Top picks and insider tips: six experts on travelling in Asia like a pro

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a day ago

The Golden Triangle. Picture: Getty Images
Updated July 25 2025 - 1:06pm, first published 12:00pm
FAVOURITE PLACE: The name of Beijing's Summer Palace is a bit misleading. After two hours of walking, I've seen parks, temples, even a waterfront merchant street - but nothing that looks like a palace. That won't come until the end of the visit when I eventually reach the opulent wooden halls decorated with porcelain folding screens and dragon statues.
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Ten kilometres away, the Forbidden City feels like ... well, a city. Here, the Summer Palace feels like a whole country! Needing a full day to explore properly, the historic imperial complex has 3000 buildings that reflect centuries of evolving culture - just one of them, the Long Corridor, has 14,000 paintings of Chinese folklore.
But the highlight is getting between the buildings, through the sculpted landscape of hills, lakes and gardens inspired by feng shui, Confucianism, and the best of China's countryside. beijing.gov.cn
A dumpling feast in Taiwan. Picture: Getty Images
ON THE WISH LIST: Among countless reasons I regret not yet visiting Taiwan, one has really been eating at me ... the dumplings. Boiled, fried, steamed, filled with soup - there are so many types and I one day plan to devour them all until I look like a dumpling myself. Of course I won't ignore the hiking and the beaches or the museums and the festivals, which also offer a taste of this small but dynamic country. taiwan.net.tw
TOP TIP FOR TRAVELLING IN ASIA: As I hang on white-knuckled to the back of the motorbike, the young Vietnamese woman weaving us through Saigon's traffic points out restaurants. I'd prefer she keep her hands on the bike (and, anyway, my eyes are clenched shut from fear). But each time we stop on this street food tour, it's all worthwhile, as I taste delectables I might otherwise never have known to order. Taking a food tour introduces you to dishes, venues and customs you can use to enhance your whole stay - so I suggest doing one as soon as you arrive in a new Asian city.
FAVOURITE PLACE: Hong Kong, you've changed. Or maybe I have. Either way, it's now impossible for me to resist your charms. Whether stopping over on the way to Europe or the US, or choosing it as a standalone destination, Hong Kong offers everything on a platter: great shopping, nature and beaches on the city's doorstep, incredible festivals, the most delicious food - including, my favourite, glistening, succulent roast goose - and eye-opening cultural moments.
On a recent stopover, I booked a ticket to the Tea House Theatre Experience at the architecturally extravagant Xiqu Centre. This introduction to Cantonese opera includes song and performance, guided by a moderator who briefly explains the history of the artform. Plus, it comes with dim sum and tea to sup on during the performance. It's this mix of the traditional and contemporary that ensures you can't ever be bored in Hong Kong. discoverhongkong.com
Cardamom National Park. Picture: Getty Images
ON THE WISH LIST: In Cambodia, near the border of Thailand, is the Cardamom Mountains, south-east Asia's largest tract of tropical rainforest. It's not easy to get there and most of the accommodation is in tented ecolodges, but it's a haven for wildlife.
Research camera traps in 2023 recorded 108 different species of animals, 23 of them vulnerable, including Asian elephants, sun bears, clouded leopards, pileated gibbons and Sunda pangolins. Most of them are almost impossible to see, but I'm willing to take my chances trekking in the jungle. cardamomtentedcamp.com
TOP TIP: Don't try to pack too much into your Asian trip. It's often hot and humid, which can sap your energy, so get up early, drink heaps of water and take it easy. In the afternoon have a break - go for a swim, read a book, take a nap - then pick up your explorations again in the late afternoon. It's the perfect excuse to try out slow travel.
FAVOURITE PLACE: Whether I'm following a well-trodden pilgrimage route that connects thousand-year-old temples or wandering through dense beech forest with a bell strapped to my pack to warn off any nearby bears, I'm always pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to explore the wild landscapes beyond Japan's cities.
But hiking in Japan doesn't have to mean roughing it. Walking the Michinoku Trail - in the Tohoku region of Honshu Island - earlier this year, I followed a dramatic coastline where sharp fingers of rock emerged from the frothing sea, before feasting on a dinner of local seafood and lying back in a steaming onsen to recharge for another day on the trail. okujapan.com/trips
Along the Michinoku Trail in the Tohoku region of Honshu Island. Picture: Getty Images
ON THE WISH LIST: In an age when almost everywhere feels instantly accessible, the idea of a "lost world" seems quaintly outdated. And yet that's exactly what the Maliau Basin is. Known only to the local Murut people until 1947, this crater-like amphitheatre deep in Malaysian Borneo remains largely unexplored.
Steep circular walls protect the self-contained ecosystem from the surrounding rainforest, allowing some 2000 species of animals and plants to live largely undisturbed. And because the only way to explore the basin is by trekking between remote jungle camps, the natural beauty is being preserved for future generations to enjoy. maliaubasin.my
TOP TIP: Always carry cash. I can go weeks without touching a physical banknote when I'm at home, but cash is still king in many parts of Asia. From waiting in line for a counter seat at a Tokyo ramen shop to stopping at a roadside stall for a fortifying Vietnamese iced coffee, I've lost count of the times locals have had to use sign language to explain that they don't accept cards. Now I avoid disappointment and always carry a few notes with me.
FAVOURITE PLACE: When I lived in Chiang Mai, I'd often run out of reasons (but not excuses) to visit the spa. Nails done, hair done, eyebrows done, facials and massages up to date. The glorious quality, availability and affordability of pampering services in Thailand is like a dream.
