What Our Travellers Say

The mountain fog over Mae Hong Son at dawn was something I'll never forget. Our guide took us off the main road to a small hill tribe village where we were the only visitors that week — no tour buses, no gift shops, just an honest welcome. If you want Thailand without the tourist layer, this is it.

Our guide brought the WWII history to life at the Death Railway in a way no guidebook ever could — the personal stories, the context, the silences in the right places. Then Erawan Falls the next morning felt like a reward for the emotional weight. A brilliantly balanced trip from start to finish.

Chiang Rai surprised me completely. The White Temple is famous but the Blue Temple at golden hour with almost no one around was extraordinary. Add a quiet morning at a Doi Mae Salong tea plantation and a visit near the border area, and you have a destination that feels genuinely curated rather than cobbled together.

We'd been to Thailand many times but never to Khao Yai. Our guide spotted a great hornbill perched right above the trail — we'd never have seen it on our own. The evening bat cave was dramatic in a way I wasn't expecting, and the wine tasting on the last afternoon felt like a completely different country. Wonderful variety.

Six days through Isan was the most intellectually stimulating trip I've ever taken. Ban Chiang UNESCO site put 5,000-year-old civilisation right in front of my eyes, and the red lotus lake at dawn near Udon was almost hallucinatory. Timing it to catch the tail of the candlelight festival was a stroke of brilliant planning.

Sea kayaking through the limestone caves at low tide, with bioluminescent plankton glowing beneath us — I had to remind myself this was real. Koh Yao Noi had no crowds, no beach bars, just local fishing families and a genuine sense of place. This is the southern Thailand that used to exist before it was discovered.

What I valued most was the pacing. One, maybe two places per day — no rushing from temple to temple and ticking boxes. We actually sat with people, ate slowly, asked questions. By day five I had genuinely stopped checking my phone. Ten days never felt so restorative. I came back to Germany a quieter person.

Lampang turned out to be our favourite stop of the whole Thailand trip. The horse carriage through the old quarter, a ceramics village where we painted our own pieces, and then Wat Phra That Lampang Luang — our guide said it's more impressive than Doi Suthep and nobody knows it, and she was absolutely right.

I travel a lot to temples in Japan, but this was completely different. Learning to make merit — the flowers, the gold leaf, the monks' chanting at five in the morning — felt participatory rather than observational. The spiritual atmosphere in Isan is quieter and less theatrical than I expected, and all the more moving for it.

The tea ceremony at Doi Wawee was meticulous and genuinely moving — the farmer explained each step and clearly took enormous pride in his land. The batik workshop the following morning and then hilltribe textiles in the afternoon made for a day I could have stretched into three. A beautiful trip for anyone who cares about craft.

I've done safaris, trekked in Patagonia, canoed in Canada — and the floating bungalow on Cheow Lan Lake is still the best nature experience of my life. Waking up to gibbons calling across the limestone karsts, the lake absolutely still, morning mist threading through the jungle. Surat Thani deserves so much more attention.

Making nam prik from scratch — pounding the chillies by hand, balancing the fish sauce — with an organic farmer's family was the highlight of six weeks of travel. The farm stay was simple and warm. These families are doing something genuinely sustainable and it was an honour to be welcomed in. Highly, highly recommend.