Hi all,

I'm planning a trip to SE Asia and have a few questions.

Here's our proposed itinerary:
- Bangkok (3 days)
- Luang Prabang (4 days)
- Hanoi (4 days)
- Siem Reap (3 days)
- Phuket (4 days)
- Singapore ( 2 days to visit my cousin)

Questions:

1) Is there a good airpass that covers all these destinations? Or should I purchase air tickets separately?

2) If you had to choose, would you choose Hanoi or Chiang Mai? Currently I'm sacraficing Chiang Mai.

3) Is it pretty easy to book excursions and tours through the hotel? Is it worth it to use a travel agent pretrip to book hotel, tours and air?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Judy

There are those on this forum that will say you are doing an awful lot of running from place to place. Hopefully the time you have allotted each destination does not include travel time. With the exception of Bangkok though, I think you have allowed enough time. Personally, I'd skip Phuket if I had to cut something out. Having been to Chiang Mai and currently planning 5 days in Hanoi, I'd go with Hanoi. Bangkok Air flies from Bangkok to Phuket, Siem Reap and Luang Prabang so you might be able to do a Discovery Pass and save some money.

I would definitely choose Hanoi in preference to Chiang Mai.

As a personal preference, I would spend more time in each country. Hopefully your itinerary does not include travel time.

Is this a introductory trip to SE Asia with further trips in the pipeline?

I see no need to book tours in in advance (Luang Prabang in particular) . Others may differ but you would pay a lot more for something that can be easily arranged when you arrive. I you want a particular guide for Angkor or Bangkok then maybe.

no need to book tours in advance unless you are going to have a guide which you need to book early...by a guide i mean someone like tong, not a guide on an organized tour, i.e. group...

i would eliminate phuket i think and add time to bkk and SR...if flying in from overseas have you allowed for jet lague and adjustments to heat and humidity upon arrival....don't underestimate it...you might also add a day to singapore...

each change of location requires time also--- have you allowed for that....in most cases it is 1/2 a day but that depends on flights and airport times...

Like others, I'm wondering whether you have deleted travel time from your estimates of time in each location. It might be easier to think about how many nights in each place. So if you have 3 nights in Bangkok, you really only have 2 full days. I'm guessing that you didn't considered travel time, so that you really have 3n/2d in Bangkok, 4n/3d in LP, 4n/3d in Hanoi, 3n/2d in Siem Reap, 4n/3d Phuket and 2n/1d in SIngapore. In this case, once you get to Asia, you would spend 5 of your days in transit! As becomes more obvious from this listing, you will will be spending a disproportionate amount of your trip in transit... not my idea of a vacation.

So I think your first task is to decide which stops to eliminate. My rule of thumb is to spend at least 4 nights in each location (and I usually schedule more), which gives three full days to explore. You might not want to spend that much time in SIngapore, as it's a family visit - up to you.

I think you were wise to cut Chiang Mai (no sacrifice, IMO). Notice that you are visiting 5 different countries, 5 different cultures in your very limited time. This means that you are unlikely to be able to get much of a sense of any of the cultures. Phuket is an international beach destination, so you'll no doubt enjoy the beach, but get little sense of Thailand from this stop. If beach is important to you, leave it in, if not take it out.

Bangkok has a tremendous amount to see and do, you really don't have enough time there. And if it is your first stop in Asia, you'll be jet lagged and adjusting to the heat, so won't be able to do as much as you might otherwise.

If it were me (and it isn't), I'd cut both Phuket and Hanoi and spend more time in each place - like 5 nights in Bangkok, 5 in LP, 5 in Siem Reap and 3 in SIngapore. I love Hanoi, but I'd suggest you save it for a trip when you have time to explore more of VN.

If you want tours, you can easily and cheaply arrange them on the ground. Frankly, you don't need a tour in any of these places. In SR, you'll need a minimum of a car and driver, and will probably want a guide. Some people like to use a guide for a day in Bangkok, but by no means is this needed, just a matter of personal preference.

