Mekong River: Saigon to Phnom Penh and Angkor

1. Day 1: Arrive in Saigon

   Tan Son Nhat International Airport to your hotel in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Ho Chi Minh City
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN), where a driver meets you in arrivals for the short drive, about 8 km, to our hotel in District 1, the old centre of Ho Chi Minh City, which most people who live here still call Saigon. Rest through the afternoon heat. At about 5:30 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the trip: how the days are paced, what the delta night is like, how the river crossing into Cambodia works, and how we approach the genocide memorials in Phnom Penh. Then, as the city cools, a short walk along the Nguyen Hue walking street to the French-built City Hall and the Opera House, seen from outside, with a lesson from your guide in crossing a road full of scooters calmly. Dinner together is southern Vietnamese food, sweeter and richer in fresh herbs than the cooking of the north, at a restaurant near the walk.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk: Nguyen Hue walking street, City Hall and the Opera House
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by mid-afternoon to make the 5:30 pm briefing; later arrivals are met and briefed at breakfast.

2. Day 2: The Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum

   Ho Chi Minh City to the Cu Chi Tunnels at Ben Duoc and back

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ho Chi Minh City
   Day 2 details

   We leave at 8 am to reach the Cu Chi Tunnels at Ben Duoc, about 70 km north-west of the city, before the midday heat and the busiest hour. The tunnels were dug by hand under the farmland from the late 1940s, in the war against the French, and extended during the American war into a network of well over 100 km, with kitchens, meeting rooms and field hospitals. Your guide walks the site with you and explains how people lived underground for weeks at a time. You can climb down into a short section widened for visitors, or stay above ground and see the entrances, traps and shelters. We are back in the city for lunch together, then the afternoon is free to rest. At about 4 pm we walk through the War Remnants Museum with your guide. Its photographs of the war, and of the effects of Agent Orange, are hard viewing, and you can step out at any time. The evening is free for a street food supper of your choice.

   Included

   • The Cu Chi Tunnels at Ben Duoc with your guide
   • Lunch in the city
   • The War Remnants Museum in the late afternoon

   Easier option: Stay above ground at Cu Chi; the tunnel section is narrow, low and warm.

   More active option: Go further into the longer tunnel stretch at Cu Chi with the site guide, bent double, if the site has it open that day.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot at Cu Chi on forest paths; the tunnels are tight and hot, and entirely optional.

3. Day 3: Cai Be's canals and on to Can Tho

   Ho Chi Minh City to Cai Be, then Can Tho

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Can Tho
   Day 3 details

   We leave Saigon at about 8 am and drive south on the expressway into the Mekong Delta, about two hours to Cai Be on the Tien River, the northern branch of the Mekong. Here we swap the van for a small boat. Your guide takes you past the riverside church and along the side canals to the orchards and workshops of the islands, where families make rice paper, puffed rice and coconut candy, to watch and taste, not to shop. A rowing sampan takes you down a narrow canal, the quietest hour of the day, then we walk the lanes of Dong Hoa Hiep, a village of old wooden family houses with carved pillars, and have lunch in one of them: elephant ear fish rolled at the table with herbs and rice paper. In the afternoon it is about two hours on to Can Tho, the largest city of the delta, over the Hau River, which the French called the Bassac. Our night is at a riverside homestay with private rooms and bathrooms, and our hosts cook dinner.

   Included

   • Cai Be by boat: the riverside, the side canals and family workshops
   • A rowing sampan through a narrow canal
   • Dong Hoa Hiep village and lunch in an old family house
   • Homestay dinner cooked by our hosts in Can Tho

   Easier option: Stay on the boat while the group walks Dong Hoa Hiep, and join them at lunch.

   More active option: Cycle the lanes of Dong Hoa Hiep with your guide instead of walking, about 8 km on flat paths.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the homestay

   Activity: About four hours of driving in two halves, broken by the morning on the water and a long lunch. The homestay is simpler than a city hotel, with mosquito nets and some insect noise at night.

