The best site I’ve found for planning Southeast Asia travel is Travelfish. Samantha Brown and Stuart McDonald created Travelfish in 2004. Their vision for creating a guide to remote destinations now includes detailed itineraries, a members’ forum, and PDF guides that you can download. This is my first stop when planning Southeast Asia travel, and it should be yours too. If we’re using ASEAN as our definition, then they’re missing the Philippines and Brunei. Trust me though, there’s enough here to keep you busy.
Advantages of Travelfish
- Off-the-beaten path destinations. Yes, it covers Angkor Wat. But it also covers Kamphaeng Phet and other more remote Southeast Asia travel destinations.
- Personal experience. If a place is on the site, it means that one of their writers went there and checked it out.
- “No freebies.” Travelfish writers don’t get free meals or hotel rooms for their reviews.
- Premium membership ($35 Australian dollars) gives you access to all of their PDF travel guides – 174 and counting.
Southeast Asia Travel Covers
- Thailand
- Burma
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- Indonesia
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Vietnam
I will say that this site is best for people who want to get out and explore. If your travel style is more of the hit-the-highlights, five-star-hotel kind, you probably want a different website. But if you’re up for an adventure, this is the place to start your planning. Of course they’re on the usual social media sites, like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.