I have a british passport, so I have never really applied for visas to different countries as lots have visa free entry for tourists, however I am trying to plan a tour through SE asia HK-Vietnam-Malaysia-Singapore-Indonesia and it seems to be extremely difficult visa wise, my wife isn't a british national (2 year spouse visa).

All the different consulates are in London, they all seem to say 1-2 weeks, and then they have restrictions like 3 month visas, if you look at the countries I guess it will take two months to collate those visas, not only that some ask for a confirmed airline reservation, what if I book a ticket and they give the passport late?

Anyone ever come across this issue before?

Quite a confusing post there... As a UK passport holder, AFAIK you don't need advance visas to any of those countries except Vietnam. Apparently your wife does, but what nationality is she? In any case, you should be able to get visas for most nearby countries in eg. HK or Kuala Lumpur if you have a few days to spare.

My wife is a pakistani national, so pretty difficult to travel on.

I guess I don't want to run around getting visas while on holiday?

perhaps you could use a visa expedite company rather than going to all the embassys....good luck..

I don't think it's at all uncommon for people traveling to multiple countries on the same trip that all require visas in advance. Of course, this is much more of an issue for nationals of countries that typically aren't granted visa-free access by other countries.

To answer your implied question, no, you're not really missing anything. Certain combinations of countries may be very difficult if not impossible to fit into a single trip for nationals of certain countries, given the lead time and visa validity issues you've run into. There's really not much you can do about it. Each country sets up its visa regime to protect its own national interests (security, economic, and so on) and isn't going to be particularly concerned about inconvenience caused by someone from developing nation that wants to go on vacation to several countries at once.

As far as countries requiring that a confirmed itinerary be submitted with a visa application, you can always book a refundable ticket, and later refund it after the visa has been granted, or book discount tickets with the notion that you might have to pay a change fee to change the dates down the line. In most of the situations I've run into, countries that require an itinerary don't lock the visa down to only that itinerary - once granted, the visa is valid for 3 months, 6 months, or whatever the case may be, although in some cases they really do want an exact itinerary that can't be deviated from easily.

BTW, I'm familiar with situations of US permanent residents that finally decided to become naturalized US citizens solely for this reason: getting rid of the hassle of traveling to most countries.