Every question, in one place

No. Each one is priced for what it includes, and every day of it can be changed. Ask for the changes you want and we re-quote, itemised.

No. You travel with the people you choose, on your own dates, with your own guide and driver.

We tell you exactly which visa your route needs at which gate, what has to be filed before you fly, and when. The applications themselves are made in your own name on the official portals — we will not hand your passport details to a third-party agent.

It happens — the Thai – Cambodian border closed at short notice in 2025 and is still shut. Routes that cross a border are planned with an air alternative, and your coordinator rebooks rather than leaving you to find out at the gate.

Thirty days, for sixty countries and territories, since 15 September 2026. It was sixty days until then, and a lot of older advice still says so. It covers tourism only, and overland entries on it are capped at two per calendar year.

No. The Thailand – Cambodia land border has been closed to tourists since June 2025 and remains closed. The flight takes an hour and is the only sensible way across at the moment.

Between November and April, the Andaman — Phuket, Krabi, Phi Phi. In October and November, the Gulf takes its own heavy rain, so that is the one month where neither coast is reliable and we would rather put your beach days at the other end of the trip.

No — at nine ports only, and none of them is on the Vietnamese or Cambodian border. Everywhere else you buy a visa on arrival. This is the most common and most expensive Laos planning mistake.

If you like rivers, yes: two long days down the Mekong with a night at Pak Beng, and the scenery does not repeat. If you are short of time, the flight from Chiang Mai or Bangkok takes an hour.

Between Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, yes — two hours instead of seven on the road, and the tickets sell out several days ahead in the high season, which is a good reason to have someone booking them for you.

Almost certainly not: thirty days visa-free covers around 190 nationalities. You do need eTravel registration within 72 hours of arrival, and a return or onward ticket — both are checked.

Between August and October, real but manageable. Storms are regional, so we build itineraries with a spare day and keep your flight out a day clear. What we will not do is sell a tight island-hopping schedule in September.

El Nido for the lagoons and the bigger choice of places to stay; Coron for wreck diving and quieter water. Five nights lets you do both, with the ferry or the short flight between them.

Lan Ha, in almost every case. The rock is the same, the traffic is a fraction of the main bay, and there are small beaches under the cliffs. The trade is a slightly longer drive from Hanoi — about three hours instead of two and a half.

For most people, yes: a single night covers the late afternoon and the early morning, which are the only two periods the bay is quiet. Two nights is for travellers who want to reach water the one-night boats cannot get to and back from in time.

Nothing sails. The harbour master closes it and every operator is grounded, usually for one to three days. Between July and September we leave a spare night in the plan so that a closure costs you a boat rather than a flight home.

Yes. Roughly a third of the buildings survive or have been rebuilt, the restoration is ongoing and visible, and the empty foundations are marked out so the plan of the palace still reads. Give it two and a half hours in the morning.

Three. Minh Mang, Tu Duc and Khai Dinh are different enough from one another to be worth the drive; a fourth adds nothing you have not already seen.

The pass, unless the weather has closed it. It adds about an hour to a two-and-a-half-hour drive and is the best road in central Vietnam. The tunnel is for bad weather and late flights.

For most routes, yes — one morning of war history, one afternoon walking, one evening eating, and a second day for Cu Chi or the delta. A third night only makes sense if you are using the city as a base for two separate day trips.

The road, if you have the day: six to seven hours through Moc Bai, with Cu Chi on the way, and you see the border country rather than the inside of an aircraft. The flight is under an hour and is the right answer when the itinerary is tight.

The War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace in the city, together in a morning. Cu Chi if you have a half-day and want the physical scale of it. Doing all three in one day is possible and is more than most people want in one go.

Not for the island itself: there is a 30-day visa exemption that applies to every nationality, provided you arrive directly and stay on Phu Quoc. If you continue to the Vietnamese mainland, the normal rules apply and you will need either your 45-day exemption or an e-visa.

The northwest around Ong Lang and Cua Can for quiet and small places to stay, the middle of Long Beach for sunsets and somewhere to walk to in the evening. The far south is for travellers who want the resorts and the cable car.

