Trip-length itineraries
Plans built for the days you actually have
The same destination, planned at fourteen days, ten, seven and five. The longest route is researched first, and every shorter one is cut down from it, saying plainly what it drops and why.
Fares, entry fees, opening hours and booking windows are checked against the operators and the venues themselves, and each page carries the date it was checked. When something turns out to be wrong, we correct it and say so.
Longest route22 days in Thailand: north to south, overland then islands฿66,800 / $2,006 per person
Choose a destination, then a length
Each route below is the same trip at different lengths. Pick the one that matches your leave rather than trimming a longer plan yourself.
Thailand
Southeast AsiaBangkok up through the north by train and bus, one flight south, then the Andaman coast. The real cost is internal transit days, and the route lives or dies on how many you accept.
Greece
Southern EuropeIsland-hopping is sold as freedom and is really a ferry timetable. Which islands you can string together depends entirely on which group they are in.
Italy
Southern EuropeThree cities in ten days is the trip everyone plans and nobody enjoys. The question is which region you give up, not how fast you can move between them.
Japan
East AsiaWhether the rail pass still pays for itself decides the whole shape of the trip, and since the 2023 price rise, for most routes it does not.
Spain
Southern EuropeThe high-speed rail network makes a north-south route genuinely fast, which is why the usual Barcelona-Madrid-Seville triangle leaves out the best of it.
Vietnam
Southeast AsiaThe country is 1,650km long and the whole itinerary is a decision about that: rail the length of it, fly the gaps, or pick one end and stay.
Portugal
Southern EuropeSmall enough to do properly in ten days, which is rare, and the reason to spend the time on the interior rather than another day in Lisbon.
Turkey
Western AsiaIstanbul and Cappadocia are the trip most people book; the coast is what they wish they had left time for.
Portugal · 5 days
5 days in Portugal: Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto
Two beds, three cities, and the country's best library on the way past.
Turkey · 14 days
14 days in Turkey: Istanbul, Cappadocia and the Lycian coast
The trip everyone books, plus the four days on the coast they wish they had added.
Greece · 5 days
5 days in Greece: Athens, Delphi and Cape Sounion
One hotel, no ferries, and the two best day trips on the Greek mainland.
Greece · 7 days
7 days in Greece: Athens and one island, properly
Two nights in Athens, four on one island, and one ferry each way. No packing in between.
Portugal · 10 days
10 days in Portugal: Lisbon, the interior, the Douro and Porto
Four nights in Lisbon, only two of them spent in Lisbon.
Portugal · 7 days
7 days in Portugal: Lisbon, the Douro Valley and Porto
Three stops, two nights each, and the Douro reached by train rather than coach.
Spain · 10 days
10 days in Spain: Madrid, Toledo and Andalusia by train
Madrid and the south, with the four hours Barcelona would have cost spent on the ground instead.
Spain · 14 days
14 days in Spain: Barcelona to Granada by high-speed train
Six stops on one rail line, and the Alhambra booked before you fly.
Spain · 5 days
5 days in Spain: Seville, Córdoba and the Alhambra
Two beds, three cities, and Córdoba visited on the way past rather than skipped.
Spain · 7 days
7 days in Spain: Seville, Córdoba and Granada
Three Andalusian cities, two short trains, and the Mezquita for nothing.
Greece · 10 days
10 days in Greece: Athens, Naxos and Santorini
Two islands and two ferries, because every extra hop costs a morning you cannot spare.
Greece · 14 days
14 days in Greece: Athens and three Cyclades islands
Athens and three islands on one ferry line, because island-hopping is a timetable before it is a holiday.
Italy · 10 days
10 days in Italy: Rome, Florence and Tuscany
Three bases in ten days, and an argument for why Venice is the one that comes out.
Italy · 14 days
14 days in Italy: Rome, Naples, Florence, Siena and Venice
Five bases, four trains, and the two nights in Tuscany that stop it being a city-hopping tour.
Italy · 5 days
5 days in Italy: Rome, and only Rome
One city, four nights, no packing. The trip people take instead of the one they plan.
Italy · 7 days
7 days in Italy: Rome and Florence, one train apart
Two cities, ninety minutes apart, with the days spent in them rather than between them.
Japan · 10 days
10 days in Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima done properly
The Golden Route, which at ten days is the right answer, and still not worth a rail pass.
Japan · 14 days
14 days in Japan without the rail pass
Tokyo, the Japanese Alps, Kanazawa, Kyoto and Hiroshima, and the arithmetic showing the rail pass loses money on it.
Japan · 5 days
5 days in Japan: Tokyo and Kyoto, and nothing else
The shortest trip that still gets both cities, made possible by a 2h15 train and an open-jaw ticket.
Japan · 7 days
7 days in Japan: Tokyo and Kyoto, in that order
Two cities, one train, and an open-jaw ticket that removes the day everyone else spends going back.
Thailand · 10 days
10 days in Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Railay
Two cities and one beach, with an overnight train doing the travelling while you sleep.
Thailand · 14 days
14 days in Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai and the Andaman coast
The 22-day route with the far north removed and one overnight train doing the work of two travel days.
Thailand · 22 days
22 days in Thailand: north to south, overland then islands
Bangkok to Chiang Rai overland, one flight south, then the Andaman coast. Costs and transport times, day by day.
Thailand · 5 days
5 days in Thailand: one base, three day trips
Five days is one base and no packing. Bangkok, with the ruins and the markets reached from it.
Thailand · 7 days
7 days in Thailand: Bangkok, Ayutthaya and the north
One week buys two regions, not three. This is the northern half, done without rushing.
Vietnam · 10 days
10 days in Vietnam: the north, and none of the rest
Three bases within four hours of Hanoi, and the loop given the days it deserves.
Vietnam · 12 days
12 days in Vietnam: Hanoi, Ha Giang and the centre
The north and centre done properly, with the south left for a trip that has room for it.
Vietnam · 16 days
16 days in Vietnam: the length of the country by train
Hanoi to Saigon overland, with the northern mountains at the start and sleeper trains doing the distance.
Vietnam · 7 days
7 days in Vietnam: Hanoi and the Ha Giang loop
One city and one mountain road. The shortest trip that still does the best thing in Vietnam properly.
Nothing matches that. .