Malaysia

Malaysia is Southeast Asia's most underrated luxury destination, a country that moves between rainforest and skyscraper, colonial hill station and island resort, with uncommon grace. Kuala Lumpur is a city that announces itself with the Petronas Twin Towers, for a decade the world's tallest buildings, and then reveals itself slowly through Brickfields' Indian quarter, Bukit Bintang's food halls, the Islamic Arts Museum's extraordinary galleries, and the colonial elegance of Merdeka Square. North, in the central highlands, Cameron Highlands offers a different world entirely: British-era bungalows wreathed in morning mist, tea plantations whose rows extend to every horizon, strawberry farms and butterfly parks. Langkawi, on the Andaman Sea, is an island of real luxury, duty-free, unhurried, and genuinely beautiful, with mangrove river tours, cable car views across the island archipelago, and beach resorts of considered quality. Malaysia is also the country where the food, with Malay, Chinese, and Indian traditions interwoven, may be the finest and most varied in the region.