Yes. The fast ferry to Ha Tien takes about an hour and a quarter, and the Prek Chak gate is eight kilometres from the pier, with Kep an hour and a half beyond it. The Cambodian e-visa is not accepted at that gate, so it is a visa on arrival, and your Vietnamese e-visa must name Ha Tien as the exit point.

Three. One for the old city and the temples inside the walls, one for a cooking school or the hills, and one left unplanned. Two works if Chiang Mai is only a stop on the way to the Lao border, but the mountain will wait for another trip.

Roughly early March to late April, when field clearing across the north fills the valley with smoke for weeks at a time. It is bad enough that we would rather rebuild an itinerary around it than send you into it.

No riding, no performances, no queue of visitors bathing the animals, and a herd small enough that it is not being moved through a timetable. We name the camps we work with when we plan your trip, because standards change and a list on a web page ages badly.

A day trip is enough for most routes and is what we usually build. One night is worth it if you care about light: sunset at Wat Chaiwatthanaram and the park before nine the next morning are the two hours a day trip never reaches.

The ordinary train takes about an hour and three quarters from Krung Thep Aphiwat and costs almost nothing, with a short ferry across to the island. By road it is an hour and a half each way, which is better if you are carrying on north the same day.

Yes, because they are not the same thing. Angkor is stone-built Khmer temple architecture; Ayutthaya is a burned brick city with its skin stripped off. Note that the land border is closed, so the two are joined by a one-hour flight from Bangkok rather than a road.

Railay for the cliffs, the view and the sense of being cut off; Ao Nang for boats, restaurants and a road to the airport. A common compromise is two nights on Railay and two at Klong Muang, which keeps both.

No. The peninsula is closed off by cliffs and the only way in is by long-tail boat, about ten minutes from Ao Nang. The last boats run in the early evening, which is worth remembering if your flight out is a late one.

Krabi for the scenery and for quieter sand, Phuket for the flights and the range of places to stay. They are three hours apart by road, so a longer southern leg can use the airport at one and sleep at the other.

Three mornings on a three-day pass is the useful minimum: the walled city, the main temple, and one half-day out to Banteay Srei or an unrestored site. Two days covers the central circuit and nothing else.

Four nights in Siem Reap is what we book most often, because it leaves a rest day in the middle without wasting an entry on the pass.

No. The Thailand – Cambodia land border has been closed to tourists since 23 June 2025 and remains closed, including Poipet. The flight from Bangkok takes an hour and is the only route at present.

Once, and preferably on your last morning rather than your first. Several thousand people stand at the same pond, so the value lies in knowing the site well enough to walk away from them as soon as the light has changed.

Yes, if you are driving between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh anyway — it turns two long road days into two short ones and gives you the best colonial streets in Cambodia in between. It is not worth a detour of its own from elsewhere.

No. The old norry ran on the derelict French line, which has since been rebuilt for trains. What runs now is a purpose-built replacement on a short spur near Wat Banan — about five minutes each way, enjoyable enough, and not what the older photographs show.

Not at present. Poipet is two and a half hours west and has been closed to tourists since June 2025, as has Cham Yeam on the coast. Routes that used to run overland to Bangkok now fly from Siem Reap, which takes an hour.

Three is the right allowance for most routes: the old town and its temples, half a day at Kuang Si, and a morning on the river. A fourth night is easy to fill and hard to justify unless you are adding the northern valleys.

You can, quietly and from a distance, standing back from the line and without a flash. It is a religious observance rather than an attraction, and the monasteries have repeatedly asked visitors not to buy rice from pavement sellers in order to join in.

Considerably. The railway covers each leg between Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane in around two hours, against seven or more on the mountain road. Tickets sell out several days ahead in the high season, which is a good reason to have someone booking them in advance.

One night is enough for the stupa, Wat Si Saket, an hour at COPE and dinner by the river. A second is worth having only if you want Buddha Park as well, or if your onward train or flight would otherwise be a rush.

