Thailand

The ancient capital of the Lanna Kingdom, Chiang Mai's old city is enclosed by a moat and contains over 300 Buddhist temples — more than any other city in Thailand — including Doi Suthep, which overlooks the entire valley from a mountain ridge above the city. The city's night markets, cooking schools, and artisan workshops represent Thailand's most authentic cultural tourism, in a city that has maintained its distinct northern identity separate from Bangkok.

The epicentre of Thai royal and religious culture, Bangkok's Grand Palace complex is a dazzling concentration of tiered spires, gilded chedis, and painted murals within walled grounds that served as the residence of Thai kings from 1782. Wat Phra Kaew, within the palace compound, houses the Emerald Buddha — Thailand's most sacred religious image — and its walls are covered in an unbroken narrative mural of the Ramayana epic.

The capital of the Kingdom of Siam from 1351 to 1767 and one of the world's largest and most cosmopolitan cities at its peak, Ayutthaya's ruins — headless Buddhas in collapsed temples, enormous chedi rising from overgrown courtyards — are among the most atmospheric archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. The city was sacked and burned by the Burmese in 1767, and the scale of what was destroyed gives the ruins an added dimension of loss.

The islands of the Andaman Sea — Ko Lanta, Ko Yao Noi, Ko Bon, the Surin Islands — offer the Southeast Asian beach experience in its finest and least-developed form, with coral reefs, sea kayaking in mangrove caves, and complete absence of the high-rise resort infrastructure of Ko Samui and Phuket. A private speedboat allows access to otherwise unreachable beaches and dive sites throughout the archipelago.

The former capital of the first Kingdom of Thailand, founded in the 13th century, Sukhothai's historical park preserves an extraordinary complex of over 190 Buddhist monuments in a landscape of lotus ponds and forested grounds. The giant seated Buddha of Wat Si Chum, glimpsed through a narrow slit in the enclosing wall, is one of the most dramatic architectural moments in Thailand.

Thailand's first national park and the closest major wilderness area to Bangkok, Khao Yai's 2,168 square kilometres of subtropical forest support wild Asian elephants, gibbons, hornbills, and the occasional leopard in a landscape of waterfalls and grassland clearings. The park forms part of the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex, recognised as one of the most important biodiversity zones in mainland Southeast Asia.