Twenty-eight journeys, two lengths, one party at a time

Two lists, and the one thing that separates them

The two tables below are not a premium tier and a budget tier. They are lengths. A grand voyage runs sixteen to twenty-eight days and crosses two or more countries, or takes one country from end to end. A country journey runs eight to twelve days and stays inside one country, usually one region of it.

Everything else is the same. The same national guides, the same hotels, the same private car with the same driver, the same rule that we run one party at a time and never put strangers together. A nine-day Cambodia journey is not a cut-down grand voyage. It is the right length for Cambodia.

The country rate spreads wider because countries do. Japan and Bhutan cost two to three times what Vietnam or Cambodia cost for an identical standard of hotel and guide, and no operator can argue that away. The prices page sets out the four country tiers, what sits inside a day rate before any margin, and how a quote 25% below ours is usually built.

The eight grand voyages

Sixteen days upward, two or more countries in most cases. Prices are per person, twin share, land only, for a party of five to eight in our Comfortable grade — the lowest cell of each journey's own price table. Smaller parties pay more per head because a car and a guide cost the same whether two people or six are using them.

What sixteen days does to a trip that fourteen does not, and which of these eight suits which traveller, is worked through on grand voyages.

The twenty country journeys

Eight to twelve days, one country each, except the last line where Georgia and Armenia are genuinely one journey. Same basis: per person, twin share, land only, party of five to eight, Comfortable grade.

How to choose, in about thirty seconds

Start with the number of days you actually have

Not the days you would like. Subtract the flying: most of Asia costs a day out and a day back from Europe or the American east coast, and a fourteen-day holiday is an eleven-day journey. If what remains is under twelve, take a country journey and take it slowly. If it is sixteen or more, a grand voyage will give you something a longer country journey cannot, because the second country changes what you notice about the first.

The arithmetic of how many days a country actually holds — and what breaks when you take fewer — is on how many days.

Then let the month decide the place

This is the step most people take last and it is the one that ruins trips. Asia does not have a season; it has about six of them running at once. December to March is the best window over the region as a whole. April to June is hot, then wet, in Southeast Asia and at its best in Central Asia. July and August are the monsoon in most places and the right months for Sri Lanka's east coast, eastern Indonesia and the Central Asian mountains. Late October and November are the finest weeks of the year in Nepal, Bhutan and Japan.

If your dates are fixed, choose the destination from the month rather than the other way round. When to go runs through all twelve months and says where each one sends you.

Then decide whether you want one country or several

One country means fewer bed-changes, no border days, and the chance to go back to the same restaurant twice. Several means comparison, which is a real pleasure of its own: Japan and Korea are neighbours who resemble each other much less than a map suggests, and Jordan and Oman answer different questions entirely.

Two countries in ten days is not a choice, it is a mistake. If the list is long and the time is short, cut the list. Multi-country routing covers which legs connect cleanly and which force a backtrack, including the Thailand–Cambodia land border, which has been closed since mid-2025 with no reopening timetable.

What every journey includes, whatever it costs

The lowest from-price on this page is USD 2,150 and the highest is USD 13,800. The list below does not change between them.

• One party at a time. Your booking, your car, your guide. We do not combine two bookings to fill a vehicle, at any price point, ever.
• Hotels named in the quote. Not "4-star or similar". The actual property, so you can look it up before you pay a deposit and tell us if you hate it.
• A national guide, in each country. Licensed, resident, and working with you rather than reading at you. On a grand voyage that means a new guide at each border, because a Vietnamese guide in Cambodia is a tourist with a microphone.
• A private driver, separate from the guide. The person who knows the road is not the person who knows the temple, and asking one person to do both is how days run late.
• Every entrance fee we list, paid in advance. Timed-entry sites are booked at the moment booking opens, not on the morning.
• A phone number answered at night. In the country you are in, in the time zone you are in.
• Written terms. Deposit 30%, balance 45 days before departure, and the cancellation position in the same document. The sequence is on how to book.

What is never included, on any of the twenty-eight: international flights, visas, travel insurance, tips, and meals not written into the day-by-day. We would rather show you a bare number you can compare than a bundled one you cannot.

When neither table is the answer

Questions travellers ask most

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