Southeast Asia Travel Guides

Temples, Beaches & Street Food

23 destinations

Southeast Asia remains the world's most popular backpacker trail — and for good reason. Thailand delivers legendary street food, ornate temples, and islands with turquoise water. Bali offers a spiritual dimension alongside surf breaks and rice-terrace trekking. Vietnam's cuisine alone justifies the trip: pho in Hanoi, banh mi in Hoi An, and fresh seafood in the south. Japan blends ancient tradition with futuristic innovation. Singapore punches above its weight as a culinary capital.

Asia Destinations

Cambodia (Siem Reap Province)

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument ever constructed — a 12th-century Khmer temple complex of extraordinary ambition and beauty, built over 35 years beginning in 1113 CE by King Suryavarman II, requiring an estimated 300,000 workers, 6,000 elephants, and five to ten m…

Bali, Indonesia

Bali is an Indonesian island of approximately 4.3 million people, 5,780 square kilometers in area, situated between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is the only Hindu-majority island in Indonesia — a nation of 270 million people that is the world's largest Muslim co…

Indonesia (East Nusa Tenggara, Flores Island)

Komodo National Park, Flores, Indonesia

Komodo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve in the East Nusa Tenggara province of eastern Indonesia — an archipelago of three main islands (Komodo, Rinca, and Padar) plus numerous smaller islands and surrounding waters, covering 1,733 square kilo…

Lao PDR (Laos) — Luang Prabang Province, northern highlands

Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang is the former royal capital of Laos — a small UNESCO World Heritage town of approximately 56,000 people at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers in northern Laos, in the forested highlands between Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, and China. Founded in 1353 …

India (Maharashtra State)

Mumbai, India

Mumbai is India's financial capital, its commercial heart, its Bollywood dream factory, its port city, and its most relentlessly alive metropolis — a city of over 20 million people built on a narrow peninsula on the Arabian Sea that has been reinventing itself since Portuguese…

Republic of the Philippines (Southeast Asia archipelago)

Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago nation of 7,641 islands in Southeast Asia, with a population of approximately 115 million — the only country in Southeast Asia where English is an official language, which gives it a unique accessibility advantage among the region's tourist de…

Phuket, Thailand

Phuket is Thailand's largest island — 543 square kilometers in the Andaman Sea off Thailand's southwestern coast, connected to the mainland by the Sarasin Bridge. With a permanent population of approximately 400,000 (and a tourism economy that swells the functional population …

South Korea (Republic of Korea)

Seoul, South Korea

Seoul is one of the world's great megacities — a capital of approximately 9.7 million city residents and 25 million in the wider metropolitan area, founded as the capital of the Joseon Dynasty in 1394, burned and rebuilt through centuries of war, rebuilt again after the Korean…

Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei is the capital of Taiwan — an island of 23 million people 180 kilometers off the southeastern coast of China, administered as the Republic of China with its own government, military, and democratic elections since 1949. The city of approximately 2.7 million sits in the …

Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam is a country of extraordinary geographic and cultural range — a narrow S-shaped nation of 98 million people stretching 1,650 kilometers from the Chinese border in the north to the Gulf of Thailand in the south, with the densely packed Old Quarter of Hanoi at one end, t…

Kingdom of Bhutan (Eastern Himalayas, between India and China)

Bhutan

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small Buddhist monarchy of approximately 780,000 people in the Eastern Himalayas, landlocked between India and China, and the most deliberately managed tourism destination on earth. Open to foreign tourists since 1974 — and then only cautiously — Bhu…

Thailand (Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand)

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is Thailand's second city and its cultural capital — a city of 1.3 million people in the mountainous north of the country, founded in 1296 as the capital of the ancient Lanna Kingdom (which existed independently from the central Thai kingdoms until 1558), surrounded…

Hong Kong, China

Hong Kong is one of the most densely built and energetically alive cities in the world — a Special Administrative Region of China occupying the northern shore of a natural harbour, a peninsula, and over 260 islands off the southeastern coast of China. Its 7.5 million residents…

