12 Days Vietnam and Cambodia’s World Heritage Sites with Overnight Cruise

ITINERARY

Day 1: Siem Reap | Arrive in Siem Reap | Apsara Dinner Show

International Flight: Excluded

Meals: Dinner

Welcome to Cambodia! Upon arrival in Siem Reap, our guide will greet you at the airport welcome area and transfer you to the hotel for check-in.

Be prepared to enjoy a beautiful traditional dance performed by a team trained in the Dance of Apsara.

In the evening, you will be picked up from the hotel lobby and transferred to Angkor Village Hotel Theater for a traditional Apsara Dinner Show. where you will have a unique dinner experience which will bring ancient Khmer culture to life in spectacular surroundings while you enjoy the very best in Cambodia cuisine. This one-of-a-kind cultural experience highlights the mysterious civilization and heritage of Khmer spoken through choreography and music. Colorful costumes and playful activities will give you insights into the Khmer daily life and wedding traditions while you enjoy a delicious meal to welcome you to the Kingdom of Wonders.

Siem Reap is a quaint town in Cambodia and the gateway to the vast remains of the Angkor empire. Discover the Royal Gardens on your own with ancient trees home to a colony of giant fruit bats. Take a stroll along the scenic riverside and visit the night markets to find unique souvenirs. You may also want to spend the evening with a visit to Pub Street with several restaurants and bars that stay open late into the night. Many restaurants have live entertainment in the evening.

Accommodation: Treasure Oasis Hotel

Day 2: Siem Reap | Angkor Thom Ancient City

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, begin your explorations of the remains of an ancient civilization that once ruled much of Southeast Asia. Today, you’ll be visiting the ancient capital city of Angkor Thom. On your way to Angkor Thom, you’ll catch a glimpse of the front of Angkor Wat as you pass by, which will leave you with a tingling feeling on the back of your neck as you take your first glance of the enormity and wonder of the largest religious complex to ever exist.

Ta Prohm Temple Ruins – 12 Days Vietnam Cambodia World Heritage Sites Overnight Cruise

However, we’ll be saving the best for last as you go on today to see some other equally impressive structures of Ta Prohm Temple, Bayon Temple, Banteay Kdei, Baphoun, Elephant Terrace, Leper King Terrace, and the Royal Palace. First on the agenda is Ta Prohm. Worn by time, rain, and overpowered by the jungle, this immaculate structure is hidden under the canopy will leave you feeling like you’ve stepped into the movie set of a treasure hunt adventure. Your private tour guide will give you the history and stories passed through oral tradition.

After you’ve had lunch, your exploits will continue as you visit Banteay Kdei (Citadel of Chambers). You’ll also visit Victory Gate, Terrace of the Leper King, the Royal Palace, Baphuon, and Bayon. Bayon sets itself apart with its almost 200 smiling faces, sure to make you feel welcomed on your second day to the Kingdom of Wonders. With its winding tunnels, chambers, and daring climbs, Bayon will give you many picturesque moments to keep your camera busy.

As the sun approaches the horizon, you’ll enjoy a sunset from the top of the pyramid-shaped temple of Pre Rup.

Accommodation: Treasure Oasis Hotel

Day 3: Siem Reap | Angkor Wat Sunrise | Floating Village

Meals: Breakfast

Before the light of the day, your guide will pick you up from your hotel and escort you to the front of Angkor Wat Temple. From here, you’ll watch one of the most revered sunrises in the world. Our guide will arrange a light picnic breakfast for you to enjoy in front of the world’s #1 Heritage Site. Then in the early hours, you’ll explore the vast temple with your guide bringing to life the stories of Angkor. In the morning, the rays of the light play through the chambers as the morning haze settles and giving the temple a mystical ambiance while there are few tourists who visit during this time of day. After your explorations, you’ll return to the hotel for some rest and leisure time.

Angkor Wat Sunrise

In the afternoon, start with an ox cart ride through Cambodia’s green countryside where you’ll see many coconut trees, rice fields, and water buffalo. After that, continue the trip to the largest lake in Southeast Asia, the Tonle Sap. You’ll take a boat ride to Kampong Phluk which means, Harbor of the Tusks due to its history in the elephant trade several centuries ago. You’ll also see the mangrove forests nearby. After the tour, you’ll return to your hotel to relax for the rest of the day.

