Southern Vietnam & Cambodia Discovery – 14 Days from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap

Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s dynamic southern metropolis. Upon arrival at the airport, meet your private guide and driver and transfer to your hotel.

Depending on your arrival time, enjoy a short orientation walk around the historic center, including the Saigon Central Post Office, Notre-Dame Cathedral and Dong Khoi Street.

Suggested experience

Explore Cholon by cyclo and discover local life around Binh Tay Market

• Travel style: City discovery / Colonial heritage
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: English-speaking guide
• Meals: No meals included
• Overnight: Ho Chi Minh City

Travel to the Cu Chi Tunnels, an extensive underground network used during the Vietnam War. Explore the tunnels and learn about the history and daily life connected with this remarkable site.

Return to the city and visit the FITO Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine, followed by Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City’s historic Chinatown. Continue to Thien Hau Temple, one of the area’s most important Chinese temples.

Optional: Street food tour by Vespa in the evening

• Travel style: History / Culture / City life
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Ho Chi Minh city

After breakfast, depart for Ben Tre, the gateway to the Mekong Delta. Take a local boat along the river to observe daily life, coconut processing and traditional riverside activities.

Continue through smaller canals to Nhon Thanh Village, where you can visit a local handicraft workshop, taste tropical fruit and honey tea, and experience a traditional local ride.

Enjoy lunch featuring the Mekong Delta specialty elephant ear fish, then take a small rowing boat through narrow canals before continuing to Can Tho.

Suggested experience

Try fresh tropical fruit and coconut products with a local family

• Travel style: Mekong Delta / Local life / River journey / Rural landscapes
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
• Overnight: Can Tho

Start early with a boat trip to Cai Rang Floating Market, one of the Mekong Delta’s most atmospheric morning markets.

Continue through smaller waterways and visit a traditional rice-processing workshop, a noodle-making workshop and the lively Le Binh Market.

Drive to Chau Doc and explore Tra Su Cajuput Forest, a peaceful wetland reserve with waterways surrounded by dense vegetation and abundant birdlife. Explore the forest by foot and local boat.

Suggested experience 

Visit a local floating fish farm and learn about life along the Mekong

• Travel style: Floating market / Nature / Local life / Wildlife
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Chau Doc

Visit Sam Mountain, an important pilgrimage site with temples and pagodas including Ba Chua Xu Temple, Tay An Pagoda and the tomb of Thoai Ngoc Hau.

Continue south toward Ha Tien and cross the Vietnam–Cambodia border by land. After immigration formalities, meet your Cambodian guide and driver.

Continue to Kampong Trach, where you can explore its impressive natural caves and Buddhist shrines before arriving in Kep, Cambodia’s peaceful coastal town.

• Travel style: Spiritual heritage / Border crossing / Coastal landscapes
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle / Flight
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Kep

Take a short local boat to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island), a peaceful island off the coast of Kep.

Enjoy time on the beach, swim in the warm waters or simply relax beneath the coconut palms. The island offers a slower pace and a more rustic coastal experience away from the major tourist centers.

Return to Kep by boat in the afternoon.

Optional: Private seafood lunch or snorkeling

• Travel style: Beach / Island escape / Relaxation
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Kep

After breakfast, travel to Kampot, a charming riverside town known for its colonial architecture, countryside and famous Kampot Pepper.

Visit a local pepper plantation to learn about traditional cultivation and taste different varieties of pepper. Continue to the countryside to see the traditional salt fields.

In the afternoon, explore the old colonial quarter of Kampot and enjoy a walk along the riverside.

Suggested experience 

Taste Kampot pepper at a local plantation and meet the growers

• Travel style: Local agriculture / Food culture / Colonial heritage
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Kam Pot

After breakfast, depart for Phnom Penh with a stop in Takeo. Take a local boat toward Phnom Da, an ancient temple set on a small hill surrounded by countryside.

Continue to Ta Prohm Temple at Tonle Bati, built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII, followed by Phnom Chisor, an impressive hilltop temple offering panoramic views over the surrounding plains.

Continue to Phnom Penh and check in at your hotel.

• Travel style: Ancient heritage / Rural Cambodia / Scenic landscapes
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Phnom Penh

Discover the highlights of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s historic capital.

Visit the Independence Monument, Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and National Museum, home to an important collection of Khmer art and sculpture.

Continue to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum for an important historical perspective on Cambodia’s recent past, followed by Wat Phnom and the Russian Market.

Optional: Apsara dance dinner or evening food tour

• Travel style: Cultural heritage • History • City discovery
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Phnom Penh

Travel north toward Siem Reap along National Road 6.

Stop at Spean Praptos, an impressive ancient Khmer bridge near Kompong Kdei, and continue through the Cambodian countryside.

Arrive in Siem Reap in the afternoon and check in at your hotel. The rest of the day is free to relax or explore the town independently.

• Travel style: Countryside / Scenic journey / Khmer heritage
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Siem Reap

After breakfast, begin with the ancient Roluos Group, including Lolei, Preah Ko and Bakong, among the earliest major temple complexes associated with the Angkor period.

Continue to Banteay Srei, a beautifully preserved 10th-century temple renowned for its intricate sandstone carvings.

On the return to Siem Reap, visit Banteay Samre, a smaller but impressive temple decorated with detailed Khmer bas-reliefs.

• Travel style: Ancient temples / Khmer art / Cultural heritage
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Siem Reap

After breakfast, start early at Ta Prohm, one of Angkor’s most atmospheric temples, where ancient ruins are intertwined with enormous tree roots.

Return to the hotel for breakfast, then continue to Angkor Wat, the most iconic monument of Cambodia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the afternoon, explore Angkor Thom and the impressive Bayon Temple, followed by the Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King and the former Royal Enclosure.

• Travel style: Temple exploration / History / Khmer architecture
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Siem Reap

Travel into the countryside and enjoy a bicycle ride through local villages, vegetable gardens, rice fields and rural markets.

Continue to Tonle Sap Lake and take a boat to Kampong Phluk, a remarkable stilted village where local families have adapted their lives to the seasonal rise and fall of the lake.

In the afternoon, visit Kbal Spean, known as the River of a Thousand Lingas. Walk through the forest to discover ancient carvings along the riverbed and a small waterfall.

Return to Siem Reap in the late afternoon.

Optional: Traditional Khmer cooking class

Suggested experience 

Cycle through the countryside around Siem Reap and experience village life

• Travel style: Rural life / Cycling / Lake experience / Nature
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: Local English-speaking guide
• Meals: Breakfast
• Overnight: Siem Reap

Breakfast at the hotel and free time until your private transfer to Siem Reap International Airport for your onward flight.

End of your Southern Vietnam & Cambodia Discovery – 14 days.

• Travel style: Leisure / Departure
• Transfer: Private modern AC vehicle
• Local guide: No guide unless requested
• Meals: Breakfast