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A winding mountain road snakes through green forested peaks near Sapa, Lao Cai.

Travel guide

Five two-week routes

Not a list of places, a list of shapes. Each of these five works because of a specific join — a road, a bridge, a boat or a one-hour flight — and each of them excludes somebody.

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Routes

What makes a route work

A fourteen-day route is not a list of the best places in Southeast Asia. It is a sequence in which each move is short enough to leave the day intact, each border is open in the direction you are travelling, and the paperwork for the next country can be filed before you reach it. Change the order and the same five places can become a good trip or an exhausting one.

These are the five shapes we build most often. Each one is described by its join first, because the join is what decides whether it is possible at all — and two of the joins have changed in the last eighteen months.

A wooden tourist junk boat cruises past a limestone karst island in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

Route 1

Vietnam north to south

One country, two internal flights, no border. The easiest fortnight in the region.

The road between rice fields approaching the Moc Bai border gate, southern Vietnam

Route 2

Vietnam and Cambodia overland

Two countries joined by one road day at Moc Bai, placed mid-trip.

A wooden slow boat on the Mekong near Pak Beng, northern Laos

Route 3

Thailand and Laos by slow boat

The one border crossing people look forward to: two days down the Mekong.

Sunbathers relax on the white sand of Phra Nang Beach beneath a towering limestone cliff in Krabi.

Route 4

Thailand and an island week

One country, one internal flight, and seven nights that do not move.

Stone stupas of Borobudur above morning mist in central Java, Indonesia

Route 5

Bali and Java

The southern-hemisphere route, dry when the mainland is not.

One country

Route 1 — Vietnam north to south

The sequence: Hanoi 2 nights · Ha Long or Lan Ha Bay 1 · Hoi An 3 · Ho Chi Minh City 2 · Mekong Delta 1 · Phu Quoc 4
The joins: Two domestic flights of about an hour and fifteen each — Hanoi to Da Nang, Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City — plus a 45-minute hop to Phu Quoc. No border, no visa change, no paperwork after arrival.
Best months: February to April, and December. In October the centre is at flood risk, so the Hoi An block moves to the start.
Who it suits: First trips to Asia, travellers who want one country in depth, anyone whose dates fall in a month that suits the mainland.
Who it does not: People who want variety between cultures rather than between regions. Vietnam changes a great deal from north to south, but it is one country and it feels like one.

This is the route we recommend most and sell least, because two countries sound better in the planning stage. It has the lowest failure rate of anything on this page: nothing depends on a border, and the only thing that can go wrong is weather in the centre, which the ordering already protects against. Phu Quoc is 30 days visa-free for every nationality.

Two countries, one road

Route 2 — Vietnam and Cambodia, overland at Moc Bai

The sequenceHanoi 2 · Ha Long Bay 1 · Hoi An 3 · Ho Chi Minh City 2 · road to Phnom Penh 2 · Siem Reap 3

The joinOne road day at Moc Bai – Bavet, six to seven hours door to door. The Cambodian e-visa is accepted at this gate, and your Vietnamese e-visa must name Moc Bai as the exit point when you apply.

Best monthsNovember to March, when both countries share a dry season. April is workable but Angkor is punishing.

Who it suitsSecond-time visitors, anyone who wants to feel a country change through a car window, travellers who like Angkor to be the last thing rather than the first.

Who it does notAnyone with fewer than fourteen days, and anyone who will resent a full day in a vehicle. At ten days this route delivers a single usable day in Phnom Penh.

The reason the border sits on day nine and not day thirteen is simple: if the crossing runs long you lose an afternoon in Phnom Penh instead of an international flight. That single decision is most of what we are paid for on a route like this.

Border	Crossing	Route	Time at the border	Status	What it means for your visa
Vietnam – Cambodia	Moc Bai – Bavet	Road, Ho Chi Minh City – Phnom Penh	6 – 7 h	Open	Cambodian e-visa accepted here. Your Vietnamese e-visa must name Moc Bai as the exit gate.
Vietnam – Cambodia	Ha Tien – Prek Chak	Road, Phu Quoc ferry – Kampot / Kep	3 h from Ha Tien to Kampot	Open	Take a Cambodian visa on arrival here (USD cash and a passport photo). The e-visa is not listed for this gate.
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.

Checked 20 September 2026

Verified against government sources on this date. The Vietnamese e-visa is open to every nationality for up to 90 days but fixes the entry and exit gates you name on the application, and they cannot be changed afterwards — naming the wrong gate is the most common way a self-planned overland route fails. The Cambodian e-visa is valid at two land gates only, Bavet and Trapeang Kriel; at Prek Chak, the gate from Ha Tien, it is a visa on arrival with US dollars in cash and a passport photo. We do not print visa fees, because they change without announcement.

Two countries, one river

Route 3 — Thailand and Laos, down the Mekong

The sequenceBangkok 2 · Chiang Mai 3 · Chiang Rai 1 · Friendship Bridge IV and Pak Beng 1 · Luang Prabang 3 · Vang Vieng 1 · Vientiane 2

The joinThe bridge at Chiang Khong – Huay Xai, thirty minutes at the border, then two days on the Mekong with a night at Pak Beng. The Lao e-visa is valid at this gate, which is not true of most Lao crossings. The return south runs on the Laos – China railway rather than the road.

Best monthsNovember to February. Avoid March and early April, when burning haze sits over both the northern Thai and Lao valleys.

Who it suitsTravellers who like rivers and slow days, and anyone who would rather the crossing itself were an experience instead of a transfer.

Who it does notAnyone on a tight schedule — the boat costs two days and cannot be hurried — and anyone who needs a beach in the itinerary. There is no coast in Laos.

This is the only land border in the region that people look forward to. It is also the one where the paperwork is least forgiving: the Lao e-visa is valid at nine named ports only, it must be carried as a printed sheet, and a photograph of it on a phone is refused. Everywhere else in Laos it is a visa on arrival instead, and the e-visa is not refunded if you arrive at the wrong gate holding one.

Checked 20 September 2026

Verified on this date. Two rules shape this route. The Lao e-visa is single entry, 30 days, printed, and valid at nine ports only — not at any Vietnamese land gate, not at Nong Nok Khiene and not at Friendship Bridge III. And Thailand’s visa exemption dropped from 60 days to 30 on 15 September 2026 for 60 countries and territories, with overland entries on it capped at twice a calendar year, so a route that leaves Thailand for Laos and returns uses your second entry. The Thailand Digital Arrival Card is compulsory and free, filed within three days of arrival. No fees are printed on this site.

One country, one beach

Route 4 — Thailand, and then a week that does not move

The sequence: Bangkok 3 · Chiang Mai 3 · Krabi or Koh Samui 7
The joins: Two domestic flights, roughly an hour and a half each, plus a boat transfer if the beach is an island. No border and no second set of paperwork.
Which coast: November to April, the Andaman — Krabi, Phuket, the Phi Phi boats. June to September, the Gulf — Samui, Phangan — which is calmer then. In late October and November neither coast is reliable, which is the one month we move the beach to the front of the trip.
Who it suits: Families, anyone travelling with a young child, first-time visitors who want a week of nothing at the end, and travellers coming off a long-haul flight with jet lag to lose.
Who it does not: Anyone who came to see as much as possible. Seven nights in one place is the point of this route.

The seven-night block is deliberate. The commonest mistake in a two-week Thailand itinerary is three nights on each of two islands, which spends a full day on a ferry and an airport and leaves neither place long enough to relax in. Pick one coast and stay on it.

The southern hemisphere route

Route 5 — Bali and Java

The sequenceYogyakarta 3 · Bali, inland at Ubud 4 · Bali, east or north coast 4 · optional Labuan Bajo and Komodo 3 in place of one Bali block

The joinsA four to five hour flight from Bangkok, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur into Denpasar or Yogyakarta, then one internal flight of about an hour and a half. No land border exists between Indonesia and any mainland country on this site.

Best monthsMay to September, exactly when the mainland is wet. January and February are the wettest and the Flores crossing is regularly cancelled.

Who it suitsAnyone whose dates fall in the northern summer, travellers who want temples and volcanoes as well as a coast, and divers and snorkellers, for whom Komodo is the reason to come.

Who it does notPeople who want to combine it with a full mainland itinerary in a fortnight. Indonesia is a flight away and deserves its own week.

Entry is a visa on arrival for European, North American, Australian and Northeast Asian passports, valid 30 days and extendable once. The All Indonesia arrival card is filed within 72 hours of arriving, Bali charges a separate tourist levy per person, and proof of onward travel is checked at Denpasar.

Checked 20 September 2026

Indonesian entry rules were verified on this date. We do not print the visa on arrival fee or the Bali levy here: both change without announcement and the official portals are the only source worth quoting. Your coordinator sends the current figures and the correct link for your nationality before you travel.

Which of the five is yours?

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Tell us the dates, who is travelling and what you would be sorry to miss. We will tell you which of these shapes fits and what we would change about it.

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Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Can I do Thailand and Cambodia overland in two weeks?

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.

Which of these five is best for a first trip to Asia?

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.

Can I run any of these in reverse?

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.

Are these fixed itineraries?

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.

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