Our 2-Week Southeast Asia Itinerary

I’m baaaack!!! And I can’t believe I was gone for two weeks because that FLEW by!

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I spent the majority of February abroad in Southeast Asia with my boyfriend! We had the trip of a friggin’ lifetime and as someone who’s never been to Asia before, I LOVED it. We ate incredible food, saw amazing places, and covered a LOT of ground. While full travel guides for Vietnam and Siem Reap, Cambodia will be coming very soon, I did want to share our overall itinerary because I couldn’t recommend it more!

A couple things to note if you’re thinking of coming to SEA: we specifically chose February because it’s the best middle ground for decent weather without crazy crowds. Hanoi in northern Vietnam was slightly chillier (reminded me of LA in the “winter”) while Hoi An in the center, Siem Reap, and Thailand were all hot like summer. We had incredible weather, except for in Ha Long Bay, which was chilly and rainy during our visit.

Here’s our full itinerary plus a couple things I would change!

Days 1-3: Hanoi

Fly into here first! It’s the perfect starting place and there’s so much to do. We really only had one full day here, but we were able to visit almost everything on our list in that time, including an incredible cooking class, the Temple of Literature and of course, massages.

Days 3-5: Ha Long Bay

We took a three day, two night cruise with Indochina Junk and the *only* thing I would change about this would be be to cut that down to two days, one night if you’re coming during this time of year. We got to see incredible things (full YT vid here!), but would have been 10x better had the weather been better. The cruise itself was incredible, though – amazing service, accommodations and food!

Days 5-6: Back to Hanoi for the Night

Since it takes quite some time to get back from Ha Long Bay (about 4 hours with a pit stop), we didn’t want to risk it with a night flight. We went back to our Hanoi hotel just for the night and then left for Hoi An first thing the next morning.

Days 6-8: Hoi An

You guys I can’t even express to you my obsession for this magical city! It’s the most charming, vibrant, walkable and *affordable* place ever and I didn’t want to leave. But that being said, I felt like 3 full days here was enough to explore, take a basket boat tour through the coconut grove, eat all the food, see the night market, take another cooking class, get more massages, and even get custom clothes made!

*The only thing I would change here is to maybe do one less night on the cruise in Ha Long Bay and spend that extra night in Hoi An so you could day trip up to Da Nang for the Golden Bridge

Days 9-11: Siem Reap, Cambodia

We took a later night flight out of Hoi An to get to Siem Reap the night of our 8th day in SEA! All in all, we spent 3 nights and 2 and a half days there and it was perfect. We took the first full day to tour Angkor Wat (a MUST and pretty much the reason you’d go here) and then the second and third days to relax by the pool at our hotel because it was hot, explore the city and catch up on some work. We flew out of Siem Reap about midday through the 11th day.

Days 11-13: Krabi, Thailand

One of the things I loved most about our itinerary was how we started off with a ton of exploring and ended things relaxing on the beach! Our resort in Krabi was the most beautiful spot to do this and we had almost three full days there – landing late the night of our 11th day and leaving late on the 13th. This was definitely enough time for us, although we totally could’ve spent one more day and gone to another island on a boating trip!

Day 14: Bangkok then Home

To save ourselves an even longer travel day than necessary, plus have some time to see Bangkok, we stayed one night and about a half day here before heading back to the airport to go home to Los Angeles. Part of me wishes maybe we had just gone straight home, but I’m glad we got to see Bangkok, even if it were just for a short while!

And there you have it – our full itinerary with 14 days of destinations and two full travel days to and from the US, adding up to almost exactly a 16 day trip total. If you’ve never been to Southeast Asia before, you HAVE to. It’s like nothing else!

Full travel guides coming soon 🙂

xo Jordan