Erawan Falls

Erawan Falls stages Thailand's most photogenic staircase: seven tiers of travertine cascades stepping some 1,500 metres up a jungle hillside in Kanchanaburi's Erawan National Park, each level pooling that improbable milky turquoise - calcium carbonate in the water working the colour. The name honours the three-headed elephant of Hindu myth, whose head the seventh tier is said to resemble. The lower tiers arrive on easy paths and fill with swimmers and the park's bold nibbling fish; the upper tiers demand sweaty scrambles over roots and slick limestone, thinning the crowds level by level until the seventh's quiet reward. Rangers run a strict regime - food stays below, water bottles get deposit tags against litter - and the full climb-and-swim rounds out to half a day of the province's best, greenest work.

What you actually see

• The seven-tier climb - pools thinning of people as you rise.
• The turquoise pools - calcium-milk water made for swimming.
• The nibbling fish - the free and startling natural pedicure.
• Tier seven - the elephant-head cascade at the top of the trail.

When to go

November to February balances full pools with cooler climbing; the rainy months swell the falls but grease the paths. Weekday mornings are the difference between idyll and crowd.

Honest expectations

Foreigners pay a 300-baht park fee, and weekends pack the lower pools. The upper trail is a genuine sweat with slick stretches, food is banned beyond the lower tiers, and bottle deposit-tags are checked. The fish really do bite - gently.

Nearby

Kanchanaburi town, the Srinagarind reservoir and Sai Yok's caves and lesser falls.