Accommodation: Treasure Oasis Hotel

Day 4: Siem Reap – Saigon | Flight to Saigon | Saigon Impressions and Saigon Dinner Cruise

Internal Flight: Included

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning, take a flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Upon arrival, our guide will greet you at the airport and transfer you to the hotel for check-in.

Saigon(officially Ho Chi Minh City) is a bustling metropolis of the South and the economic muscle of Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, it was the main base center of the US military with the largest airport in the region. Prior to that, it was under French colonial rule and was an Asian hub of sea trade. The city is based in the Mekong River Delta region – the rice basket of Southeast Asia and where many exotic fruits are cultivated. Full of history and culture, Saigon will certainly be an interesting visit.

In the afternoon, you’ll see the highlights of Saigon and learn of the history of these iconic landmarks. Go to see some of the most important places in Ho Chi Minh. You’ll start by visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral. Constructed by French colonists during their settlement, you’ll learn of its significance as the largest cathedral in Southeast Asia. Across the road is the Old Saigon Post Office, a neoclassical architectural building which is considered as one of the main tourist attractions in the city. Your next stop is Cholon, the Chinatown in Ho Chi Minh. Explore the thickly settled district rife with tea-houses and pagodas, and the famous Binh Tay Market. To finish the tour you’ll visit the Emperor Jade Pagoda. Also known as the Tortoise Pagoda, this figurine-filled place of worship is considered by many to be Saigon’s finest. Once the tour is completed, you’ll return to the hotel.

Saigon Dinner Cruise

As dusk is setting, take a cyclo tour around 45 minutes to the Dang Pier on Saigon River, where you’ll enter a replica of the emperors Saigon Boat Cruise for a magnificent and memorable dining and entertainment spectacle along the Saigon River. The dinner cruise features soft traditional ethnic music while you enjoy the passing lights of the city. The captain will welcome you on board and introduce you to the specialties which have made this boat a culinary experience in Ho Chi Minh City. While onboard, relax on the upper deck and enjoy a panoramic view of Saigon lighting up the evening sky.

Accommodation: Hotel Continental Saigon

Day 5: Saigon | Mekong Delta Discovery: My Tho

Meals: Breakfast

Discover the Mekong River, essential to Vietnamese life.

You’ll transfer to the remote My Tho. This burgeoning capital rests in the Mekong Delta and is surrounded by beautiful countryside known as the “rice basket of Vietnam”. First, you’ll visit Vinh Trang Pagoda which is decorated with mosaics made from broken pottery. Overlooked by a tall white Buddha, it is set amongst lovely gardens packed with flowers, shrubs, lotus pools, and tombs and ornate gates that provide entry.

Next, you’ll take a boat ride along the river to view the stilt houses, fruit plantations, and fishing villages.

After lunch, you’ll visit An Khanh, a small village that specializes in fruit orchards and coconut sweets.

Then enjoy seasonal fruit, honey tea, and delicious coconut candies all to the sound of “Southern Vietnamese folk music”, performed by locals. After the tour is finished, you’ll return to Saigon. The evening is at your leisure.

Accommodation: Hotel Continental Saigon

Day 6: Saigon – Hoi An | Cu Chi Tunnels | Flight to Hoi An

Internal Flight: Included

Meals: Breakfast

Take your adventures underground today for an adventure in history you won’t forget.

Wake up early to enjoy breakfast at the hotel before you depart for the Cu Chi Tunnels. Your private tour guide and chauffeur will meet you in the morning and escort you to the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh. Discover these amazing systems developed by the guerrillas fighting in the Vietnam War.

You’ll have an opportunity to see the various weapons used in the war on display. Then you’ll be taken to see the innovative ways the guerrillas survived and fought back in the war. See how they built an impressive underground system as your tour guide tells of the stories and history of the Vietnam War.

You’ll also have an opportunity to shoot the various guns used in the war at a firing range near the tunnels(extra charges apply).

Then you’ll have the chance to see rice paper and coconut candy being made. After, you’ll enjoy jasmine tea and a boiled cassava root snack that was a common food eaten by guerrillas during the war. You’ll return back to Ho Chi Minh.

In the afternoon, you will transfer by flight to Danang. Upon arrival, our guide will greet you at the airport and transfer you to the hotel for check-in.

After you arrive by flight in Danang, your tour guide and private car will await you to escort you to your hotel in Hoi An.

Hoi An Heritage Town

At the end of a long lane of sandy beaches, palms and the blue sea turns the Thu Bon River. Take a step back in time 300 years to cobblestone alleys and aged wooden and stone homes. Time stands still in this quiet part of the world where ornate doorways and bridges could keep the curious passerby entranced in amusement. The setting – a Far Eastern port that was forgotten in time. Japanese, French, Chinese, and Vietnamese designs and styles melt together along every street.

