How booking works, step by step

Very little. A month, a number of travellers and a rough length are enough for a first draft. Three more things make the first draft much closer to the final one:

• A hotel you already want. If there is one place you have been waiting to stay, say so. We build around it.
• A room level. Entry room, suite or pool villa, or a mix. If you are not sure, say "advise me" and we will suggest where an upgrade matters and where it does not.
• Anything that limits the day. Mobility, children's ages, a medical need, a dislike of boats or early flights. It changes which hotels we suggest, not only the activities.

You can send all of this in the form's optional fields, or in your reply to our first email.

Payment schedule, cancellation rules and what happens if a hotel or airline changes something are set out in writing on your quotation, together with how and where to pay and how to check that a payment request really comes from us. Read them before you confirm.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos each set their own entry rules, and what you need depends on your passport. Laos runs an official e-visa portal, linked below. Apply only through government portals; look-alike sites charge more and are not always honest. Requirements and fees change, so check the official rules for your nationality before you book flights.

Before travel we send a final document with every hotel, room category, confirmation number, flight, transfer time and guide name, and the hotel's own contact for each stay.

Before you confirm, change anything as often as you like; there is no charge for drafts. After you confirm, changes depend on what the hotels and airlines allow, and we pass their conditions on unchanged. The booking terms explain how this works.