A maroon train carriage stands at a quiet platform lined with tracks and signal poles at Ayutthaya train station.

Travel guide

Getting around

Every hour you spend moving is an hour you are not somewhere. This is what each way of moving actually costs in time and comfort, including the parts that are genuinely unpleasant.

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Flights

The first decision: what to fly

Southeast Asia has cheap, frequent domestic aviation and slow roads. That combination means the default answer for any movement over about 400 km is a flight, and the exceptions are the interesting part of this page.

Fly the long internal legs — Hanoi to Da Nang, Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, Denpasar to Labuan Bajo, Manila to Palawan, Bangkok to Chiang Mai — and fly anything that would otherwise be a ten-hour road day. Do not fly a distance you could drive in four hours: with the airport margins at both ends, a one-hour flight is a five-hour day, and you will have seen nothing but two terminals.

The one route where flying is not optional is Bangkok to Siem Reap. The Thailand – Cambodia land border has been closed to tourists since June 2025, and the road around it through Laos costs three days.

Typical leg	Best way	Door to door
Hanoi – Hoi An	Fly to Da Nang, then 45 minutes by road	About 4 hours
Bangkok – Siem Reap	Fly — the land border is closed	About 4 hours
Ho Chi Minh City – Phnom Penh	Road, crossing at Moc Bai	6 – 7 hours
Chiang Khong – Luang Prabang	Mekong slow boat, one night at Pak Beng	2 days
Vientiane – Luang Prabang	Laos–China railway	About 2 hours
Hue – Hoi An	Private car over the Hai Van pass	4 hours with stops
Bali – Yogyakarta	Fly	About 3.5 hours
Manila – El Nido	Fly, or fly to Puerto Princesa and drive	3 – 8 hours

Trains

Trains: two that are worth planning around

The Laos–China railway has changed what is possible in Laos more than anything else in a decade. Vientiane to Luang Prabang, which was a seven-hour road day over mountains, is now about two hours. It is clean, quick and cheap, and the tickets sell out several days ahead in the dry season, which is the practical argument for having someone buy them for you. The catch is that the stations are well outside the towns — allow half an hour at each end — and the line runs on a fixed timetable that will not wait for a late arrival.

Vietnam’s railway is slower and better at what it does. The overnight run from Hanoi to Hue or Da Nang takes about thirteen hours in a four-berth soft sleeper, which sounds worse than it is: you board after dinner and wake up in a different climate, and it saves a hotel night. The daylight stretch between Hue and Da Nang, around three hours along the coast and over the Hai Van headland, is the single best train ride in the region and is worth taking even if you drive the rest. What the Vietnamese railway is not is fast: Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City end to end is more than thirty hours, and nobody should do that unless the train is the point.

In Thailand, the overnight Bangkok to Chiang Mai sleeper takes about thirteen hours and is comfortable in the newer carriages. The hour and a half up to Ayutthaya is the easiest day trip in the country.

A sleeper compartment on the night train between Hanoi and Da Nang, Vietnam

A modern train at Luang Prabang station on the Laos–China railway

The Hanoi night train · Luang Prabang station

Boats

Boats: the slow one, and the ones to be careful with

The Mekong slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang is two days — roughly six hours to Pak Beng, a night there, then seven or eight hours on. It is the most enjoyable border crossing in the region and the only one people look forward to. The boats are long and low with bus seats bolted into them; there is a toilet, there is food, and there is no way to hurry any of it. Take a cushion and a book.

The speedboats that run the same river in six hours are a different proposition: they are loud, they are hard on the spine, and their safety record is poor. We do not book them, and we would rather lose the booking than put someone on one.

Elsewhere the boats matter as much as the flights. Ha Long Bay is only worth doing as an overnight, because the bay empties after four in the afternoon. The Andaman and Gulf ferries are routine in the dry season and can be cancelled in a squall. The Bali to Nusa Penida and Gili fast boats are short and frequently rough, and the crossing from Bali towards Flores in January and February is regularly called off. In the Philippines, the boat between islands is not a scenic extra — it is the road, and it stops when the sea says so.

Passengers aboard a wooden Mekong slow boat approaching Pak Beng, northern Laos

Day one of the slow boat

Buses

Buses, and when we will not use one

Public long-distance buses are cheap, frequent and usually the wrong choice on a private trip, because a private car costs a manageable amount more and gives you the stops. There are exceptions. The Lao VIP buses between Vientiane and the south are the only practical option on some legs. Cambodian roads between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are good enough that the five to six hour run is genuinely comfortable.

Vietnamese sleeper buses — the ones with three rows of reclining berths — are the part of regional travel people complain about most, and fairly. They are cramped for anyone over about 175 cm, they drive through the night at speed, and they arrive at four in the morning. We do not put them in itineraries. The night train does the same job better.

Private car

The private car, and the days it earns

A car with a driver is the default on most of our trips, and on some legs it is unambiguously the right answer rather than a luxury. Hue to Hoi An over the Hai Van pass is four hours with stops and is a highlight in its own right. Ho Chi Minh City into the Mekong Delta only works with a vehicle, because the point is the small roads. Kampot to the Vietnamese coast, Siem Reap to Battambang and the rice country, the run out to Kuang Si from Luang Prabang — all of these are better driven.

