The three guides for the three most common first-time traveller anxieties: the person who has never left the comfort of the European short-haul circuit and for whom Southeast Asia is the first long-haul, the person who has been told Japan is different in ways that are difficult to prepare for and who is right (it is), and the person who has booked the Africa safari and who doesn’t know what to wear, what to pack, or what to expect at the 5am game drive call. The first-timer’s guide starts one step before the itinerary — at the question of whether to go and how to prepare for the going.
Reading time: 10 minutes | Last updated: 2026
The First-Timer’s Guide to Southeast Asia
The most common first-timer question: Which country first — Thailand, Vietnam, or Bali?
The BGGD answer: Thailand. The specific reasons: the English language infrastructure (the most developed in the region outside Singapore), the food scene (the Bangkok street food gives the highest-quality/lowest-cost ratio of any city in the world), the transport network (the BTS Skytrain in Bangkok, the inter-city bus network, the domestic flight options), and the specific Thailand quality of the country that has been receiving Western tourists for 50 years and has developed the infrastructure accordingly.
The second visit: Vietnam. The third: Bali or Cambodia or Laos depending on the specific interest. The specific Southeast Asia entry order matches the infrastructure accessibility.
The health and safety first-timer checklist:
The vaccinations: hepatitis A, typhoid (both NHS-funded for Southeast Asia). The rabies: assess based on the itinerary (rural Laos: yes; Bangkok resort: probably not). The malaria: the Bangkok-Chiang Mai-Phuket circuit does not require anti-malarials; the Myanmar border region and the rural Mekong delta do.
The stomach: the “Bangkok belly” and the “Bali belly” are the first-timer’s specific concern and the first-timer’s specific experience. The rule that reduces (but does not eliminate) the risk: eat at the busy stall, not the empty one (the high turnover means fresh food); eat the cooked food, not the raw salad at the street stall; drink the bottled water, not the tap.
The money: the ATM at the destination airport before leaving the secured zone. The Starling card for the zero-fee withdrawal. The backup cash (£100 USD equivalent) in the money belt.
The first-timer’s specific Southeast Asia anxiety: being scammed, robbed, or lost in an environment where nothing is familiar. The honest probability assessment: the specific scams (the gem scam in Bangkok, the tuk-tuk to the “closed” temple, the taxi without the meter) are avoidable with the specific awareness that this guide names. The robbery: the Southeast Asia tourist circuit has the pickpocket risk of any European city and the violent crime risk lower than most. The lost: the offline map downloaded before departure eliminates this specific anxiety.
The First-Timer’s Guide to Japan
The most common first-timer question: Is Japan too difficult to navigate without speaking Japanese?
The BGGD answer: No, with the specific qualifier that the first-timer who has done zero preparation will find the first 24 hours more disorientating than the first 24 hours in any European destination, and the first-timer who has done 2 hours of preparation will find Japan more navigable than most.
The 2-hour preparation:
Download the Google Maps offline map for Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka before the flight. The offline map works without data and gives the specific public transport navigation (the metro lines, the station names in romaji (the Latin alphabet)) that the Japan first-timer requires.
Learn 5 phrases: sumimasen (excuse me), arigatō gozaimasu (thank you), eigo ga hanasemasu ka? (do you speak English?), ______ wa doko desu ka? (where is ______?), and ikura desu ka? (how much?). These 5 phrases cover 90% of the first-timer’s Japan navigation needs.
Get the IC card (the Suica or the Pasmo — the rechargeable transit card available at the airport and at every major station, the card that pays for every metro, every bus, and most convenience store purchases with the single tap). The IC card eliminates the ticket machine anxiety that the first-timer experiences at the Tokyo Metro station.
The first-timer Japan cultural quick-start:
Remove shoes before entering the ryokan room, the traditional restaurant, and the home. Look for the tatami (the straw mat floor) — if it’s tatami, the shoes are off.
The bow: reciprocate the bow approximately. Deep bow for the formal greeting; slight bow for the casual thank you. The foreign visitor who bows imperfectly is more appreciated than the foreign visitor who doesn’t bow at all.
The onsen (the hot spring bath): the tattoo policy (many onsen exclude tattoo-visible visitors), the gender separation (the 男 is men, the 女 is women), the pre-wash at the shower before entering the communal bath (the specific onsen etiquette that the sign at the shower room entrance illustrates).
The First-Timer’s Guide to Safari
The most common first-timer question: What do I wear?
The BGGD answer: Khaki, tan, or olive. No white (visible to animals and to the laundry), no black (the tsetse fly is attracted to dark colours), no bright colours (the animal-aversion argument — less relevant than the tsetse fly argument). The safari packing:
The layers: the 5am game drive in the open safari vehicle at the Kenya Masai Mara in August is 8-12°C at departure. The 11am return is 28°C. The packing is the merino base layer, the fleece mid-layer, and the sun protection. The sunscreen (SPF50, reef-safe for the post-game-drive swim) on the exposed skin from the first game drive.
The optics: binoculars (8×42 is the safari standard — the 8× magnification, the 42mm objective lens diameter, the balance of the field of view and the light gathering). The specific safari instruction: the binoculars are used between the big sightings — the bird on the distant branch, the predator at the horizon before the vehicle positions correctly.
The camera: the 300mm lens minimum for the telephoto wildlife photography. The DSLR or the mirrorless with the 100-400mm zoom gives the specific safari photograph. The phone camera gives the safari memory. Both are correct; the choice is the photography level the first-timer is at.
The first-timer safari anxiety: not seeing enough.
The honest probability assessment (Kenya Masai Mara, July-October): the lion: >95% probability across a 3-day visit. The elephant: 99%. The leopard: 50-70%. The cheetah: 30-50%. The rhino: the Masai Mara rhino population is approximately 50 individuals in 1,510 square kilometres — the probability is genuine, not guaranteed. The Big Five (the lion, the elephant, the leopard, the rhino, the buffalo) all confirmed sighting in 3 days: approximately 70-80% at the Mara in the peak season.
The first-timer who goes expecting the guarantee returns disappointed. The first-timer who goes expecting the encounter and the probability (not the guarantee) returns with the correct recollection of what actually happened.
