Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you book through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Three days in Siem Reap is the sweet spot for Angkor. One day is enough to gasp at Angkor Wat and rush home; three days lets you watch the sun … Read more
Langkawi has four classic days out, and they could hardly be more different: a cable car up a 550-million-year-old mountain, a quiet boat through mangrove rivers older than almost anything else in Southeast Asia, a bouncy speedboat morning between southern islands, and a slow evening sail into the Andaman sunset. Most visitors have time for … Read more
Langkawi is a small island with very different corners, and where you sleep shapes the whole trip. Stay on Pantai Cenang and you can walk to dinner, the beach and a sunset bar. Stay in the north and you may not leave the resort — happily. Stay in Kuah and you trade sand for duty-free … Read more
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you book through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Langkawi does not ask you to choose between mountains, mangroves and beaches — in three days you can do all three properly. This is an archipelago of 99 islands off … Read more
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you book through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Penang rewards travellers who book one or two tours well rather than trying to do everything alone. The island’s famous hawker food is scattered across dozens of stalls with no … Read more
Penang gives you three genuinely different holidays on one small island, and your hotel decides which one you get. Sleep in George Town and you wake up inside a UNESCO-listed old town, with hawker stalls for breakfast and street art on every lane. Sleep on Gurney Drive and you get sea-view towers, big malls and … Read more
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you book through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Penang is the stop travellers add for two nights and wish they had given four. The island packs a UNESCO-listed old town, Malaysia’s most celebrated hawker food, a major Buddhist … Read more
Krabi sells more boat trips than almost anywhere in Thailand, and from the Ao Nang beach road they can all start to sound the same: islands, snorkelling, lunch, sunset. They are not the same. One heads an hour offshore to the famous Phi Phi Islands. One hops between four small islands you can see from … Read more
Krabi is not one place — it is a mainland coast, a roadless peninsula, a local provincial town and a laid-back island, all sharing one airport. That is exactly why where you stay matters more here than almost anywhere else in Thailand. Sleep in Ao Nang and every boat tour picks you up at your … Read more
Krabi is the part of Thailand people picture before they know its name — limestone towers rising straight out of turquoise water, longtail boats nosing onto white sand, and a jungle interior hiding hot springs and a temple on top of a mountain. It is not an island. It is a mainland province on the … Read more