Temples

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Chiang Rai, Beyond the White Temple Photo Everyone shows up in Chiang Rai for one photo — the dazzling white, mirror-flecked temple that looks like a sugar palace from a dream. We did too. What nobody told us was that we’d booked our trip for late March, walked out of the airport into a grey wall of haze, and spent the first afternoon wondering where the famous northern mountains had gone. They were right there. We just couldn’t see them through the burning-season smoke. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Kyoto, Without the Crowds Eating Your Trip We made the classic mistake on our first morning in Kyoto: we slept in. By the time we reached the Arashiyama bamboo grove it was a slow shuffle of selfie sticks, and the famous green tunnel felt about as serene as a train platform. The next day a guesthouse owner gave us the only tip that really mattered — “go at dawn” — and Kyoto turned into the quiet, golden, deeply atmospheric city we’d come for. ...