Vietnam and Cambodia with Angkor

1. Day 1: Arrive in Hanoi

   Noi Bai airport to the Old Quarter

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Stay in Hanoi
   Day 1 details

   Your trip starts at Noi Bai International Airport (HAN), about 30 km north of the city. We meet you in the arrivals hall and drive you to your 4-star hotel on the edge of the Old Quarter, your base for two nights. Hanoi has been a capital, on and off, for about a thousand years, and the Old Quarter still keeps its tangle of narrow streets named after the trades once practised on them, from silk and silver to paper offerings. The rest of the day is yours. Walk to Hoan Kiem Lake, sit with an iced coffee on a low plastic stool and watch the motorbikes flow past, or simply sleep off the flight. In the evening your trip leader meets the group for a short welcome briefing, so you know what each morning of the next fifteen days holds before it arrives.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Noi Bai International Airport (HAN)
   • Welcome briefing with your trip leader

   Free time: Rest of the day free

2. Day 2: Hanoi

   Hoan Kiem Lake at dawn, the Temple of Literature and the Old Quarter

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Hanoi
   Day 2 details

   Early risers can join your trip leader at Hoan Kiem Lake soon after six, when Hanoi exercises in public: tai chi, ballroom dancing and badminton along the shore before the traffic builds. Cross the red The Huc Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple on its island, then go back to the hotel for breakfast. Mid-morning we visit the Temple of Literature, founded in 1070 and home to the Imperial Academy, Vietnam's first university, where stone turtles carry the names of scholars who passed the royal exams. Ba Dinh Square, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum seen from outside and the small One Pillar Pagoda follow. The afternoon is free for a nap or a museum. Late in the day you watch a water puppet show at the Thang Long theatre by the lake, an art that began in the flooded rice fields of the Red River Delta. Then your trip leader walks you through the Old Quarter for dinner from street kitchens: bun cha, banh cuon and, to finish, an egg coffee.

   Included

   • Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple at dawn
   • Temple of Literature
   • Ba Dinh Square and the One Pillar Pagoda
   • Water puppet show at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre
   • Street food walk in the Old Quarter

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: The dawn walk is optional; breakfast is after it.

   

3. Day 3: A night on Ha Long and Lan Ha bays

   Hanoi to the coast, then on board for the night

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Ha Long Bay
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we drive east on the expressway to the coast, about two and a half to three hours with a rest stop, and board a cabin cruiser for one night on the water. Ha Long Bay and the neighbouring Cat Ba archipelago, of which Lan Ha Bay is part, were listed together by UNESCO in 2023: close to two thousand limestone islands and pillars rising straight out of green water. Our route spends most of its time in Lan Ha, where fewer boats sail than in the busiest lanes of central Ha Long. Lunch is served as the boat leaves harbour. In the afternoon you paddle a kayak or ride a rowed bamboo boat between the karsts and into a sheltered lagoon. In our January to March season the water is cool and the bay is often wrapped in soft mist, which layers the islands one behind another like an ink painting. Sunset is on the top deck, then dinner on board.

   Included

   • Overnight cruise on Ha Long and Lan Ha bays
   • Kayak or bamboo boat among the karsts
   • Sunset on the top deck

   Easier option: Stay on the bamboo boat instead of the kayak.

   

4. Day 4: Sunrise on the bay, fly to Hue

   Back to harbour, Noi Bai airport, flight to Hue

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Hue
   Day 4 details

   The bay is at its quietest before the day boats arrive from the harbours, so set an alarm for sunrise, between six and half past six in our season, and take your coffee to the top deck while the first light picks out the karsts. Many boats also offer a gentle tai chi session on deck. After brunch the boat sails back and we drive to Noi Bai airport for an afternoon flight south to Hue, about an hour and ten minutes in the air. This is the long travel day of the trip, but every hour of it is seated, and the flight replaces the overnight sleeper train and long road transfers some trips use to cover the same distance. We meet you at Phu Bai airport, a short drive from Hue, and take you to your hotel near the Perfume River for two nights. Dinner tonight is your own, close to the hotel, and you can sleep in tomorrow until breakfast.

   Included

   • Sunrise from the top deck
   • Flight from Hanoi (HAN) to Hue (HUI)
   • Transfers to Noi Bai airport and from Phu Bai airport

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: The longest travel day: about 3 hours by road and a 1 hour flight.

