A few weeks ago I posted on TripAdvisor forums to get some feedback on a planned itinerary in Central and Southern Vietnam for our upcoming trip in early 2024. I prefaced the request with a note that I realized we were doing a lot in a short time, but we don’t have unlimited vacation time and would like to see as much as possible.

Despite acknowledging the limited time available to us, I still got the inevitable feedback (mostly from Australians for some reason) that we needed at least two to three weeks for what we wanted to see and that we wouldn’t enjoy it. I did get some good advice on some tweaks to the itinerary, but most of the feedback I got was negative.

There’s definitely a large group of people that prefer slow travel. I’m guessing that these are mostly either young backpackers, retirees or people who are digital nomads and can work from anywhere. We generally don’t spend a ton of time in each place, although I like to at least spend two nights minimum everywhere so that we don’t spend half our time checking in and out of hotels and traveling between places.

For example, our 2018 Southeast Asia itinerary consisted of the following schedule:

Two nights in Hong Kong
Two nights in Hanoi
Two nights Ha Long Bay cruise
Two nights in Bangkok
Three nights in Chiang Mai
Two nights in Koh Samui

It looks hectic, but we had time to relax in-between seeing the major sights in each place. We also were quite lucky in that we didn’t have major flight delays.

For our 2024 Southeast Asia itinerary, I’ve got the following scheduled:

Three nights Ho Chi Minh City
Three nights in Da Nang/Hoi An (including a trip to Hue)
Two nights in Siem Reap
Two nights in Phnom Penh
Two nights in Singapore

One of the more helpful comments on TripAdvisor was for us to fly from Ho Chi Minh City into Hue instead of Da Nang and visit Hue before a one-way journey to Da Nang. That would save several hours of driving. We also plan on a road journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh to see a bit more of rural Cambodia.

My wife and I are lucky in that we both prefer the hectic “if it’s Tuesday it must be Bangkok” way to travel. I’m sure someday we will slow down a bit and spend a bit more time sitting around sipping coffee and people-watching, but until then, we’ll relax when we get home to our empty nest.

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