How to plan a two month trip to Southeast Asia

Well hello to you my reader chums! If you've read my new year's resolutions post, then you'd know, I'm jetting off for a two-month adventure to Southeast Asia in February, and we cannot wait. I began thinking about this last year and finally started booking it towards the end of 2018. It has been a lengthy and fun process, and I've much-preferred planning and researching it myself than going through an agency.

If you're like me and want to plan your travelling all independently,  here's everything you need to know about how we planned our two-month adventure to Southeast Asia...

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How to plan a two month trip to Southeast Asia


Choose the countries to visit and map out a route

First things first is to have an idea of which part of Southeast Asia you'd like to visit. Southeast Asia is a huge place and it has many counties such as Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and more. You need to initially pinpoint on a map which places you'd like to visit and then figure out the best route.

For instance, we're planning on visiting the countries Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Before Southeast Asia, we're going to Dubai for 5 days and then jetting off to Bangkok to kick off the two-month adventure. We're in Thailand for the longest period (around 5 weeks) then Laos for 5 days, Cambodia for a week, and Vietnam for 10 days.

In Thailand, we're covering 10 different locations including the islands. I probably planned it a weird way to how a travel agency would of but it's in the order we would have liked to do things. We're going to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai, Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Krabi, Koh Lanta, Koh Samui, Ko Phan Ngan, and Koh Tao. In Laos, we're visiting Vientiane and Luang Prabang. Cambodia, we're going to explore Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Then, the final leg of the trip is working our way up to Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City to Hue and Hanoi. For every place, I did some research on the optimum time to spend there and pinpointed how long we should stay in each place, and added it to the agenda.

Decide on a budget 

Once you've chosen where to go, you need to consider the costs of everything and how you're going to budget for the trip. Even though the typical travelling style is by backpack and staying in dormitories - you don't have to do that. It all depends on your budget and working in your means. You'll find when travelling to Asia that the flights are the biggest cost and accommodation, and the food is very affordable.

We set a rough budget of how much the trip would cost and then found hostels/hotels and travel which would fit around that. We booked everything place by place and worked our way through the agenda, ensuring we kept the costs as low as possible. As dormitories weren't for us, we decided to book a private room in each hostel and hotel - and surprisingly, it wasn't as costly as we thought, and widely available.

Check which vaccinations you need

Your health is ever so important, especially when you're travelling as the last thing you want to do is feel ill far away from home. This is why it's important to check which vaccinations are essential for the countries you're visiting. You can easily do this by phoning up your doctor's surgery and talking to the nurse. She'll inform you of what you've already had and which you should get for the countries you're going to.

It's also worth considering buying probiotic tablets. In Asia, a lot of the food isn't prepared or handled the same as in Europe that you could be at risk of food poisoning on your visit. To build up your stomach lining and prepare it for that, take some probiotics a couple of weeks before you go, and when you're there.

Consider visas 

You'll also need to do some research into which visas you're going to need on the trip, and that depends on the countries you're visiting and how long you're staying there for. For example, as we're in Thailand over 30 days, we needed to buy a tourist visa, which you can easily send off for at the Post office by filling out a form on the Thai embassy website, alongside your passport and two photos. We also needed one for Cambodia, as the majority of people do when they enter that country. Do your research beforehand, rather than worrying and not being allowed entry upon arrival.

How to plan a two month trip to Southeast Asia

Travel insurance

Likewise, with vaccinations, travel insurance is also essential. There are loads of policies you can get online that cover you for your health, luggage cover, electronic cover and for things like activities. You can easily fill out a form on what you'd like to cover and buy it at a click of the button. It's also worth noting that most policies only cover the 60 day period of travelling in one go - so if you're going for longer, make sure to check with your current policy on buying another one. I'm going for around 68 days so I had to get another policy to cover the last 8 days.

Invest in a money travel card

As you're going for a long period of time, the last thing you'd like to do is carry around lots of cash for different countries and that's where the money travel card comes in handy. You can pick these up at your local post office, and once activated add loads of different currencies onto it. Certain currencies aren't available on the card but again, just do your research. There's also a handy app that goes with it which means, you can add money to it just from your phone whenever you like!

Roughly plan your agenda for each place

Once all the essential things are in place, you can research and plan everything you want to see when you're on your travels. I personally like to write out a whole agenda and break it up day-to-day with a rough list of everything we want to see on that day. There are plenty of travel blogs online or books like Lonely Planet that is packed with information on what to see/do.

Make a buying list 

A couple of weeks before you go, it's important to make a list of all the essential things you need to buy such as suncream, bug spray, and all your toiletries. If you're backpacking, remember, the less you pack the better so be wary of that as you're purchasing things for the trip.

Packing list

The final step is making the packing list and getting prepped for your trip of a lifetime. If you write everything to pack down then you're more likely not to forget the essentials such as your visas, money, or passport!

I hope you enjoyed this how-to travelling guide! Are you planning a trip anytime soon?

Thank you for reading <3

3 comments

  1. Nice your made it so easy and adventerous

    ReplyDelete
  2. 2 months would be a lot to plan, this is a great post for anyone considering travelling for a big trip! I'm going to Iceland in a few weeks which has involved a lot of planning as it's my first adventure holiday

    ReplyDelete

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