VIETNAM – CAMBODIA

HANOI – HALONG – SAIGON – PHNOM PENH – SIEM REAP

Travel period: from 01.10.2023 – 31.03.2024 (except for 24/12/2023 & 31/12/2023)

DAY 1: HANOI ARRIVAL

Welcome to hanoi, the capital city of vietnam! Our local guide will welcome you at noi bai airport and it takes us 35 minutes driving to the center of hanoi. Check in hotel and have a short time to freshen up.

Overnight in Hanoi.

DAY 2: FULL DAY CITY TOUR IN HANOI (B/L)

After breakfast, we will start our city tour from ba dinh square where the most solemn ceremonies of hanoi take place. We first visit ho chi minh mausoleum (closed on monday & friday) which is the last rest place of ho chi minh president, we then visit one-pillar pagoda nearby with unique architecture first built on 1049 by king ly thai tong. Continue visiting ho chi minh’s residence including the wooden ethnic minority style house, which was built on stilts, is surrounded by lovely peaceful gardens and his fish pond.

Go on to the temple of literature, the very first high school of vietnam scholars and a temple dedicated confucius. Have lunch at local restaurant where we provides hospitality and life skills to disadvantaged youth in vietnam.

In the afternoon, we will move on to the museum of ethnology, where you can find an excellent full collection of 54 ethnic groups living in vietnam and wonderful implications of artifacts and patterns from their traditional handicrafts and clothes. Continue the trip to picturesque west lake to visit tran quoc pagoda, the oldest pagoda in hanoi built from 6th century. End of the day, we will enjoy a unique fascinating show of water puppetry, a traditional stage art of northern vietnam.

Overnight in hanoi.

Van Mieu Quoc Tu Giam is an ancient educational relic that exists until today.

DAY 3: HANOI – HALONG – OVERNIGHT ON CRUISE (B/L/D)

Breakfast at hotel and check out.

At 9:00, head east for about 3 hours to halong bay, the pride of the gulf of tonkin, a natural world heritage as designated by unesco in 1994 and 2006. Upon arrival in halong, check in the overnight cruise to discover the magnificent beauty of this “descending-dragon” bay, created by thousands odd-shaped limestone rocks and karst grottoes. After a lunch on board, we can visit the grottos, stop for swimming or kayaking, passing floating houses and approach islets to enjoy their beauty in close distance. Back to the cruise, enjoy cooking demonstration before having dinner. Evening attend activities on the boat or relax at your own leisure.

Overnight on the cruise.

Please note the program may be little varied upon the cruise you choose

Cruise in Ha Long

DAY 4: HALONG – HANOI– FLIGHT TO SAIGON (B/L)

You should wake up early to enjoy the dawn on the sea in the early morning. The vietnamese calls the "east sea" by a point-oriented name "eastern sea", so you may guess how miraculous seeing the sunrise over the islets of the bay. After breakfast, our boat will continue to cruise in marvelous areas, where almost each islet has its own name, adopting its shape or reminiscent like sail island, fisherman’s head rock, butterfly rock or turtle islet etc. Check out your room and have brunch on board while the cruise comes back the pier.

Disembark from the cruise and our shuttle bus will transfer your back to hanoi, then head to noi bai airport for boarding the flight (should depart after 18:00) to Saigon. Upon arrival, picked up by the local tour guide and transferred to check in hotel.

Overnight in Saigon.

DAY 5: HALF DAY CITY TOUR IN SAIGON – CU CHI TUNNELS (B/L)

The city tour will begin with a quick sightseeing of the city to the reunification palace, the witness of the fierce vietnam war ended in 1975. The grand building today is a museum and hall of official receptions. Nearby the palace are the notre dame cathedral (view from outside only), built between 1877 and 1883 and colonial-styled central post office, one of the city’s major landmarks. Then visit ben thanh market, a symbol of saigon.

