I want to do Europe and SE Asia with Europe first. I am going Oct-May but I don’t know when I should go from Europe to SE Asia. Also, where do you recommend that I start and finish in SE Asia?
I would actually start in Europe, do SE Asia, and then finish in Europe to have the best weather for both. The best time by far for SE Asia (as a whole) is November-February. So if you are splitting time even between Europe and SE Asia, I would do October in Europe, November-February in SE Asia, and March-May in Europe. With the you miss most of the Rain and Smokey season in SE Asia and you miss the coldest months in europe. I would check out Holiday-Weather.com for weather info for all the places you want to go. For each city they have "Annual averages" which shows what it is like in each month for things like temperature, rainfall, rainy days, sunny days, etc.
For SE Asia I would start and finish in Bangkok. Do like a clockwise loop. Bangkok up to Chiang mai and pai, over and down through Laos, over and down through vietnam (Hanoi down to Saigon), over to Cambodia, then over to southern thailand and the islands and finish back in bangkok. That is kind of the standard loop a lot of people take.
That being said, try as much as you can to leave things open so you can make plans and enjoy yourself with all the amazing people you will meet. It is nice to have a rough idea of the options in your head going in though.
Cheers!
That’s a brilliant idea but then I would have to pay for an extra long haul ticket and I would have to cut a lot of costs to afford that
Oh for sure I get that. I guess I was figuring that you were from Europe so that you would be starting there and returning there because you live there. My mistake.
In that case I would do October-January in SE Asia and then February- May in Europe. Cheers!