The honest limit is about five hours of driving in a day, six if the road is good and the stops are worthwhile. Beyond that, the day is the journey, and everyone arrives too tired to do anything with the evening. When a route needs more than six hours between two places, we look for a flight, a train or a different route.

In cities, ride-hailing applications work well in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines and take most of the negotiation out of a short hop. Laos has its own local application with thinner coverage. Metered taxis are reliable in Bangkok and patchy elsewhere.

Comfortable road dayUp to 4 hours of driving, with two stops worth making.

Long but justified5 to 6 hours, when the road itself is the reason — Hai Van, the delta, the Bolaven plateau.

We will look for an alternativeOver 6 hours, unless it is a border day that cannot be flown.

We will declineNine-hour road days in a family itinerary, and overnight sleeper buses in any itinerary.

Borders

Crossing a border by road, in practice

A land crossing is a walk between two buildings with a vehicle change in the middle. Your driver takes you to the barrier on one side; you clear exit formalities on foot, walk or shuttle across, clear entry on the other, and meet a second driver. Nothing about it is difficult, and almost everything that goes wrong is paperwork that could have been sorted a week earlier.

Border	Crossing	Route	Time at the border	Status	What it means for your visa
Vietnam – Laos	Lao Bao – Dansavanh	Road, Hue / Dong Ha – Savannakhet	7 – 8 h	Operating, no government status page	The Lao e-visa is not valid at this gate — buy a visa on arrival.
Vietnam – Laos	Nam Can – Nam Kan	Road, Vinh – Phonsavan	8 h	Operating, no government status page	Lao visa on arrival only.
Vietnam – Laos	Tay Trang – Sop Hun	Road, Dien Bien Phu – Muang Khua	5 h	Operating, no government status page	Lao visa on arrival only.
Thailand – Laos	Friendship Bridge I	Road, Nong Khai – Vientiane	30 min	Open	Lao e-visa valid. The Lao digital arrival form runs here.
Thailand – Laos	Friendship Bridge II	Road, Mukdahan – Savannakhet	30 min	Open	Lao e-visa valid.
Thailand – Laos	Friendship Bridge IV	Road, Chiang Khong – Huay Xai	30 min	Open	Lao e-visa valid. This is where the Mekong slow boat to Luang Prabang starts.
Laos – Cambodia	Nong Nok Khiene – Trapeang Kriel	Road, 4000 Islands – Stung Treng	2 h	Operating, no government status page	Cambodian e-visa accepted at Trapeang Kriel; leaving Laos needs no e-visa, but entering Laos this way does need a visa on arrival.

Checked 20 September 2026

Border status and visa validity were verified against government sources on this date. The rules that most often break a self-planned route: the Lao e-visa is single entry, 30 days, must be carried printed rather than shown on a phone, and is valid at nine ports only — not at any Vietnamese land gate, not at Nong Nok Khiene and not at Friendship Bridge III, where you buy a visa on arrival instead. The Vietnamese e-visa fixes the entry and exit gates you named and cannot be changed afterwards. The Thailand – Cambodia land border has been closed to tourists since 23 June 2025. We do not print border or visa fees on this site, because they change without announcement.

Honestly

What is genuinely uncomfortable

Overnight sleeper buses anywhere on the mainland, and particularly in Vietnam and Laos. Cramped, fast and badly timed.
Mekong speedboats between Huay Xai and Luang Prabang. Loud, punishing and with a poor safety record.
The full-length Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City train, at more than thirty hours. Magnificent in theory, a long time in a berth in practice.
Fast boats out of Bali in the wet season, and any Philippine inter-island boat in a storm warning. Both are routine until they are not.
Motorbike taxis in heavy city traffic, which we will book if you ask and will not put in an itinerary by default.
Any road day over about six hours, regardless of how good the vehicle is.

We would rather write these down than have you discover them. Where a route needs one of them, we will say so before you book, and where there is an alternative that costs an hour and saves a day of misery, we take the alternative.

Let us do the moving parts.

Plan My Trip

One coordinator, every connection

Trains booked before they sell out, drivers waiting on both sides of a border, and flights with margins that survive a delay.

Plan My Trip

Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Is the Laos–China railway worth using?

Yes, between Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang — about two hours instead of seven on the road. The stations are outside the towns, so allow half an hour at each end, and the tickets sell out several days ahead in the dry season.

Should I take the night train in Vietnam?

For Hanoi to Hue or Da Nang, yes: about thirteen hours in a four-berth soft sleeper, and it saves a hotel night. For the full run to Ho Chi Minh City, no — that is over thirty hours and the flight is two.

Is the Mekong slow boat safe and comfortable?

Safe, and comfortable enough: two long days on bus seats in a wooden boat, with a night at Pak Beng. The speedboats that cover the same route in six hours are a different matter and we do not book them.

How long is too long for a road day?

About six hours of driving. Beyond that the day is the journey and the evening is gone. The exception is a border day that cannot be flown, such as Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh at six to seven hours.

Journey ideas