Amazing Land of Lanna (Guided)

Nine nights in a loop from Chiang Mai, guided, 1,700 kilometres across the old Lanna kingdom, which translates as the land of a million rice fields.

Nan comes first, a town that stayed isolated and effectively autonomous for centuries and still feels separate from the rest of the country, then Chiang Rai and the White Temple, a contemporary Buddhist temple built in white and mirrored glass by an artist who is still working on it.

The Golden Triangle follows, where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet on the Mekong, and which was the centre of the opium trade until the mid-1990s and the end of the warlord Khun Sa. The Choui Fong tea plantations come next, then Doi Mae Salong, a hill town settled by Chinese nationalist soldiers and still more Yunnanese than Thai in its food and language. A Long Neck Karen village, the 1,864-curve road and Doi Inthanon close the loop.

The tour is guided; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. The riding is entirely on sealed road at 180 to 300 kilometres a day, with rest days built into the schedule. The cool dry season from November to February is the window, and this is the tour in the range with the most history on it: the opium trade, the Kuomintang settlements and the Lanna kingdom are all live subjects up here rather than museum pieces. Ten days at this pace is a touring holiday rather than a riding challenge, and the sealed surface throughout means no off-road experience is needed, which widens the appeal considerably.