An open vote on the best of this city, run by CMBN and CNX Mag. Every verified vote enters you into the Big CMBN Member Giveaway.
The same three questions get asked in the same groups every month. Where is the khao soi worth crossing town for. Which spa actually justifies the price. Who makes a burger that holds up.
Answers come back as opinion, repeated confidently by whoever posted first. Best of Chiang Mai settles them with a count instead.
This is the 2026 edition, run jointly by Chiang Mai Business Network and CNX Mag. It is an open survey of the places, people and experiences that make this city work, decided by the people who actually live here and eat here and spend money here.
Cast your vote for Best of Chiang Mai 2026 [COMING SOON]
What you are voting on
The survey runs across the categories that matter to daily life in this city rather than the ones that photograph well.
Food and drink. Khao soi, northern Thai, street food, brunch, burgers, pizza, vegetarian and vegan, bakery, coffee roaster, café to work from, cocktail bar, craft beer, wine list.
Wellness and fitness. Massage, day spa, yoga studio, gym, Muay Thai gym, clinic, dentist.
Nightlife and music. Live music venue, late bar, rooftop, club, weekly night.
Culture and days out. Temple, museum, gallery, market, day trip, place to take visitors.
Stays. Boutique hotel, resort, guesthouse, coliving, serviced apartment.
Shopping and services. Independent shop, tailor, mechanic, vet, laundry, coworking space, the business that quietly does its job better than anyone expects.
Nominate in as many categories as you want, and skip the ones you have no view on. A vote in three categories from somebody who knows those three categories is worth more than a full card filled in from guesswork.
How does the Best of Chiang Mai vote work?
Complete the online survey and nominate your choice in any category you have an opinion on. Votes are verified before they count, which removes duplicate submissions and coordinated voting by businesses for themselves. Each verified vote earns one entry into the Big CMBN Member Giveaway. Voting closes on [VOTING_CLOSE_DATE] and results are published across CMBN and CNX Mag.
Verification is the part that makes the result mean something. Any open poll about restaurants attracts owners voting for their own venue, and a list produced that way is a list of who tried hardest rather than who is best.
What is the Big CMBN Member Giveaway?
A prize draw stocked by CMBN member businesses across Chiang Mai. Every verified vote in the Best of Chiang Mai survey earns one raffle ticket. Vote in more categories and you do not get more tickets, so there is no incentive to pad your card. The draw takes place after voting closes and winners are announced across CMBN and CNX Mag channels. [PRIZE_DETAIL_PLACEHOLDER]
Prizes come from businesses in the CMBN network, which means the giveaway is also a fair sample of what this city’s independent operators actually offer.
Why this list is different
Most best-of lists for Chiang Mai are written by somebody who visited for nine days, or generated from whichever venues have the most reviews in English.
Both methods produce the same result. The same twelve places, in the same order, on every site, year after year. Anyone who has lived here longer than a season recognises the pattern and stops trusting the format.
A vote by residents produces a different list. It surfaces the mechanic on a soi nobody photographs, the noodle stall that has never had a review in English, and the spa that locals go back to rather than the one with the best Instagram. That is the list worth publishing.
When do results come out?
Voting closes on January 15, 2027. Results are published across CMBN and CNX Mag shortly afterwards, category by category, with the winners listed and verified on Golden Pages. Winning businesses receive a Best of Chiang Mai 2026 badge for their own use. The Big CMBN Member Giveaway draw takes place after voting closes and winners are contacted directly.
For business owners
Tell your customers the survey exists. Point them to it, ask them to vote honestly, and leave it there.
Coordinated campaigns get filtered at verification, and a venue that turns up with 200 identical submissions from the same source removes itself from the count. The businesses that do well in this survey are the ones people already talk about without being asked.
Vote in Best of Chiang Mai 2026 [COMING SOON]
Best of Chiang Mai is run jointly by Chiang Mai Business Network and CNX Mag. Winners are verified and listed on Golden Pages. Follow the count with #bestofchiangmai.