First Time Travel
 

Hi all,

I am a first time traveler oversees. A friend and I would like to take a 3 week or month long tour of Asia (Preferably Far East-not Thailand area). The good news is, we have up to 14 months to plan and are very flexible with locations/activities/etc. The bad news is that we are both social workers and so are working on a tight budjet. Neither of us have ever been to Asia and don't even know where to begin! Can you help?

We can help, but you'll need to give us more information. What do you consider to be the "Far East"?
What are your priorities in terms of what you want to see/do/experience?
What time of year will you be traveling?
Is it important to you to do a group tour or are you open to independent travel?

The cost of a trip can vary from Country to Country. This may be a deciding factor in picking locations. If you provide an anticipated budget, we will be glad to recommend accomodations.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "Far East-not Thailand area". Do you just want to avoid Thailand (if so, any particular reasons?), or want to avoid Southeast Asia overall?

Probably the narrowly defined Far East would include countries like Japan, China/HK, Korea, Taiwan. If you have 3 months, I think you can easily combine these countries PLUS SE Asia.

Weatherwise, I'm not a big fan of summer weather in Asia overall--hot and humid. Plus summer peak season means higher airfare.

Far East? Huh? And what's wrong with Thailand or Thailand area? Happy Travels!

London, it must have been wishful thinking when you read the OP's post as having three months in Asia! They say they have three weeks to one month, so they will have to make decisions that limit the number of stops they make.

Kathie,

Yup. I must have been daydreaming. Even in Europe you're more likely to get 3weeks hol rather than 3months. In which case, OP should really stick to one country, possibly with another for connection/gateway. Won't be prudent to cover the whole of Asia.

Hello again,

First thanks for all of your advice. I went back and talked it over with my travel buddy and got some answers to your great (I never would have thought of) questions:

We would like to stick to either China or Japan. While we want to see the big cities, our main focus would be on the more cultural/rural experiences (I know so little at this point, I'm not even sure what to ask for). We have to travel between May and August of 09. We would be open to either independent or group travel (or a combo) but would like to have an authetic taste of the country while still remaining safe.

Look very much forward to your advice.

Thanks again,

dori

One last thing. Our budgets are pretty tight. We aren't even sure how much to anticipate saving (although we've both started). Do you think we could do it for 2 thousand each including everything? Or am I way off?

Including airfare to Asia? If so, for Japan at least, impossible. Even on an onigiri three meals a day and sleeping in the cheapest or cheap place, $50/day without traveling anywhere at all. 3 weeks - $1000 without moving from your room and eating almost nothing. Count on more like $150/day including transportation, if you are pretty frugal and skip bars and many restaurants. Then you are at 21 days/$3000 plus international airfare. And that IS doing Japan on the cheap.

It's possible to do three weeks in a number of places in Asia for $2000 per person not including international airfare and live pretty well (not backpacking). Japan is relatively expensive (especially with the plummeting US$). Depending on what happens with airfares (fuel surcharges), you can probably get to an Asian gateway for about US$1200 or so RT.

You'll find a number of SE Asian destinations to be much less expensive. Bali, for instance, is a place where you could live pretty well. Other parts of Indonesia are also bargains these days.

PS I 'd suggest a trip to a good bookstore to peruse travel books. These will give you some good ideas of places that may interest you.