Southeast Asia small group tours – a few tips
After more than 25 years experience of planning and organising Southeast Asia small group tours we’ve noted a few simple details that we feel can significantly improve, or detract from, the overall experience. To many regular, long-haul travellers they may be obvious, but they clearly aren’t to everyone. We do frequently come across guests who are possibly new to the format or others who just didn’t have time to think it all through, nut who could have easily optimised the overall experience with just a few simple additions or subtractions. Different visitors have differing expectations, everyone’s idea of optimisation isn’t the same and certain travellers may have specific time and/or financial restraints but after all those years of running Southeast Asia small group tours, we’ll permit ourselves to make a few general recommendations.
Since you’ve travelled all that way…
The first suggestion that springs to mind is; arrive early and leave late. The single, simplest and most effective way of getting the best out of your Southeast Asia small group tour is to arrive at the tour’s starting point at least one day in advance. (Two is even better.) Underestimate or dismiss at your peril the effects of a 12 hour plus flight, (or up to twice as long if you’re arriving from North America), and a 6 or 7 hour time difference. Add to this the heat and humidity that’ll hit you on leaving the air-con airport arrivals area – especially if arriving from a northern hemisphere winter – and you will inevitably feel a bit zonked, for want of a better word, for the first couple of days. Even if you are one of the lucky travellers who don’t generally suffer the effects of jet-lag, time zone and abrupt temperature changes, then it still gives you an extra day or two to relax and explore the sites at your leisure.
You could spend a lot of time exploring Chiang Mai’s charming lanes and lively street markets Thailand small group tours kick off in either Bangkok or Chiang Mai. Cambodian in Phnom Penh, Lao trips in Vientiane, Java tours in Yogyakarta and Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi and Kunming respectively for Malaysia or Vietnam tours. All are fascinating destinations offering plenty of options for sights, activities, sampling local food etcetera which are above and beyond what’s included in the regular itineraries. The time restraints of a 2-week or so small group tour format doesn’t usually allow for more than a day or two in any of the above so in each destination we can only possibly include a fraction of what’s on offer. All our above links provide rundowns on what is featured on the standard tour itineraries as well as our suggestions for extracurricular visits. Even smaller towns with not so many immediately obvious attractions – Sri Lanka’s Negombo or Borneo’s Kota Kinabalu for instance – reveal hidden secrets if you poke around a bit. (Check out Negombo’s scenic, Dutch period canals or Kota Kinabalu’s excellent Sabah State Museum.)
We prioritise comfortable accommodation with convenient locations so, in addition to exploring the area, you can also spend some of your extra, pre-tour time, just chilling by a pool, sampling a cocktail on the hotel’s terrace or checking out the in-house spa and massage facilities. After a couple of days in say Phnom Penh’s Patio Hotel or Chiang Mai’s Sugarcane Hotel you’ll also know many of the staff by first name so settle in and make yourself at home before the rest of your group arrive and your tour kicks off.
You could also spend a lot of quality time on the Patio Hotel’s rooftop cafe Just paying for one extra night’s accommodation then allows you to acclimatise, recover from jet-lag and explore the area in more depth. A win-win as they say. with the alternative being travelling all night, arriving at your destination in the morning then trying to summon enough energy for the afternoon intro walking tour and trying to stay awake for the evening’s welcome dinner. The above recommendation goes for all travellers but that extra day or two recovery and acclimatisation time be particularly appropriate for family tours with small kids in tow.
Secondly, either add on a day at the end of the tour or book an extension. Bear in mind that, increasingly, a large chunk of your overall tour cost is the flight, so getting the most out of your ticket price is valid for extra time both before and after your regular tour. In the first case we’re not charging you for any transport, activities or guide services, (well, unless requested), so all your paying for is an extra room, while in the case of a beach or island extension it’s just room plus return journey.
While we endeavour to design our Southeast Asia small group tours in leisurely paced fashion, some include considerable travelling and numerous activities plus just frequently packing, unpacking and changing hotels can be tiring so we reckon a day or two tagged on to the end of your tour is well worth while. Relax before your return journey, do some last minute shopping for souvenirs or handicrafts and check out one of two sites that you didn’t have time to see earlier.
