Icons of Asia One-Week Immersive Itinerary

Bangkok beguiles visitors and is far more fascinating than its initial impression may suggest. Upon your arrival, you will be greeted at the airport and transferred to a five-star hotel. Early check-in will be arranged, so you can spend the day resting after your flight from the rooftop pool or maybe in the spa. Then, with a private guide, you can nestle into the city’s sublime mix of old and new. Chiang Mai is where you will really uncover traditional culture, so today will be more of an introduction to all the extravagant design and the culture. After a brief tour of the iconic sites, you will journey into Bangkok for an evening at a night market.

After flying to Chiang Mai, you can continue your downtime with a few hours in Thailand’s finest spa. Here, you can settle in to relaxing bubbles, feel the last bit of the flight fade away, and discover what an authentic Thai massage can do. Afterward, you will explore a mountain that hangs over the city. Doi Suthep glistens gold and is a magnificent temple complex that is used daily. First, you will explore the architectural wonder of the compound before being led through the area’s spiritual history. A monk will then lead you into a lesser-seen part of the complex for a private blessing, which will provide an opportunity to explore the temple and to feel how this temple is integral to everyday Chiang Mai life.

Dozens of small temples fill the old city of Chiang Mai. Exploring the area at sunrise will allow you to watch barefooted monks on the streets and to follow the smell of incense to a very small temple. Here, you can observe morning chanting and feel how the atmosphere rises around you. It is in the morning hours and off the beaten path that Chiang Mai’s authenticity can be experienced. This afternoon, you will travel into the hills for an intimate experience with a Karen hill tribe. While the long-necked Padaung community is the most famous, there are 400,000 Karen in Northern Thailand.

After a direct flight and airport transfer, you will be transferred to your luxurious accommodation that is a key part of the Luang Prabang World Heritage Site. After some time beside the pool, you will explore Luang Prabang for a timely discovery of the fabled history of this relatively unknown city and country. While most first-time visitors to the region are drawn to Thailand and Vietnam, Laos remains under the radar and is wonderfully authentic. Here, time slows, the pace of life is as escapist as the Chiang Mai spas, and there is a real sense that you are exploring a destination that remains firmly true to its roots and heritage.

Wildlife still roams the jungles outside of Luang Prabang. Here, elephants wander through the trees, announcing their arrival from their trunks. They are not working animals, but these giants were rescued. The same is true of the Asiatic black bears, which are stunning animals that have seen their habitat degrade over successive decades. At a wildlife sanctuary, you will meet these incredible animals and gain a sense of their power and beauty. This half-day experience can be complemented by a visit to caves that are packed with Buddha statues.

One of the New Seven Wonders of the World, Angkor Wat may be the most famous of all Asia’s iconic sites. Most tours visit Angkor Wat at sunrise, which is when large crowds compete to take the iconic Angkor photo. This grand temple is better in the afternoon, and it is also quieter, allowing you to get lost in the beautiful details. After a direct flight and private airport transfer, you will be check-in to Siem Reap’s finest hotel. It will be only a 15-minute tuk-tuk ride to Angkor Wat, and your first impressions will most likely be amazement. The entire temple complex hides behind the walls, and this experience will be an afternoon of old-world discovery.

Throughout the day, you will trace a storyline through Khmer history, visiting temples and chedis that reflect changing artistic styles. Many of the temples that you will visit today are overrun by the jungle, and strangler fig trees creep across the ruins. The most famous of the temples that you will visit today is Ta Prohm, which is incredibly busy, but you can be completely alone in others. In some complexes, you will wander through symmetrical patterns while gazing in awe at the geometry of some of the designs. Others are shrouded in mystery and still provide a place for monks to meditate. Throughout your visits, stories will unfold, and you will be able to capture sublime sunrise and sunset photos at temples that lie off the standard loop.

Siem Reap has great flight connections with the rest of the region. This morning, you will fly back to Bangkok, where you will meet your homebound flight.