How to plan a trip to Southeast Asia? Jetstar Asia flight booking & reviews

You know, planning a trip to Asia is not the easiest thing to do. That’s why we decided to share our recent experience in Southeast Asia and tell you everything we know about how to plan a trip to Southeast Asia, how to visit Thailand and Cambodia in one trip and squeeze Singapore there as well and finally tell you about our Jetstar Asia flight booking & reviews!

If you want to read about our actual experience in Southeast Asia, head to this post!

Okay, let’s get started.

How to plan a trip to Southeast Asia:

Why come to Asia at all?

Well, the idea of going to Asia was on my mind since I had left Hong Kong (29/12/2013, see, I still remember this sad date). Pepe has never been to Asia before and was really motivated to visit some countries, so we thought, why not? Besides we wanted to go in March or April and to some hot destination and Asia was perfect in that sense.

We were limited by budget and time (10-11 days, not more because we still need to see each other later this year, preferably as much as possible). We started browsing for tickets in November and were quite satisfied with prices, so based on these prices we’ve built an initial trip itinerary including 4 countries (not much of relaxation but a lot of sightseeing), such as Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia and 3 flights inside Asia. Yes, we wanted to visit Thailand and Cambodia in one trip! And we also wanted to visit Thailand and Singapore in one trip. And somehow fit Malaysia there as well.

Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to buy our tickets in November, so we had to postpone until January. However, the prices of the tickets rose drastically! That was so unfortunate for our trip to Asia.

Booking That’s why tip number 1:

How to plan a trip to Southeast Asia: Best time to book flights to Southeast Asia

Book long-haul & low-cost tickets really in advance! 4-5 months will be fine, but 2 months are already risky. You might end up paying 20% more and change some of your plans.

The worst thing is that not only the long haul ticket price increased a lot, also, the domestic Asian low-cost tickets were almost sold out. That led to a big change in our itinerary – we had to exclude Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from our trip. (I hope we will have a chance to visit Malaysia and stay there much more time a bit later in our life). We ended up booking with Jetstar and that Jetstar Asia flight booking was actually cheaper than AirAsia!

Also, initially, in our trip to Asia, we were planning to fly together. Sort of together. Pepe would fly from London to Bangkok via Dubai with Emirates, I would do the same from St. Petersburg and we would meet in Dubai and from there fly together to Bangkok. But it wasn’t possible anymore, at all, since flights to Dubai from St. Petersburg was sold out on the day we wanted to depart (and closest days, too). So bad!

We had to look for other tickets for our trip to Asia with different airlines but it didn’t seem to be possible to fly together anymore (well, unless we paid ridiculous 800 pounds just for tickets), so well, Pepe decided to buy his ticket from ETIHAD (via Abu-Dhabi) and I went for Finnair (via Helsinki), which was the biggest mistake so far. I’ll tell you why a bit later.

So now we were limited by the city of arrival and departure (Bangkok) and the tickets we already bought. In the very beginning, we were planning to fly with AirAsia (inside Asia) but the prices for domestic Asian flights had risen by 2 (and in some cases 3 times). So we forgot about AirAsia and opened Skyscanner. And ended up booking flights with Jetstar.

Flying within Asia: all the options

The most difficult flight was the one to/from Cambodia, it seemed to be the most expensive one. What did we do?
Well, we wrote down prices of all the possible flights from a) Bangkok to Siem Reap, 2) Singapore to Siem Reap c) Siem Reap to Bangkok d) Siem Reap to Singapore e) Bangkok to Singapore f) Singapore to Bangkok

Well. Apparently, the most feasible and cheapest option would be staying 4 days in Thailand, then flying to Singapore for 3 days, then flying to Siem Reap for two days and from there taking a bus to Bangkok (8 hours and just 10 pounds), staying one more night in Bangkok and flying back home. All the booking were made with Jetair (which we have never heard of at that time).

Pretty intense schedule, huh? Honestly, planning of the flights was probably the most difficult and time-consuming thing! It took us more than 3 days to plan that.

How to plan a trip to Southeast Asia? Choosing hotels in Southeast Asia

As for the hotels, it was more difficult in terms of location. We really wanted to swim a bit during the holidays, and Thailand was clearly the best option for that, so we decided to go to Pattaya for 2 nights. Did you know that it’s not possible to swim in Pattaya since the water isn’t that clean? Most of the tourists are going to the closest islands by ferry, which departs from the Ferry Terminal in South Pattaya, just down the walking street.

Knowing that we really want to swim, we were looking for a hotel in a walking distance from the Pier. However, as most of the hotels, there were budget-friendly, they didn’t have their own swimming pools and were located just on the Walking street. Thus, as it could be seen in the hotels’ reviews on TripAdvisor, many guests were complaining about the fact that it was nearly impossible to sleep at night (the Walking street is THE PARTY PLACE of Pattaya). Read more about our experience in Pattaya here!

Choosing a hotel in Pattaya

That’s why we chose Siam Bayshore Resort & Spa hotel (4*) which is located very close to the Walking Street and the pier but at the same time it’s hidden in the sort of park and it’s very quiet there. We’ll find out. Stay tuned.

Choosing a hotel in Bangkok

As for Bangkok, it was much more complicated to choose a hotel. Most of the blogs were recommending to stay in a tourist zone close to the major landmarks and temples of Bangkok, however, this zone is not connected to the other parts of the city via metro. We thought that it might be not the smartest decision to stay there because in Bangkok we definitely want to visit some great nightclubs and posh bars located on the last floors of some skyscrapers (at least once, why not).

Also, as we had planned to move a lot (arrive from Pattaya, leave to Singapore very soon), we decided to stay in a hotel called: Le Tada Parkview. It had a good price as well as a good location (very close to the station from where the trains to the airport depart).

Choosing a hotel in Singapore

In Singapore, the hotel choice was a nightmare. Obviously, we couldn’t afford Marina Bay Sands (well, if we were able to afford that, there wouldn’t have been even an idea of something else). There were some pretty cool 5* hotels for an average price but all of them were located a bit far from the city center. We were choosing something and arguing almost for 3 days, and we went to the conclusion to book the Hotel Rendezvous (good rating combined with a nice location close to many shopping malls).

Unfortunately, all the hotels on Sentosa island (the beach zone of Singapore) were a bit expensive, but many travellers actually suggest not to stay there as it’s a sort of secluded location, so it’s better to go there during the day.

Choosing a hotel in Cambodia, Siem Reap

In Siem Reap, Cambodia, the process of choosing a hotel was a pleasure (unlike Singapore). The prices were just great! So we were finally able to afford a 5* hotel called Lynnaya Resort based on the ratings and location again. It isn’t so far away from Angkor Watt and is only 10 minutes walking away from the Pub street (the main nightlife place in Cambodia).

Also, we needed a hotel for the last night in Bangkok. And then I remembered that I have some travel miles left on my debit card, so I used them to book the True Siam hotel. Honestly, the selection of the hotels in that booking system wasn’t so amazing, so I booked the first hotel with a good rating, which I could afford paying with my 12000 miles. I’m not so convinced about this one, but I guess we will see. It will be reviewed for sure.

Summary about how to plan a trip to Southeast Asia

Well, if you reached the end of this post about planning our trip to Asia, wow, you’re the best! I honestly didn’t expect you to read all this. But I hope this information was useful for you. We’re glad about any feedback and advice, so don’t hesitate to point out where did we make a mistake while planning.

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