Luxury holidays to Asia: luxury hotel holidays, touring holidays and special interest holidays
A luxury hotel holiday to Asia is the ultimate treat. Lose yourself in the heady exoticism of Asia, in fragrant days and balmy nights, sparkling ancient temples and dynamic cities. Expressions Holidays offers you a choice of Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur as well as the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Asia is breath-taking and exciting, a continent of great vibrancy; whether you are searching for a white sand beach surrounded by dramatic limestone cliffs or an energetic city that blends ancient and modern delights. The continent is flavoured with bright colours, from the vivid turquoise of the Andaman Sea to the lush green of the rice paddies that follow Vietnam’s coast and the glittering neon of Hong Kong seen from Victoria Peak. The spirit of these countries is best captured by their cuisines, whether experienced at a quayside hawker stall in Singapore or in one of Bangkok’s most celebrated restaurants. There are great contrasts to be found in Asia, from the sleek Petronas Towers, a symbol of modern Kuala Lumpur, to Angkor’s sacred ancient temples. Asia is mystical and alluring, a continent that will charm you with the friendliness of its people and the fascinating beauty and variety of its landscapes.
Each of our holidays to Asia is tailor-made to your requirements. Many are touring holidays with a local guide, particularly in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In Thailand there is often a mix of city, beach and culture as is the case in Malaysia too. Hong Kong and Singapore are often visited in conjunction with a longer holiday elsewhere.
Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be
● Single centre or multi-centre● Long or short stays
● Combine a variety of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements including scheduled flights, boats, river cruises and local car transfers.
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
● Full financial protection with our ATOL (3076) for all holidays including a flight and our ABTOT for all non-air holidays
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury holidays to Asia: luxury hotel holidays, touring holidays and special interest holidays
Our hotels
Our hotels and resorts in Asia are an eclectic mixture of style, reflecting the diverse locations we visit. There may be 5-star, international, high-rise hotels in the cities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, exclusive beach resorts in Thailand and Malaysia and hotels of immense charm and character, perhaps boutique or historic residences when touring Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Stays on-board a traditional junk are a feature of Ha Long Bay and river cruises are popular in Cambodia.
Travel
Travel arrangements for our holidays to Asia are varied and reflect the breadth of holidays available in the region. Travel is by air, train, car and boat.
Airlines
We have worked with British Airways for many years and include their scheduled flights in our basic holiday prices if possible. We also work with Vietnam Airways for flights direct to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Thai Airways for Thailand and Cathay Pacific for Hong Kong. Malaysian fly from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi.
Local transport
Car transfers are provided for mainland destinations. In Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos a guide accompanies you. Trains can be booked as part of your holiday in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Boats also form part of the touring holiday in Vietnam where you stay on board a junk in Ha Long Bay, cruise the Mekong or explore the waterways of Vietnam by local fisherman’s boat.
Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be
● Single centre or multi-centre● Long or short stays
● Combine a variety of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements including scheduled flights, boats, river cruises and local car transfers.
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
● Full financial protection with our ATOL (3076) for all holidays including a flight and our ABTOT for all non-air holidays
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury holidays to Asia: luxury hotel holidays, touring holidays and special interest holidays
Countries of Asia
Cambodia has thrown its arms open the world, welcoming visitors with an enthusiasm and warmth and that makes holidaying here – even without its myriad attractions – an extraordinary joy. Cambodia’s people may be the country’s principle asset, their unbreakable spirit and infectious optimism prevailing against all odds, but it is Angkor Wat for which the country is probably best known – and understandably so. Siem Reap and Phnom Penh may be Cambodia’s main urban draws, but Cambodia’s spirit is essential rural, and the countryside is the best place to experience the rhythm of rural life and timeless landscapes of dazzling rice paddies and swaying sugar palms.
Hong Kong is teeming with people, cluttered with traffic, festooned in neon and dizzying with towering skyscrapers. It can be overwhelming at first, but swim with the current, navigate your way through its alleys and along its bay, and you’ll find a fascinating city that is endlessly enchanting. Perhaps Hong Kong’s most intriguing asset is its people, scurrying between offices and home, swarming its Central Market, gathering for dawn Tai Chi in the park, working the junks anchored in the harbour, flocking to the floating restaurants and bars after work.