Yes. Friendship Bridge I is about twenty-five kilometres from the centre and the crossing to Nong Khai takes half an hour plus formalities; a shuttle carries you over the bridge. From Nong Khai there are overnight trains to Bangkok. The Lao e-visa is valid at that bridge.

The Laos–China railway station north of the city, not Khamsavath, which serves the short link across the Mekong to Thailand. Both are e-visa ports, but only one of them goes north — it is an easy and expensive mistake to make on your own.

Five is the working minimum for the interior and one coast. Seven lets you have both without moving hotel twice, and is what we recommend when Bali is the island half of a longer route.

The southern strip is, in July, August and at the new year. The interior, the east coast and the north are not, and an itinerary built around those feels like a different island. We plan around the peaks rather than pretending they are not there.

No, though you can buy one ahead if you would rather not queue. European, North American, Australian and Northeast Asian passports all pay for a visa on arrival, 30 days, extendable once. The arrival card and the Bali levy are separate, and both are filed online.

April to September is the dependable window, and October and November are usually fine. From December to February the westerly swell cancels crossings regularly, and we would rather move the Indonesian leg to Bali and Java than sell a boat trip we expect to lose.

No. They are worth the hour they take, and they are remarkable to stand near, but a large lizard asleep under a tree is not the reason to fly to Flores. The water is. Plan the trip around the diving, the snorkelling and Padar, and treat the dragons as one stop on one morning.

No — day boats run from Labuan Bajo and you can stay ashore the whole time. Two nights aboard buys you the early mornings, which is when the park is empty, and cuts out four hours of transit a day. It is the difference most divers care about and many other travellers do not.

Cebu and Bohol if you have five nights, want reef and variety, and would rather not depend on a domestic flight. Palawan if you have a week or more and came for the limestone seascape, which is the better scenery of the two by a distance.

Because the animals are fed from boats to keep them in one place, and that changes their behaviour, crowds them and gets them struck by hulls. We will plan an unfed encounter elsewhere in the country if it matters to you, but we will not sell the feeding station.

Yes, and it is the main argument for this pair. Fly into Cebu from Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul or Tokyo, take the fast ferry to Bohol and back, and fly out of Cebu. Nothing in the plan depends on a domestic departure that a storm can cancel.

Yes, and about a third of people do — Siem Reap to Hanoi, crossing into Vietnam at Moc Bai. The only thing that changes materially is the visa paperwork: your Vietnamese e-visa then has to name Moc Bai as the entry gate and Noi Bai as the exit, decided before you apply.

Fly if the trip is tight or if a six-hour road day would spoil the week. Take the road if you want the countries to join up: the delta turning into Cambodian floodplain is the part people describe afterwards, and Cu Chi on the way makes the day pay for itself.

Three, which is one more than most itineraries allow and the difference between two hard mornings and three unhurried ones. The pass is sold as one, three or seven days; the three-day pass is included here and is valid on any three days within ten.

November to March is dry in both countries at once, which is what makes this pairing work. March and April are hotter and Angkor is punishing by eleven. June to August is workable with early starts; September and October we plan with a spare night in reserve.

Not directly — the two countries do not share a border. Any land route runs through Laos or Cambodia and costs three days at least, and the Thai – Cambodian gates have been closed to tourists since June 2025 in any case. Da Nang to Bangkok is about two hours in the air and it is the right answer here.

For this pairing, yes, because the transfers are short. Eleven nights gives six in Vietnam and five in Thailand with no travel day wasted at a border. Below that we would rather you took one country properly.

Yes. Bangkok to Phuket or Krabi is an hour and twenty and the Andaman coast is at its best from November to April, the same window as this route. It costs you the Thai north; most people who make that swap are travelling with children.

Thirty days, for sixty countries and territories, since 15 September 2026. It was sixty until then and much of the advice online still says so. Arriving by air, as you do here, it is more than enough.

