Thailand Cambodia Bali- Can we do it?

Hello! We have two couples going on a trip to southeast asia in April of 2017. We want to do so much in so little of time. We have only booked our roundtrip tickets in and out of Bangkok. Initially our plan was not to do Bali but we are seeing if it is possible (it's hard to eliminate!). Any suggestions/thoughts/ideas are welcome. We are adventurous in food and culture but definitely want some relaxing beach days. We have a full 15 days to fill outside of travel days. We are basically doing a Bali itinerary and a no Bali itinerary. They are as follows:
No Bali
Bangkok- 2 days
Day 3 fly Bangkok to Chiang Mai
Day 3-6 Chiang Mai
Day 6 Fy Chaing Mai to Siem Reap
Day 6-10 Siem Reap
Day 10 Siem Reap to Phuket
Day 10-14 Phuket
Day 14 Phuket to Bangkok
Day 15 Bangkok home

Bali Itinerary
Bangkok 2 days
Day 2 Bangkok to Siem Reap
Day 2-4 Siem Reap
Day 4 Siem Reap to Chaing Mai
Day 4-7 Chiang Mai
Day 7 Chiang Mai to Phuket
Day 7-Day 11 Phuket
Day 11 Phuket to Bali
Day 11-15 Bali
Day 15 fly Bali to Bangkok 12 hours later Bangkok home

Are either of these feasible? Is it worth eliminating part of Thailand for Bali? If we wer to eiminate one part which would it be??

Why can't we just go for 3 months??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Drop Phuket in favour of Bali!
And Bangkok really deserves at least 2 FULL days.

No! 4 days just isn't enough time in Bali. Enjoy Thailand and Cambodia and plan a couple weeks in Bali for your next trip.

I disagree.
In 4 days with a car or motorbike, one could see all the main sights in Bali.
Of course weeks or months would be better, but 4 days is better than none.
I once took my mother to Bali for 4 days in a SE Asia highlights kind of trip, and she found it a very good part of the trip.
It is certainly very different from Thailand and Cambodia.

What was your se Asia highlights trip with your mom if you don't mind me asking? Are the days of travel really hard when flying?

Hello!
I've just moved your post over to our Indonesia Branch.

Cosima

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The flying days are not hard, but you basically lose at least half of those days.
So don't count them as days spent anywhere, eg to have 2 days in Bangkok, you should fly out if there on your 3rd day, not the 2nd.

That highlights tour covered KL, Penang and Melaka in Malaysia, Singapore, Bali, Solo, Yogyakarta and nearby temples in Indonesia, Bangkok in Thailand and Angkor in Cambodia, with the Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand-Cambodia leg done overland (without flying). It took 21 or 25 days, can't remember exactly. And it included no days wasted on beaches! :-) She said she wanted to see cities and temples, not jungles and beaches, and I put together the itinerary accordingly.

I'd drop Phuket for Bali too as per #1. I prefer the cultural aspect of Bali (been there 6 x) to that of Phuket (been there 3 x).

It is too much,too fast IMHO...both itineraries.

I'd have no more than 3-4 stops with that timeframe.

Phuket would be the one to drop for me.....in either case.Bangkok,CM,SR and a bit of Bali is just about possible in 15 days,though still rushed.

Also depends on what kind of beach days you want,and what you want to do in Bali.The beaches there are not better than in Thailand,so if you really want 3 or 4 days on the beach you might as well stay in Thailand..no point flying to Bali for that IMHO.

I may be completely in the minority but I don't understand when people want to do a whirlwind trip and then add in a couple of "relaxing beach days" . I mean I understand wanting to relax but if you are doing a whirlwind tour to see a lot of sights I think it's better to go full out and then relax on the flight home! I am a firm believer in the saying " I can always sleep later..." When I travel I go full blast too but I think you are underestimating how much transiting you would be doing and the other logistical ins and outs...

That said, it's a really personal thing as to what interests you. I would certainly pick Bali over Phuket, but then I prefer Bankok over Chiang Mai these days... and Siem Reap and the Angkor Park temples are a must do of course.

Do think about the hot season in Thailand and Camobodia, and also if you want to be around during Songkran. Having accidentally been in both Bangkok and CM over Songakran I never want to do it again. On the other hand, if you go to Bali before March 27, you can experience the fabulous Nyepi (Balinese New Year) and all that entails. (however, you would have to spend 24 hours in your accomodattion in complete peace and quiet)

It's doable but drop Phuket and spend longer in Siem Reap. I also agree with Lazlo, spend more time in Bangkok. You can get the highlights of Bali in 4 days so if you REALLY want to include it, I would go for it

Super stoked to hear about your trip and I'm sure it's going to be an amazing time! Wow that sounds like one of our types of itineraries hahaha. It's always so tough to decide when your traveling so far, we live in California and when we go to Asia it's a non-stop do do do type of trip. In the end it will all be an amazing experience whatever you choose.

We recently got back from about a month trip to Thailand and we had the same expectations to visit multiple countries and areas of Thailand, but after bouncing around Thailand we found that it would be best to spend the whole time there and enjoy more than running around (we did however see many different areas of Thailand). Even this type of trip would tire out the casual traveller. I would suggest that it's best to pick a few good spots and really enjoy them. ( we don't really do relaxing beach days, but if you want those this would count even more)

Hunting for a hotel room upon arrival day in each area consumes some time and leaving an area always involves packing up everything, doing the double triple room check and then leaving your bags in the lobby for a later pickup (if you plan on exploring the day your leaving), so this takes up some time to.

If you were going to do the no Bali plan I would trade Phuket for something like Railay beach and then you could split some days between there and other places like Koh Phi Phi or Koh lanta.

If you were going to leave in Bali then I would trade out Phuket and spend more time in Bali. This is where the decision gets tough for me however, because I LOVE BALI but it would be hard to imagine if we went to Thailand and didn't see the amazing islands and beaches ( I loved Chiang Mai but preferred the islands, just a personal preference :) ).

Sorry for the rambling but when it comes to travel it's so hard because we never want it to end and the places are always so amazing that we want to see it all. When doing our research you always read take your time and enjoy there will always be times when you can go to the other place you are thinking of visiting.

We are actually heading to Bali next month and am glad we didn't try and squeeze it into our Thailand trip.

Both places are for sure on our list of the most epic vacations you could have, so with any decision you can't go wrong.

I vlogged our whole trip from day to day if you want to see what bouncing around Thailand was like https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlg2RG3ecmcvJ6Kgb8PS9UipczqJcyMuS and also will do Bali next month if you wanna see :)

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