Asia lends itself best to slow travel. If you move too fast you miss it all - see everything and experience nothing.

Thanks for all the advice. I should've said that we've been to Bangkok and Singapore before (for work), so it's purely to recover from jetlag and to visit my cousin. I'll probably cut Singapore to one day just to have dinner w/him and fly out. As for Phuket, we do want a beach/spa/relax at the end of the trip.

So, we should be able to have 4 nights in Luang Prabang, Hanoi, and Siem Reap, except for one. Which one has the least to offer?

I will be the disenter here and say that altough your intinerary seems busy, I think it looks good....as long as you don't mind being on a plane every few days. I think 4 days each for LP and Hanoi will give a nice taste.

As for flights, I would look in the Bangkok Air pass,as has been suggested, for Bkk-Lp-Sr
For Hanoi to Singapore, check out Tiger Airways. And there are several other discount airlines that fly Sin-Phuket. You could also use another leg of the Bankgok Air pass for Phuket back to BKK if you fly home from there.

It depends somewhat on what your likes and dislikes are. LP is a small, laid-back city where you can walk from one end of the main town to the other, arrange a boat trip to the Pak Ou Caves or visit nearby Kuang Si Falls by car stopping at small villages along the way. SR is all about Angkor Wat and the other temples. The town itself is built around tourism - lots of restaurant and hotel choices but otherwise pretty dumpy. Hanoi is a big, somewhat chaotic city with lots of museums, some great French and Vietnamese restaurants and good shopping. That being said, we had 3 nights and almost 3 full days in SR by arriving early in the morning from Bangkok - this was perfect. In LP we had 3 nights and about 2-1/2 days which was about 1/2 day too short. We will have 5 full days in Hanoi and I am hoping that will be enough time.

In a short time, almost people want to see as many places as possible. But this is really not good experience. You should spend more time on your most wanted places than too many places. This helps you save time, save money, keep healthy and of course more relaxing and enjoyable. In your situation, i will choose Bangkok, Luangprabang, Siem Reap, Hanoi and back to Singapore. This is still too much but it fits your travel time and also convenient for transportation. It's better to book with different air carriers than only one because this help you to save much money. Some routes, for example from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh and from Ho Chi minh to Hanoi by jetstar, or from Bangkok to Luanprabang by Lao aviation..

We'd like to do a bit of "soft adventure" like hiking, elephant ride, rafting, etc. what's the best location for that? Luang Prabang?

Well I know you can hike to the top of Kuang Si Falls outside of Luang Prabang because we did it. Note that the easier way up is on the left side of the falls. I think there is some place near Bangkok where you can do elephant rides but most of the places I am familiar with are in northern Thailand.

Just to confuse things, you don't have Bali on your list. Perhaps you've been there? It is easily accessible from both Singapore and Bangkok - that is where you can do rafting. There are hiking opportunities in Bali too. To do Bali, you need at least a week but you could do some beach time and it would be much more interesting than Phuket...

Check out the thread entitled "Day trips from Luang Prabang" - we didn't do one but a couple of posters did elephant rides there.

I decided not to go to Bali because we're going in Jan/Feb, and I read that the weather is not good then. We'll have to save that for another trip!

Thanks for all the advice. Now onto picking accommodation. I'd like to do one splurge. I'm thinking about the Banyon Tree on Phuket?

There are several trekking companies operating out of Luang Prabang. Green Discovery and Tiger Trails come to mind. I have trekked with Green Discovery in the Nan Ha preservation zone near Luang Nam Tha in the north and was impressed. Some backpackers I met were very critical because they were more expensive but my guide told me that they pay their guides more than others and also give money directly to the villages you visit/stay in. A full day bike riding tour round Luang Nam Ha with an english speaking guide cost $39US including lunch. Too expensive - I certainly didn't think so.

They provide elephant riding near Luang Prabang but I'm not sure about rafting. Do a google search.

