Start here: you probably cannot fly on this trip unless you plan it now. Thailand requires registration with two separate agencies — CAAT for the aircraft and pilot, NBTC for the controller's radio frequency — for any drone carrying a camera regardless of weight, with no exemption for tourists or recreational use, and CAAT processing can take up to 14 days. Worse, the process cannot be completed from abroad: you need a Thai immigration entry stamp and a Thai SIM for the one-time-password verification before you can even create the account. There is also a 40-question timed exam, available in English, needing 80% to pass. On a six-day trip that maths does not work unless you use a Thailand-based registration agent and start weeks ahead.
The city is out. Chiang Mai International Airport sits about three kilometres from the old city walls, so the 9 km no-fly radius drawn around it swallows the moat, Nimmanhaemin, the Ping riverfront, the night bazaar and the entire urban core. Flights inside that area need approval from air traffic control, arranged by calling the tower several days ahead.
The best scenery is inside national parks. Drones are effectively banned in Thai national parks without written permission from the Department of National Parks, which is rarely granted for recreational flying; penalties run to 100,000 baht and confiscation. Doi Inthanon and the Doi Suthep temple area are both named restricted, and tourist police enforce actively in Chiang Mai. That rules out the Inthanon waterfalls, Pha Chor and the Doi Luang Chiang Dao viewpoint.
What's left is farmland. Agricultural valleys outside park boundaries and outside the airport ring: the terraces and ridges around Ban Pa Bong Piang in Mae Chaem, the valley floor at Muang Khong, the Mae Taeng valley below The Cloud, and the rice country past San Kamphaeng. None is a guarantee — check every launch point on the CAAT UAS Portal map, and get the landowner's permission, which is a legal requirement rather than a courtesy.
Operating rules to plan around. Daylight only, roughly 06:00 to 18:00 without a special permit, with advance flight notification through the UAS Portal. Ninety-metre ceiling, visual line of sight at all times, thirty metres of horizontal separation from anyone not involved in the flight — which by itself makes a busy temple courtyard unworkable. You also need third-party liability cover of at least 1,000,000 THB in a form CAAT accepts.
Two live complications. CAAT issued Notice No. 15 in February 2026 adding restrictions around national-security-sensitive areas, in force until further notice, so re-check close to departure. And Thailand's data protection law carries heavy penalties for publishing identifiable images of people without consent — relevant if you plan to post village footage.
My honest read. Bring the drone, treat every aerial as a bonus rather than a plan, and give the two rural overnight stops your best shot at it. If the footage genuinely matters, contact a Thai registration service before you book flights — several exist specifically for visitors, and they'll tell you quickly whether six days is enough.