Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in 21 days
Three countries in three weeks is usually a warning sign. It works here for one reason: the three of them are a single operation for us, run from our own office in Hanoi, so the borders, the visas and the internal flights are one plan rather than three suppliers passing you along.
- Duration
- 21 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 8
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar
- From
- $3,360 per person
The route follows the Mekong upstream and then jumps north. Angkor and the Cambodian capital, the river islands at the Laos border, Luang Prabang, then Hanoi, the karst bay and central Vietnam. Twenty-one days, eight hotel changes, three internal flights, one land border, and four days with nothing scheduled.
Who it suits: travellers with three weeks who want breadth without a different hotel every night. This is a full route, not a slow one.
Your specialist: Osnat Angerman or Paz Prosianoy, with our Hanoi office running all three countries.
Day by day
Cambodia, days 1 to 8
Day 1: Arrive Siem Reap. Transfer, an hour from the airport. Nothing scheduled.
Day 2: Angkor, the main circuit. The Bayon and Angkor Thom at opening, Ta Prohm, back by late morning. Angkor Wat at four, sunset at Srah Srang.
Day 3: Banteay Srei and Preah Khan. Out through the countryside in the morning, afternoon free, Phare circus in the evening.
Day 4: Tonle Sap and a free afternoon. Kampong Khleang by boat, back for lunch.
Day 5: Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Fly, 45 minutes. National Museum in the afternoon and the riverfront at dusk.
Day 6: Phnom Penh. Tuol Sleng in the morning with the audio guide, then Choeung Ek. Empty afternoon by design. Royal Palace late if you want it.
Day 7: Phnom Penh to Kratie. Five to six hours north-east up the Mekong. Late boat at Kampi to look for Irrawaddy dolphins, which are few and usually distant, on a stretch of river that is worth the hour anyway.
Day 8: Kratie to Si Phan Don, Laos. Four hours north to the border at Trapeang Kriel, across into Laos, and out to the four thousand islands in the Mekong. Overnight on Don Khon or Don Det in a river bungalow. The Khone Phapheng falls in the late afternoon, which carry more water by volume than any other falls in Asia.
Laos, days 9 to 13
Day 9: Si Phan Don. A slow day. Bicycles between the islands over the old French railway bridge, the disused colonial locomotive in the undergrowth, and the river. Nothing else happens here and that is the appeal.
Day 10: Fly to Luang Prabang. By road to Pakse, then the internal flight north. Arrive late afternoon. Evening walk along the peninsula between the two rivers.
Day 11: Luang Prabang. The alms round at dawn, watched from a distance and without a camera in anyone’s face, which our guide will explain properly and which too many visitors get wrong. Then Wat Xieng Thong, the palace museum and the morning market. Afternoon free. Sunset from Mount Phousi or, better, from a boat on the Mekong.
Day 12: Kuang Si and the countryside. The turquoise pools at Kuang Si in the morning before the crowds, the bear rescue centre at the entrance, and a village weaving cooperative on the way back. Afternoon free.
Day 13: Luang Prabang, free. Deliberately empty. A cooking session, the Pak Ou caves by boat, or nothing at all.
Vietnam, days 14 to 21
Day 14: Fly to Hanoi. An hour and a half. Afternoon in the Old Quarter, and a bia hoi on a plastic stool at the end of it.
Day 15: Hanoi. The 36 trade streets on foot with a guide, the Temple of Literature, bun cha for lunch. Afternoon at the Museum of Ethnology, which explains Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups better than anything else in the country and which almost nobody makes time for.
Day 16: Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay. Three hours east to Haiphong and aboard a small vessel by early afternoon. Kayaking among the limestone before dinner. We use Lan Ha rather than central Halong, which carries several hundred boats on one route.
Day 17: Lan Ha Bay to Hue. Disembark mid-morning, drive back to Hanoi, evening flight south. A long day and the only one on the trip.
Day 18: Hue. The Imperial Citadel in the morning, two royal tombs in the afternoon. Hue cooks the most refined food in Vietnam and we book accordingly.
Day 19: Hue to Hoi An by train. The two-and-a-half-hour coastal train over the Hai Van Pass, sitting on the seaward side. Car from Danang. Evening in the Ancient Town.
Day 20: Hoi An. Out at seven, when the old town is a working Vietnamese town rather than a lantern-lit stage set. Guided walk, then the whole afternoon free. Start a suit or a dress if you want one, because a good tailor needs 48 hours.
Day 21: Hoi An, then fly home. Beach or bicycles in the morning, transfer to Danang and the flight out.
What is included
Accommodation with breakfast throughout, two nights full board on a small-vessel Lan Ha Bay cruise, three internal flights with a real baggage allowance, the Hue to Danang train in reserved seats, private air-conditioned car with English-speaking driver on every transfer in all three countries, the Cambodia to Laos land border crossing with our own representative, licensed local guides on nine days, the three-day Angkor pass, Phare tickets, all boats, all entrance fees on guided days, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Hanoi office for the whole three weeks.
Visas, and the trap worth knowing
Cambodia and Laos both issue tourist visas online in advance or on arrival for most nationalities. Vietnam runs an e-visa applied for online. The detail that catches people is that a Vietnamese e-visa is issued for a specified entry point, and a single-entry visa does not survive a side trip out and back. On this route you enter Vietnam once, by air into Hanoi, so a single entry is correct. Change the route and that changes. We check the current rule for your specific passport and each crossing before we quote.
What we would change, and when
- Only want two countries? Drop Laos and give the days to central Vietnam or the Cambodian coast. Twenty-one days across two countries is genuinely relaxed.
- Travelling in late September or October? Central Vietnam floods. We reverse the Vietnamese half so Hoi An sits earlier and has somewhere to move to.
- Want to skip the land border? Fly Phnom Penh to Pakse or to Luang Prabang instead. It costs a little more and saves most of a day, and you lose Si Phan Don, which we would be sorry about.
- Three weeks feels long? It is the right length for this route and the wrong length for a first trip to Asia with a fixed job to return to. Sixteen days across two countries beats twenty-one across three if you are going to be tired.
Honest notes
Eight hotel changes in twenty-one days is a lot, and we have squeezed it as hard as the geography allows. If you want fewer, the honest answer is to remove a country rather than to compress the driving.
Day 8 and day 17 are both long. The border day involves a formal crossing on a quiet road, which takes as long as it takes, and day 17 is a boat, a drive and a flight. Everything else on this route is comfortable.
Si Phan Don accommodation is simple: river bungalows, fans rather than air conditioning in some, and intermittent power on the smaller islands. It is one of the most restful places in Southeast Asia and it is not a resort.
Built by Osnat Angerman, our Southeast and Central Asia specialist, and checked by our Hanoi office before it goes out.
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