Destinations — nights, not highlights

The four we write about first

Hanoi · 2 to 3 nights

A French grid over a medieval trading quarter, running on motorbikes. The walkable part is one square kilometre.

Hoi An · 2 to 3 nights

A fifteenth-century port that stopped trading and so never got rebuilt. Three nights if you are having clothes made.

Siem Reap · 3 nights

Four hundred square kilometres of Khmer empire. One-day visitors regret it more reliably than anything else we plan.

Luang Prabang · 3 nights

Thirty working monasteries on a peninsula you can cross in twenty minutes. The third night is the one that does the work.

More pages are being written — Lan Ha Bay, Ninh Binh, Hue, Phnom Penh, Nong Khiaw and the Mekong Delta all appear inside our routes already, and each will get the same treatment.

The arithmetic that decides a short trip

Add up the suggested nights for the places you want and then add one travel day for every base change that involves a flight. If the total is more than the leave you have, something comes out — and it is better to decide which now than to discover it on day four.

Bases in the route	Realistic minimum	Comfortable
Two	6 days	8 days
Three	8 days	10 days
Four	10 days	12 days

Four bases is our ceiling for a trip of twelve days or under. Beyond that the trip becomes a series of packings.

Tell us which places matter

Name the two you will not leave out and the days you have. We will build the rest around them.

How many nights each place is worth