Malaysia conjures up images of jungles brimming with exotic life, clippers cutting through the South China Sea and sultans sitting in opulent palaces, yet today is a place of thrusting, modern self-confidence. Two countries for the price of one, Malaysia is cleaved in half by the South China Sea, dividing the country into two distinctive worlds. The peninsula is a multicultural buffet of Malay, Chinese and Indian flavours, while Borneo hosts a wild jungle of orang-utans, granite peaks and remote tribes.
Singapore is a fascinating mix of cultures and temperaments, with immigrants from China and Malaysia, India and the West creating a rich, heady cocktail reflected in its architecture, with skyscrapers and subways sitting side by side with rickety riverside food stalls and colonial hotels. Home to the legendary Raffles Hotel, Singapore is equally famous today for its bustling Chinatown and Little India, with its mouth-watering cuisine drawing on influences from all round the Pacific. The Lion City is a superb, hi energy escape.
Thailand is visited by more people than any other country in Southeast Asia. With beautiful beaches and stunning cuisine, historic towns and colourful cities, it’s not hard to see why. Bangkok is the country’s spectacular gateway, a place of timeless wonder, with ancient markets and temples, centuries-old palaces and monks in saffron robes. In the north, Chaingrai province – aka the Golden Triangle – offers a wealth of river tours and hilltribe treks, ruined cities and cookery holidays, with Chiang Mai its stunning capital. In the south, idyllic islands are sprinkled into the Andaman Sea, with Koh Samui and Phuket merely the best known.
Vietnam is a land of extraordinary natural beauty. Soaring mountains and swaying rice fields, sweeping beaches and the mighty Mekong, Vietnam has it all, with Ha Long Bay and its iconic limestone towers the jewel in the country’s dazzling crown. Hanoi is its bristling capital, with elegant colonial buildings overlooking avenues buzzing with motorbikes; old, imperial capital Hue is the cultural heartbeat, with palaces and pagodas, tombs and temples, and a biennial arts festival worth the airfare alone; Ho Chi Minh City – or Saigon as it’s still universally known – is all hustle and bustle, an intoxicating blend of the old and the new, with teeming markets dwarfed by towering skyscrapers. The Mekong Delta provides an ancient, intoxicating foreverness of rice fields and sleepy villages, with river trips taking you along the country’s timeless lifeblood. Inland, peasant women in conical hats still tend to their fields, children ride buffalos along country paths and farmers scratch out a living from rice fields cascading down the sheerest of hillsides. But if Vietnam’s hilly countryside is beautiful, its coastline is simply stunning.
Unmissable holiday experiences in Asia
Angkor Wat; river trips on the Mekong, particularly the stretch between Siem Reap and Battambag; ride the tram to The Peak for unbeatable harbour and city views in Hong Kong; take a Star Ferry at night from Kowloon to Central; take three-tiered high tea at The Peninsula; the night market at Kota Bharu, with traditional kite and shadow puppet stalls and displays; Cameron Highlands, where you can step back in time wandering the tea plantations amid leafy, verdant, cool surrounds; Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel; Little India, wall to wall in temples and food stalls, spices and saree shops; Hawker-centre, with simple but exquisite food stalls; the night safari at Singapore Zoo; rail trip to the original Bridge Over the River Kwai; Catuchak weekend market in Bangkok; the giant reclining Buddha in Wat Pho; the Skytrain to Bangkok’s glitzy shopping centre; boat trips on Halong Bay, historic, riverside Hoi An, with superb galleries, particularly Apricot and Mai Tai galleries in the Old Quarter, and Dong Phong Art Gallery in the French Quarter; full-moon ‘Legendary Nights’ in Hoi An, when vehicles are banned from the Old Town, which is transformed into a magical land of silk lanterns, traditional food, song and dance, and games in the streets; the beaches and unique Cham architecture of Quy Nhon; the rugged mountain retreat of Sapa, home to a plethora of minority tribes, and gateway to the Tonkinese Alps.