5. Day 5: Hue

   The Imperial City, the Perfume River and the royal tombs

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Hue
   Day 5 details

   Hue was the capital of Vietnam's last royal dynasty, the Nguyen, from 1802 to 1945, and its monuments are a UNESCO World Heritage site. We enter the Imperial City soon after it opens, when the courtyards are cool and nearly empty, through the Meridian Gate where emperors appeared before their court. Inside are the Thai Hoa Palace, restored temples and gardens, and the ground of the Forbidden Purple City, largely destroyed in the wars of the twentieth century and now being rebuilt hall by hall. A dragon boat carries you upriver on the Perfume River to Thien Mu Pagoda, whose seven-storey Phuoc Duyen tower has looked over the water since 1844. After lunch together we visit two royal tombs that could not be more different: Tu Duc's lakeside garden of pavilions and frangipani, and the hillside tomb of Khai Dinh, finished in 1931, its inner hall covered in glass and porcelain mosaics. The late afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Imperial City at opening time
   • Dragon boat on the Perfume River
   • Thien Mu Pagoda
   • Tomb of Tu Duc
   • Tomb of Khai Dinh

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   

6. Day 6: Over the Hai Van Pass to Hoi An

   Hue to Hoi An by the coast road and the pass

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Hoi An
   Day 6 details

   No early start today. After a slow breakfast we drive south along the coast, about four hours with stops, taking the old road over the mountain rather than the tunnel most traffic now uses. The first stop is Lang Co, a fishing town on a strip of sand between a lagoon and the sea, where we eat a seafood lunch together. Then the road climbs the Hai Van Pass, the pass of sea clouds, which crosses a spur of the Truong Son range where it runs down into the sea. At the top, close to 500 metres up, stand the ruins of an old gate and wartime bunkers, with views back over Lang Co and south over the curve of Da Nang Bay. The mountains also split Vietnam's weather, so the southern side is often clearer and warmer. We roll down through Da Nang to Hoi An and check in for three nights. In the evening your trip leader walks you into the old town to get your bearings.

   Included

   • Lang Co
   • Hai Van Pass
   • Evening orientation walk in Hoi An

   Activity: About 4 hours on the road, split by Lang Co and the pass.

7. Day 7: My Son and the Thu Bon at dusk

   My Son Sanctuary in the morning, the river at lantern time

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Hoi An
   Day 7 details

   We leave at half past six for My Son Sanctuary, about an hour inland in a jungle valley below Cat's Tooth mountain, to arrive close to opening time, ahead of the tour coaches and the midday heat. Between the 4th and 13th centuries the Cham kings built brick temples here to the Hindu god Shiva, and the towers that survive still show fine carvings cut into bricks fitted so tightly the joints barely show. Many were damaged by bombing in 1969, and the craters remain among the ruins. We are back in Hoi An before noon. The afternoon is free: a tailor fitting, a swim at An Bang beach or a long lunch. At dusk we board a wooden boat on the Thu Bon River as the lanterns of the old town come on along the waterfront, and you can set a paper lantern on the water. Dinner together follows in the old town, a chance to try cao lau, the noodle dish Hoi An claims as its own.

   Included

   • My Son Sanctuary at opening time
   • Boat on the Thu Bon River at dusk

   Free time: Afternoon free

   

8. Day 8: Hoi An at first light

   The old town at 7 am, then a free day

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Hoi An
   Day 8 details

   Hoi An's old town is a UNESCO site because it kept the shape of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with Chinese assembly halls, Japanese and Vietnamese merchant houses and quays along the river. By mid-morning it fills with visitors, so we walk at seven, when the yellow walls are empty, the light is soft and shopkeepers are still setting out. Your old town ticket covers the entries: the Japanese Covered Bridge, reopened in 2024 after a careful restoration, an old merchant house such as Tan Ky, and the Fujian Assembly Hall with its hanging incense coils. The central market is busy with morning trade, and we stop for a banh mi before we part. After that the day is yours. Hire a bicycle and ride out through the rice fields to Tra Que vegetable village, read by the pool, or go back to the tailor. This is a deliberate free day in the middle of the trip.

