Thailand

Thailand is the first trip abroad for more Indian travellers than anywhere else, and the reasons are practical rather than romantic: it is roughly four hours from Chennai and three and a half from Kolkata, the entry formalities are light, English is widely spoken in the tourist trade, and the rupee buys more once you land than it does in most of India. It is also one of the few places you can put a first-time flyer, a honeymoon couple and a family of eight on the same itinerary without compromise.

Bangkok is the arrival point and worth more than the two nights most itineraries give it. The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho and Wat Arun's porcelain-tiled prang across the river are all within a short boat ride of each other on the Chao Phraya, with the Damnoen Saduak floating market an hour and a half west and Chatuchak's 15,000 stalls open at weekends.

Pattaya, about two hours south-east down the motorway, is what most packages pair with it: a bay, a working beach road, the Koh Larn islands twenty minutes offshore by speedboat, and a run of evening shows and gardens. It has a reputation, and part of it is earned — but the daytime Pattaya of Coral Island, the Sanctuary of Truth and Nong Nooch is a genuinely good family trip, and the two do not have to overlap. Beyond these, Phuket, Krabi and Phi Phi on the Andaman coast are a longer and quieter holiday that we quote separately.