The rewards of a trip to Asia are many, but so are the potential challenges. Herewith, some hard–won tips for clearing the most common hurdles

To the uninitiated, Asia can be one of the world's great obstacle courses. Busloads of tourists block your path at famous monuments. There are long lines and bizarre rules for buying, reconfirming, and using plane, train, and ferry tickets. Westerners often are not allowed to rent cars, which puts you at the mercy of hired drivers who may be more interested in extracting more money from you than in getting you to your destination promptly. Sources that ought to be reliable—tourist offices, train stations, English–speaking guides—commonly spread misinformation. And in many countries, there is a seemingly endless stream of locals who try to badger you into buying stuff you don't want.

Allow me to offer a few strategies—based on two months I spent traveling in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos—to help make your trip to Asia as smooth as possible.

* Stay in hotels that cater to Western business travelers.
In my experiences in Asia, modern business hotels provide the single most important ingredient of a successful trip: a well–connected concierge. He or she is your on–site travel agent—the logistician and magician who can get you the most efficient drivers, all manner of tickets, correct sightseeing information, virtually instant visas, and guides who will open otherwise closed doors. The time and money that an excellent concierge saves you will likely more than make up for the higher room rate. At the Caravelle Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, for instance, I requested an English–speaking driver to take me 40 miles outside the city to the Cu Chi Tunnels—the underground labyrinth where the Viet Cong hid during the Vietnam War. He managed to get me to—and through—the tunnels, the War Remnants Museum, and the Reunification Palace (including the secret basement rooms) in a mere six hours, for only $78. Such a bargain made the $230 room rate well worth it.

* Hire a car and an English–speaking driver through your hotel.
Asia is full of taxi and pedicab drivers who say they know where your destination is but don't, who deliberately take a circuitous route in order to drive up the fare, or who take you halfway to your destination, stop the vehicle in a deserted or dangerous spot, and demand to be paid more than the mutually agreed–upon price before they will drive you the rest of the way. My smartest move in Beijing was to have the concierge arrange for a full–day car and driver for my visit to the Great Wall. The driver avoided the wall's touristy section and took me to a less crowded, more authentic stretch, and he brought a box lunch so I wouldn't have to waste time stopping to eat at a tourist restaurant. He also managed to get me into the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University, even though it required special permission that I had not been able to procure before leaving home. At dinner–time, he drove me to a popular restaurant where I had no reservation. I took my place in a long line while he phoned my hotel's concierge. Within seconds, I was waved to the front of the line and led to a table. The price for the car and driver: $150. The room rate at the St. Regis Beijing: $210.