Our favourite places in Malaysia

With green, rolling hills and cool mountain air, the Cameron Highlands are your chance to escape the heat for a day and picnic among strawberry farms, wander colonial-era tea plantations or search for medicinal herbs in mist-cloaked moss forests.

In the middle of Lake Temenggor, Banding Island is the starting point for expeditions into ancient rainforest filled with over 3,000 types of flowering plant and more hornbill species than anywhere else in the world.

It may be Laos’s most fast-paced city, but Vientiane is still the smallest and most laid-back capital in Southeast Asia.

Home to the largest elephant population in Laos – as well as a stellar conservation project working to ensure their survival – remote Sayaboury is one of our favourite places to get up close and personal with these gentle giants.

With its distinctly Soviet aesthetic and remarkable “hidden city” tunnelling deep into the mountains, this former communist HQ is a relic of revolution set against a backdrop of some of Laos’s most remote and beautiful scenery.

Prehistoric burial sites, rainwater reservoirs, or bottles used by the giant king Khun Cheung to brew rice wine? The 2,500 stone jars of remote Phonsavan are one of the world’s great archaeological mysteries.

Built by French, Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants at the turn of the 20th century, the city of Pakse isn't a stunner, but it’s the jumping-off point for some of Laos’s most exciting adventures.

It’s the views that make Pakbeng more than just a convenient stopover: this is part of one of Asia’s most stunning river journeys, with lush and verdant mountains rising either side of the broad, coffee-coloured waters of the Mekong.

Hooked in a bend of the Nam Ou River, with steep, forested slopes rising vertiginously all around it, the low-rise, red-roofed village of Nong Khiaw is a wonderful base from which to explore some of Laos’s most seductive scenery.

A visit to Laos is all about the wild and untamed beauty of the mountains – and it doesn’t get much wilder and more untamed than this. Covering nearly 6,000 square kilometres, Nam Et-Phou Louey provides a haven for endangered animals.

Gently rolling hills and picturesque farmland dotted with ethnic minority villages and hot springs: Muang La is a place to unplug and sync up with the rhythms of countryside life.

Luang Prabang is Laos’s Shangri-La: sweeping golden roofs and colonial shophouses against a lush backdrop of jungle-covered mountains, and a laid-back atmosphere of peace and serenity.