Start with a city that never really stops.

We know Thailand

On Phuket the beach decides the holiday, not the hotel.

Patong if you want the noise. Kata and Karon to actually swim. Bang Tao for a resort you never leave, and the Old Town if you would rather eat than sunbathe.

Phuket in full

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Samui’s best months are close to the inverse of Phuket’s.

The Andaman is under monsoon in September while the Gulf is fine. The Gulf is soaked in November while the Andaman is at its best. Pick the wrong coast for your dates and the trip is decided before you land.

Ko Samui in full

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One party a month, and twenty-nine days that are nothing like it.

The north and east coasts are among the quietest in the Gulf. We check the lunar calendar against your dates before quoting — in either direction, depending on what you want.

Koh Phangan in full

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Half of Koh Lanta closes for the monsoon.

From May to October many of the southern resorts and most of the boats simply stop running. We will not sell you a Lanta week in September, and we will say why.

Koh Lanta in full

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The province Thai people choose instead of Krabi.

The same limestone and the same water with a fraction of the boats — and an eighty-metre swim through a dark tunnel into a beach with cliffs the whole way round it.

Trang in full

Photograph: Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

We know Thailand

In Bangkok the river is still the fastest road.

We build the days around boats and the BTS, never a taxi at five o’clock. The gap between two temples is ten minutes or an hour depending entirely on how you travel it.

Bangkok in full

Photograph: This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote. Feel free to use any of my images, CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

We know Thailand

The old capital is best in the last hour of light.

Which is exactly when the day-trippers are on the coach back to Bangkok. One night here is the difference between photographing a car park and photographing a capital.

Ayutthaya in full

Photograph: No(0)GoodNamesLeft, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

We know Thailand

Pattaya’s own beach is not the reason to come.

Koh Larn is forty minutes offshore and looks nothing like the mainland. Where we put you decides which Pattaya you get, and we do not put families near Walking Street.

Pattaya in full

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The driest beach town in Thailand, by some distance.

Three hours from Bangkok, and a cave with a royal pavilion standing inside it, lit by a shaft of light that arrives at ten in the morning and is gone by eleven.

Hua Hin in full

Photograph: Clay Gilliland, CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

We know Thailand

Do not come to Chiang Mai in March.

The burning season fills the valley with smoke and Doi Suthep looks down on nothing at all. We would rather move your dates than sell you a view that is not there.

Chiang Mai in full

Photograph: ผู้สร้างสรรค์ผลงาน/ส่งข้อมูลเก็บในคลังข้อมูลเสรีวิกิมีเดียคอมมอนส์ – เทวประภาส ม, CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

We know Thailand

The White Temple closes before most people arrive.

Last entry is well before five, and the drive up from Chiang Mai eats the afternoon. We either fly you or start early — and then you get it without the coaches.

Chiang Rai in full

Photograph: Stefan Fussan, CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

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Nobody plans a night in Surat Thani. They should.

It is two hours from Khao Sok: a rainforest older than the Amazon, with raft houses tied to limestone cliffs on a lake you can swim off the deck of.

Surat Thani in full

Photograph: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

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The lake turns pink for about eight weeks a year.

December to February, and only in the morning. Outside those weeks it is a lake, and we will tell you so rather than sell you somebody else’s photograph.

Udon Thani in full

Photograph: ToeHA, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

We know Thailand

Three cuisines at one table, forty minutes from Malaysia.

Thai, Chinese and Malay at once, in a city that sees almost no Western visitors and cooks accordingly. The reason to come is entirely the food.

Hat Yai in full

Photograph: Song GK, CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons