I’ve traveled all over the world, and I’ve never been able to travel as well, as cheaply, and as safely as on my trip to Southeast Asia. If you’re a single woman, a couple, young, old, any group at all, you can walk everywhere without even the fear of pickpocketing. You can sleep in your own bedroom for $10-$20 a night. You can have delicious meals for $3. You can experience four different countries- with four different alphabets, languages, cultures, and world-class cuisines- all within safe, clean bus rides of each other or cheap frequent flights.
For the diversity of cultures you can experience, the landscapes, the wildlife, the food, and the price, there’s just no region better than Southeast Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos deserve at least three weeks, though I’d recommend 6 or more. Warning: Most of the food in this region has shrimp paste and/or fish sauce. If you’re allergic to either or a serious vegetarian, it will be challenging to avoid these ingredients. While they don’t sound appealing, they’re in tiny quantities and the food tastes delicious! Tofu is everywhere as are fresh fruits and vegetables, so it’s no problem ordering vegetarian everywhere if you are okay with a pinch of one or the other.
Since each country has so much to offer, I’m writing one article about each of them.
If you have three weeks or more, then I strongly recommend seeing the highlights of all 4 countries to get a taste of the incredible diversity of riches in the region- food, culture, history, archeology, art, music, dance, religion, hospitality, etc.
If you have less than three weeks, then read this overview and decide on one country to visit on this trip- and hope that you can come back another time to explore more!
If you’re interested in Indonesia, I wrote a separate article about Indonesia because it’s so big, and you need to take planes to get from island to island, so it’s a time-consuming, expensive country to get to from the four countries I’m discussing here. These four countries in this article are all really cheap and easy to get to from each other on budget airlines and/or buses, trains, and boats. Indonesia is fabulous, and absolutely worth the effort to get to each island, but it deserves its own separate 3-6 week trip!
Below, check out the links to my articles about each of these separate countries:
If you have time, check out my 6 weeks itinerary including all of these places…with ways to make it work in 5 to 8 weeks!
If you decide on just one of these great countries to visit, I have separate itineraries for just Thailand (2 weeks) and Vietnam (3 weeks).
Table of Contents
When to go to Southeast Asia
Ideally, you’ll plan your trip to Southeast Asia from November to February. If you’re a teacher, winter break is a perfect time to go- though of course since most tourists have the same two weeks off, you’ll need to book your accommodation in advance for those two weeks in particular.
It is high season, but you don’t want to be traveling during the serious rainy season (April- October/November), and you definitely don’t want to be in northern Thailand and Cambodia during the driest time, when farmers practice slash-and-burn agriculture and the air quality can be horrendous (mid-January- March, with March normally being the worst). Vietnam and Laos normally don’t deliberately start fires until late February, but of course they are all quite close together.
Central Vietnam’s rainy season doesn’t end until December, so that one region you might want to wait until December/January. Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos are all dry by November, so you can start in any of those countries in November and try to fly out by mid to late January.
Where to go on your trip to Southeast Asia
If you have at least three weeks, then I’d definitely recommend going to all four of these countries. But if you have less time, then read these descriptions and decide on one country to get to know well. Another trip, come back for longer!
Vietnam
Who should go:
- If you love Vietnamese food: Vietnamese food is healthy, fresh, cheap, and with tons of wonderful variety. Fresh fruits and vegetables are everywhere, with delicious crunchy vegetables in everything from the famous pho (beef soup) to ban mi (sandwiches) to spring rolls and salads. Light soups, noodles, salads, sandwiches, and fresh produce make for tons of healthy, tasty variety. It’s rarely spicy, and the spicy sauces to dip in are often on the side. Vietnamese coffee is popular, as is green tea.
- If you’re interested in the Vietnam War- or as it’s called there, the American War. Powerful museums in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi show the Vietnamese perspective, as do the Cuchi Tunnels.
- If you love caves, Vietnam has the longest caves in the world, and you can hike through them. We hiked through the 3rd longest cave in the world with Jungle Boss, and would recommend them.
- If you want to see stunning karst formations by boat, kayak, bike, and hiking, Halong Bay is one of the most gorgeous natural landscapes anywhere. A bit more off the beaten path, Ninh Binh is the same beautiful karst formations in rice fields instead of the ocean. Both options offer biking, hiking, and kayaking.
- If you can handle intense population density, scooters everywhere, car exhaust, and noise, Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi offer fascinating museums, world-class food (and food tours!), endless opportunities for cultural events and entertainment, and day trips to nature and quieter areas.
- People are polite, hospitable, clean, friendly, and speak English well. They are also very efficient- things get done promptly and well. Things will run on time and responsibly. Tourist operators are knowledgeable and competent. Tourist infrastructure is strong and easy to navigate. Grab is a ride-hailing app that works everywhere and is easy to use.
- If you want tailor-made clothes! Hoi An, Vietnam, is the world capital of making custom-made clothes. They are unbelievably good quality and fast, really the best in the world. If you want a tailor made dress (even wedding dress or bridesmaid dresses!), suit, purse, shoes, or anything else, Hoi An is the place to go. I had 3 dresses and a purse made (2 of them shipped home for me), and Victor had a suit made (and shipped home). It was SO much fun, and we still love them today!
- Boat connections from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh, and flight connections from Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi internationally and more locally- and other airports throughout Vietnam just locally.
- Check out my Vietnam itinerary here!
Thailand
Who should go:
- If you love Thai food: spicy and flavorful stewed curries and rice, noodles (like Pad Thai) and soups (Tom Kha Gai, Khao Soi, etc.), mango with sticky rice, Thai iced tea, papaya and mango salads, with delicious coconut milk in many dishes.
- If you love street food: Every town in Thailand has street food everywhere and a night market. You can eat safely and for a few dollars on the street in every town, with different regional specialities everywhere you go. In bigger cities like Bangkok and Chiangmai, you can get world class food from around the world. We had great vegan Italian food in Chiangmai, and good Mexican tacos there too!
- If you want to see wildlife: We saw elephants, monkeys, and much more at Khao Yai National Park, a wonderful experience.
- Amateur archeologists and historians: Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, and Bangkok itself were all important religious and cultural powerhouses centuries ago, and there are many historical buildings to explore by foot and by bike.
- If you like gold and seeing modern royalty and Buddhism in action: Bangkok has some of the most lavish religious and royal buildings anywhere, open to the public. After seeing the grey stones of what is left of powerful kingdoms centuries ago at Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, Bangkok shows you what it would have looked like back then with all the gold and precious stones intact!
- If you want to see a modern megapolis, you can’t beat Bangkok. It’s enormous, with a fast, clean, efficient metro, ferries, and other public transport that is easy to navigate, street food everywhere, world-class food everywhere, palaces, gold, river views, rooftop bars, traditional narrow alleyways, the largest market in the world, cheap fantastic massages and mani/pedis, and a million things to do and see. It’s also high-paced megacity of 10 million. It has the best international airport, so you will probably fly in or out of here. There is also a seedy sex tourism neighborhood I would not recommend you give money to at all as human trafficking is a serious problem, and medical tourism is also popular and much safer.
- Boat connections from northern Thailand to Laos, flight connections from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Phuket everywhere else.
- Check out my Thailand itinerary here!
Cambodia
Who should go:
- Anyone who is at all interested in archeology: The complexes of Angkor Wat and the surrounding hundreds of temples and palaces are some of the most impressive archeology in the world, honestly one of the most impressive places anywhere.
- Historians: With the grandeur of the Khmer kingdom from centuries ago at Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is), you can also experience the much more depressing but equally important and powerfully done museums about the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal regime from 1975-1979 that murdered millions of their own citizens. Both the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields are extremely well done, thought-provoking and powerful with excellent audio guides about this important chapter of 20th century history.
- Foodies: While not nearly as famous as Thai or Vietnamese food, Cambodian food has lots of wonderful flavors as well. Fantastic food tours in Siem Reap will teach you all about it, while Phnom Penh has world-class restaurants.
- Cambodia is much poorer than Vietnam and Thailand, and the infrastructure is not as smooth. The connections between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are safe, cheap, and easy, but getting elsewhere is much slower (still completely safe, just not as good roads). While daytrips and longer excursions outside of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are possible, they are either very expensive with guides and drivers or very slow on your own.
- Boat connection from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh, flights available from Phnom Penh or Siem Reap to everywhere else.