4. Day 4: Cai Rang floating market, then Chau Doc and Sam Mountain

   Can Tho to the Cai Rang floating market by boat, then Chau Doc

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Chau Doc
   Day 4 details

   The early start is the point of the morning. We board a small boat at about 5:30 am, while it is still cool, and reach the Cai Rang floating market as trading begins. Wholesale boats hang a sample of what they sell from a tall pole, a pineapple, a pumpkin or a bunch of onions, and smaller boats come alongside to buy. The market is smaller than it was, as roads take over from the river, but at first light it is still busy. Breakfast is a bowl of noodle soup bought from a boat. Back at the homestay by about 9:30 to pack, then it is about three hours north-west through rice country to Chau Doc on the Cambodian border, with a sit-down lunch on the way. After a rest at the hotel, we go out at about 4 pm by small boat on the Bassac past the floating houses, with fish farms in cages beneath them, to a Cham village and its mosque on the far bank. We finish on Sam Mountain at sunset, above the Ba Chua Xu temple.

   Included

   • Cai Rang floating market by boat at first light
   • Breakfast on the river
   • Lunch on the way to Chau Doc
   • Boat on the Bassac past the floating fish-farm houses to a Cham village
   • Sunset on Sam Mountain

   Easier option: Skip the late-afternoon boat to the Cham village and rest at the hotel; the van brings you to Sam Mountain to meet the group for the sunset.

   More active option: Walk the last stretch up Sam Mountain on the stepped path past small shrines instead of riding to the top, about 30 minutes uphill.

   Free time: Evening free in Chau Doc

   Activity: An early start and a full day; the drive is about three hours, broken by lunch.

   

5. Day 5: By speedboat up the Mekong to Phnom Penh, the Royal Palace

   Chau Doc by speedboat across the border at Vinh Xuong and Kaam Samnor, then up the Mekong to Phnom Penh

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Phnom Penh
   Day 5 details

   We are at the jetty in Chau Doc by about 7:30 am, the hour the morning speedboats leave, for about five hours on the water to Phnom Penh with the border formalities. The only road time today is the short transfer at each end. The boat follows the rivers north to the Vietnamese post at Vinh Xuong, where you step ashore for exit stamps, then crosses to the Cambodian post at Kaam Samnor for your visa check and entry stamp. Your guide handles the paperwork and stays with you through both posts. From there the boat runs up the main stream of the Mekong past stilt villages, fishing boats and long sandbanks, and you watch the river life from the deck. We reach Phnom Penh around midday, where the Tonle Sap river meets the Mekong, and walk to lunch near the riverfront. After a rest, at about 3 pm we go into the Royal Palace, home of Cambodia's kings since the 1860s, and the Silver Pagoda, whose floor is laid with silver tiles. The evening is free on the riverside.

   Included

   • Speedboat from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh, with help through the border posts
   • Lunch near the riverfront
   • The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda with your guide

   Optional experiences

   • The National Museum of Cambodia, next to the Royal Palace, for its Angkor-era sculpture

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: Cover shoulders and knees for the Royal Palace. The speedboat has a covered cabin and a small open deck; times depend on the river and the border.

   

6. Day 6: Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, told with care

   Phnom Penh to Tuol Sleng, then Choeung Ek and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Phnom Penh
   Day 6 details

   Today is about Cambodia's hardest years, and we approach it gently. We reach the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum soon after it opens, while it is quiet and cool. It was a high school until the Khmer Rouge turned it into Security Prison 21, where thousands of people were held and interrogated between 1975 and 1979. A Cambodian local guide walks the classrooms and cells with us and tells the story of the people held here, and you can step outside at any time. Then it is about half an hour to Choeung Ek, the memorial on the site where most of the prisoners were killed. Here you walk alone, at your own pace, with the site's audio guide, and the group meets again at the memorial stupa. Lunch is quiet and unhurried, and the afternoon is free to rest. Late in the day your guide takes anyone who wants a gentler end to the day to Wat Phnom, the hill temple that gave the city its name, and the evening is yours.

   Included

   • Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum with a local guide
   • Choeung Ek with the site's audio guide
   • Lunch together
   • Wat Phnom in the late afternoon

   Easier option: If you prefer not to visit the memorials, a local guide takes you to the Central Market and the riverside monasteries, and you rejoin the group for lunch.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek are memorials: photograph quietly, no selfies or posed pictures, voices kept low, shoulders and knees covered. Not suitable for children.

