Countries

Start with the country

Each of the six country pages answers the same four questions: which regions are worth your nights, which months suit them, how the country joins its neighbours, and how many days it needs. That last one is where most multi-country plans go wrong — four countries in fourteen days is six travel days and eight real ones.

10 – 14 nights

Vietnam

1,650 km, three climates, two land borders.

Explore Vietnam

8 – 12 nights

Thailand

The hub airport, and two coasts on opposite seasons.

Explore Thailand

The towers of Angkor Wat rise across a moat in hazy morning light near Siem Reap.

5 – 8 nights

Cambodia

Angkor, plus a country most people skip.

Explore Cambodia

5 – 9 nights

Laos

Slow roads, a new railway, strict border rules.

Explore Laos

Destinations

Then the places

Twenty-nine destination pages sit under the six countries. They are written for the decision you are actually making — whether a place earns two nights or four, what to do with the half-day after you arrive, and which season turns it from good to exceptional.

Vietnam — 8 destinations

Hanoi · Ha Long Bay · Sa Pa · Hue · Hoi An · Ho Chi Minh City · Mekong Delta · Phu Quoc

Thailand — 7 destinations

Bangkok · Chiang Mai · Chiang Rai · Ayutthaya · Phuket · Krabi · Koh Samui

Cambodia — 4 destinations

Siem Reap & Angkor · Phnom Penh · Battambang · Kampot & Kep

Laos — 4 destinations

Luang Prabang · Vang Vieng · Vientiane · Pakse & the 4000 Islands

Indonesia — 3 destinations

Bali · Yogyakarta · Komodo & Labuan Bajo

Philippines — 3 destinations

Palawan · Cebu & Bohol · Manila

Choosing

Countries that look alike on a map

Two questions come up more than any others, and the honest answers are not the ones a brochure gives. The first is Cambodia or Laos, when there is only room for one. Cambodia has the greater single sight and the easier logistics: Angkor is unlike anything else in the region, the roads are reasonable and the border with Vietnam works. Laos has no equivalent headline and is slower to move around, and travellers who love it love it for exactly that — three nights in Luang Prabang and a morning on the river is a different kind of trip from three days of temples.

The second is Indonesia or the Philippines, when the plan is one island leg. Indonesia is easier to reach, has more variety within a short flight — temples, volcanoes, rice country, boats — and its dry season lines up with the mainland’s wet one. The Philippines has better water and less of everything else; its internal flights need more slack, and it rewards a trip that is mostly about the sea. If you have a week, Indonesia. If you have twelve days and you dive, the Philippines.

If you have one weekOne country. Vietnam north or south, Thailand plus a beach, or Bali. Two countries in seven days is four travel days.

If you have two weeksTwo countries, joined by one land border or one short flight. This is the shape most of our routes take.

If you have three weeksThree countries, or two at a pace that lets you stop moving. The second option is almost always the better trip.

If you have a monthMainland and islands — a fortnight overland, then a week somewhere dry, with a day of slack before the flight home.

Borders

How they join up

The country pages each carry the section of our border table that applies to them. The full table — every land and river crossing between the six, with the status and the visa rule at each gate — lives in the travel guide, and it is the page we update most often.

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