Some ideas on planning your itinerary.
Once you’ve chosen your highlights you get to figure out what to add or delete. You’re going all that way, might as well make the most of it without spending all your time on the road. What I do then is look at package tours on the internet at this site and others. These guys know what people would like to see and have worked out routes and timing usually with good maps. Certainly you don’t want to just recreate a package tour but reading reading reading will trigger ideas in your head that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Here are some online guidebook links that also have sample itineraries: Lonely Planet; Rough Guides; Fodors; Frommers and of course, as always, Ms Google is happy to help.
One thought to share, I like to keep the number of languages down if possible. Pick four weeks in Vietnam and after that time your ear will be comfortable with Vietnamese but if you spend a week each in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos you’ll lose that chance.
Now you’ve chosen your highlight experiences, you’ve poured over all the information on the internet, and you’ve got good maps on hand. OK, excellent, now you get to draw your itinerary on a map.
It’s surprising how many times I change my mind at this stage in the process. I see on the map some feature I’d missed, or I look at the whole plan and decide my ideas are too ambitious, but at some point you’ll have an outline that fits into your time frame.
Directory of TIPS!
My two best suggestions.
Deciding where you want to go.
Planning your itinerary.
Getting the logistics right.
Where to stay.
Know before you go!
Schlepping your stuff.
Some good ideas that aren’t for me but might be for you.