Chiang Mai, the former capital of the ancient Lanna Kingdom, is the region’s principal city and is less than an hour’s flight north of Bangkok (or overnight on a sleeper train). The city’s distinctive religious architecture, food, dialect, festivals (such as Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year celebrated each April), traditions, handicrafts, setting and customs make it quite different from anywhere else.

Visitors can savor Chiang Mai’s historical past by taking a pedicab through ancient city streets to visit temples dating form the last 1200s: its immediate environs by visiting the Doi Suthep mountain, setting for a royal winter palace, and a magnificent temple from where an exhilarating view of the Chiang Mai valley may be enjoyed: its topography by elephant treks that visit jungle waterfalls and exotic hilltribe villages: and its fertile present by agro-tours that transport visitors to hillsides where, in orchards and plantations, everything from apples to asparagus is cultivated in great abundance.