Thousand Loops of Thailand (Northern Thailand)

Nine nights in a loop from Chiang Mai, guided, through northern Thailand on a Suzuki V-Strom 650, at a deliberately relaxed pace.

Tha Ton opens it with the Chiang Dao cave and a hilltop temple, then the Golden Triangle by way of Doi Mae Salong, a hill town settled by Chinese nationalist soldiers, where the tea is Yunnanese and so is most of the food.

The Golden Triangle itself follows, where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet on the Mekong, with a long-tail boat trip, a brief stop in a Laos village that needs no visa, the Doi Tung royal villa and an opium museum that handles the region’s trade with more candour than most. Nan comes next by Chiang Rai and Highway 1148, which appears in global top ten lists of the best roads to ride, with a rest day for the Bo Kluea salt wells loop. Phrae follows across the Sirikit reservoir on a wooden ferry, then Phayao and its lake, and Doi Ang Khang, a royal agricultural research station above a thousand metres where temperate crops grow year round.

The bike hire is included; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. The cool dry season from November to February is the window, since the burning season in March and April fills the valleys with smoke. Ten days at this pace is a holiday rather than a ride, with rest days, laundry days and short distances, and it covers the north without taking on the Mae Hong Son loop, which most operators build everything around.