With regards the island or beach extensions; you’ve travelled all that way and explored national parks in Thailand, discovered ancient cities in Cambodia or taken bullet trains across Yunnan so add on some quality ‘R and R’ time before heading homewards. Island add-ons don’t necessarily mean lying on a beach for three days – although of course that’s entirely up to you – and we do try and outline all the options and activities that are available at each destination whether it’s snorkelling on coral reefs on Malaysia’s Perhentians or Gaya Island, scuba diving off Cambodia’s Koh Rong or island hopping tours from Koh Libong in Thailand’s Trang Province.
Add on a few days at Koh Libong’s Andalay Resort Another style of optional tour extension is city breaks in the capitals Bangkok or Jakarta or World Heritage Luang Prabang for example, which could be added before or after a tour and offer more in depth, getting to know a place, opportunities. Alternatively, along the lines of squeezing extra value out of your pricey flight ticket idea, there are mini-tours to adjacent regions which time constraints prevent being included in the relevant, standard Southeast Asia small group tour. These include, for instance, a 5-day Sapa tour, 1-week Flores and Komodo adventure, 4 days exploring Borneo’s Tabin Wildlife Reserve or discovering southern Cambodia on a Kep, Kampot and Takeo tour.
Background reading and info
Some time spent before travelling, on at least minimal research on the destination or destinations of your choice, is certainly time well spent. Either perhaps reading up on the background to some of the sites you’ll be seeing or garnering some knowledge of the country in question’s history, contemporary culture, peoples and cuisine for example is all good stuff and we’d say greatly increases your appreciation of the place once you arrive. Of course local guides and tour-leaders are on hand to provide such background information and answer any questions but that can be a lot of info to assimilate in a shortish time so, as we said, some prior delving of your own is very useful.
Thailand’s turquoise waters and colourful hilltribes, Vietnam’s temples and historic cities and Borneo’s jungles and wildlife are all well known but what about the history of those countries? You’ll discover ancient Khmer culture at Angkor and learn about the more recent and tragic Khmer Rouge period but a brief read or listen on the rest of Cambodia’s 2000 year history helps to add perspective to both eras. We’d say it’s a bit like learning to say hello, please and thank you in the language of a country you’re visiting – just learning a few basics of its history and traditions is showing the minimum of respect for a nation and people.
A fascinating and evocative read This can of course take several forms from reading entire books to watching travel or history documentaries or simply perusing on-line websites. The former offers much greater depth, as well as (usually) greater veracity, but does depend how much time you have to spare. Of course a 12 hour flight plus airport waiting time provides opportunities. (This isn’t the place for bibliographies but John Gimlette’s Elephant Complex is not only a brilliant evocation of Sri Lankan history, culture and geography but simple one of the best travel books we’ve read full stop.)
Online travel sites and YouTube documentaries however are far from reliable and can vary from the sublime to the ridiculous and the perceptive to the nonsensical. Some on-line guides such as Lonely Planet or Travelfish contain curated, professional researched and written content while review sites such as Tripadvisor or Google’s own reviews are personal opinions written by casual, one-time visitors. However perceptive their critiques may appear, the author has probably only visited that particular destination once and probably only stayed in one hotel and eaten in a clutch of eateries at that destination for comparison and perspective. (We recall one criticism of a certain resort that their WiFi was slow. Had guests stayed in other resorts on the same island they’d know that WiFi was slow everywhere on what was a remote and sparsely populated spot so what was the point in negatively singling out one particular establishment?)
Noisy kids around the pool was one complaint we read. (Surprisingly they weren’t a permanent fixture of the resort.) This is Sabbay in Kep and not the pool in question. We’ll concede there is a place for such sites but just bear in mind that they are personal opinions with minimal or zero verification and may, occasionally, reflect personal agendas. The same goes for would-be professional travel writers coming in the form of so-called ‘influencers’ or content providers and for every writer or video producer trying their best to create balanced, perceptive accounts there are another two whose content depends upon what backhanders and freebies they’re receiving.