Drive to Cu Chi tunnels – the network of over 200km of tunnels became legendary when they played a vital role in the War. In their heyday, the tunnels were functioning underground cities including numerous trap doors, specially constructed living areas, storage facilities, weapons factories, field hospitals, command centers & kitchens.

The sightseeing in Cu Chi tunnels is started with a short introduction video showing how the tunnels were constructed, you will have a chance to see the poor conditions underground, see handmade booby traps, and crawl into a short section of the tunnels to feel the oppressive narrowness and heat inside.

Cu Chi Tunnels is about 60km from the center of Ho Chi Minh City, among the top 6 most special man-made works in the world.

DAY 6: SAIGON – DELTA MEKONG – SAIGON (B/L)

After breakfast, head to my tho, the homeland of coconut and family factories with local products like coconut candy, rice paper,… upon arrival, embark on the boat cruising on the mighty mekong river viewing the life to the local people live along the banks. We stop to visit an island in the area, enjoy the fresh tropical fruits served in the heart of the lush garden accompanied by traditional southern vietnamese folk music. Later, embark on other small boats rowed by the local people thru the small canals shadowed by water coconut trees to visit the local factories. There you will taste the honey tea and see the local people produce the coconut candy milk and of course you also can try it or stroll in the garden where the locals feed honeybee. Lunch is served at local restaurant nearby the river.

In the afternoon, continue to visit vinh trang pagoda, a famous pagoda in the area with architecture combination of chinese, cambodian, and french cultures. Return to saigon late afternoon.

Overnight in saigon.

DAY 7: SAIGON – PHNOM PENH BY BUS (6hrs on the way) (B)

Breakfast at hotel. Check out and transfer to meeting point. Departure time is at 09:00.

Upon your arrival in Phnom Penh at 15:00, you will be welcomed by escort tour guide (with sign name) and driver then transfer directly to hotel for check in.

Evening at 4.30pm, transfer to phnom penh river and we get on board, enjoy welcome cocktail while the boat cruise slowly takes you along mekong & tonle sap river, view the spectacular sunset before having buffet dinner (or set menu) on board. Disembark and transfer back to hotel.

Overnight in phnom penh

Meal: dinner

DAY 8: FULL DAY PHNOM PEENH CITY TOUR (B/L)

Meal: breakfast, lunch

Breakfast is at hotel. We set off at 8.00am to challenge a cyclo (rickshaw) for interesting highlights of phnom penh with independent monument, resume the ride to central market to see daily life of trading then we ride along the riverside to visit the royal palace – is a complex of buildings which serves as the royal residence of the king of cambodia, silver pagoda, royal stupas, french style building etc. Resume visit the national museum; the world’s most important collection of khmer sculpture and carvings.

Enjoy delicious khmer set lunch at bopha titanic restaurant by the riverside

Afternoon, we continue to witness the tragic site of cheung ek, known as the killing fields where hundreds of cambodian lives were proceeded between 1975 and 1979 under khmer rouge, connecting to the tuol sleng museum – a former high school that was turned into tortured prison s-21 and resume strolling around russian market for shopping before we’re going for guided orientation around wat phnom with interesting legendary of founding phnom penh capital.

Overnight in phnom penh

The royal palace – is a complex of buildings which serves as the royal residence of the king of cambodia, silver pagoda, royal stupas, french style building

DAY 9: Phnom Penh - Overland to Siem Reap by Private Vehicle (B)

Meal: breakfast

Breakfast is at hotel. Check out and we leave hotel at 8.00am with 6 hours toward the amazing land of angkor complex, siem reap. On the way, we stop for a short visit at the 12th century ancient bridge at kampong kdei, the journey passes countryside with view of rice fields and palm trees, and we will have chance to dare tasting the deep fried insects at skun before we’re reaching a booked hotel in siem reap.

Note: after you checked in, our phnom penh team will say goodbye to you and the rest of siem reap tour will be taken care by our team in siem reap.

