All Destinations

Thailand's second-largest island after Phuket (228 km²), in the Gulf of Thailand off the eastern coast — circled by a single 50-kilometre ring road that takes about 90 minutes to drive in full and connects every major beach. There were no roads on Samui at all until 1970, and the Bangkok Airways-built Samui Airport (USM, 1989) transformed the island in a single generation. The 12-metre golden Big Buddha (Wat Phra Yai) on the connected islet of Koh Faan has greeted arriving flights since 1972 and remains the most visible landmark. Chaweng Beach is the longest and liveliest stretch on the east coast; Lamai is the second beach, calmer; Bophut's Fisherman's Village preserves Chinese-Thai shophouses. The Full Moon Party rave is on neighbouring Koh Phangan (20 minutes by ferry); Koh Tao for diving sits two hours further north. Crucially, Samui's weather is opposite to Phuket's — wet October through December (when Phuket is dry), dry January through September.

Home of the Komodo dragon and some of Indonesia's best diving. Pink beaches, manta rays, and the dramatic Padar Island viewpoint make this a nature lover's paradise.

Southern Thailand's Andaman coast is limestone-karst country — Railay's boat-only beach cliffs, Phra Nang Cave, Ao Nang's mainland base, and ferries to Phi Phi and Koh Lanta. The Tiger Cave Temple's 1,260-step climb rewards with the panorama. Rock climbing mecca, kayaking through mangroves at Ao Thalane, and roughly half the price of Phuket.

Kuala Lumpur is a city of stunning contrasts — the iconic Petronas Twin Towers soar above colonial-era shophouses, Malay mosques sit near Hindu temples and Chinese clan houses. The food scene is extraordinary, blending Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Nyonya cuisines at hawker stalls and night markets. Incredible value for money.

Kyoto is Japan's cultural heart — over 2,000 temples and shrines, traditional geisha districts, bamboo groves, and some of the country's finest cuisine. The former imperial capital for over a thousand years, it's where Japanese tradition lives and breathes. Every season brings a different kind of beauty.

Pakistan's cultural and culinary capital — the Mughal seat where Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan all left their mark. The Walled City's bazaars open onto the colossal Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort across the Hazuri Bagh, Wazir Khan's tilework still glints in the Kashmiri Bazaar, and the Food Street at Fort Road serves karahi and lassi until 2 AM. The saying goes: Jine Lahore nai vekheya, o jameya hi nai — if you haven't seen Lahore, you haven't been born.

A duty-free island paradise in the Andaman Sea — UNESCO Geopark with dramatic limestone formations, SkyBridge, mangrove kayaking, and pristine beaches at a fraction of Thailand island prices.

The high-altitude Buddhist kingdom of Ladakh, separated from Jammu & Kashmir as its own Union Territory in 2019, is more Tibetan than Indian — a 3,524 m capital city in Leh, 17th-century palaces and 12-storey monasteries terraced up cliff faces, the 134 km turquoise saltwater Pangong Lake on the Tibet border, the white-sand dunes and Bactrian camels of Nubra Valley, and passes (Khardung La 5,359 m, Chang La 5,360 m) among the highest paved roads anywhere. The temperatures swing 50°C between summer days and winter nights; rainfall is under 100 mm annually. The only practical visiting season for most travellers is June through September, and acclimatisation to the altitude is the most important first 48 hours. The most spectacular Indian destination most foreign travellers haven't been to.

Tibet's capital at 3,656m — the Potala Palace (UNESCO 1994, former winter residence of the Dalai Lama), Jokhang Temple (holiest in Tibetan Buddhism), Barkhor Street pilgrim circuit, and the monks' debates at Sera Monastery (weekday afternoons). Required visa reality: foreigners need both a Chinese visa AND a Tibet Travel Permit via a registered operator; solo travel is not permitted. Access via Chengdu (CTU) flight or the Qinghai-Tibet Railway — one of the highest railways on Earth with oxygen piped into cabins. Best April–October.

An 800-year-old UNESCO-listed Naxi town at 2,400 m elevation in northwestern Yunnan — a labyrinth of cobblestone lanes, stone bridges over rushing canals, and traditional wooden courtyard houses with the 5,596 m Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rising directly above. Lijiang is the cultural heart of the Naxi minority who developed Dongba, the only living pictographic writing system in the world. Sunrise over the grey-tile rooftops from Lion Hill before the tour buses arrive is the moment that justifies the trip — the Old Town is undeniably beautiful, though the daytime crush of crowds is real. Pair with Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shuhe, and the new high-speed rail to Shangri-La for a full Yunnan circuit.

Bali's quieter neighbor offers pristine beaches, world-class surf, the challenging Mount Rinjani trek, and the idyllic Gili Islands just offshore. Less developed and more affordable than Bali, with a distinctive Sasak culture.

Laos's UNESCO-listed former royal capital is a dreamy town at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. Saffron-robed monks collect alms at dawn, French-colonial cafés line quiet streets, and the Kuang Si waterfalls are a turquoise paradise.