There are elephant rides at Angkor Thom (Siem Reap) but I suspect pretty ho hum. (May be wrong though, others may have a better idea.)

As far as elephant rides at Siem Reap: In the early morning, rides are offered from near the Angkor Thom gate to Bayon... not far. But in the evenings, rides are offered up (and down, a good idea as the steps are treacherous in the light and you'll be going down in the dark if you go there for sunset) Phomn Baking. That's a fair distance up and down a steep hill.

Good pick to go for Hanoi over Chiang Mai - mind you, it's years since I've been to CM but can only assume it's less appealing now than it was then.

I think your itinerary looks pretty good although on the whole I think you need to make some journeys by road/rail/boat to really get the flavour of a place and suspect this is all flights.

But each to his own and your time is limited. Didn't do it myself, but yep, I'd go for the elephants on the way down after sunset.

Have a great time.

Hi all, just wanted to report back that I've completed the arrangements! Thanks for all the advice -- I've been reading this board nearly every day.

Based on all the feedback, we decided to eliminate Hanoi for Chiang Mai, as it did seem to be too many countries, and the logistics are much simpler. We also added a day to BKK, since it's been years since I've been there, and my husband never.

So, here's our itinerary. I've interspersed some questions. Would love more advice!

1) Bangkok (4 nights at the ROS). We arrive around 11PM, so will take it easy the next day and maybe see one or two main temples in the afternoon. We have reserved with Tong for the floating market/fishing village tour on one of the other days. The remaining day we'll ride the klongs, and maybe do a bit of shopping. The last day is Chinese New Years so we may go to China town to see the festivities.

Questions:
- Definitely want to go to the Sky Bar for drinks. Any recommendations for dinner nearby?
- Are there good restaurants within walking distance of the ROS?
- What are the "can't miss" restaurants in BKK (you see a theme?)
- Which night market is your favorite?
- Any suggestions for spa/massage near the ROS?
- What is BKK like on Chinese New Years? Is it a big deal in China Town? What kind of celebrations do they have?

2) 2 nights in Chiang Mai (at the new Le Meridien). We arrive in the early afternoon so will chill out and maybe do a little sightseeing in town. Next day we'd like to do some hiking, elephant riding, hill tribe etc. We don't fly out until 3PM on the 3rd day so more time to visit the market/temples. Questions:
- Any suggestions for the least touristy of the elephant, hill tribe, treking tour?
- Suggestions for restaurants near Le Meridien?

3) 4 nights in Luang Prabang (at the Lotus Villa). We get in 4PM-ish. Don't really have any set activities in mind except maybe visiting Pak Ou Caves by boat, and do the elephant ride if we missed that in CM, maybe a bit of hiking. Figured by this point of the trip we'd just want to chill out and soak in the atmosphere

4) 3 nights in Siem Reap (at the Hotel Be Angkor because Dogster talked me into it . We get in around 2PM. I figured at least one full day for Angkor Wat, and another day for Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, etc. Questions:
- Is it pretty easy to get a driver and guide? Dogster, can I depend on Martin to arrange a good one for us?
- Can't-miss restaurants in the Old Market area? Fun (not too smoky) bars?

5) 4 nights in Phuket (3 at the Banyan Tree Spa Pool Pavillon, one nite at the JW). We split up the stay b/c I got fixated on the Spa Pool Pavillon, and 4th nite there would've blown the budget. Plus I'd like to check out the JW for future reference. This is the beach/spa part of vacation. We definitely want to do a kayak trip to Phang Nga Bay, but other than that, probably won't make it out of the Banyan Tree much . Questions:
- I've read great things about Hong By Starlight Tour. The BT has a half-day trip to Phang Nga using a speed boat. Is half a day enough?
- I heard the food at BT is not that great and very expensive. What are some of the best places to eat in the Laguna area?

5) Finally, 2 nights in Singapore to catch up with my cousin before flying home!

We leave on Jan 22 and I can't wait! So excited!