For a holiday in South East Asia, there is so much to discover beyond the busy, best-known island hot spots of Bali, Phuket and Koh Samui. Whether it is white-sand beaches , Unesco-listed temples, beguiling wildlife encounters or fragrant, fiery cuisine that tempts, there are many alternatives to the places that gather tourist hordes – and with great-value accommodation. What’s more, the pound is up year-on-year against several South East Asian currencies, including the Indonesian rupiah, the Singapore dollar, the Cambodian riel, the Vietnamese dong and the Thai bhat, so your money will stretch further in many of these seven destinations.
.. Langkawi, Malaysia The “Jewel of Kedah” is the largest Malaysian island in an archipelago of the same name.
It sits 30km west of the mainland, not far from the Thai border. Read Next Fuss-free holidays for November sun, from Nice to Agadir While tourism is bouncing back, it hasn’t yet returned to pre-pandemic numbers (there were 3.9 million arrivals in 2019 and 2.
8 million in 2023). As well as golden beaches, such as peaceful Tanjung Rhu on the north-eastern tip and the more-developed Pantai Cenang, licked by the teal-coloured Andaman Sea, there are 13,000 hectares of primordial rainforest, woodland waterfalls and a Unesco-listed geopark (a designated area of geological importance). The rainforest is best discovered on one of Wendy Chin’s private wildlife tours (£85, half-day for two, @langkawi.
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