A typical day has two sessions. Morning training usually starts early, before the heat builds, and covers skipping, shadow boxing, pad work with a Thai trainer, bag work and clinching. Afternoon training repeats the pattern with more emphasis on sparring and conditioning. Sessions run in a group, but pad work is one-to-one with a trainer, so you get corrected rather than just sweaty.

The coaching is the reason people come back. Trainers here are Thai ex-fighters with stadium experience behind them, and they teach the way Thai camps have always taught: repetition, correction, repetition. If your guard drops, someone will tell you. If your roundhouse is telegraphed, you will drill it until it isn't.

What separates this from a resort that offers a Muay Thai class at 8am is volume and intent. Nobody is here for a taster session. You will do hundreds of kicks a week, and the programme assumes you want to be able to use them.

Chiang Mai itself is a working city with a walled old town, night markets and cheap food on every corner. On the rest day you can walk the old town, eat khao soi for lunch and be back in time to sleep. The camp is a base for training, not a place you are ferried around from.

Accommodation is arranged as part of the stay, with rooms on or near the camp so that the walk between bed and gym is short. That matters more than it sounds when your first session is at dawn.

What's included

- Accommodation at or beside the camp - Two Muay Thai training sessions a day, six days a week - One-to-one pad work with a Thai trainer - Access to bags, ring and clinch area - Meals as arranged with the camp

What's not included

- Flights to Chiang Mai - Airport transfers unless arranged separately - Personal kit (gloves, shin guards, hand wraps) - Travel insurance - Personal expenses - Fight purse or stadium fees if you arrange a fight