Everything to decide before a journey can be booked
A journey through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand is built from four decisions, and they have to be made in order: how long you have, which months that puts you in, how many countries that buys, and what standard of hotel your budget reaches. The eight pages below answer one question each. Read them in the order given and the itinerary largely writes itself.
The eight pages, and the question each one answers
Nothing here is a brochure. Each page settles one variable and hands you a number or a date you can act on. Where a page contradicts something you read elsewhere, the reason is usually 2026: the Thailand–Cambodia land border, the Thai visa exemption and three separate digital arrival forms all changed within eighteen months.
How many days
The honest arithmetic. What actually fits into 12, 14, 16, 18, 21, 24 and 28 days once travel days are counted as travel days, why our floor is twelve, and what we say to people who have ten. How many days
When to go
Month by month across all four countries, then the four constraints that really decide a date: central Vietnam’s flood season, the northern burning season, the inverted Gulf coast, and heat at Angkor. When to go
Visas and entry
Four countries, four visa systems and three mandatory digital arrival forms. Which passports need what, which official portal to use, and the traps that catch North American and Australasian travellers. Visas and entry
Flying between countries
Which legs must be flown, which can be driven or taken by rail, how long each sector actually takes door to door, and why Siem Reap–Angkor and Techo airports changed the arithmetic. Flying between countries
Where you stay
What Comfortable and Excellent mean as room categories rather than star ratings, which towns have a genuine top tier and which do not, and how hotels are named in the quote. Where you stay
Travelling as a family
What children actually tolerate in this region, the age at which Angkor becomes interesting rather than hot, connecting rooms, and the days that need to be shortened. Travelling as a family
Honeymoons
Where the beach goes in the route, why the Gulf and the Andaman want opposite months, and which properties are worth building a week around. Honeymoons
Private guides
A national guide in each country rather than one escort across four borders. How guides are chosen, what they are briefed on, and what they will not be asked to do. Private guides
The four decisions, in the order they should be made
Almost every planning conversation that goes badly went out of order. Someone picks the hotels first, or fixes the countries before the dates, and then the calendar refuses to hold it. The sequence below is the one we use on every enquiry, and each step narrows the next.
- How long you have. Count the days you can be away, then subtract the two you will spend in the air getting here and home. That remainder is the number the rest of the plan works from, and it is usually two days shorter than people first say.
- Which months that puts you in. Dates are the least flexible thing most travellers own, so they get decided second and everything downstream bends around them. Central Vietnam floods from September to November; northern Thailand and northern Laos burn from late January to late April; Koh Samui is wettest from October to December while the Andaman is dry.
- How many countries that buys. We allow no more than one country per five days. Twelve to fifteen days is two countries, sixteen to twenty is three, and four countries needs twenty-one days or more. This is the step people argue with and the one that protects the trip.
- What standard of hotel the budget reaches. Land-only cost runs USD 250 to 500 per person per day, twin share, and the hotel line is what moves inside that band. It is decided last because the number of nights is now fixed and the arithmetic is simple.
Reversing any two of those steps costs money. Choosing the hotels before the season means paying peak rates for a wet week. Choosing four countries before the length means five internal flights in a fortnight. Choosing the dates after the route means discovering that the one month you can travel is the month Hoi An is under water.
What each decision changes further down the line
| Decision | What it fixes | What it stops being negotiable |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Number of countries and number of stops | Whether Laos or Thailand can be added at all |
| Month | Which coast works and whether the north is clear | Beach location, Ha Long buffer, Angkor heat |
| Countries | Number of internal flights and guides | Visa and arrival-form list, border logic |
| Hotel standard | Daily rate inside the USD 250 – 500 band | Which towns can hold an Excellent room |
The third row is the one worth reading twice. Every country you add brings its own visa route, its own arrival form, its own national guide and at least one flight. A fourth country is not a fourth line on an itinerary; it is a day of transit, a set of paperwork and roughly USD 500 to 900 per person.
Where to go next
Once the four decisions are made, the plan turns into a route. Two branches of this site take you there from opposite directions.
Start from a journey
Twelve routes of thirteen to twenty-eight days sit under journeys, each with a night-by-night itinerary and a land-only price. The longest, Grand Indochina, 28 days, is the only one that gives all four countries the time they want; Indochina Classic, 21 days is the shortest route that reaches four countries without breaking the one-country-per-five-days rule.
Start from a place
Fifteen destination pages say how many nights each town genuinely holds and which month ruins it. If your trip is built around one place — Luang Prabang for the alms round, Hoi An for the tailors, Lan Ha Bay for a night on the water — read that page first and let the rest of the route arrange itself around it.
Send us the two things you already know
Most enquiries start with a month and a number of days. That is enough for us to tell you how many countries it buys and what it costs.
Questions travellers ask most
Which of the eight pages should I read first?
How many days, then when to go. Those two settle the shape of the trip between them, and everything else — countries, flights, hotels, guides — is a consequence. Visas matter enormously but they never change the route; they change what you have to do six weeks before you fly.
Can I skip the planning pages and just ask you?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Send the month, the number of days and the party size and we will do the arithmetic for you. The pages exist because the same six questions arrive in almost every enquiry, and reading them first tends to make the first reply useful rather than a list of questions back.
Do the four decisions have to be made in that exact order?
In practice one of them is already fixed for you — usually the dates, because of school terms or leave. Start with whichever is genuinely immovable, then follow the order from there. What does not work is deciding the countries before either the length or the month, because that is the choice the calendar most often refuses.
How far ahead should all this be settled?
Six to nine months for travel between mid-November and early February, because the better hotel rooms, cruise cabins and the Lao train seats go first. Outside that window three to four months is usually enough. Visa applications and arrival cards are a separate clock and belong in the last six weeks.
Read next
Tell us about the journey you have in mind
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.