Best Places to Visit in South East Asia

Known For : Grand Palace Wat Pho Bangkok Wat Arun

Bangkok is the easiest first trip into South East Asia for an Indian traveller. Direct flights run from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad in under five hours, and almost every onward route in the region starts here. The Grand Palace and Wat Arun sit on the river, Chatuchak market swallows a whole Saturday, and street food keeps daily spending very low. Packages average around Rs 41,000 per person. Treat it as the hub and add an island or the north to it.

Best Time: November to February

136 Bangkok Attractions

Known For : Gardens by the Bay Universal Studios Singapore Marina Bay Sands

Singapore is one city you can cover on foot and by metro, which makes it the least stressful holiday in the region for a first time flyer. Everything runs on time, English is spoken everywhere and tap water is safe to drink. Gardens by the Bay, the Marina Bay waterfront and Sentosa fill three days, and Little India means a familiar meal is never far away. It is the most expensive place on this list: packages average around Rs 57,000 per person.

Best Time: February to September

273 Singapore Attractions

Known For : Tanah Lot Uluwatu Bali Swing

Bali sits just east of Java and is the most booked South East Asian holiday for Indian couples, with direct flights from Delhi and Mumbai. Its real advantage is that one island holds several different holidays: Ubud for rice terraces and temples inland, Uluwatu for cliffs and surf in the south, Sidemen for quiet volcano views and almost no crowds. Balinese Hinduism also gives the temples a form Indian visitors recognise on sight. Packages average around Rs 64,000 per person.

Best Time: April to October

302 Bali Attractions

Known For : Petronas Twin Towers Batu Caves KL Tower

Kuala Lumpur has the widest choice of direct flights from India of any city in the region, including from Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Ahmedabad, and it is the cheapest of the big three city breaks. Batu Caves, with its Murugan statue and 272 painted steps, is a thirty minute train ride from the centre. The Petronas Towers, Merdeka 118 and the food streets off Bukit Bintang cover the rest. Packages average around Rs 45,000 per person.

Best Time: June to August, December to February

118 Kuala Lumpur Attractions

Known For : Big Buddha Patong Beach Phuket Old Town

Phuket is Thailand's largest island and the only one with its own international airport, so you land and are at your hotel inside an hour. It works better as a base than as a single stop: Phang Nga Bay, Krabi and the Similan Islands, open roughly November to May, are all day trips or short ferries away. The old town's Sino-Portuguese shophouses are the part most visitors skip entirely. The whole trip costs noticeably less than the same days in Bali.

Best Time: November to April

128 Phuket Attractions

Known For : Hoan Kiem Lake Old Quarter Hanoi Cruise to Halong Bay

Hanoi is the cheapest capital city in the region once you have landed, and direct flights from Delhi and Mumbai take under five hours. The Old Quarter is dense, walkable and built around eating: a bowl of pho or a banh mi costs less than a coffee in Bangkok. Hoan Kiem Lake and the Temple of Literature sit within the same few streets. It is also the launch point for Halong Bay and the night train to Sapa, which is why it belongs high on a first Vietnam trip. Packages average around Rs 48,000 per person.

Best Time: October to April

90 Hanoi Attractions

Known For : Overnight Cruise in Halong Bay Sung Sot Cave Day Cruise in Halong Bay

Halong Bay is 1,969 limestone islands rising straight out of the sea, about two and a half hours by road from Hanoi, and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994. Ha Long means descending dragon. Almost everyone sees it from an overnight cruise boat, which is the right call, because the bay empties of day trippers by evening and the kayaking and cave stops are far calmer. Take a two night boat if you want the quieter far end of the bay.

Best Time: March to May, October to November

53 Halong Bay Attractions

Known For : Angkor Wat Ta Prohm Temple Bayon Temple

Siem Reap is the town you stay in to see Angkor, the largest religious complex in the world. Angkor Wat was built in the early 12th century by Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple to Vishnu, so much of the carving reads immediately to an Indian visitor: the churning of the ocean of milk runs the length of one gallery in stone. Give it three days rather than one and add Ta Prohm and the Bayon faces. You arrive on a connection through Bangkok, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, and a one day Angkor pass costs around USD 37; check the current rate.

Best Time: November to March

56 Siem Reap Attractions

Known For : Hoi An Old Town Japanese Bridge Hoi An Night Market

Hoi An has the best preserved old town in Vietnam, a former trading port whose Chinese, Japanese and French buildings came through the war intact and are now a UNESCO site. It is around forty minutes from Da Nang airport, so it slots easily into an itinerary. Tailors here will make a fitted shirt or a suit in a day, the lantern lit riverfront is worth an evening, and cao lau noodles are local to this town alone.

