Four journeys, counted in nights

We count a trip in stays rather than in sights. A stay is a run of nights in one bed. The number that matters most is the shortest stay: if it is two nights or less, that stop is mostly travel. Our sample routes keep every land stay at three nights or more, with two exceptions we explain on the page: a single night on a boat in Halong Bay, because the bay is the stay, and a single night in Ho Chi Minh City before a long-haul flight.

The second number is hotel changes. Each one costs roughly half a day: checkout, the car, a flight or a long drive, check-in, unpacking. The 16-day route has four changes because it crosses three countries. The 9-day route has one. If a route has more changes than you want, the first thing to cut is a stop, not the nights in the stops you keep.

The third is flights. Regional flights between Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are short — Hanoi to Luang Prabang is scheduled at a little over an hour — but some run only a few days a week. Where a flight runs three times weekly, the order of your trip is set by that flight, and we say so on the route.

• The nights listed, in the room category named on your quote, with daily breakfast
• A private car and driver for every transfer and every touring day, not shared with another booking
• A private English-speaking guide on the days marked as guided; free days have no guide unless you add one
• Domestic and regional flights the route needs, in economy unless you ask for business
• Entrance tickets for the sites on guided days

International flights, visas, insurance, most lunches and dinners, and tips are not included. The full lists sit on each journey page, and how to book explains the steps from first message to confirmed rooms. For the places themselves, see the destination pages.