A visitor walks through a series of weathered stone archways inside Hue's ancient citadel complex.

Planning

How long it actually takes

The commonest planning mistake in this region is not choosing the wrong places. It is choosing the right places and giving them a third of the time they need. Here is the arithmetic, country by country, including the combinations we decline to sell.

Plan my trip See the routes and their lengths

days for one country, properly: 12
minimum for three countries: 15
nights, our shortest stop: 2

Two rules that decide everything

Before any table: two working rules we apply to every itinerary we write, which explain most of the numbers below.

No stop under two nights

A one-night stop is an arrival evening and a departure morning. You get a hotel breakfast and a transfer, not a place. The only exception we make is a night aboard a boat, where the night is the point.

One internal flight needs a day either side

A domestic flight eats four to six hours door to door once you count transfers and check-in. Stack two flights close together and a quarter of your trip is spent in transit.

Your first and last days are also not full days. An overnight flight from Europe lands in the morning and you are unlikely to do anything useful with the afternoon; the departure day usually ends at lunchtime. A fourteen-day trip is twelve usable days, and we count it that way when we plan.

One country

Days on the ground, excluding international flights. The right-hand column is what falls off the plan if you take the shorter option.

Country	Short but honest	What it should be	What the short version loses
Vietnam	9 days	12 to 14 days	Either the centre or the far north; a north-to-south trip in nine days is three flights
Cambodia	6 days	8 to 10 days	The Mekong towns and the coast; you get Angkor and nothing else
Laos	6 days	9 to 11 days	The north beyond Luang Prabang, and the pace that is the reason to come

Vietnam

Vietnam is 1,650 kilometres end to end and has three distinct regions. Twelve days gives you Hanoi and the bay, the imperial centre around Hue and Hoi An, and the south with the delta, using two internal flights. Fourteen adds the northern mountains — Ha Giang or Sapa — which need four days of their own because the drive up is six to eight hours.

Nine days works if you drop one of the three regions. It does not work as a compressed version of all three. Our twelve-day route is set out in full on the north to south page.

Cambodia

Angkor deserves three days, not one. A three-day pass used properly means early mornings, a break through the heat of the middle of the day, and late afternoons — which is how the temples are meant to be seen and how you avoid the two hours when they are hardest. Add two nights in Phnom Penh for the history, and two on the Mekong at Kratie or Kampong Cham, and you have eight days.

Laos

Luang Prabang holds three nights comfortably: the town itself, the Mekong upriver, and the Kuang Si falls with a working village. Beyond that, the north — Nong Khiaw and the Nam Ou — needs three more, because it is four hours by road each way and the whole point of going is not to rush. Nine to eleven days. Six days is Luang Prabang and a day trip, which is a good short trip but not a look at the country.

Two countries

Two countries is the combination that most often gets the length right, because people accept from the start that they are choosing.

Pair	Minimum	Comfortable	Flights inside the trip
Vietnam and Cambodia	12 days	14 to 16 days	2 to 3
Vietnam and Laos	12 days	14 to 16 days	2
Cambodia and Laos	11 days	13 to 14 days	1 to 2

Vietnam with Cambodia is the easiest pairing logistically: Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap is a one-hour flight and there are several a day. Vietnam with Laos usually connects through Hanoi. Cambodia with Laos is the quietest of the three and the least travelled, and for people who have been to the region before it is often the best.

Where the twelve-day minimum comes from

Twelve days on the ground is roughly ten usable days. Split across two countries with one flight between them, that is five working days each — enough for three stops in one and two in the other. Below twelve, one of the countries is reduced to a single city, and a single city is not a country.

Three countries

All three is a fortnight and a half, not a fortnight. Our own three-country route runs fifteen days and we consider that the floor rather than a comfortable length.

Days	What is realistic	Our view
10	Hanoi, Luang Prabang, Siem Reap and four flights	We do not sell this
12	Three countries, one stop each, everything rushed	Possible; we will tell you it is a mistake
15	Six stops, none under two nights, three flights	The shortest version that works
18 to 21	The same route plus the far north or the Mekong Delta	What most people wish they had booked

Why ten days for three countries does not work

The arithmetic is simple and it is not a matter of taste. Ten days on the ground is eight usable days. Three countries need a minimum of three internal flights, more often four, and each one costs half a day door to door. That leaves six days for six places. Every stop becomes one night, which by our first rule is not a stop at all.

What you end up with is a photograph of Angkor, a photograph of Ha Long Bay, a photograph of the Luang Prabang alms round, and a fortnight of airports between them. People who do this trip tell us afterwards that the region felt like a blur, and they are right — it was one.

Ten days, three countries: no.
Ten days, two countries: yes, and it is a good trip.
Ten days, one country, going deep: often the best ten-day trip anyone takes here.

Adding days where they do most

If you have found two or three extra days late in the planning, these are the places we would put them, in order.

A third night in Hoi AnThe only stop where doing nothing is the point. Tailors need two fittings, the beach is fifteen minutes by bicycle, and My Son fills a morning.

Four days in the northern mountainsHa Giang or the Sapa valleys. This is the biggest single upgrade to a Vietnam trip and it cannot be done in two days.

Three nights in the Mekong DeltaNot the day trip from Ho Chi Minh City. Cai Be and Can Tho with two nights turns a coach excursion into a region.

Nong Khiaw in northern LaosThree days beyond Luang Prabang, reached by road or river, for limestone and no schedule.

A second day at AngkorThe outer temples — Banteay Srei, Beng Mealea — which almost nobody with a three-day plan reaches.

Plan My Trip

Not sure which version fits your dates

Send the number of days you actually have on the ground and we will draw the longest sensible route inside it.

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Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Can I see Vietnam properly in a week?

You can see one region properly in a week. The north with Hanoi and the bay, or the centre with Hue and Hoi An, both work well in seven days on the ground. What does not work is north to south in a week, which is two internal flights and three hotel check-ins in six usable days.

Is Angkor worth three days or is one enough?

One day covers Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm, and many people do exactly that. Three days lets you go out at 06:00, come back through the worst of the heat, and return in the late afternoon, which is when the temples are best. It also reaches Banteay Srei and the outer group, which a one-day visit never does.

Do you count the arrival day as a day?

We count it, but we do not schedule it. Most long-haul arrivals land in the morning after an overnight flight, and we leave that afternoon free. When we say a fifteen-day trip, that is fifteen days on the ground, of which roughly thirteen are usable.

What if I only have ten days and want all three countries?

We will say no, and explain why: four internal flights inside eight usable days leaves no stop longer than one night. We will then offer two countries in the same ten days, which costs less and is a better trip. If three countries is non-negotiable, another operator will sell it to you.