Best Time: February to August

40 Hoi An Attractions

Known For : Chaweng Beach Fisherman's Village Ang Thong National Marine Park

Koh Samui is Thailand's second largest island after Phuket, and because it sits in the Gulf of Thailand rather than the Andaman Sea its good weather runs on a different calendar. Its settled months are roughly February to August, overlapping the wettest part of Phuket's year, so the two islands are not interchangeable. Coconut plantations still cover the interior. Direct flights come from Bangkok, and Koh Phangan and Koh Tao are short ferries away.

Best Time: January to September

57 Koh Samui Attractions

Known For : Borobudur Temple Prambanan Temple Kraton Palace

Yogyakarta is the reason to fly to Java rather than straight to Bali. Two ninth century UNESCO temple complexes sit within an hour of the city: Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world, and Prambanan, a Hindu complex built for the Trimurti with a Ramayana relief carried around the Shiva temple. The city itself has a working sultan's palace, silverwork in Kotagede and Indonesia's best batik. An hour's flight connects it to Bali.

Best Time: May - September

33 Jogja Attractions

Known For : Fansipan Cable Car Fansipan Mountain Cat Cat Village

Sapa sits at around 1,500 metres in the far north of Vietnam, in the mountains of Lao Cai province near the Chinese border, and it is the closest thing the region has to an Indian hill station. The draw is the terraced rice valleys below the town, farmed by Hmong and Red Dao communities, best walked from September to November when the terraces turn gold, or in May and June when they are flooded and green. An overnight train from Hanoi plus a short road transfer gets you there.

Best Time: March to May, September to November

31 Sapa Attractions

Known For : Mount Phousi Palace museum Wat Xieng Thong

Luang Prabang is the one stop in Laos that most travellers make, and the whole town is a UNESCO World Heritage site: gilded wat roofs, French shophouses and the Mekong meeting the Nam Khan. Kuang Si falls, half an hour out, are terraced, turquoise and swimmable. There are no direct flights from India, so you connect through Bangkok or Hanoi. It is the slowest stop on this list, which is exactly its appeal after a week of cities.

Best Time: November to March

29 Luang Prabang Attractions

Taman Negara is one of the oldest rainforests on earth, put at over 130 million years old, and it covers 4,343 square kilometres of Malaysia's interior. You reach it by road and river boat from Kuala Lumpur in about four hours. The canopy walkway is among the longest in the world, night walks turn up far more insects, frogs and birds than large animals, and the Orang Asli settlements along the river are part of the visit. Come for the forest itself, not for a wildlife tick list.

Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in Malaysia at 4,095 metres and the highest in Borneo, inside a UNESCO listed park about two hours from Kota Kinabalu. It is a walk rather than a technical climb: no ropes, but two hard days and a 2am start for the summit. Permits are capped and sell out weeks ahead, so book the mountain before you book flights. The reward is watching the sun come up over Borneo from a granite summit above the cloud.

Kelimutu is a 1,639 metre volcano on the island of Flores with three crater lakes at its summit that hold different colours and change them over the years as the water chemistry shifts, from black to turquoise to red brown. Lio belief holds them as resting places of the dead, separated by age. You stay in the village of Moni and walk up before dawn on a short, well marked trail. Getting there means a flight to Ende, usually with a change, so it suits a longer Indonesia trip.

Known For : Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu Buat Luk Khaeo Festival Explore Mae Sariang

Mae Hong Son is a small town in Thailand's far northwest, ringed by mountains and morning mist, and about as far from the beach circuit as the country gets. Most people arrive on the mountain road from Chiang Mai, famous for its 1,864 curves, or take the short flight. Wat Chong Kham and Wat Chong Klang stand reflected in the town lake, and the valleys around hold Shan and Karen farming villages. Come in the cool, clear months from November to February.

Best Time: November to February

13 Mae Hong Son Attractions

Known For : White Beach Fly Fish Parasailing

Boracay is a small island in the central Philippines, about 7 kilometres long, and the country's best known coastal destination. It closed for six months in 2018 for a clean up and reopened with caps on visitor numbers, construction and water sports, so it is quieter and better managed than its old reputation suggests. Reaching it from India means two flights and a change in Manila, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, which is why it suits a second or third trip to the region rather than a first.

Best Time: November to February

30 Boracay Attractions