Other well-meaning travel advice may come from direct sources but again bear mind that you auntie’s next door neighbour’s son, who once went backpacking to Chiang Mai or Hoi An, is possibly not the most reliable source of travel info. Trust your local guide or tour-leader; he or she can’t possibly know everything but they have done the tour many times before; know when’s the best time to start the day, how long it takes to get from A to B, what your best footwear will be and why restaurant C is preferable to restaurant D.
An open mind and an ‘up for it’ attitude
The most important item when preparing for a Southeast Asia small group tour – and one not appearing on any ‘what to bring list’ – is to pack an open mind. You’ve travelled half way around the World and presumably have selected All Points East’s Southeast Asia small group tours precisely because they include both well-known and off-the-beaten-track destinations so be prepared for some, what may prove to be, outside your comfort zone experiences. Apart from hot and sticky weather, smelly markets and weird and wonderful food, these could include your phone getting pinched by a cheeky macaque, running into a heard of elephants or hanging out with exotically dressed hill-tribe people in a north Vietnamese or Yunnanese village. However, we’ve also found that it can include more prosaic things such as the tea or coffee doesn’t taste like it does as home or, ‘oh my god that fried fish has a head on it’. (Note, in the aforementioned case, the going rate for getting your phone back currently runs from 2 bananas, (Sri Lanka), to 3 (Cambodia or Thailand).
In Southeast Asia a long-tailed macaque is more likely to steal your snacks than a seagull WiFi in a remote village might not be as fast as it is at home, your ensuite might not come with a power shower, the chicken’s got bones in it or ‘our Hanoi guide has a Vietnamese accent’, but don’t forget you travelled 10,000 kilometres and elected to go off-the-beaten-path. Keep an open mind to new experiences – even the bits you’re not so keen on – and go with the flow. Getting hung up over a minor detail will definitely not improve your tour experience.
Take as little as possible
This is hardly going to make or break your Southeast Asia small group tours but is a general recommendation worth mentioning while we’re at it. Apart from packing an open mind and easy going attitude we’d recommend packing as little as possible. The furthest you’ll have to carry your bags on Southeast Asia small group tours is probably in airports on departure and arrival however, it still doesn’t help to be carting loads of gear around with you either. Especially if it’s unnecessary gear. The latter case may include for instance a fleece or jacket which was necessary for getting from home to the airport but will be of no use whatsoever on most of our Southeast Asia small group tours. Check your itinerary as certain tours start and finish at the same hotel so taking an extra bag, or even carrier bag, to put unneeded clothes and footwear in is useful as you can simply dump it in their storage room for the duration and pick it up at the end of the tour.
Bear in mind that most items you might require on your tour are readily, and cheaply, available locally so there’s little point in carrying a giant bottle of shampoo around or a family-sized tube of toothpaste. All hotels provide shampoo, Thailand has Boots outlets and Vietnam Marks and Spencer stores while Colgate is available in any Cambodian or Lao minimart.
Phnom Penh’s new Techo International Airport. You have 1 week to complete your Cambodian e-arrival application. On the reverse side of the coin, one of the most commonly overlooked items you will need are electric adapters. Plug and socket specifications vary considerably from country to country and you don’t want to check in to your hotel after a long flight only to discover you can’t charge your phone. (You can check details on our country destination pages but often even within a single country you’ll find differing formats; 2 prong round, 2 prong square, 3 prong etcetera.) While on the subject of phones, check power bank/charger restrictions as many airlines seem to change policies on these on a regular basis while China for instance only allows you to carry certain types of them with you.
On a more general note, another detail that you need to watch our for, and that may have changed since your last visit, are the destination’s entry requirements. That is to say the various e-arrival systems recently adopted by most Southeast Asian countries. Your required to complete these online applications in advance but note that, to complicate matters, the time frame changes from country to country so Laos or Malaysia is 3 days, 72 hours) ahead of arrival while Cambodian immigration allow 1 week before arrival. Don’t forget that refers to arrival at your destination not departure so you’ll need to factor in the time difference as well. As many of these schemes are relatively new, immigration officials are generally flexible so if have for gotten it’s not the end of the World but we’d imagine as time goes on that flexibility will decrease.
Hope the above helps – enjoy your tour.
