Southeast Asia’s Most Popular Sites

Southeast Asia’s Most Popular Sites

A few simple tips to optimise your visits and get the timing right at some of Southeast Asia’s most popular sites, plus – all things considered – which ones probably aren’t really worth the effort anyway?

Not only are foreign visitor numbers in the region growing (unpredictable fluctuations such as COVID, bird flu, coups, etc. aside), but with steady economic progress in many parts of the region, the volume of domestic tourists is also increasing sharply. That means that during local holiday periods, as well as the traditional high season, popular Southeast Asian destinations — like many other tourist hotspots — are getting more and more crowded.

Consequently, the timing of your visit – both in terms of period of the year and the time of day – is increasingly important, while there may be certain sites at certain times that are, unfortunately, just no longer worth it. This covers a wide range of destinations in the region and even the lesser-known ones can get very busy during, say, a bank holiday weekend, but for now, we’re just going to run through a few of the more obvious examples of Southeast Asia’s most popular sites..

Cambodia

The obvious site here is, of course, Angkor Wat. (The good news is that with tourism in Cambodia so concentrated, we can’t think of any other parts of the country – including any of its other 3 World Heritage Sites, Preah Vihear, Koh Ker and Sambor Prei Kuk – where overcrowding is an issue.)

While over 1 million tourists visited Angkor in 2024, this refers to the entire archaeological park, which covers a huge area and contains dozens of temple sites. Angkor Wat itself, Bayon with the famous faces and Ta Prom with its roots and trees are the main draws, but – with the possible exception of sunrise at Angkor Wat – not all the visitors will be in the same place at the same time. Furthermore, entrance numbers are skewed towards the so-called high season months of November to February and are far fewer at other times of the year.

A frequently seen schedule includes dawn at Angkor, followed by a return to the hotel for breakfast. While dawn is unavoidably busy, delaying breakfast and visiting the temple immediately afterwards avoids a lot of the crowds. An even simpler solution, however, is to visit during the low season. Although March and April are uncomfortably hot, the rainy season, May to September, is an ideal time to visit. The occasional shower, many of which occur in the evening or nighttime anyway, is hardly a major issue and not only are the temples much quieter, they’re also green and lush. (For more tips on visiting Angkor, see our earlier post.)

Indonesia

With the obvious exception of Bali, there are few obvious tourist choke points in the remainder of the vast Indonesian archipelago. However, Java’s Borobudur, with 1.3 million visitors recorded in 2024, does fall into the busy category. A large percentage of those are local visitors, meaning that our usual low-season solution doesn’t work. Avoiding weekends and holidays makes a big difference, although this isn’t always possible as, on say a 2-week tour, you have to be somewhere at a weekend.

Tourist authority regulations also seem slightly complicated with not only a dual pricing for foreigners and locals (standard in these parts), but also a supplement for an early morning/sunrise visit. They also appear to tweak regulations on a regular basis, but last time we visited you weren’t allowed to actually climb the steps to the main temple structure. The setting is spectacular with well-tended gardens and volcanic peaks on every horizon, while it is a World Heritage Site within easy driving time of Yogyakarta so…in our opinion, it is still worth the visit.

Yogya’s second UNESCO site, Prambanan, is slightly larger, not so well-situated for sunrise and doesn’t see quite the same concentration of visitors while the equally spectacular, but less-visited Candi Sewu lies a mere 10 minutes walk away and offers great, uncrowded sunset vistas.

Laos

Even remote, land-locked Laos has a couple of candidates for Southeast Asia’s most popular destinations with World Heritage Luang Prabang and the backpacker Mecca Vang Vieng. The ancient temple – also UNESCO-inscribed – Wat Phu, in the far south, can get busy too. All are relatively easily dealt with. With regards Luang Prabang; if you can’t make low season then early morning or late afternoon are certainly quieter – and cooler – times to explore. If in Vang Vieng, admire the spectacular karst formations but find a quiet place out of town to stay while for Wat Phu, arriving early in the morning would suffice. (For example, on a recent tour to the latter we arrived at 8.00 and joined two other minibuses in the car park. When we left late morning, the car park was overflowing with buses parked all down the access road.)

Thailand

Thailand, with its scenic northern mountains, World Heritage ancient cities and spectacular islands, is naturally one of the World’s, as well as Southeast Asia’s most popular destinations. However, in Southeast Asian or European terms, it is a relatively large country (similar in size to France for example), and only a tiny fraction sees any significant numbers of visitors. Huge swathes of the kingdom are home to picturesque scenery and fascinating sites, yet see very few tourists, even in high season. However, at certain times of the year, the hotspots can get very busy indeed. (Our Thailand tours avoid the busiest destinations, so you won’t see us suggesting Phuket, Koh Samui, Pai or Pattaya at any time of year.)

Unlike Angkor or Luang Prabang, for instance, our ‘go in low season’ advice doesn’t always work as there are climatic determinants at work. The north, centre and northeast are uncomfortably hot from March to May, while the spectacular islands and coast of the Andaman Sea are affected by the western monsoon (generally May to October). While an occasional shower doesn’t matter if you’re visiting temples, rough seas and storms aren’t so good for island stays.

In the north, Chiang Mai is a big enough city and province to absorb large numbers of visitors but tiny and hugely popular Pai isn’t. Mid-week in the rainy season is ok, but otherwise forget it. There are a host of much lesser-known areas in the north which our off-the-beaten-track North Thailand tour aims to demonstrate.

Bangkok’s Royal Palace is another choke point so, go early or don’t go. (If time is limited, bear in mind there’s plenty of other interesting sites to see in Bangkok.)

The well-known destination of Krabi in southern Thailand is another tricky one as, due to weather conditions, much is only really open in high season anyway. On a recent day tour to Koh Phi Phi, there were so many tour boats moored in Maya Bay that it was impossible to even get in the water. Phi Phi is a World-famous destination and in former times regularly, and justifiably, featured high up on most beautiful islands lists but does suffer from being midway between Krabi, Koh Lanta and Phuket so sees constant arrivals from all sides. Unless you hire a private boat to take you there at 6 in the morning – we’d say – with regret, as we were also lucky enough to visit 35 years ago, forget it.

Vietnam

Vietnam’s proximity to China as well as its booming economy, mean that many popular sites can be very crowded during holiday periods. Halong Bay and Hoi An are two obvious cases but there are more. (It’s also worth avoiding Sapa at weekends if at all possible.) Visits to Halong are dependent on weather so once again our low season tip doesn’t work so well here either, although it certainly would in the case of Hoi An. Halong does cover a large area so once you’ve departed Halong Port boats do spread out although all tours are ultimately at the mercy of the boat operators who, for reasons best known to themselves, all follow the same routes It does feature some of the most spectacular scenery in Southeast Asia and is of course a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site so…sure…it’s popular. Definitely worth it but just don’t expect to have the place to yourself.

The tiny and also World Heritage-listed town of Hoi An can also get very busy. Crowds are, however, easy to avoid in this case and we’ve even written an earlier post on the subject.

There are of course plenty more examples of Southeast Asia’s most popular destinations but these handful of examples suffice to give you the idea. Visiting during low season where feasible and early morning or late afternoon are simple tips while, if you can’t cope with crowds just skip a destination or two but don’t go to a famous World Heritage Site in the middle of the day during high season and complain that it’s too busy.