Planning

How many days, counted honestly

Days on the ground, not days off work. What fits into each length, what does not, and the arithmetic that shows why four countries in fourteen days is a bus tour.

Plan my trip

Count days on the ground, not days off work

A trip described as fourteen days usually delivers twelve. The long-haul flight out takes one, the arrival day is lost to a 06:00 landing or a 23:00 one, and the departure day ends at an airport. Every number on this page is days on the ground, which is what actually gets used.

The second thing to count is transitions. Each move between towns costs between half a day and a whole one, and each international border costs a whole day whether it is crossed on a bridge or in an airport. Six towns in fourteen days means six travel days, which leaves six days of actually being somewhere and two of arriving and leaving.

That arithmetic, not our preference, is what makes the tables below say what they say.

What fits, by length

Days on the ground	Countries	What it looks like
5 - 7	1	One country, two or three places. Cambodia with three days at Angkor. Northern Laos. Northern Thailand.
8 - 10	1 - 2	One country properly, or two joined by a single crossing. Thailand and Laos by the slow boat. Vietnam and Cambodia by the river.
11 - 14	2 - 3	Two countries with room, or three flown between. Vietnam north to south. Vietnam and Cambodia with the delta.
15 - 18	3	Three countries at a pace where you unpack more than once. This is where the classic Indochina route lives.
19 - 24	3 - 4	Four countries without running, or three with genuine slow days in them.
25+	4	Four countries with the coast, or the north of Vietnam added to a full crossing.

The rule we apply

Two nights minimum per place, three at Angkor, and no more than one international border every four days. A trip that breaks all three is a trip that will be remembered as a series of vehicles.

Seven days

One country. Not two, and certainly not three. Seven days on the ground gives you five usable days after arrival and departure, and a single international border eats one of those five.

The strongest seven-day trips: Cambodia with three days at Angkor, or northern Thailand. Northern Laos needs eight because the drive to Nong Khiaw is four hours each way.

What people try instead: Bangkok, Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City in seven days. Three flights, three hotels, three arrival afternoons, and about two full days of actually seeing anything.

Ten days

One country with room, or two countries joined by one crossing, or three if you fly every leg and accept two nights each.

Our ten-day express does the third of those — Hanoi, Lan Ha Bay, Luang Prabang, Angkor — and it is the shortest three-country trip we are prepared to build. Below ten days, three countries is an airport tour and we will tell you to drop one.

What it cannot include, and we say so on that page: central Vietnam, the Nam Ou valley, Phnom Penh, the delta, and Thailand.

Fourteen days

The most common length, and the one where the biggest decision happens. Fourteen days on the ground is enough for either one country done thoroughly or two done properly. Three is possible and starts to cost you.

One country: Vietnam north to south, including Ha Giang, which most fourteen-day itineraries drop because it costs three days.

Two countries: Vietnam and Cambodia by the Mekong at twelve days, with two spare, or Vietnam and Laos overland at eleven.

Four countries in fourteen days

We will quote it. We will also tell you in writing that it means about two nights per country, three or four flights, and that a substantial part of it happens in airports. It is not a trip we would choose and it is not a trip we would refuse to sell.

Eighteen days

The sweet spot for three countries, and the length our Indochina classic is built for: north Vietnam, northern Laos including the Nam Ou, three days at Angkor, and the Mekong crossing into the delta.

Eighteen days gives you room for two river journeys and one long drive without the trip becoming a series of transfers. It is also enough to absorb a flight cancellation without losing a country.

The alternative shape at eighteen days is two countries very thoroughly — Vietnam end to end plus Cambodia — which is a slower and equally good trip.

Twenty-four days and up

Four countries, without running. Our twenty-four-day route uses a night train, a fast train, a night on a boat, four flights and about thirty hours of road, and it still has three genuinely unscheduled days in it.

The constraint at this length is not geography, it is stamina. Twenty-four days of moving is a lot, and the itineraries that work at this length build in days where nothing happens. If your instinct is to fill them, add a fifth country instead and we will talk you out of that too.

The five ways people lose days without noticing

Booking a return ticket into and out of the same city. Costs a day of backtracking, sometimes two.
Scheduling something on the arrival morning. A 06:00 landing after twelve hours in the air is not the start of a sightseeing day.
Underestimating the new airports. Siem Reap Angkor is 55 minutes from town and Techo in Phnom Penh is 45 to 60. That is nearly two hours across an arrival and a departure.
Taking the night bus to save a hotel night. It costs the following morning and often the afternoon.
One night in a place that needs two. The most common of all, and it compounds: six places each a night short is a trip that never settles.

Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Is it better to see less of more countries or more of fewer?

Fewer, almost always, and the people who tell us this most emphatically are the ones who did it the other way the first time.

The exception is a genuine once-in-a-lifetime trip where you know you will not come back. Then four countries in eighteen days is a defensible choice and we will build it well.

How many days does Angkor need?

Three on the pass, plus arrival and departure, so four nights in Siem Reap in practice. The three-day pass costs USD 62 against USD 37 for one day, and the marginal days are the cheapest good days of any trip in the region.

Can I add days to one of your routes?

Yes, and the best places to add them are Luang Prabang, Hoi An and Kampot — the three places where an empty day pays for itself.

The worst place to add a day is a capital city, where people run out of things to do and end up shopping.

What if I only have five days?

One country, two places, and a short trip. The five-day delta crossing is the only thing we sell at that length, and it works because it is a journey rather than a tour.