How booking works

The form at the bottom of this page has five short fields and a 'more' section. The five are enough to start. In the notes field, the most useful things you can tell us are:

• How many weeks, and whether that includes your international flights.
• Which leg or place made you want this kind of trip — the night train, the slow boat, Angkor, the islands.
• Anything that limits movement: knees and upper berths, heat, long road days.
• Whether you have travelled in the region before, and where.
• Your rough budget per person per day, land only, if you are comfortable saying.

You do not need to choose one of our four journeys. Many people describe something in between and we draw a route from that.

For most people the outline and the quote take two or three rounds of email. A trip with three borders takes longer than one with none, because each border changes what the legs around it can be.

Start early if you are travelling around Tet, when Vietnamese trains fill and some businesses close, or in the dry season, when the small guesthouses in Pakbeng, Kratie and the islands have few rooms. Start at least two months before travel for any trip that crosses land borders, so visas can be arranged without rush.

• The route, with every leg's mode and class written down.
• The hotel for every night, by name.
• What is not included, in writing.
• The deposit amount, when the balance is due, and what happens if you cancel — all in the booking terms and the payment page, not in an email.
• Who to reach while travelling: a named contact and the channel you agree on when you book.

If any of these is missing from a quote — ours or anyone else's — ask for it before paying.

Long trips change. A train timetable shifts, a river runs high, someone wants two more nights in Luang Prabang. We make changes by email and tell you whether they cost anything before we make them. The rest days in each journey are where an unplanned change is usually absorbed.

Read the pricing page for what moves the cost, and the pacing guide for how we space stops and rest days.