Fifteen places, and how long each one holds

What a destination page is for

A destination page answers one question: how does this place fit into a fourteen- to twenty-eight-day route? It is not a list of attractions. It gives the night count, the arithmetic behind that night count, the month table, the transfer times to and from the neighbouring stops, and a section on when to leave the place out.

A journey page does something different. It fixes a sequence — this city, then that bay, then this river — and prices it. The itinerary is written day by day, with drive times, hotels and what is included. If you already know the shape of your trip, start at the journeys and work backwards.

The difference, stated plainly

• A destination page is about one place and how many nights it earns. It is written to be read in isolation and to argue with your assumptions about the place.
• A journey page is about the joins between places: which leg is flown, which is driven, how long the drive is, and what has to be given up to add a stop.
• Both are inputs to the same quote. Read three or four destination pages, then pick the journey whose sequence is closest, then tell us the three things you would change.

One habit worth adopting before you read any of them. Count the travel half-days, not the calendar days. A one-night cruise on Lan Ha Bay is two half-days of road on either side of it. Two nights in Sapa costs eleven hours of driving. The night count on each page is the number of nights we think the place holds; the cost in time is usually larger, and it is stated on the page.

The fifteen, with nights and months

Nights are what we would allocate on a private journey of a fortnight or more, twin share, at an upper-comfort standard. They are not minimums for a backpacker and they are not maximums for a person who wants to sit still. Months are the window in which the place performs; the individual pages give the full month tables, including what the bad season buys you.

Vietnam — eight places, north to south

Vietnam is 1,650 km end to end and the weather at the two ends is rarely the same. Any route through the country is a decision about which end to sacrifice, which is why the month tables on these pages matter more than the descriptions.

• Hanoi — three nights. The Old Quarter, the lakes, the Temple of Literature and the food. It is also the launch point for the bays and for Sapa, so its three nights usually sit either side of something else.
• Ha Long and Lan Ha bays — one night aboard, two if the route allows. Read this page before you book any cruise: it covers the July 2025 capsize, the port-closure rule, and why we sail from Haiphong into Lan Ha rather than the Ha Long core.
• Sapa — two nights, and only on a long route. The town is a building site; the valleys below it are not, and the valleys are the reason to go.
• Hue — one to two nights. The Nguyen dynasty citadel and four royal tombs, with the Hai Van Pass drive or the coastal train as the exit south.
• Hoi An — three nights. The old town, the tailors, the beach fifteen minutes away and the Cham ruins inland. It floods most years between September and November.
• Ho Chi Minh City — two nights. Faster, hotter and richer than Hanoi, with the war history that Hanoi does not tell the same way.
• Mekong Delta — one to two nights. Worth an overnight rather than the day trip most people are sold, because the markets work at dawn.
• Phu Quoc — three to five nights. The beach ending for a Vietnam route, dry from November to April, and honest about which end of the island has been built out.

Laos — two places, and a train that changed the maths

Laos rewards the traveller who slows down and punishes the one who tries to cover it. Two stops are enough for almost every journey we run, and the Laos–China Railway has made the join between them trivial: Vientiane to Luang Prabang is 1 h 50 by fast train against roughly ten hours by road.

• Luang Prabang — three nights. The peninsula, the monasteries, the Mekong and the alms round at dawn, which is a religious observance and not a photo opportunity.
• Vientiane — one night. A capital that most itineraries use as a transit point, and that is a defensible use of it. The page says when a second night is worth it and when it is not.

Book the train through an agent rather than at the station. Ticket windows open only three days ahead, second class sells out through the dry season, and the stations are a long way out of town — 15 km at Vientiane, 12 km at Luang Prabang.

Cambodia — two places, three hours apart

Cambodia in a private journey is Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, joined by a 45-minute flight or a five- to six-hour drive. Sihanoukville is not on this site and will not be added.

• Siem Reap — three nights, which buys a three-day Angkor pass at USD 62 valid on any three days within ten. Two nights means one temple day and a lot of regret.
• Phnom Penh — two nights. The Royal Palace and the National Museum on one side, Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek on the other. International flights now land at Techo International (KTI), 19 km south of the city.

Thailand — three places, and one closed border

• Bangkok — three nights. The Grand Palace at 500 baht with an enforced dress code, Wat Pho at 300 baht, the river, and the food. It is the most efficient air hub in the region and most four-country routes touch it twice.
• Chiang Mai — three nights, in November to January. The old city, the crafts, the hills, and a burning season that makes March unbreathable.
• Koh Samui — four to five nights, on the Gulf calendar rather than the Andaman one. This is where a long journey ends, not where it starts.

How to turn fifteen pages into one route

1. Fix the month first. Mid-November to early February is the only window that is dry in all four countries at once, and late November to mid-January is the sweet spot. Read when to go before anything else.
2. Fix the length second. Add the night counts of the places you want, then add one travel half-day for every join. The result is usually three to five days longer than people expect — how many days works through the arithmetic.
3. Cut to the length you have. Cutting a stop is better than shortening two, because the joins cost more than the nights do.
4. Then pick the journey whose sequence is closest to what you built, from the twelve routes, and tell us the three things you would change.

Most enquiries arrive with one country too many in them. The commonest fix is to drop Laos or Thailand and give the days back to Vietnam and Cambodia, and the second commonest is to keep all four and add four days. Both produce a better trip than compressing four countries into fourteen days, which produces a fortnight of airports.

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