Nuts and Bolts: Travel Tips for Cave Lodge, Soppong, Thailand
- Rand Blimes
- May 3
- 4 min read
Let me get straight to the point:
If you are the sort of traveler who enjoys boutique hotels with infinity pools and artisanal cocktails, you can stop reading now.
If, on the other hand, you don’t mind the occasional gecko sharing your room, your ideal evening involves swapping only mildly embellished adventure stories by a campfire, and you think that a hot shower is the world's greatest luxury, but you can do without when necessary—Cave Lodge just might be the place for you.
What Is Cave Lodge?
Cave Lodge is an adventurer’s institution tucked into the forested hills outside Soppong (also called Pang Mapha), between Pai and Mae Hong Son in Northern Thailand. Founded in the 1980s by legendary Aussie explorer John Spies and his wife, it has been the home base for cavers, kayakers, trekkers, and misfit wanderers for decades.
It’s rustic. It’s real. And it’s perfect.
Accommodation
Don’t expect luxury. Rooms are basic—wooden bungalows and dorm-style rooms with mosquito nets and fans. Some have en-suite bathrooms; some share facilities. All are clean-ish, functional, and affordable.
Prices are reasonable. We stayed in a family cabin and the shower even had hot water . . . sometimes. It cost us about 900 baht per night.
The Atmosphere
The heart of Cave Lodge is the communal area—a big open-air space with wooden tables, a fireplace (yes, it gets cold at night in the hills), and an aura of shared adventure. You will meet families, solo backpackers, middle-aged explorers, and the occasional Thai university group who thought they were signing up for a leisurely holiday but are now up to their knees in bat guano.
At night, the conversation goes something like this:
“Which cave did you do today?”
“Did you see the ancient teak coffins in Tham Lod?”
“Did the bamboo raft hold up?”
“How many leeches did you get?”
All the right questions.
Activities
The lodge organizes everything from leisurely tubing trips to multi-day cave expeditions that require helmets, ropes, and a certain comfort with darkness and mud.
Highlights include:
Tham Lod Cave (coffin cave): You can explore the massive caverns and float through on a bamboo raft. This is a must do. You can't enter yourself, so pya the fee 300 baht for a group of up to three (you can add on more caves for an additional charge). If you like caves, but are not a hard core caver, Tham Lod is just adventurous enough (and includes raft rides through the dark).
Tip: go to Tham Lod first thing in the morning to beat the crowds coming from Pai (especially in high season).
Advanced caving: For those with the gear (or the guts), you can arrange trips to "wild caves" of varying difficulty. Cave Lodge can hook you up with guides.
Trekking: Hill tribe villages, waterfalls, and rugged karst landscapes. We didn't do trekking from Cave Lodge, but it is a popular activity.
Kayaking and rafting: When the river has the right flow, Cave Lodge offers a variety of river trips. We were at Cave lodge in October, and the water flow that year was low. So our kayak adventure was a lot of getting the kayaks stuck on the river bottom. But with a higher water flow, it would have been a blast.
Sunrise over a sea of clouds: This was one of our favorite excursions. We got up early, early in the morning and piled into the Lodge's truck. Then we drove up, up, up the mountainside. We hit the mountain peak about 20 minutes before the sun came up.
And what a sunrise it was.
The valleys below us were covered with a heavy layer of clouds. As the sun came up, it lit those clouds, painting them in a red-orange glow, with the mountains punching holes up through the clouds making a dark contrast.
It was stunning.
Food
Simple Thai meals are cooked at the lodge. The menu won’t blow your mind, and the prices certainly reflect the fact that travelers staying at the lodge have few other options for food. But it will fill your belly. Think fried rice, stir-fried vegetables, curries, and the occasional Western dish if you’re homesick.
Pro tip: Order the banana pancakes for breakfast. Not because they’re the best you’ll ever have, but because you’re in Northern Thailand. It’s practically a law.
Getting There
From Pai: About a 1.5 to 2-hour drive west by motorbike or songthaew. Windy roads, but worth it.
From Mae Hong Son: Similar distance eastward.
From Chiang Mai: About 6 hours by minivan or bus (to Soppong), then a short ride to the lodge.
Note: Once you arrive in Soppong, Cave Lodge is about 9 km out of town. The staff can arrange a pickup, or you can negotiate with local transport.
When to Go
Cool season (Nov-Feb): Best weather for trekking and caving.
Hot season (Mar-May): Warmer but doable.
Rainy season (Jun-Oct): More challenging but the landscape turns lush and green. Cave access varies as some caves may be flooded (or at risk of flooding).
The Big Picture
Cave Lodge is not just a place to sleep. It’s a place where adventures begin, friendships are forged, and where you’ll almost certainly hear the phrase, “I only planned to stay two nights . . . and that was three weeks ago.”
It’s not for everyone. But if you’re the right kind of traveler, it’s for you.
If you are like me and you go to Cave Lodge, then because travel you can pretend you are Gollum paddling his raft through his cave in the old Lord of the Rings animated movie.
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