Southeast Asia forum

Hi Mickey,

Welcome to Travelfish!

When you're planning a trip to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, the most important point is "Less is More"!

While travelling around Thailand can be both fast and easy, travel in Vietnam is slower, Cambodia slower again and Laos glacial. While it is certainly possible to see the four countries in six weeks, you're either going to spend a lot of time on the road, or only see a small portion of each country.

While you don't say what your primary interests are, typical first time trips would cover at a bare minimum the following places, and I've put in brackets after each one how long people often stay at each:

]Thailand - Bangkok (3 days), 1-3 islands in the south (5-10 days), trekking in the north (4 days)
Laos - Mekong river trip (2 days), Luang Prabang (3 days), Vang Vieng (3 days), Vientiane (2 days)
Cambodia - Angkor Wat (3 days), Phnom Penh (2 days)
Vietnam - Hanoi (3 days), Halong Bay (2 days), Hue (3 days), Hoi An (4 days), Nha Trang (4 days), Saigon (3 days), Mekong Delta (2 days)

which comes out at 48-53 days (7-8 weeks) depending on how long you stay on the islands in Thailand.

Now this is without allowing time for getting from one place to another, days off or lost days! It is also just stopping at the absolute highlights of each country... where'd your six weeks go??!!

Now there's a few ways to save time -- look into flying where possible (budget airlines are all over the shop now) and where you can't fly take overnight buses or trains.

If you are firmly stuck to 6 weeks, I'd suggest skipping one country and saving it for another trip -- Vietnam springs to mind as it is so big and so packed with sights, that even in six weeks just in Vietnam you'll get just a taste of it. Perhaps save it for another trip... or take a longer holiday!

Have fun planning!

Oops, I guess I shouldn't have posted my question here under someone else's and can't delete it and re-post elsewhere...maybe someone will still answer?!

Thank you Exacto! That does look like a do-able and interesting route. I was hoping to get to Halong Bay (actually a bay about 50k north of it) and maybe a hill trek up there somewhere, not necessarily Sapa. Budget isn't really an issue, so maybe I could fly into Hanoi and do something with internal flights to get toward the south? Yes, I am flying in/out of Bangok, and then to Tokyo for my flight home. Safe travels to you!