Japan

Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over a thousand years — from 794 AD, when Emperor Kammu moved the imperial court here from Nara, until 1869, when the Meiji Restoration transferred it to Tokyo. In that millennium, the city accumulated more temples, shrines, gardens, palaces,…

Indonesia (West Nusa Tenggara Province)

Lombok, Indonesia

Lombok is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia — approximately 80 by 70 kilometers, slightly smaller than Bali, positioned 35 kilometers to the east across the Lombok Strait. Home to approximately 3.4 million people, with 85 percent belonging to the indigenous S…

Maldives, Indian Ocean

Maldives

The Maldives is an archipelago nation of 1,192 coral islands grouped into 26 natural atolls in the Indian Ocean, approximately 700 kilometers southwest of Sri Lanka. Total land area is approximately 298 square kilometers — spread across 90,000 square kilometers of ocean. The c…

Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

Nepal

Nepal is a landlocked nation in the Himalayas between India and China — a country of 30 million people that contains eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including Everest (8,848.86 meters), the highest point on earth. Despite its small size (147,181 square kilometers),…

Japan (Osaka Prefecture, Kansai Region)

Osaka, Japan

Osaka is Japan's third-largest city and the cultural counterpoint to Tokyo's formality — a metropolis of 2.7 million city residents and 19 million in the wider metropolitan area, founded as Japan's first imperial capital (Naniwa) in the 4th century CE, and developed over 1,500…

Philippines (Palawan Province, Western Philippines)

Palawan, Philippines

Palawan is a long, narrow island province in the southwestern Philippines — approximately 450 kilometers from tip to tip, sheltered from the Pacific typhoon belt by its northwest orientation — that has been voted the World's Best Island by Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler…

Republic of Uzbekistan (Central Asia)

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Samarkand is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth — settled since at least the 7th century BCE, conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE, transformed into the glittering capital of Timur's empire in the 14th and 15th centuries, and now recognized as a UN…

Republic of Singapore (city-state)

Singapore

Singapore is a city-state of 5.6 million people packed into 733 square kilometers at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula — one of the most densely populated countries on earth, and consistently one of the most liveable. It is a place that should not work by almost any conv…

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a teardrop-shaped island of 65,610 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean south of India — a country of extraordinary geographic and cultural density that packs ancient Buddhist capitals, misty tea highlands, world-class wildlife safaris, colonial fort cities, surf…

Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo is a metropolitan area of approximately 37 million people — the largest urban agglomeration in the world, spread across 13,572 square kilometers of the Kantō Plain on Honshū island. It is simultaneously the most modern and the most traditionally Japanese city in Japan — …

Southeast Asia Travel Guides — Common Questions

How long should I spend in Southeast Asia?

For a meaningful experience, plan at least 3–4 weeks. One month allows you to visit 2–3 countries at a relaxed pace. Six months is ideal for exploring the region thoroughly. Many travellers start with Thailand and branch out to Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, or the Philippines.

Which country should I start a Southeast Asia trip in?

Thailand is the most popular starting point — excellent transport links, great tourist infrastructure, English widely spoken, and diverse experiences from Bangkok to the islands. Bali (Indonesia) is also a strong entry point for first-time Asia visitors due to its relaxed vibe.

Do I need a visa for Thailand, Vietnam, and Bali?

Thailand offers 30-day visa-free entry for most nationalities (60 days from 2024). Vietnam requires an e-visa for most visitors ($25, easy online application). Bali/Indonesia grants 30 days visa-free for most nationalities, extendable. Japan requires no visa for most Western visitors for 90 days.

What is the best time to visit Southeast Asia?

November–April (dry season) is generally the best time across most of Southeast Asia. Each sub-region has its own climate — the Thai islands' east coast (Koh Samui) is best December–April, while the west coast (Phuket) is best November–April. Avoid monsoon season for beach trips.

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