Off The Beaten Track

A selection of our more off-the-beaten-track small group tours to some of the remoter parts of Southeast Asia

While all our small group tours combine Southeast Asia’s well-known and lesser-visited sites, certain trips do stand out as including particularly off-the-beaten-track regions.

Despite the popularity of many Southeast Asian destinations, most foreign visitors only frequent a very limited number of sites in each country and much of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam remain largely untouched by mainstream tourism. The majority of visitors to Cambodia fail to see past Angkor Wat – or at a pinch Phnom Penh – while in Laos, few venture further afield than Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane. Even in Thailand – one of the World’s most popular holiday destinations – vast regions of the country remain, to Western eyes, undiscovered.

Our off-the-beaten-track suggestions below follow our travel style (link) signature and include the well-known destinations as well as pushing our itinerary boundaries to parts most other tours don’t reach. Cambodia for instance, possesses the spectacular World Heritage sites Preah Vihear, Koh Ker and Sambor Prei Kuk – all of which receive relatively few visitors – while some of Laos’s most dramatic scenery lies in the country’s lesser-visited south and centre.

For those with less time, the best-known sites appear in our shorter tours – Highlights of Laos, Highlights of Cambodia etc – with our longer, 2 to 3-week trips offering more in-depth explorations. One we’re particularly proud of being the award-winning (number 1 in Wanderlust Magazine’s Top Long Journeys), Unexplored – the Far North, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam tour.

As well as discovering some of Southeast Asia’s lesser-explored regions, a major advantage in terms of sustainable tourism is being able to play our tiny part in spreading the ‘tourist dollar’; benefitting local communities, creating employment and additional income in otherwise overlooked areas.

When you’re weighing up options for a Southeast Asia tour, we’d say think outside the box and don’t overlook the off-the-beaten-track parts – in our opinion, it’s a win-win.