No. Entering Laos at Nong Nok Khiene you take a visa on arrival, in US dollars cash with a passport photograph, and an e-visa bought in advance is wasted. Going the other way, the Cambodian e-visa is accepted at Trapeang Kriel — the rule is not symmetrical and this is the most common mistake on this route.

Phnom Penh to Si Phan Don in a single day is eleven or twelve hours including the border, and we will not build it. Kratie splits it into two manageable days and adds the only stretch of the Cambodian Mekong most visitors ever see.

Not at this pace. The three-day pass is included and valid on any three days within ten, and the reason for three is that it lets you stop between six and ten in the morning and again after four, which is when the temples are worth being in. If you would rather have two, we will give the day to the lake or to Battambang.

Yes, and the paperwork is easier that way: the Cambodian e-visa is accepted at Trapeang Kriel, so you arrive in Laos by air with an e-visa and leave by land with one too. The trade is that the river then runs against you the whole trip, which matters less than it sounds.

Not overland. Take out the Bolaven plateau, a Luang Prabang night and a Saigon night and you are at eighteen, but the two border days remain and the trip becomes a series of transfers with sightseeing between them. Eighteen days is better spent on two countries.

Because there is no useful road. The overland route would send you back down the length of Laos to the Cambodian gate at Trapeang Kriel and cost three days to arrive at a place two hours away in the air. If you want that road, take the Cambodia and Laos itinerary, which is built around it.

You need one that covers two entries with the right gates named, or two separate applications — which it is depends on your nationality and on the current e-visa rules. It is settled before anything else is booked, because the gates cannot be changed once the visa is issued.

November to March. December and January are the driest and the coolest in Laos and Cambodia, with Hanoi grey and about fifteen degrees, which some people mind and some prefer. April and May are the hottest weeks of the year on this whole route and we will say so when you ask for them.

Because Cebu is an international airport in its own right — Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo all connect directly — and because the first three days then need no domestic flight at all. If your international routing only reaches Manila, we start there with a night and a morning hop to Cebu, and the trip becomes eleven days.

Yes. Coron is quieter, less pretty above water and much more interesting below it — about ten Japanese wrecks from September 1944, several at recreational depths, which makes it one of the few places where wreck diving needs no technical qualification. Divers should consider it. Everyone else usually prefers the lagoons.

It is two boat days, which covers Tours A and C — the two most people would choose. A third night adds Tour D or a day at Nacpan, and on a storm-season trip it is also the margin. If Palawan is the reason you are coming, take four nights and cut a night from Cebu.

Yes, and it is the one part of this itinerary we will not remove. The terminals are separate buildings, the traffic can take longer than the domestic flight, and a missed international departure costs more than a hotel room. The evening buys you Intramuros and a good dinner as well.

Flooded and mirror-like in May and June, green through July and August, and ripe gold in September and the first half of October. From November the fields are cut and by December the valley is bare and cold. March to May is the other good window, with the fields being worked rather than harvested.

Yes. The expressway takes five to six hours each way, which costs you most of two days instead of one night, so the week loses either Ninh Binh or the bay. We would rather keep the train and lose nothing.

The town has been built over badly and we will not defend it. The Muong Hoa valley below it has not been, because terraced rice is working farmland. Stay one night in the town, walk out of it on both days, and the question mostly answers itself.

Only on a Sunday, and it costs an extra night. Bac Ha is two and a half hours east of Sa Pa and is the most interesting market in the north — enough that we would rearrange a week around it if the dates almost fit.

It works best from about five to fifteen. Below five, cut the bay night and stay on the coast. Above fifteen, most of the constraints stop being necessary and the ten-day highlights route with a beach extension is usually the better trip.

Yes, for one night, on a boat with a swimming platform and kayaks. It is the day most children rate first. Two nights aboard is where it turns, because the second afternoon has nothing new in it.

You can. Da Nang and the coast north of Hoi An have good family hotels and the leg costs you nothing but a short transfer, which removes the hardest day of the twelve. The trade is the water — the An Thoi islands are clearer and shallower than anything on the central coast.

