Asia cruise unmissable destinations

[Dairbear01]

Hi all we have only sailed twice so far with Fred Olsen to Nordic capitals, so now we have the cruise bug, we fancy going to Asia , ideally with Singapore,Hong Kong and Thailand included.

 

Any recommendations on unmissable asian destinations plus the best cruise line or lines to experience such a trip 

 

Thanks in advance kenny

[CDNPolar]

3 hours ago, Dairbear01 said:

Hi all we have only sailed twice so far with Fred Olsen to Nordic capitals, so now we have the cruise bug, we fancy going to Asia , ideally with Singapore,Hong Kong and Thailand included.

 

Any recommendations on unmissable asian destinations plus the best cruise line or lines to experience such a trip 

 

Thanks in advance kenny

 

You mention Hong Kong, but there are river cruises that do a number of cities in mainland China as well.  These are part of a traditional river cruise but flights and land tour segments.  Don't limit your "China" to Hong Kong.

Japan as well.  There are many cruise lines that go around Japan.

 

South Korea, and Taiwan too!

[John Bull]

4 hours ago, Dairbear01 said:

Hi all we have only sailed twice so far with Fred Olsen to Nordic capitals, so now we have the cruise bug, we fancy going to Asia , ideally with Singapore,Hong Kong and Thailand included.

 

Any recommendations on unmissable asian destinations plus the best cruise line or lines to experience such a trip 

 

Thanks in advance kenny

 

Hi Kenny,

 

The places that you've mentioned are on cruises which operate one-way Singapore to HK or vice-versa, and usually include

Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang) on the western coast. We didn't find it particularly interesting, a modern city with the Petronas Towers the only place of interest. But others will doubtless disagree

0r 

Kuantan on the east coast.  A shared ride from the port took us to a rubber plantation, a reclining Buddha halfway up a cliff, the old coal-mining area of Sungai Lembing and a nearby Chinese village accessed by a rope bridge. A worthwhile day, but not "bucket List".. 

 

Thailand

Bangkok is the major destination - most ships port at Laem Chabang, about 2 hours from the city. Try to find a cruise which overnites and book a Bangkok hotel for the night.

Phuket is on some cruises. 

 

Indonesia . 

Semarang (for Borobudur)   and Surabaya are the usual cruise calls, also potentially Komodo (Komodo dragons) is back on the cruising circuit. And Bali - I strongly recommend.  

 

Cambodia 

is an eye-opener because of the backward & bloody history of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia was a corner of SE Asia stuck in the 19th Century whilst its neighbours became "Tiger Economies".

In Sihanoukville (the only cruise destination) that all changed in recent years, Chinese money was invested - and lost. Now lots of uncompleted buildings and the town is quite a mess. But a shared minibus ride from the port to Ream National Park with various stops on the way there & back was very enjoyable. 

Phnom  Penh would be a very long ride, and Anker Wat / Siem Reap is too far.

 

Vietnam

Saigon ( aka Ho Chi Minh City)

and

Halong Bay

are must-sees. Try to choose a cruise which includes overnites at both.. Hanoi is possible from Halong Bay, but you won't have time to do justice to either - choose the one or the other.

Da Nang for Hue or Hoi An are very worthwhile, Nha Trang less so.

 

Mainland China.

Two options :

- A day-trip from Hong Kong via ferry & coach to Guangzhou, and back by train. Through a tour agency, with a group visa provided by the operator. Book and pay in advance because of the group visa. Much of this trip is thro a heavily-populated economic region.

- A transit visa to travel home from HK via somewhere like Shanghai or Beijing is good for something like 72 hours in that city. (you need to carefully research visas),

 

Flights involving two different airports (eg Singapore and Hong Kong) are no more than the median return flight fare if you buy Open Jaw (aka multi-city) tickets. Both flights would have to be with the same airline or air alliance. https://www.skyscanner.net/news/how-use-skyscanners-multi-city-flights-search

 

Use the search box on the Asia forum https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/43-asia/

Search box is in the blue banner, type in the name of one of the places I've underlined, leave "this forum" as it is, and click on the little spyglass at the end of the box. Give the magic a few moments to work, and it'll show all the posts which mention the place

 

JB 🙂

 

  

Edited July 4 by John Bull

[Dairbear01]

Brilliant thank you for the reply, my wife is gluten intolerant so we are a bit wary of going on to small a ship/ river cruise incase she isn't catered for.

 

As we are retired we are flexible on when, where and for how long , so will look at your suggestions 

[MBP&O2/O]

Spookily enough I was looking at a similar project in that I wanted a cruise that either stopped or started in (probably) Shanghai with a view to a short trip, before or after, to the Terracotta Army. Not surprisingly, the few that i found suitable, were an arm and a leg jobbies😄

As for the smaller ships, most of them seem to be the higher end ones and they seem to be very good when it comes to dietary needs.

[edinburgher]

6 hours ago, Dairbear01 said:

Any recommendations on unmissable asian destinations

There are many fascinating countries towns and cities to visit in Asia, but one matter to take into account is VISAS.  Some are straightforward, others not only complicated to acquire but also costly and you may find that visa applications and costs are far more daunting than you initially expected.  Our personal worst were those for India (twice) and China (once) and we vowed never to return to either because of the faff and additional expenses so check carefully what the visa requirements are for the countries on your preferred itinerary, ideally before booking.

 

You might want to consider cross posting on the ASIA board where your question would be more on topic, although the Mods may move it anyway.

 

This one

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/43-asia/

 

 

Edited July 4 by edinburgher

[Host Kat]

8 hours ago, Dairbear01 said:

... Any recommendations on unmissable asian destinations plus the best cruise line or lines to experience such a trip...

