Two Huts Pai: Sunset Over the Valley

What it’s like up there

Sunset at Two Huts is a sociable evening: people spread out across the huts, the covered terraces and the open-air tables on the grass, talking over food and drinks while the valley darkens below them.

The two original thatched huts that gave the place its name are still here. Over the years they’ve added a two-level covered bar and plenty of outdoor seating along the hillside, though no more huts. You can tuck yourself under a roof or sit right out on the slope with the valley in front of you.

The kitchen cooks fresh meals to order, including fried rice and pad thai, alongside cold drinks at the bar. On some evenings there’s live acoustic music as the light fades.

Because they’ve expanded the seating, you rarely have to fight for a table. The real reason to get up here early is to beat the queue at the bar and kitchen. Tour trucks leave town between 4:30 and 4:45pm, so a big wave of people lands all at once around 5pm. Get here before 4:45pm and you can order without waiting and watch the afternoon light move across the valley.

How the valley changes through the year

Sitting on the hillside at the back of the valley, you’re looking out across Pai’s flat farmland with the river running through the middle and the western ridge opposite.

Come back in a different month and the mountains are right where you left them, but the valley floor underneath has changed colour:

• July to October (green season): vivid green rice across the valley floor, with tall green maize on the slopes around you.
• November (harvest): the rice paddies turn gold before they’re cut.
• December to February (cool season, after the harvest): farmers plant garlic into the drained paddies, carpeting the valley in neat blue-green rows.
• March to May (burning season): the fields are bare brown earth after the garlic harvest, and haze can soften or hide the distant ridges.

It’s open through the rainy season too, and worth the ride even on a cloudy evening when there’s no proper sunset: low cloud sitting in the mountain valleys is a view on its own, and the huts and two-level bar keep you dry if a shower rolls through. See our month-by-month guide to Pai’s seasons for what the valley is doing when you visit.

Two Huts or Pai Canyon?

They’re Pai’s two classic sunset stops, and they make for completely different evenings. Pai Canyon is where you walk out along narrow red-earth ridges with drops on either side. Two Huts is where you sit down with a plate of food or a drink and let the view come to you.

Still deciding? Our comparison of the best sunset spots in Pai puts Two Huts, Pai Canyon and Doi Kiew Lom side by side, and explains why the White Buddha and Yun Lai don’t work for sunset.

Getting there, and getting back after dark

The road up from Pai is paved the whole way to the gravel car park at the entrance, with a few slight hills along the way but nothing demanding. It takes around 15 minutes from Nolo Hub Pai by scooter.

If you’re riding a scooter, keep two things in mind for the ride home. Almost everyone leaves at the same time once the sky goes dark, and the road back into town is unlit. Dusk also brings flying insects out over the road: if your helmet doesn’t have a visor, wear glasses on the ride down so they don’t end up in your eyes.

Going without a scooter? Don’t rely on Grab to get you home: a Grab bike will drop you up here in the afternoon, but riders in town rarely accept a pickup out here after dark. Instead, take our shared sunset taxi: 100 baht per person return, leaving Walking Street around 4:30pm once four people are booked. The driver waits while you watch the sunset and brings you back. Our guide to getting around Pai without a scooter has the details.

Two Huts doesn’t charge an entrance fee, so plan to order food or a drink while you’re there, bring cash, and leave any outside food and drinks behind. Nolo Hub Pai has no commercial connection with Two Huts. It’s on this site for the view.

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