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Silhouetted trees and birds against a vivid orange sunset sky over the Mekong Delta.
Travel style

Multi-country journeys

Two or three countries in one trip, planned so the joins hold up. This page is about what goes in and, more often, what has to come out.

How many countries, and how long each one gets

Almost nobody flies this far for one country. The borders sit close together, the regional flights are short, and the gap between Hanoi, Luang Prabang and Chiang Mai is wide enough to be worth crossing for. So the planning question is rarely whether to combine. It is how many, and what each one gets out of the calendar.

Our answer is usually fewer than the first email suggests. A country starts to earn its place at about four full days on the ground. Below that you collect an airport, a hotel and one famous site, and the rest is a rumour. We begin with your total nights, subtract the travel days honestly rather than optimistically, and see how many countries the remainder actually supports. Sometimes that means two rather than three. We would rather argue about it now than have you work it out yourself on day six. The joins matter as much as the stops. Regional flights are short and frequent, but each one eats a morning at either end, and every border comes with its own entry rules and its own queue. We work those in before we fix the nights, not afterwards.

Buddhist monks in orange robes walk barefoot along a street collecting alms from kneeling locals in Luang Prabang.

What these trips look like

  • Road where the road is reasonable and a flight where it is not: Siem Reap to Phnom Penh by car, Hanoi to Bangkok in the air
  • A guide and driver in each country, briefed on where you have already been so nothing gets explained to you twice
  • Travel days that carry nothing else, because a delayed connection should never cost you a temple
  • Entry requirements checked against each passport in your party before anyone books a flight
  • A change of gear built into the order, so the cities and the temples come first and the slow place comes last
  • Luggage sorted at the joins, with storage arranged whenever a leg needs only an overnight bag
  • A written plan that states which night you sleep where, so you can check the arithmetic against your leave

Journeys in this style

Grand Indochina journey, 15 days

Cambodia and Vietnam end to end, from the Angkor temples to a night afloat on Halong Bay.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, 11 days

Three countries at speed: the Vietnamese north, one long day at Angkor, then a Phuket beach.

Talk to us

Tell us how many nights you have and the places you refuse to leave out. We will come back with what fits, what does not, and the reason for each. If the arithmetic will not stretch, we will name the country to drop.

Frequently asked questions

How many countries can we sensibly fit into two weeks?
Two, comfortably. Three if one of them is a single city or a beach, and you accept that roughly two of the fourteen days go to airports. Four in a fortnight is the point where a holiday turns into a sequence of check-ins. We will build three if you want three, but we will show you the hours it costs before you decide.
Do we need a separate visa for every country?
Usually, and the rules differ by passport and by border. Vietnam runs an official electronic visa portal. Cambodia offers an e-visa and also issues on arrival at its main airports. Thailand and Laos each have their own arrangements, and some nationalities are exempt in one place but not the next. We set out what applies to you before you book flights; the application itself stays in your hands.
Is crossing by land cheaper than flying between countries?
Often, though the saving tends to be smaller than the hours it costs. Siem Reap to Phnom Penh is a sensible drive. Hanoi to Vientiane is not, once you have seen the road and the border queue. We price both options for each join and put the travel time next to the money, and then you pick.

See also

All travel stylesAll journeys