The "Vegas of Asia" is much more than casinos — Macau's UNESCO-listed historic center showcases centuries of Portuguese-Chinese fusion in its pastel churches, temples, egg tarts, and cobblestone streets. Just a ferry ride from Hong Kong.

South India's temple capital — Meenakshi Amman Temple is one of the world's great Hindu complexes, with 14 gopuram towers encrusted in 33,000 painted stucco figures, the tallest soaring 52 metres above the old city. 15,000 pilgrims visit daily; the temple never closes. Madurai is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with Greek accounts from 300 BCE, and is nicknamed 'the city that never sleeps.' The Gandhi Museum houses the dhoti the Mahatma was wearing when assassinated.

The Maldives is the ultimate tropical escape — 1,190 coral islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, with some of the clearest water on earth. Overwater villas, world-class diving and snorkeling, and sunsets that defy description. While luxury resorts dominate, guesthouses on local islands offer a more affordable and authentic experience.

The Christian-majority capital of North Sulawesi province, perched on a tropical bay 1.5 degrees north of the equator and almost entirely visited as the launch point for Bunaken Marine Park — a 75,000-hectare protected reserve whose vertical reef walls drop 1,500 metres into the Sulawesi Sea and routinely deliver mantas, barracuda tornadoes, hawksbills and 70+ coral species on a single dive. Inland, the cool Tomohon plateau hosts Indonesia's most fragrant flower market and the Pasar Beriman extreme market where Minahasan cooks shop for paniki, rica-rica and tinutuan porridge. Bitung and Lembeh Strait, an hour east, deliver world-class muck diving for rare critters.

The Philippines' chaotic, colorful capital is a melting pot of Spanish colonial history, shopping malls, incredible street food, and warm Filipino hospitality — and a gateway to 7,000+ islands.

A small UNESCO World Heritage city on the Strait that gives the strait its name, layered with five centuries of conquest. Portuguese forces took the Sultanate in 1511 and left the laterite ruin of A Famosa, the Dutch arrived in 1641 and built the brick-red Stadthuys and Christ Church around the central square, the British took over in 1824 — each layer still visible inside a 30-minute walk. The old town today is trishaws decorated with plastic flowers and LED lights blasting Malay pop, the Friday-to-Sunday Jonker Street Night Market for satay celup and chicken-rice balls, and Peranakan Nyonya cuisine that originated here. About two hours south of Kuala Lumpur and four hours from Singapore by direct coach.

Mui Ne is a dust-orange fishing village strung along a single coastal road four hours east of Ho Chi Minh City, where the South China Sea hits steady cross-shore wind almost every afternoon. That wind made it the kitesurfing capital of Southeast Asia, with November-to-April peak season packing the bay with kites and beach hostels charging by the lesson. Inland, the landscape goes surreal fast. Red sand dunes glow at sunrise, white sand dunes look like a slice of the Sahara dropped near the sea, and the Suoi Tien fairy stream cuts a shin-deep ribbon of warm water through orange canyon walls. Fish-sauce factories line the back lanes and explain the smell drifting through town at low tide.

India's financial capital and Bollywood headquarters is a city of dreams built on seven islands — colonial architecture along Marine Drive, street food paradise, and relentless energy.

Karnataka's heritage capital, a 3-hour drive south of Bangalore on the Deccan Plateau, organized around the Indo-Saracenic Mysore Palace - the Wodeyar royal residence rebuilt in 1912 and lit by 100,000 incandescent bulbs every Sunday evening and on every public holiday. Beyond the palace gates, Mysore is the country's silk, sandalwood, and agarbathi (incense) capital, with Devaraja Market piling jasmine garlands and turmeric pyramids in the centre of the old town. Chamundi Hill and its 12th-century temple watches the city from a 1,000-step staircase to the south, and the city's slower pace and cleaner air make it the standard cultural counterweight to Bangalore's tech sprawl.

A 14 sq km island in the Seto Inland Sea reborn as one of the world's most ambitious open-air contemporary art experiments. The Benesse Art Site has wrapped the south end in Tadao Ando concrete; Yayoi Kusama's polka-dot Yellow Pumpkin sits on a private pier; the Chichu Art Museum is sunk into a hillside to hold three Monet Water Lilies, a James Turrell skyspace, and a Walter De Maria room. The Honmura village houses are themselves the artworks. Reach by ferry from Uno Port, an hour from Okayama on the mainland.

Japan's first permanent capital, where friendly deer roam freely among UNESCO temples. Todai-ji houses the world's largest bronze Buddha. A perfect day trip from Osaka or Kyoto.

Vietnam's premier beach resort stretches 6 km along the South China Sea — a crescent bay backed by mountains, the ancient Po Nagar Cham towers on a headland (2nd–17th century), and an island-hopping scene off Hon Mun Marine Protected Area with excellent snorkeling. The mud baths at Thap Ba and I-Resort are a Vietnamese spa tradition. Alexandre Yersin — the Swiss-French scientist who isolated the plague bacillus — lived and died in Nha Trang; his house and laboratory are now a museum.