Overnight in Siem Reap

12th century ancient bridge at Kampong Kdei

DAY 10: FULL DAY ANGKOR DISCOVERY (B/L)

Meal: breakfast, lunch

Breakfast is at hotel. Today, we will experience the significant angkor complex, our tour guide will be meeting you at hotel’s lobby at 8.00am then we’re heading out to visit the south gate of angkor thom, was the last and most enduring capital city of the khmer empire. The gate is atop 4 giant smiling faces then particularly visit bayon temple consisting of more than 200 smiling faces in stone and admired by interesting surroundings such as the terrace of elephants, the terrace of the leper king, baphuon and phimeanakas. Continue to reveal the intertwined ta prohm jungle temple adorned by the stunning tree roots, and where lara croft – tomb raider was filmed.

Enjoy khmer set lunch at a local restaurant near temples.

Afternoon, we visit the magnificent angkor wat – the largest religious monument, also well-known as the 7th wonder of the world’s. This incredible complex was originally constructed as a hindu temple of god vishnu for the khmer empire, gradually transforming into a buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century. We unlock the greatest history, observe the unique architecture, styles, decoration and so on. Resume visit beautiful sunset at phnom bakheng (limited allowance & touristy) or skip it if you feel tired.

Overnight in siem reap

DAY 11: PHNOM KULEN WATERFALL & 1000 LINGAS (B)

Breakfast is at hotel. We set off at 8.30am then we drive out of the hassle city, passing beautiful countryside before arriving at phnom kulen. Phnom kulen is one of cambodia’s national parks that provides wonderful adventure & leisure day trip and also a great place to cool off under its falls. We’ll have a guided walking tour to visit preah ang thom – the reclining giant reclining buddha statue. Witness historical site of 1000 linga carvings and see the sacred pool. Resume the walking tour to the beautiful clear waterfall where we can refresh, bathe and swim.

Late afternoon, return hotel. On the way back, we have a short visit at palm sugar village and other various local handicrafts. Or you can opt for a guided walking tour at cambodian landmine museum (entrance fee $5/pax – not included) which is one of important places that tourists should not miss out while visiting angkor region and it’s where you can learn about the dangers of landmines, where they came from, who laid them, how they work, and their presence in cambodia.

Overnight in siem reap

Phnom kulen is one of cambodia’s national parks that provides wonderful adventure & leisure day trip and also a great place to cool off under its falls

DAY 12: Tonle Sap Floating Village (B/D)

Meal: breakfast, dinner

Breakfast is at hotel. We set off at 8.30am out of the hassle city to chong kneas village’s boat pier. The journey takes approximately 30mins with some highlights of siem reap city. Once we arrived the pier, we process to embark a private sheltered boat to explore tonle sap lake. The tonle sap is the largest freshwater lake in south east asia and is also an ecological hot spot that was designated as a unesco biosphere in 1997. The boat excursion takes us passing floating school, floating houses which animated by some fishing activities. Our tour guide will explain you about tonle sap ecosystem and witness how life works in the floating community, and we stop to see floating crocodile farm, souvenirs shop if it interests you before we return siem reap town for guided orientation at the finest artisan angkor wood/stone carving centre displaying various defined handicraft and silk products, and go shopping around old market.

Evening at 6.00pm, transfer to have buffet dinner followed by apsara traditional dance performance at tonle sap restaurant. After dinner, transfer to pub street for your own exploration then you will catch tuk tuk go back to your hotel (own expense).

Overnight in siem reap

The tonle sap is the largest freshwater lake in south east asia and is also an ecological hot spot that was designated as a unesco biosphere in 1997

DAY 13: Siem Reap – DEPARTURE  (B)

Breakfast is at hotel. Our driver (no guide) meets you at hotel’s lobby then transfers you to siem reap international airport for your flight departure to the next destinations.

Note: from group of 8pax, airport drop off is included tour guide.

WISH YOU HAVE A GREAT JOURNEY!