   Included

   • Early morning walk in the old town
   • Old town ticket: Japanese Covered Bridge, a merchant house and the Fujian Assembly Hall
   • Central market

   Free time: Free from late morning

   

9. Day 9: Fly to Ho Chi Minh City

   Da Nang to Saigon by air, then the city's recent history

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Ho Chi Minh City
   Day 9 details

   A relaxed morning in Hoi An, then a transfer of about 45 minutes to Da Nang airport and a flight south of about an hour and twenty minutes to Ho Chi Minh City, which most people here still call Saigon. After you check in, your trip leader takes you through the city's recent history. The War Remnants Museum tells the story of the American War from the Vietnamese side, with photographs taken by journalists from many countries; it is hard going in places, and you can step out at any time. The Independence Palace, also called the Reunification Palace, is kept much as it was when a tank broke through its gates on 30 April 1975, down to the command bunker in the basement. A short walk passes the French-era Central Post Office and the red-brick Notre-Dame Cathedral, under restoration in recent years. The evening is free: a rooftop bar, Ben Thanh market or an early night before the Mekong.

   Included

   • Flight from Da Nang (DAD) to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), with transfers
   • War Remnants Museum
   • Independence Palace
   • Walk past the Central Post Office and Notre-Dame Cathedral

   Free time: Evening free

10. Day 10: The Mekong Delta

    A day in Ben Tre by boat, sampan and bicycle

    • Drive about 4 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Ho Chi Minh City
    Day 10 details

    We drive south to Ben Tre province, about two hours, crossing the bridges over branches of the Mekong where the river splits into its delta. Ben Tre is coconut country, laced with narrow channels under nipa palms, and we see it at the pace of the people who live there. A motorboat takes you along the wide river, and then a small sampan, rowed by a local boatwoman, slips into canals too narrow for engines. On land you ride bicycles along quiet village paths, past fruit orchards, coconut yards and family workshops, with the vehicle following for anyone who would rather walk part of the way. Lunch is a home-style meal in a garden restaurant: elephant ear fish wrapped in rice paper with herbs, then fresh fruit from the orchards around you. There are no shopping stops built into our day. We are back in Ho Chi Minh City by late afternoon, with the evening free for one more bowl of pho.

    Included

    • Motorboat on the Mekong
    • Rowed sampan through the coconut canals
    • Bicycle ride through Ben Tre villages

    Easier option: Ride in the vehicle instead of cycling.

    Free time: Evening free

11. Day 11: Fly to Phnom Penh

    Saigon to Phnom Penh by air, the Royal Palace and a sunset boat

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Phnom Penh
    Day 11 details

    A morning flight of about an hour takes you across the border to Phnom Penh, in place of the long public bus and land crossing that other trips spend most of a day on. After lunch on your own near the river, we visit the Royal Palace, home of Cambodia's king, built from the 1860s when the capital moved here, as it reopens after the midday break. The Throne Hall's golden roofs rise above the gardens, and in the Silver Pagoda next door the floor is laid with more than five thousand silver tiles beneath an emerald Buddha. Late in the afternoon we board a boat on the Tonle Sap and sail to where it meets the Mekong, watching the sun go down behind the riverfront and the palace spires. Dinner tonight is at a restaurant that trains young Cambodians for careers in hospitality, then back to your hotel close to the riverside.

    Included

    • Flight from Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) to Phnom Penh (PNH), with transfers
    • Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda
    • Sunset boat at the meeting of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong

    

12. Day 12: Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, then Siem Reap

    Phnom Penh's memorials, a short flight and a free afternoon

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Siem Reap
    Day 12 details

    This morning is the hardest and most important of the trip, and we give it the time it needs. Tuol Sleng, a former high school in the city, became the Khmer Rouge prison known as S-21, where thousands of Cambodians were held and interrogated between 1975 and 1979 and very few survived. It is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Choeung Ek, about 15 km south, is where most of them were killed; a memorial stupa holds the skulls recovered from the mass graves. An audio guide lets you walk both sites quietly at your own pace, and your trip leader is there for questions. After lunch we fly to Siem Reap, under an hour, landing at Siem Reap Angkor International Airport, which opened in 2023 about an hour's drive from town. The rest of the day is a planned rest after a week and a half on the move: the hotel pool, a massage or an early night before Angkor.

