Why does nobody talk about the 'three city rule' for visa runs?

I was stuck in Bangkok last year trying to figure out my next visa run and getting stressed about border rules. A guy at a cafe told me to always have three cities in mind before I book anything, like Bangkok, Hanoi, and Kuala Lumpur. I tried it and it cut my planning time in half because I could jump to the cheapest flight that week. Has anyone else found a simple trick like this that saved them a ton of hassle?

4 comments

4 Comments

knight.felix1mo ago

Honestly, the real game changer is checking visa requirements for those backup cities way in advance. A cheap flight to Hanoi means nothing if you need a pre-arranged visa and you're looking at a three day wait. So my version of that rule adds checking entry rules for all three spots before they even become options. It turns a last minute scramble into a simple choice between ready-to-go plans.

tarabell1mo ago

My trick is just panicking and booking whatever.

iris9271mo ago

But honestly, that panic method works fine for me. All that planning like knight.felix talks about just kills the fun. I booked a flight to Lisbon once on a total whim because it was cheap, and I figured out the visa stuff on the airport wifi. It was an adventure. Sometimes you just have to go for it and deal with the details later. Overthinking every backup city sounds exhausting.

uma_williams1mo ago

Wait, you were just picking one city and hoping? That sounds like a nightmare. I would have been checking flights every hour. The three city thing is smart. Gives you options when prices jump. I used to do that with layovers, pick a couple hub cities. Saved me a few times when my first choice got crazy expensive.