In more than 40 visits to the Land of Smiles, I reckon I've enjoyed thousands of Thai massages and still, I crave more. Now, whenever I get the time to return to Thailand, I'm lured south to the beautiful islands. There's a wellness retreat on Koh Samui, Absolute Sanctuary, that's just the tonic for world-weary souls and knotted shoulders. absolutesanctuary.com
A spa treatment at Koh Samui's Absolute Sanctuary.
ON THE WISH LIST: What's your favourite animal? Do you like bananas? Are you 35? Once the shyness disappears, the two young sisters from Hanoi have many questions for me.
I am sitting opposite the pint-sized, pink-clad Vietnamese duo on a train bound for Hue. For them, it's an opportunity to practise their English-language skills. For me, the random, endearing conversation is the sort of thing I love about rail travel.
Soon I'll be boarding a different kind of train, the luxury Vietage experience, an upscale journey through central Vietnam from Da Nang to Quy Nhon. Next on my bucket list: the overnight Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City Reunification Express train trip. With more than 30 hours from start to finish, I'll have plenty of time to take questions. thevietagetrain.com
On a train in Vietnam. Picture: Getty Images
TOP TIP: I paid $2.35 for my dinner in Hoi An, a steaming, brothy bowl of Cao Lau noodles with sliced pork, crunchy rinds and aromatic greens. The oceanfront Phuket hotel I've booked for next week costs $64 per night. And the flight to take me from Vietnam to Thailand was barely three figures.
South-east Asia is an absolute bargain for travellers, the best value-for-money destination I've found. My advice is to stay as long as you possibly can. Save up holiday leave, ask a friend to collect your mail, book an open-ended ticket if you can. One week is never enough in this part of the world.
FAVOURITE PLACE: I've seen so many first-timers fall in love with Ipoh, Malaysia, an oft-overlooked former tin boomtown surrounded by limestone hills in Perak, about halfway between Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Until you've feasted your way through Ipoh's elegantly dilapidated shophouses and colonial buildings, from Nyonya to Indian, Chinese to Malay and a vast spectrum of flavours in between, you've only nibbled at the edges of Malaysian cuisine.
Cheerfully hipster resistant, the town seems set in a friendlier, gentler age, and you can slow down and fall into step with locals gathering from dawn to dusk in generations-old street food joints for satay, dim sum, curry and more. Here you'll also find Malaysia's oldest watering hole, the 94-year-old Sinhalese Bar, with its saloon doors, pink walls and venerable octogenarian owner, Alfred. I've never met a pub so rich in personality and pedigree - just like Ipoh itself. ipohpedia.com.my
Two Black bears at a rescued centre in Laos. Picture: Shutterstock
ON THE WISH LIST: Australian-founded Free the Bears has rescued more than a thousand sun and moon bears in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos from unthinkable suffering on bear bile farms. I've always admired this charity's amazing work and hope one day to see it in action on a Bear Care Tour at their Kat Tang Si Bear Rescue Centre, Laos. It's set amid tropical rainforest at the foot of the spectacular Kuang Si falls about 30 kilometres south of Luang Prabang.
In this beautiful setting you can meet and feed these gentle, intelligent creatures and see them enjoying their new-found freedom with their Laotian carers. Tour fees contribute to the bears' welfare, so your travel becomes a force for good, helping compassion conquer cruelty. freethebears.org
TOP TIP: Don't be afraid of street food! If it smells good, it almost certainly is. Look out for vendors favoured by locals and learn the local phrase for "is it fresh?" A good cook will reply vehemently that yes of course it is - and then prove it.
FAVOURITE PLACE: In Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, I try to support the traditional samlor pedicab drivers when possible - including catching one to the Anantara hotel's riverside Bodhi Terrace restaurant.
The building was originally a 19th-century British consulate, complete with a four-elephant stable. The Ping River murmurs past as you settle in beneath a huge banyan tree to enjoy the best heart-starter breakfast in the north, eggs Lanna Benedict spiced with green chilli nam prik noom. Aloi maak (that's Thai for delicious). Later, cross the Iron Bridge to the river's quieter side, explore its shoreline and visit Wat Ket Karam, where the eccentric temple museum might be open or not. anantara.com/en
Traditional samlor drivers in Chiang Mai. Picture: John Borthwick
ON THE WISH LIST: To travel the Mekong south from the Thai border at Sop Ruak (the Golden Triangle) to the Mekong Delta, in Vietnam, would complete some unfinished business on south-east Asia's longest river. I've done the almost 5000-kilometre-long Mekong in parts from Kunming in Yunnan, China, by river ferry, longtail speedboat, cargo shuttle and cruise vessel, but not as far as the South China Sea.
Why do it? Simply because it's there. Worse reason: because it's being dammed and double-damned to oblivion. About 740 dams exist or are under construction on its mainstream and tributaries in China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Go with the flow while it still does. vietnam.travel
Giant buddha on the Golden Triangle. Picture: Shutterstock
TOP TIP: Or, allow me several ... first, be sure to match exactly the full name on your passport with the one on air tickets and visa applications. A wrong word or letter can end in Do Not Pass Go.
Then, cash matters: Asia is far from being online all the time everywhere. Even in high-tech Japan, especially rural areas, carry enough local currency for major expenses, plus 100-yen coins. Similarly in lower-tech Cambodia, Laos and elsewhere. Don't assume that your phone is a payment option.
Finally, motorcycle misery: ride one, prang it, get injured and your travel insurance covers nothing unless you hold a full Australian rider licence and have indicated that on your policy application. Crowdfunding is not a strategy. PS, never leave your passport as a deposit or "guarantee".