February to April and October to December. The three regions never align: February and March are grey in Hanoi but dry and warm in the centre and the south, and October and November bring the best light in the north while central Vietnam is still at risk of a typhoon tail. Tell us your school dates and we will tell you which legs are safe in them.

The viewpoint at Sop Ruak is worth ten minutes and nothing more. What justifies the day is the opium museum, which is the only honest account of the trade, and Chiang Saen eight kilometres downstream, which is a walled river town with thirteenth-century ruins on a working bank.

It is the natural way to. Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong is an hour and a half, Friendship Bridge IV takes about thirty minutes with formalities, and the Mekong slow boat from Huay Xai reaches Luang Prabang in two days with a night at Pak Beng. The Lao e-visa is valid at that bridge and must be carried printed.

Not much: two to three kilometres a day, all of it flat or on level forest track. The physical part of this week is the sitting — there are two road days of two to three hours and several hours of hill roads around Mae Salong.

November to February, when it is dry, clear and genuinely cold before dawn in the hills — ten degrees is ordinary at Mae Salong in January. May to October is green, wet and quiet, with rain mostly in the afternoon. March and April we refuse.

Several thousand people stand at the northern pond from half past five, and both the reflection and the crowd are real. We put it on your last temple morning rather than your first, when you know the site well enough to walk away as soon as the sky has done its work.

You can — five and a half to six hours, flat and straight. It only makes sense if you break it at Battambang for a night, which turns this into the eight-day route. Otherwise the forty-five minute flight buys you the memorials on the same day.

It is enough for the memorials on one afternoon and the museum and palace on the next morning, and it means choosing nothing else. Two nights adds the markets and an hour on the river at dusk, which is the one thing here that is purely pleasant.

November to February: dry, 25 to 30°C and low humidity, and also the busiest. June to August is green, cooler after the rain breaks and much quieter. September and October are the wettest months, the emptiest temples, and the only time the lake villages look as they are sold.

We do not book it. The fast boats run the same stretch in a few hours at high speed on a river with rocks and submerged timber, with crash helmets issued, and the accident record is poor. If two days is too long, fly to Luang Prabang and we will rebuild the week around it.

A single street on a steep bank, a row of guesthouses, a few restaurants and a generator. Everybody on the river stops there because there is nowhere else, and the point of the night is the early start the next morning. It is plain and it is fine.

Yes. The Mekong runs high and fast from June and the journey is often quicker, not slower. What the rains affect is visibility from the hills and the state of the roads at either end, not the boat itself.

You can, and the rail legs work equally well northbound. The river is better travelled downstream — the boats take longer against the current and the light through the afternoon is wrong. If the route has to run south to north, we would fly the river leg and keep the train.

No. Day boats run from Labuan Bajo and this route stays ashore. Two nights aboard buys the early mornings, when the park is empty, and removes about four hours of transit a day. It is the difference most divers care about and many other travellers do not.

You could, and Borobudur and Prambanan are the reason not to. They are two of the great monuments of Asia, an hour apart, in a country most itineraries visit only for its beaches. Drop Flores instead if something has to go, and give Bali five nights.

Because the boat days are the weather risk and they belong where a lost day is cheapest — at the end, next to the margin. Putting Bali last means a cancelled Komodo day eats a temple morning instead of an afternoon by a pool.

May to September is dry across all three islands, and May, June and September are the ones we push people towards — the same weather as July and August with noticeably fewer people. January and February are the wettest on Bali and the roughest in the Flores Sea.

Because Cebu is an international airport in its own right — Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo connect directly — and because the first four days then need no domestic flight at all. If your international routing only reaches Manila, we start there with a night and a morning hop, and the trip becomes eleven days.

El Nido for the lagoons, the cliffs and the greater choice of places to stay. Coron for wreck diving, the crater lakes and quieter water. Divers should take Coron; almost everyone else prefers El Nido, which is why this route puts three nights there and two at Coron.

We hold the short flight as an alternative and decide the evening before rather than at the pier. If both go, the spare day on the Palawan leg absorbs it — which is why that day exists between June and November.

