Destinations

Four heritage places, and what each one asks of you

Hue, Hoi An with My Son, Angkor, and Luang Prabang: the four places our journeys spend most time in. Each page covers what the place is, how many nights it needs, when to go, how to get there and what it costs on the ground.

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The four places

A two-tiered pavilion with ornate red and gold roofs rises above stone walls inside Hue's Imperial City.

Vietnam · inscribed 1993

Hue

Capital of the Nguyen emperors, 1802 to 1945. Citadel, tombs, pagodas.

Read about Hue

Aerial view of yellow heritage houses with terracotta roofs lining a street in Hoi An's ancient town.

Vietnam · inscribed 1999

Hoi An and My Son

A trading port of the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, and the Cham sanctuary an hour inland.

Read about Hoi An

Cambodia · inscribed 1992

Angkor

Capitals of the Khmer Empire from the ninth to the fifteenth century, across some 400 km².

Read about Angkor

Laos · inscribed 1995

Luang Prabang

A royal town of monasteries on a peninsula between the Mekong and the Nam Khan.

Read about Luang Prabang

How the four compare

Place	Nights we suggest	Coolest, driest months	Months to think twice	Nearest airport
Hue	2 to 3	February to April	October, November (floods)	Hue (Phu Bai)
Hoi An and My Son	3	February to April	October, November (floods)	Da Nang
Angkor	3 to 5	November to February	April, May (heat)	Siem Reap
Luang Prabang	3	November to February	March, April (smoke haze)	Luang Prabang

These are the places where a journey of ours spends at least two nights. Other World Heritage sites in the region, from the Thang Long citadel in Hanoi to Vat Phou in southern Laos, appear inside itineraries and in the heritage sites table, but are visited in a day rather than lived in.

Reading the places in order

The four places also make a sequence in time, and a journey that follows it makes more sense of each. My Son, begun in the fourth century, is the oldest. Angkor’s great temples rose between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries, overlapping with the later Cham towers. Luang Prabang was the capital of the Lao kingdom of Lane Xang from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Hoi An flourished as a port from the fifteenth to the nineteenth, and Hue was the last imperial capital, from 1802 to 1945.

Our fifteen-day journey crosses all four, though not in that order, because flights and seasons decide the route more than chronology does. Your guides make the links across the trip: the Hindu iconography shared by My Son and Angkor, the Buddhist monastery plan shared by Angkor and Luang Prabang, the Chinese assembly halls of Hoi An and the Chinese-influenced court of Hue.

What these pages do not do

They do not sell. Each one ends by pointing to the journeys that visit the place, but the pages themselves are written to help you decide whether to go and for how long, including when not to. If a destination page convinces you that a place needs more time than any of our itineraries gives it, tell us, and we will build the trip around that.

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Planning around one place?

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Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Why are there only four destination pages?

Because these are the places our journeys stay in. Other sites, such as Trang An or Sambor Prei Kuk, are covered in the heritage table and the tour pages.

Can we visit all four in ten days?

Technically, yes; usefully, no. Ten days across three countries leaves one full day at each. We suggest fourteen at least, or choosing two.

Which is the quietest?

Luang Prabang, as a town. As a site, My Son and the outer Angkor temples at opening time.