Laos
Who should go:
- Anyone interested in Buddhism or spirtuality, as Luang Prabang is the spiritual capital of Laos and has dozens of temples- you will see monks everywhere!
- Anyone looking to relax and take things slowly! Luang Prabang is beautiful, and there are many day trips possible from this excellent home base. You can stay in a lovely location and experience so many wonderful cultural events from here. It’s a relaxed pace and everything takes time.
- If you want to stay put in one spot for a week or a month- Luang Prabang is one of my top home bases in the world because it’s such a lovely, relaxing town to walk around and get to know, and has so many enjoyable day trips or short overnight trips possible from it. Beautiful temples, daily market, walkable town, gorgeous views from the top of a temple on a hill and overlooking the Mekong river- lovely spots everywhere.
- It is much poorer than Vietnam and Thailand- like Cambodia- and the roads outside of Luang Prabang, Luang Namtha, Vang Vieng, and Vientiane are in very poor condition and will take a long time. Boat travel on the Mekong is faster and more pleasant, unless you’re taking the train between the cities mentioned before, where there is a brand-new, fast train in between those!
- Lots of biking and hiking opportunities, lots of nature with the river and hills to climb, and not as many tourists.
- Boat connection to northern Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai) and flight connections everywhere.
What to book ahead of time for a trip to Southeast Asia
- Long haul flights! Decide on which countries you’re going to and for how long, and then book your flights in and out of Southeast Asia. Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, and Hanoi are probably the best options. Play around with the options. Flights within Southeast Asia are generally very frequent and very cheap- so see whether flying into one city and out of the other is cheaper. For us, flying into Ho Chi Minh and flying out of Bangkok was the cheapest. For you, it might be a roundtrip ticket to Bangkok. Book your cheapest flights in and out, and you can work out the rest later. But the big flights try to book at least 3 months in advance, or earlier if possible!
- Accommodation and any must-see tours around Christmas and New Year’s. Everything everywhere for the two weeks around Christmas and New Years will be more expensive and more fully booked than the rest of the year. It’s the best time to go and when hundreds of millions of people have vacation. Book those dates as far in advance as you can. You can always book them refundable in case you want to change your plans later- but at least you have a place to sleep each night. If there’s something you know you want to do, like spend a couple of nights on a boat in Halong Bay– then book that tour far in advance as well if it’s during that time period.
- Unlock your cell phone, get ready to buy local SIM cards very cheaply everywhere, and download the languages of the countries you’re going to on the Google Translate app (Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian).
- Make sure you have a credit card with no foreign transaction fees like this one from Chase (referral code to get you bonus points) and a debit card that will refund your ATM fees and work abroad.
- A passport that won’t expire for at least 6 months after you return.
- Visas for all the countries you’re going to. This is a complicated one as it depends on which country you’re a citizen of and they are constantly changing the rules. PLEASE be careful to go to the actual government websites and read the rules and make payments directly with the governments. Many websites exist that promise to “help” you apply for visas for far more than applying directly- and you have to give them all the same information and they may or may not be legitimate! At the moment (July 2024), these are the current rules. You are likely to need official passport photos if you don’t have one already- and it’s useful to have an official digital passport photo as well.
- Thailand: Apply for a visa electronically BEFORE arrival here, stay no more than 30 days for $40 for Americans (or apply at a consulate for a visa for 90 days, or buy a multiple entry 6 month visa for $200). Do at least a few days ahead of time in case of any issues.
- Vietnam: Apply for a single entry or multiple entry 30 day visa here before arrival- give at least 7 working days processing time! We entered Vietnam twice, and would have been there for more than 30 days with the travel time elsewhere in between, so we bought 2 single entry visas. $25 each for Americans.
- Cambodia: Apply for a single entry 30 day visa here before arrival- at least 3 working days, $36.
- Laos: Apply for a single entry 60 day visa here before arrival- at least 3 working days, $50. You can also apply at the border, but that will be very slow and tedious.
Last tips for your trip to Southeast Asia
Check out my articles for specific information each of these countries:
If you have time to travel to all four, check out my 6 weeks itinerary including all of these places…with ways to make it work in 5 to 8 weeks!
If you decide on just one of these great countries to visit, I have separate itineraries for just Thailand (2 weeks) and Vietnam (3 weeks).
Have fun!