December to May is the dry season and February to April is as reliable as the Philippines gets. June to November is typhoon season, peaking August to October. The country runs on the same calendar as mainland Southeast Asia, so this is the island leg for a winter route.

Yes. It has been closed to tourists since 23 June 2025, at every crossing including Poipet and Hat Lek, and no reopening date has been published. Bangkok to Siem Reap is a one-hour flight and that is how we route it.

Cambodia and Laos sell visas on arrival at their main land gates, in US dollars cash with a passport photo. Vietnam does not: you need an e-visa or an exemption before you reach the gate, and the e-visa must already name that gate.

About a week for Cambodia, five days or more for Laos, and three to five working days for Vietnam — but the constraint that matters is not the processing time, it is that the Vietnamese and Lao documents are tied to specific gates. Settle the route first, then apply.

Because they change without announcement, and a wrong figure on a travel website is worse than no figure. We link you to the official portal for your nationality and your coordinator confirms the current amount before you travel.

For the mainland, February: dry and clear from Hanoi to Angkor, with the Andaman coast at its best. For Indonesia it is closer to July or August. There is no month that is ideal for all six countries at once, which is why we choose the countries around your dates rather than the other way round.

In southern Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, usually not: it is a heavy hour in the afternoon that you plan around, and the countryside is far better looking than in March. In central Vietnam in October, and in the Philippines between August and October, it is a genuine risk to the schedule and we build spare days into those itineraries.

March and the first half of April, when agricultural burning puts a persistent haze across the northern valleys. The temples are unaffected; the views are not.

Six months for travel between 20 December and 5 January, and for the Tet and Chinese New Year weeks. Three to four months is usually enough for the rest of the high season, and six weeks is workable from May to September.

Not at the moment. The Thailand – Cambodia land border has been closed to tourists since 23 June 2025 and remains closed, including Poipet and Hat Lek. Bangkok to Siem Reap is a one-hour flight, several a day, and that is the only sensible way across.

Route 1 or Route 4 — one country, internal flights only, no border paperwork after arrival. Both leave room for jet lag in the first two days, which the multi-country routes do not.

Route 1 and Route 3 read equally well in either direction, and we often start Route 3 in Luang Prabang and finish in Bangkok to make the international connection easier. Route 2 is better in the order given, because you want the border in the middle of the trip and Angkor at the end.

No. They are shapes. Each links to the package page that follows it most closely, and every trip we run is rebuilt around your dates, your pace and the ages of the people travelling.

As an indicative range, USD 120 to 200 per person per day on the mainland for a mid-range private trip with a driver and guides, and USD 150 to 280 in Indonesia and the Philippines. Those exclude international flights and are a way of sizing a budget, not a quotation.

Because the car, the driver and the guide are yours rather than divided by sixteen, and because the itinerary is built around your dates rather than a departure calendar. The difference narrows quickly as the party grows: four people on the same route usually pay less per head than two.

No. Every trip we run is rebuilt around dates, party size and hotel standard, and a headline figure with a star beside it would tell you nothing useful. Send us the shape and you will have an itemised quote.

Enough US dollars in clean, unmarked notes to cover any visa on arrival, a border charge and a day or two of incidentals, and then local currency drawn from cash machines as you go. Cambodia and the remoter Lao gates are the places where cash is not optional.

Around eight is the easiest: old enough to walk, swim and enjoy a boat or a cooking class, young enough to be delighted by all of it. Four is entirely possible with short days and a pool. Fourteen is the age at which the history finally lands.

Thailand, for the family beach resorts, the short domestic flights and the international-standard hospitals in Bangkok. Vietnam is a close second and is the warmest towards small children socially.

Between March and May on the mainland it is genuinely demanding, and the answer is the shape of the day rather than the month: out early, in the water from late morning, out again at four. November to February is comfortable almost everywhere.

Yes, and they usually enjoy it more than their parents expect — Ta Prohm in particular. Three short mornings at opening beat two long days, and between March and May stop by ten o’clock.