Tour of Asia cost?

You should go to the library and browse the travel guide section. What would be your interest when you go: history, religion, touristy stuff, exotic animals, rain forest?

We just came back from a Taiwan/Thailand trip. We went to the Grand Palace/Emerald Buddha, visited a crocodile farm, saw cultural/dance shows, elephant shows, went on a zip line tour through a rain forest.

Get on a website like kayak.com and price it out. There is a pretty big difference in price between 3 star hotel and hostel. “Cheap” and “good quality” usually do not end up in the same sentence regarding food. Airfare will not be what it is today in 10 years; neither will ground transportation. Exchange rates and buying power are volatile, too.

In 4–5 days you won’t see much. Tokyo and Beijing are major cities that are part of very interesting countries that are worth more exploration. Thailand and Singapore are countries – it just sounds crazy to me to spend less than a week in each after traveling so far to get there. To me, it wouldn’t be worth all the airport security hassles. You should consider making each one a trip in itself.

Try a package tour first. My sister started using them as a planning trip for the next time they want to go somewhere. The tour will get you to the highlights and get you somewhat familiar with what is available.

Then you go back in a couple years for a more in depth trip, spending more time with what you want to see and do, while skipping the stuff that you didn’t enjoy.

First of all, a lot of things may have changed 10 years from now. Prices in Beijing will probably have gone up quite a bit, whereas prices in Tokyo might go down (in real terms). As it stands, Tokyo is an expensive place. Your expenses there would probably greatly overshadow those in Beijing, assuming the same living standard.

I guess you could get a return flight to Asia from Boston for… I don’t know, a little over $1000? Maybe half of that for a return trip Tokyo-Beijing? The question is what sort of deals you can get for one-way tickets. It seems to me that they tend to be pretty expensive – much more than half the price of a return ticket. This is the sort of thing where a travel company which makes a deal with the airlines might actually come up with a fairly attractive package price.

A lot of people do long backpacking tours through Southeast Asia but if you’re doing 4 days in Thailand I would recommend Bangkok. I have to say I think lilikoi is exaggerating, calling Singapore a country – it’s a big city, that’s all.

Overall, my advice to you would be to not wait and do everything at once many years from now. Just pick the place you most want to see and go there as soon as possible – it will be fun! :)