    Included

    • Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21)
    • Choeung Ek Genocidal Center
    • Flight from Phnom Penh (PNH) to Siem Reap (SAI), with transfers

    Free time: Afternoon free to rest

13. Day 13: Angkor: Srah Srang, Ta Prohm and the Tonle Sap

    A quiet sunrise, Ta Prohm at opening and a lake sunset

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Siem Reap
    Day 13 details

    Our first Angkor sunrise avoids the crowd at Angkor Wat. We leave at about a quarter to five with your licensed Angkor guide and watch the sky colour over Srah Srang, the royal bathing pool, whose still water doubles the light; on some mornings your guide may choose Pre Rup instead, a temple mountain with views across the forest. Both open at five and draw a fraction of Angkor Wat's numbers. At half past seven we walk into Ta Prohm as it opens, before the coaches, when soft light falls on the silk-cotton and strangler fig roots prising its galleries apart. Banteay Kdei, across the road, stays quiet even in busy weeks. We are back for lunch together and the hottest hours at the hotel. In the late afternoon we drive to Kampong Phluk, a village of houses on tall stilts, and take a boat out along its channels to the open Tonle Sap lake for sunset, water levels permitting.

    Included

    • Angkor 3-day pass
    • Sunrise at Srah Srang or Pre Rup
    • Ta Prohm at opening time
    • Banteay Kdei
    • Boat at Kampong Phluk and sunset on the Tonle Sap

    Easier option: Skip the sunrise and join the group at Ta Prohm at 7:30.

    Free time: Midday rest at the hotel

    Activity: Late in the dry season the lake can be too low for boats at Kampong Phluk; we then go to another lake village.

    

14. Day 14: Angkor Wat at sunrise, the Bayon after lunch

    Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and a farewell night

    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Siem Reap
    Day 14 details

    Today is Angkor Wat. We are at the moat by five, when the site opens, and instead of joining the crowd at the famous left-hand reflecting pool, your guide takes you to the quieter pool on the right, where the towers stand against the brightening sky with far fewer people around you. Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century for King Suryavarman II and dedicated to Vishnu, is the largest religious monument in the world. Once the sun is up most visitors leave for breakfast, and that is when we go in: the long galleries of bas-reliefs, including the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, and the steep stairs to the upper level when it is open. Breakfast and a rest at the hotel follow. After lunch we enter Angkor Thom through the South Gate to the Bayon, its towers carved with more than two hundred calm stone faces, quieter in the afternoon. Tonight is our farewell: dinner together and seats at Phare, the Cambodian Circus.

    Included

    • Angkor Wat at sunrise
    • Angkor Wat galleries and bas-reliefs
    • Angkor Thom South Gate and the Bayon
    • Phare, the Cambodian Circus

    Free time: Late morning rest at the hotel

    Activity: The upper level of Angkor Wat closes on Buddhist holy days; shoulders and knees must be covered.

    

15. Day 15: Depart from Siem Reap

    A free morning, then the airport

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 15 details

    A morning with no alarm. Your Angkor pass is valid for three separate days within ten, and we have used two, so you can go back to the temples on your own: a tuk-tuk to Banteay Srei, the small pink sandstone temple about 35 km north with the finest carving at Angkor, or a slow second look at the Bayon. Or stay in town, walk through the Old Market by the Siem Reap River, have a last swim and a Khmer amok curry for lunch. Your trip leader can help plan whichever you choose. At the time that suits your flight we drive you to Siem Reap Angkor International Airport (SAI), about an hour from town, for your flight home or onward. The trip ends here, in Cambodia, so there is no long drive into Thailand. If you would like more time, we can add nights in Siem Reap or a few days on the coast before you fly.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Siem Reap Angkor International Airport (SAI)

    Free time: Morning free

Wildlife and weather: January to March is the season. Hanoi and Ha Long are cool and often misty in January and February, so pack a warm layer for the boat; swimming in the bay is for warmer months. Hue and Hoi An are past their autumn rains and get drier and warmer through March. Saigon, the Mekong and Cambodia are dry and hot, with heat building at Angkor from March. Tet, the Lunar New Year in late January or February, closes many shops for several days.

• Hanoi2 nights
• Ha Long Bay1 night
• Hue2 nights
• Hoi An3 nights
• Ho Chi Minh City2 nights
• Phnom Penh1 night
• Siem Reap3 nights