.50 USD), depending on which option you choose.
We ended up choosing the cheapest option for 550 Thai Baht (about $17.95 USD). There was more than plenty to do with this choice. We didn’t even end up going kayaking because we were having so much fun with everything else!
How do I get to the Grand Canyon Water Park?
Since the Grand Canyon Water Park is not within walking distance of the Chiang Mai city center, you’re going to need to figure out transportation to get there. To get to the Grand Canyon Water Park, you can rent a motorbike and drive yourself, order your entrance ticket with a pick up, or get a red taxi to take you.
The most expensive, yet most direct and fastest way to get to Grand Canyon Water Park is to take a taxi (red truck taxis are special to Chiang Mai). They are all over Chiang Mai and ready to take tourists anywhere their heart desires. You should be able to get a ride to the waterpark with a red truck taxi for about 300 Thai Baht (about $9.50).
Another option is to book your ticket online with the transfer to their water park from your hotel for about 200-300 Thai Baht (about $6-9.50 USD).
The cheapest way is by renting a motorbike and driving yourself out to the water park. We rented a motorbike from our guest house which was priced 150 Thai Baht (about $5 USD).
Travel tip: If you choose to motorbike yourself to the waterpark, in traditional South East Asia fashion, there will be people trying to wave you down into their “grand canyon water park”. This isn’t the real thing. You need to ignore them and keep going about 100 meters to the real one!
What food do they offer at the Grand Canyon Water Park?
Once you’ve been working up an appetite from playing like a little kid on the floating obstacle course, you’re going to want to eat. There was not much else around the water park so we chose to eat there. On-site they have a restaurant and a cafe. We chose not to buy the prepaid ticket that included lunch and just visited the restaurant once we were hungry. For the two of us, we spent about $10 for lunch. I am vegetarian and got veggie omelet and my boyfriend got the chicken burger. The restaurant and cafe both offer Western and Thai food at a reasonable price. It definitely isn’t the best tasting food ever, but it wasn’t bad either.
Is the Grand Canyon Water Park worth the hype?
Thailand is just so hot. Everyday we were sweating, walking around visiting temples, and exploring new cities. Grand Canyon Water Park is the perfect way to actually enjoy the hot Thailand weather. This water park is a unique experience you will not forget. And it is moderately priced for the amount of fun you’ll be having. I would highly recommend visiting this water park if you’re looking for a way to beat the heat, not spend too much money, and have an exciting day.
If you decide to visit the Grand Canyon Water Park, let me know how you thought it was! Safe travels. 🙂
Travel Tarrah 
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