Help with Itinerary
 

My daughter is spending a semester in Nanjing and I am meeting her afterwards at the end of November. I think our plans are too ambitous, but we can't decide what to cut. Here's the plan--
3 nights in Shanghai on my own
2 nights Nanjing
2 nights Xian (have wanted to see this for 30 years!)
3 nights Hong Kong
3 nights Bangkok
2 nights Ankor Wat
2 nights Phnom Penh
3 nights Thai beach

Thanks, Libby

Overall, I don’t think this is too bad. You have a nice chunk of time for the trip. But without knowing your particular interests, likes dislikes, hobbies, etc it’s hard to tell you if anything to cut. My initial comment would be why Shanghai over Beijing? Beijing would offer more major sights to see. Shanghai is a gigantic sprawling place, and while it offers the excitement of a very fast-paced city with some Jetson-like architecture, it does not offer much in terms of historic interest or significance. There are some of the 19th century colonial areas remaining, but the city really was nothing but a small fishing village prior to the colonial days, so you won’t see ancient palaces, temples, etc like you can in Beijing (or Nanjing for that matter).

Curious as to the 2 nights in Phenom Penh, it would not seem to be necessary as I don’t think there is enough there to merit 2 nights. Is there something of particular interest to you there? If not, I think your time might be better spent elsewhere.

In November, a Thai beach would be best on the west coast, as east coast beaches are going to be rainy. Krabi, Khao Lak, etc. Personally I would avoid Phuket island itself, as you have lots of choices in less-developed areas.

I believe that there are flights between Xian and Bangkok on China Eastern, so you could do Hong Kong first or last on the trip, rather than in the middle, which may work out well for the international legs. (i.e. from the US, fly into Hong Kong and out of Bangkok or vice versa. There are non-stops between Krabi/Phuket and Hong Kong, which may work well also.)

Thanks, I realize how hard it is to make suggestions to someone you don't know. We are intersted in history and archeological sites, not so much in shopping or visiting craft places. We like scenary but prefer cities.

I have been to Beijing and my daughter will have a chance to go during her stay. We picked Phenom Penh to get a taste of southeast Asia and thought it made sense since we wanted to see Ankor Wat.

Thanks for the routing and beach suggestions, I will explore those. Libby

There is not much anyone can add to Cicerone's well thought out and IMO dead on remarks and although it's "hard ... to make suggestions to someone you don't know", since you are asking, what the hell.

"Ambitious" could be understated.

Not so much because you are on the move (all the time) but there's not one single "extended" stay in your itinerary to recharge the batteries, take "it" all in and do the perspective thing.

When you are "moving" all the time, that's mostly what you will remember about your trip, planes, trains and automobiles.

"Extended" meaning, taking into account that your X nights stays also include traveling (to), getting situated (checking into hotel, bathroom, showering, changing clothes) and getting your bearings (You know, when you first walk outside your hotel and decide, "right or left").

Sometimes the perfect situation is not perfect and you just You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do" to get it done. And that's OK.

My 2 cents:

"Angkor Wat" and "Thai Beach" will be your only calm spots.

In our experience, Bangkok to Siem Reap will take 3/4 out your daylight (bare minimum) which in your itinerary, leaves a bit of time to check out Siem Reap and up early for a one day visit to Angkor Wat and the other MUST, MUST SEE temples in this huge area.

Again, choices… Check out photos of Angkor Wat on flickr and do a Google search to see if one day is enough. If you like "archeological sites" Angkor Wat is your holy grail and the "temple area" is as beautiful and peaceful as it gets.

IMO, having visited both, with your schedule in mind, moving Phnom Penh's days to Angkor is a no brainier (we spent 10 days there, so we are a bit biased).

Bangkok, as well as the other big cities on your list, could be exhilarating, but tough to get around. With the heat and "big Asian city thing" going on, these cities can wear out even the strongest traveler and add to that, you've booked six big cities almost one after another, better stock up on your vitamins.

One way to overcome "city fatigue" is to spend enough time in a place to know it as your own. Less stress, quicker times to get around, when you already have the city totally wired.

With 7 days in China, you can achieve that goal. If you've waited 30 years for Xian, maybe you want to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors twice.

In hindsight, after traveling to Uganda and then the hard road into the mountains, we should have visited the mountain gorillas twice, especially now that the US $250 rate has gone up to $500.

The above analogy, these quick remarks are at best flawed, but maybe you can see how time might slip away when moving about. At least, take a serious look over your travel days minute by minute and see how that plays out for you.

Remember that it will take most of a day to get from one place to another. So two nights somewhere is just one full day. If you have any interest at all in the temples at Angkor, you'll want a minimum of three full days there. That's how long it takes just to visit the "major" temples. No matter how long you think you want to stay, buy a copy of Dawn Roonwy's book, Angkor: A Giude to Cambodia's Wonderous Temples to prepare. You are welcome to take a look at our photos at www.marlandc.com

I agree that an easy way to improve your itinerary is to cut PP and add it to Angkor, giving you four nights and three days there.

I don't know how attached you are to Nanjing, but if you cut that you have have another day in Xian and add a day to hong Kong, Bangkok or the Thai beach.

Cutting those two locations wil make for a busy, ambitious (but pobably not killer) itinerary.

Thanks for the advice. You all made excellent points. I am going to eliminate PP which will free things up a little. Libby