Transportation Tips for getting around in Asia
Motorbikes
Taxis
Metros
Flights
Ferries
Asia Transportation Tips
This blog post will guide you through Asia transportation tips, with a strong focus on Southeast Asia. One thing to know is that, in Asia, your typical American apps (Uber, Lyft) aren’t widespread. Uber, for example, entered a lot of the countries in Asia, and when they were unable to compete, allowed competitors to buy out their stake and then exited. The most popular apps for getting around will be Grab (Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam), Didi (China), and GoJek (Indonesia). See below for all my Asia transportation tips!
Transportation Tips: Motorbikes
Motorbikes are a key transportation method in Asia. If you are planning on traveling around and want to avoid traffic, I highly recommend getting used to being on the back of a motorbike. In most cities, motorbikes are as popular as taxis, if not more. When I lived in Bangkok, I used Grab (the app) and motorbikes were my main method of transportation. They’re inexpensive and more efficient than taxis. In many smaller cities and islands, you can also rent a motorbike to drive yourself, but I do not recommend this unless you are truly comfortable operating one. I have seen and heard about many people crashing them, and you can be seriously injured. It is also worth noting that most travel insurance does not cover motorbike accidents.
Transportation Tips: Taxis
Taxis are also a solid mode of transportation. Depending on the city, you always want to make sure they’re using the meter and/or ask for the price ahead of time. In Bangkok, for example, I always took taxis from the airport without issues and also sometimes in the city. However, I always said “meter krap khun ka” (meter, please) when getting in the taxi. You can also order taxis through Grab/Didi/GoJek to avoid having to pay cash. However, this option is really only available in cities.
One difference is in Northern Asia. In Korea, they use Kakao T and in China they use Didi. This makes it a little more difficult. In large Chinese cities like Shanghai, the society is almost completely cashless and people use Alipay or other apps to pay for things. If you’re a foreigner, you may not be able to pay with card in many places. You will need to carry cash and sometimes people won’t know what to do with cash. For taxis, I used the Didi premium option, which at least allowed me to book taxis to charge to my credit card. This was a decent option. You can also flag a taxi and pay cash.
Transportation Tips: Metros
If there is a metro in a big city you’re visiting, I highly recommend it. The metro systems in Asia are excellent, clean, and people are often very polite. In addition, it is often way faster than sitting in traffic. When I worked in Bangkok, I even convinced work trip visitors to take the BTS (skytrain) to go places because it was so much faster than waiting in traffic in a taxi. Large APAC cities with excellent metro systems include Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok (skytrain and metro), Seoul, and Hong Kong.
Transportation Tips: Flights
Flights around Asia are really easy, and there are many low-cost options. It may have changed a bit since the pandemic, but I rarely booked far in advance and rarely spent more than $150-$200/flight round-trip when traveling around Southeast Asia. Some decent options for flying are Air Asia, VietJet, Scoot, etc. These are all low-cost. You can also book on the bigger airlines like Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, etc. but they will likely be more expensive options.
Transportation Tips: Ferries
In Asia, if you’re going to an island, you often have to take a ferry. These ferries are of varying quality and timing. You should make sure to check how long the ferry takes and if there are slow boat or fast boat option. For example, getting from mainland Thailand to Koh Samet on the slow ferry can take 3 hours, but take a speedboat and it’s about 1 hour. I used Phuket Ferry often while in Thailand to book ferries in advance, but you can also just go to the dock and wait for the next boat to fill up. Other options I’ve used and/or found through research include 12GoAsia and Direct Ferries.
