My Ultimate 3-Month Southeast Asia Travel Route Explained

My Ultimate 3-Month Southeast Asia Travel Route Explained

Welcome to my planned Southeast Asia Route for my upcoming Travel. As of now I don’t know if we will stick to it or if we have a sudden change of plans. But I thought it could be interesting to write the plan and route down and then come back to it. And maybe it will inspire you to plan a trip to one of these countries or even follow a similar route.

The Why

But first things first: Why did we choose this Route. It took us around 3 months of Weekend Evening planning to figure out where we wanted to go and how much time we should spend in each place. And let me tell you we changed the Route multiple times but now we are pretty settled. When we fixed the countries and the places/cities we wanted to visit we mapped out the Route that would be the most cost, time and Co2 efficient. We wanted to take as little planes as possible and therefore have a lot of Bus travels ahead of us.

If you enter Countries in Southeast Asia you need to have transport out of the country. To be honest I don’t know how strictly they are in controlling this but we agreed to fix the duration of each country how long we want to stay and be flexible within that duration. Thit is the reason why I already can say how many weeks we will spend in each Country. But now let’s dive into the countries we will be visiting.

Thailand

Duration: 3 Weeks

Thailand or Bangkok to be exact will be the first stop fo our 3 Month trip. The reason is quite simple; we have a direct and quite affordable Flight from Zurich to Bangkok. So, we quickly knew that this would be our starting point. Then the other big question; South or North. For us this was settled pretty quickly as well. We knew that a trip in the South would be a nice 2-week holiday so we decided to focus on the north. Our plans are to take some time in Bangkok to get over the jetlag and enjoy the city and the start of our trip. Then we head north to Sukhothai, further north to Chiang Mai and last to Chiang Rai, before heading to Loas. We wanted to Focus on the Nature and the cultural aspect of Thailand and I am very excited what is ahead of us.

Laos

Duration: 2 Weeks

When we started talking about travelling Southeast Asia I instantly knew that I wanted to visit Laos. Mostly because I know hardly anything about Laos and the culture. And during the process of planning and looking into what there is to see and discover my excitement in visiting this country grew even more. So I cant tell you more about Laos yet but I am very excited to find out what it will hold for us.

From Chiang Rai we will take to 2 Day slow Boat Tour to Luang Prabang from there, the plan I to head to the north to Nong Khiaw. From there we will go all the way to the south to Pakse. We decided to only spend two weeks in Laos due to the visa requirements.

Vietnam

Duration: 3 Weeks

If you have read one of my other Blogpost about Vietnam you know that I fell in love with Vietnam when I was there in November 2024. So I knew I need to come back. The planning process for Vietnam was a bit different then the other countries. I told my Boyfriend that he needs to tell me what he want to see in Vietnam and that I would go back anywhere that I already have been.

Funny enough he did not care to much about the south and rather wanted to see the north, which is exactly what I did not see my last time so I was even more excited. The only places I am revisiting are Hanoi and Ninh binh but these two where my favorites anyway. So why are we heading north?

If you look at pictures from the north of Vietnam is full of stunning rice terraces and mountains and we really want to see that. From Laos our First stop will be Hanoi. From there we first will visit Ninh Binh before heading into the north to Sapa after visiting Sapa when the weather hopefully plays along, we want to do the Ha Giang Loop. I am excited and a bit nervous about that. When everything goes according to our plan after the Loop we want to head to Cao Bang before heading back to Hanoi to hop on a plane to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia

Duration: 1 Week

Visiting Malaysia was not really on our minds when we first started Planning. Well, this is not entirely true. We discussed visiting Borneo but then decided on Sumatra. When we started looking at flight from Hanoi to Sumatra, we realized that we needed to have a Stop in Kuala Lumpur anyways so that’s when we decided to stay there for a bit longer.

Unfair to say but this week is probably the one I am least excited about. I can’t tell you why. Maybe it is the unknown of Malaysia? The only two Stops we are planning doing is Kuala Lumpur and Goerge Town and what if seen from other Blogs so far is, that is quite pretty and a foodie heaven. So, neither to say I am eager to be swept away by Malaysia.

Indonesia

Duration: 4 Weeks

Indonesia will be the biggest stop in our journey. We decided to narrow it down to 30 Days due to our Visa and let me tell you it was hard. Honestly, I think we replanned Indonesia like 3 times. There is just so much to see and so many adventures to be had. We finally decided on which island we want to visit.

Sumatra

Sumatra will be the first stop from George Town. I have found a really cool Jungle Trek we want to do. After we land in Medan we will head directly to Bukit Lawang and into the Jungle to hopefully see Orang Utans and a lot of other animals. After the trek we plan to head to Berastagi and then Lake Toba. I am stoked to see the Nature of Sumatra but also a bit nervous about the transport and how well we will manage everything.

Java

After Jungle comes the great and loud Chaos of Jakarta. I think it will be quite the shock after the Nature to visit such a big city, After Jakarta we plan to hop on a night bus and drive directly to Surabaya where we hope to learn a bit more about the Indonesian Culture. One thing I really want to do while on java is (oh shock it is not mount Bromo) hiking the Gunung ijen. We just think it looks more interesting and fun. But let us know if you think otherwise.

Lombok

The last leg on our Indonesia journey is the Island Paradise Lombok. I know what you think, No Bali? Yes no Bali we decided to skip it. kind of the same reason why we skip south Thailand. We think this would just be a nice 2-week Vacation that you can take all the time. So we just decided to ditch it and go to Lombok instead. And I am very excited to just rent a scooter and drive around the Island. There is soo much to see that we just want to go with the flow and soak everything in.

The last days before heading to Singapore will be on the Gilli Island. We decided on a resort on Gili Air and will be there for 5 Days. We thought this could be the perfect way to end our trip together and we don’t really have beach and chill stop planned anywhere else, we thought why not. Of course, I don’t plan and lie on the beach all the time. I am excited to go snorkeling and see turtles. It also could be the perfect way to soak the last months in before going back to normal.

Singapore

Duration: 4 Days

To end everything in Singapore was again an obvious choice because of the flight to Zurich. What we did not plan was the be in Singapore while the Formula 1 is there but as we both watch the races together, we immediately knew that we had to get tickets. We have even increased our budget for this. So, one Day will be spent at the racetrack. The rest we plan on doing sightseeing to see this magical city and I plan to eat a lot at the different Hawker Center. This is foodie heaven. Also I am thrilled to see Changi airport for the first time. But that also means heading back to Switzerland and that our 3-month journey has come to an end.

Final Thoughts

I am beyond excited what lies before us but to be honest also scared to come back home. I know that I will be happy to see my family, friends and especially our cats again. But I am scared to go back to work and to live just a normal everyday life again. But I also know that I will be planning our next adventure I think very soon.

Did you visit any of these Countries and have tips or recommendations for us? What do you think of our Route? Please tell me in the comments. And if you want to read more about our journey here I have plenty of posts about it.