Hi. You know my story. I got to renew my visa every sixty days. I'm looking for an interesting, lowcost weekend getaway to get that much needed stamp. Any ideas?

Sapa is a good break from city life and it's a cheap(ish) trip if you're from one of the visa exempt countries.

If you absolutely must fit the trip in to a weekend, it will be hard to get to most places. Anyway, other options in increasing order of cost:

- Fly to Jinghong then do a Laos overland crossing (though a bit squashed for a weekend)

- Thailand (direct flights to Chiang Mai or Bangkok, cheap, usually visa free, no hassles, will fit OK in a weekend)

- Cambodia (flights tend to be more than Thailand, add to that visa cost)

- Malaysia (Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok or direct)

- Myanmar (direct flights to Rangoon and maybe Mandalay?)

- Bangladesh (direct flights to Dhaka)

- India (direct flights to Calcutta)

- Japan (flights 2300 return at the moment)

- Paris (direct flights, <8000/person return on a good day)

@voltaire, I'm surprised you did not put Hong Kong on the list. It's closer than many of the places on your list and the flights would be cheaper too.

An alternative is to fly to Shenzhen and cross over to Hong Kong and back, or fly to Zhuhai and cross in and out of Macau.

Hrrm yeah ... forgot that one. Also Nepal.

weekend in Paris, lol, one day flying there, one day flying back, waste of 8000rmb!

keep in mind that any of those near by countries u need to pay 20-30US visa, just add to your costs.

HK is the free option and not that expensive if u take a train to SZ. Just time on the train and SZ with HK are ( in my opinion ) not qualified for cheap and interesting weekend ( def. not a weekend! )

People here mostly go for Vietnam option.

Soon virgin galactic back home in 30 minutes or so. Could do it in a day for just a few hundred thousand dollars. Save a lot of time

Other options are Xiamen and ferry over to a Taiwan island, but flights to Xiamen are never cheap. Also, Zhuhai/Macau instead of SZ/HK.