 

Hello @Dairbear01  and welcome back to the Cruise Critic message boards! I see it has been a while since you have posted.

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Ask s Cruise Question forum. However, it is the forum for general questions regarding cruising. Your inquiry is off topic there since it concerns a specific location. To help you out your new thread has been moved to the Ports of Call - Asia forum where it will be on topic.

 

The Cruise Critic website and message boards are both great resources for new as well as experienced cruisers and we are so glad you are posting again! Please feel free to browse the Cruise Critic Community categories list of the various forums. I suggest you put the link to the page in your Favorites for quick & easy access in the future. Please read a few threads in the different forums to get a feel for what each forum is about. Make sure you read any pinned threads (aka stickies) on the top of the first page of threads in most forums. You will find very important instructions or information there. 

 

I sincerely hope this will be helpful and glad to have you back aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

[Dairbear01]

Lot to think about, I'm put off by the distance from the ports into some of the destinations and once you throw in visas, there could be a few dropping off our radar,  we don't fancy Japan or mainland china, but would like to visit Hong Kong 

[edinburgher]

44 minutes ago, Dairbear01 said:

Lot to think about, I'm put off by the distance from the ports into some of the destinations and once you throw in visas,

When we were focusing on Asian itineraries (did several) doing our visas we needed to have full tourist visas, wheras now my understanding is that some countries have introduced e-visas which, should they apply to your ports of call would be easier and cheaper.

 

We  loved what little we saw of Japan, and Hong Kong is actually one of our favourite cities.  We ported there a few times and opted for hotel stays pre and post cruising 3 times. Thailand we did as a land trip and only had a few other ports on cruises.  I  suggest you might actually get more out of a land trip to Thailand as you would see more of the country and islands than you would on cruises, but others might disagree. China we only visited a small number of places and never returned due to the visa application  complications. Having said that, we liked Beijing, couldn't quite believe we walked a tiny bit of the Great Wall, but our favourite was definitely Shanghai as we had 2 full days there and our ship that time was small enough to dock right in the heart of the city, Be aware that bigger ships dock a long way from there. We did independent sightseeing in Shanghai and had an amazing two full days.

Edited July 4 by edinburgher

[Dairbear01]

I think if we go we will look to stay 2 days either side , with Singapore, Thailand ( Bangkok) or Hong Kong, preferred hotel stays.

 

 

[edinburgher]

6 minutes ago, Dairbear01 said:

with Singapore, Thailand ( Bangkok) or Hong Kong, preferred hotel stays.

Unless your ship is small enough to sail upriver and actually dock in Bangkok itself, and there are not many of these, most dock in Laem Chabang, some 2 hours distant.

[Torfamm]

On 7/4/2024 at 2:57 PM, Dairbear01 said:

I think if we go we will look to stay 2 days either side , with Singapore, Thailand ( Bangkok) or Hong Kong, preferred hotel stays.

 

 

We did a back to back Singapore to Hong Kong and back with Celebrity earlier this year that had overnight stops each way in Halong Bay and Bangkok. We also made time for a three day trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. It was absolutely fantastic.

 

We originally booked one leg for 2021 and added a bit to the trip every year when the cruise was cancelled and shifted to the following year. It was a long trip but we really felt we had time to see a lot.

 

One suggestion I can make is that we booked almost all of our shore tours with Travel Authentic Asia. They were fantastic to work with. They suggested a number of options for each port as well as being open to custom planning.

https://www.travelauthenticasia.com/

 

[Over from NZ]

On 7/5/2024 at 5:58 AM, Dairbear01 said:

Lot to think about, I'm put off by the distance from the ports into some of the destinations and once you throw in visas, there could be a few dropping off our radar,  we don't fancy Japan or mainland china, but would like to visit Hong Kong 

We found that a large negative too. In hindsight.. we shouldn't have cruised Asia and should have visited it by land. The cities are generally too far away from the ports and you spend a great deal of the little time you have ashore.. in buses getting to and from. We've stayed in Singapore a few times though before and after various trips.. it's a wonderful place with so much to do!

[Sarnia 432]

We are doing pre and post cruise land tours in India and China with Wendy Wu, then b2b2b with Celebrity from Mumbai to Tokyo.  All booked for next year

[edinburgher]

5 hours ago, Sarnia 432 said:

We are doing pre and post cruise land tours in India and China with Wendy Wu, then b2b2b with Celebrity from Mumbai to Tokyo.

Good luck with the Indian and Chinese visas.

 

Over the years we had Indian visas twice and a Chinese visa once and the processes for both were such a challenge that we never visited again.

 

I think that since then, there may be a possibility of e-visas if you can comply with the rules, but at the time ours had to be full tourist visas.

 

Check the entry requirements for both countries very carefully to learn which visa type you will need. Also check visa requirements for other ports and countries on your itinerary. (which actually sounds wonderful) as having the correct documents throughout is your own responsibility.

Edited July 10 by edinburgher

[Sarnia 432]

On 7/10/2024 at 12:57 PM, edinburgher said:

Good luck with the Indian and Chinese visas.

Wendy Wu assist with the process and provide an escort if you are required to attend the embassy in person.

[edinburgher]

1 hour ago, Sarnia 432 said:

Wendy Wu assist with the process and provide an escort if you are required to attend the embassy in person.

  If only we had been as fortunate, but we opted for cruising V a land trip.

We enjoyed the trip and didn't regret  doing it, it, but the visa process was not to be repeated.

Edited July 12 by edinburgher