7. Day 7: Fly to Siem Reap, sunset at Pre Rup

   Phnom Penh to Techo International Airport, fly to Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport, then Siem Reap and Pre Rup

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Siem Reap
   Day 7 details

   After breakfast we drive about 30 km south to Techo International Airport, which opened in 2025, 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic, for the short flight to Siem Reap, about 50 minutes in the air. By road this is a day of five to six hours, so the flight gives us the afternoon back. From Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport it is about an hour into town, and lunch is near the old market. The hottest hours are for the pool. At about 4:45 pm we buy your three-day Angkor pass, which lets you in for this evening's sunset without using a day, and drive out to Pre Rup, a 10th-century temple mountain of brick and laterite. Climb its steep stairs for the sunset over the rice fields and palms, or watch from the base. On the way back to town we pass through the Royal Gardens, by the Royal Residence and the small shrine of Preah Ang Chek Preah Ang Chorm, busy with local families in the evening. Dinner is free in Siem Reap.

   Included

   • Flight from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap
   • Lunch in Siem Reap
   • Three-day Angkor pass
   • Sunset at Pre Rup
   • The Royal Gardens in the evening

   Easier option: Watch the sunset from the foot of Pre Rup rather than climbing its steep stairs.

   Free time: Early afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Flight times change by season; we confirm them with your final itinerary.

   

8. Day 8: Angkor Wat at sunrise, Ta Prohm and the Bayon

   Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, then Angkor Thom and the Bayon

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Siem Reap
   Day 8 details

   We leave the hotel at about 4:45 am, the one pre-dawn start of the trip, and walk across the causeway to the pools in front of Angkor Wat as its towers appear against the sky. Built in the early 12th century under King Suryavarman II, and listed by UNESCO with the rest of Angkor in 1992, it is the largest temple of the complex. When most people go back for breakfast at about 7, we eat ours, packed by the hotel, and go in with a licensed Angkor guide: along the carved galleries, including the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, and up the steep stair to the central towers. Next is Ta Prohm, where the roots of silk-cotton and strangler fig trees grip the walls, before it is at its busiest. Lunch is near the park, then the hotel through the heat. At about 3 pm we return through the South Gate of Angkor Thom to the Bayon, whose stone faces are best in late light. A farewell dinner together closes the day.

   Included

   • Sunrise at Angkor Wat
   • Angkor Wat with a licensed Angkor guide, including the upper level when open
   • Ta Prohm
   • Lunch near the park
   • Angkor Thom in the late afternoon: the South Gate, the Bayon and the Terrace of the Elephants
   • Farewell dinner

   Easier option: Skip the sunrise and sleep in: a driver brings you to meet the group at Angkor Wat at about 8 am.

   More active option: Walk a stretch of the Angkor Thom wall from the South Gate in the late afternoon, about 3 km on a shaded earth path, and rejoin the group at the Bayon.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at the hotel

   Activity: About 4 hours on foot in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, on uneven stone. The stair to Angkor Wat's upper level is steep, needs covered shoulders and knees, and closes on Buddhist holy days.

9. Day 9: Banteay Srei and depart from Siem Reap

   Siem Reap to Banteay Srei and back, then Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   The last morning uses the second day of your three-day pass. We leave at about 8 am for Banteay Srei, about an hour north-east of town through villages where palm sugar is boiled at the roadside, while the morning is still cool. Consecrated in 967, it is a small temple of pink sandstone, and its carvings of gods, guardians and scenes from the Ramayana are some of the finest at Angkor, crisp enough to read the folds of the cloth. The low morning light suits the stone. We stop at a roadside stall to taste palm sugar on the way back, and are in town by about 12:30 for check-out and lunch on your own. Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport is about an hour east of town, so book a flight leaving after about 3 pm. Your guide sees you to your transfer and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you are staying on, we can book extra nights.

   Included

   • Banteay Srei in the morning
   • A palm sugar stop on the way back
   • Drop-off at Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)

   Easier option: Sleep in and keep the morning free in town; the airport transfer leaves from the hotel.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm to see Banteay Srei; for an earlier flight, go straight from the hotel.

Wildlife and weather: December to April is the dry season in the Mekong Delta and Cambodia: mostly sunny, around 30°C by day in December and January and 33 to 35°C by April, with little rain. It is the busiest time at Angkor, which is why the sunrise, Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei are timed early. River levels fall through the dry season, which can lengthen the speedboat run a little. Departures avoid the week of Tet, the Lunar New Year, and Khmer New Year in mid-April. May to November brings the monsoon rains.

• Ho Chi Minh City2 nights
• Can Tho1 night
• Chau Doc1 night
• Phnom Penh2 nights
• Siem Reap2 nights