Southeast Asia is the land of early temples, hot beaches, metropolitan cities, mountain villages, and an infinite supply of cultural experiences. This three-month Southeast Asia itinerary allows you to see the highlights of this part of the world and fully jump into the local music.
On this Southeast Asia itinerary, tour the temples of Siem Reap, go island bound in Krabi, drift down the Mekong River in Laos, overtake the big town of Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, steam Ha Long Bay, cycle amidst the temples of Bagan, tour the floating markets in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and expend several days in Luang Prabang, a wonderful French town in Laos. This trip will leave you with evocation and stories to inform for the rest of your life.
Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam make up the main destinations in the Southeast Asian trail, with their proximity perfect for a one-month travel itinerary. But can you make travelling here worthwhile in one month?
You might be a teacher with a long summer holiday, or perhaps you’re between jobs. Or maybe you’ve just got a month free and want to see the world! One month is the perfect amount of time to travel, especially around SEA (as it’s commonly called).
Suppose you want to avoid sitting by the pool for weeks and are more into exploring.
These simple itineraries cover various grounds, from exotic to cultural to party hot spots. The great thing about a month of travelling in Asia is that you can cover a lot of dirt and experience several different countries and cultures.
Most of these are designed for budget travellers looking for a fun way to explore the world, so we’re aiming for an outlay of around GB£1000 (approx US$1300) for your trip. You can do this by staying in hostels, partying cheap (get takeout drinks and maybe one in the bar/club – or make rich friends), minimising your travel or buying tickets way in advance.
Itinerary planning is a complex beast. There’s no single best route out there. Everyone has unalike travel desires, goals, and needs (let alone budgets). I’ve always shied away from discussing plan planning for long-term travel.
Showing everyone how to plan a trip is one thing, but drafting a journey for someone else is tricky because I don’t know what they want or like.
Because there is no such thing as a perfect itinerary, you have to see and go where you want to go, and while proposed routes can help motivate you, at the end of the day, only you can scheme the best way for you.
However, that can feel overwhelming, especially when tackling an entire roughly like Southeast Asia.
So, in this post, I’ll provide a few proposed plans to help you conquer this fantastic one.
For the two-week plan, I’ll break things up by day, but as we get into the one-month and three-month areas, you’ll have much more flexibility with your time, so I’ll give a rougher gauge of how to spend it.
If you only have two weeks in Southeast Asia, I propose thrust to just 1-2 countries so you don’t spend all your time in transit. You’ll also be able to soak up the atmosphere better if you’re not trying to cram too much in. With a more limited time frame, accept that you’ll have to leave some things to look forward to on your next trip!
Take a walking tour to get your posture and get local counsel from the escort. Bangkok Walking journey or Free Bangkok Walks are two substantial free options — remember to tip your guide at the end!
For a further in-depth tour, you can take a city climax tour, on which your guide will take you across some of Bangkok’s major attractions.
While the famous Damnoen Saduak buoyant market just outside of Bangkok exists mainly for the benefit of tourists, I still like visiting it. The tours there leave early morning and last about half a day. It’s not a substantial place to shop (prices are much journey than elsewhere), but the area is suitable for photography and eating.
Be sure to visit the Landmine Museum. Landmines have destroyed the country, maiming and murdering thousands. They still cause destruction today, as endure mines from the Vietnam War (spilling over into Cambodia) are discovered yearly. The museum has an in-depth exhibit is very worthwhile, as it gives a view of their use, dangers, and efforts to detach them.
Spend your day at Angkor Wat, the early site that was the centre of the Khmer Empire that once controlled most of Southeast Asia. The temple was erected in the 12th century and covers over 500 acres.
