Thailand

Thailand is the country travellers most often misread by visiting only Bangkok and Phuket. The country that returning travellers plan around is a longer one — Chiang Rai and the Mekong corridor at the northern tip, the limestone karst archipelagos of the Andaman and the Gulf, the food-led Isan plateau in the east — and the country's tourism infrastructure has matured to the point that small-village hospitality is reachable by a single connecting flight from Suvarnabhumi.

Bangkok remains the entry hub and is, on its own terms, one of the more interesting cities in Asia after a long renovation arc — the Wat Pho neighbourhood at 6am, the new Charoenkrung gallery and design district along the river, the night markets that long ago stopped being a tourist line and reasserted themselves as the city's evening economy. Stay at The Siam, the Mandarin Oriental, or the smaller Cabochon for hospitality that takes the place seriously.

The northern case — Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, the rim of forested hills above the Mae Hong Son loop — is the country at its slowest and most considered. The Four Seasons Tented Camp in the Golden Triangle works elephant tourism on a credible welfare basis (the resident herd is rescued, the mahout employment is full-time and salaried), and the Anantara Golden Triangle next door now publishes its conservation reporting. The southern islands range widely in quality: Koh Yao Noi for the Six Senses version of quiet; Koh Lanta for the long beach and the family-run reef diving; Phuket as the airport hub and a few coves that have survived the development.

November to March is the country's cool dry season and the operational default. Songkran in mid-April is the cultural set piece (and the practical reason to plan around mid-April unless you want to be in it). The June-October monsoon is real on both coasts but staggered — the Andaman coast (Phuket, Krabi) is wetter; the Gulf side (Koh Samui, Koh Phangan) holds drier until October.