Accommodation: Little Hoi An Central Boutique Hotel & Spa

Day 7: Hoi An | Leisure Day | Hoi An Ancient Town at Dusk

Meals: Breakfast

Morning is at your leisure. In the afternoon, transfer with our guide to Hoi An Ancient Town. This town features the 16th-century Hoi An port town in it’s preserved state. You’ll start the day visiting the Museum of Trade Ceramics. This museum houses art and pottery dating from the 1,500s to the 1,700s.

Then you’ll briefly visit the Chua Ong Pagoda, a temple from the 17th century which features China’s influence in the region. You’ll continue through the Ancient Town as the streets take on a magic of their own with old lanterns, French-style houses, intricately carved wooden doors, and more. You’ll take a stroll through the Old Tam Ky House to see it’s imperial styles meshed with French overtures. Continue on to stroll along the river and see traditional boats and locals on bicycles passing by. You’ll then approach the Japanese Covered Bridge. This bridge has connected the Chinese and Japanese sides of town over the waterway for centuries. The old wooden structure has shown amazing resilience for more than 400 years.

Hoi An Ancient Town – 12 Days Vietnam Cambodia World Heritage Sites Overnight Cruise

At dusk, enjoy walking along the riverside as old colorful lanterns light up the town. After you’ve finished the tour, return to the hotel.

Accommodation: Little Hoi An Central Boutique Hotel & Spa

Day 8: Danang – Hanoi | Flight to Hanoi

Internal Flight: Included

Meals: Breakfast

Today, you will transfer by flight to Hanoi. Upon arrival, our guide will greet you at the airport and transfer you to the hotel for check-in.

After check-in, enjoy a stroll on your own around Hoan Kiem Lake outside your hotel. Feel free to also pick up a souvenir at the night markets or at one of the many trinket shops in the alleys and small roads of this historic part of town.

Accommodation: Silk Path Boutique Hotel

Day 9: Hanoi | Hanoi Highlights

Meals: Breakfast

In the morning, you’ll be escorted to see the Tran Quoc Pagoda. This 1,400-year-old temple features ten tiers surrounded by gardens and which also hosts a bodhi tree grown from a cutting of the original Buddhist tree under which Buddha sat. Next, you’ll take a stroll around the Hoan Kiem Lake where you can see the Tortoise Tower sitting on the water. Then you’ll enjoy a half-hour cyclo tour through the Old Quarter in Hanoi. The cyclo is a historic mode of transportation in the cities of Vietnam where a cyclist escorts you while you sit in a seat affixed to the front with a canopy over top.

Next, you’ll visit the One Pillar Pagoda – a pagoda situated on a pillar made of a single stone, in the middle of a lotus pond. This pagoda was built by a 9th-century emperor who saw it in a dream and regarded this as divine inspiration to recreate the structure in the vision.

You’ll pass by the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum before visiting the highlight of this tour – The Temple of Literature. This ancient university was erected almost a millennium ago and has hosted many of the most prominent scholars through Vietnamese history. The site features many gardens, pools, buildings, and ancient trees where the best and brightest of Vietnam studied under the guidance of Confucius’s teachings.

Accommodation: Silk Path Boutique Hotel

Day 10: Hanoi – Lan Ha Bay | Emerald Isles of Lan Ha Bay

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lan Ha Bay – 12 Days Vietnam Cambodia World Heritage Sites Overnight Cruise

Our guide will pick you up in the morning and transfer you to Halong City. You may stop enroute to admire the local scenery. Roughly around noon, you will arrive at the port and board on the ship. Begin sailing and pass through a magical bay, where thousands of sculpted limestone islands rise from the waves like dragons’ teeth.

After lunch, take a short trek to a nearby summit for a panoramic view of the bay dotted with golden sails, go swimming on a quiet beach or sunbath on the sundeck. Back onboard enjoy a lavish dinner. Overnight on board.

Accommodation: Paloma Cruise

Day 11: Lan Ha Bay – Hanoi | Lan Ha Bay Sunrise | Return to Hanoi

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Wake up in the morning for a Tai Chi exercises on the sun deck and continue cruising the bays. The breakfast buffet will be served in the restaurant, then you will visit the limestone grotto. Disembark in Halong City at noontime and transfer back to Hanoi with the cruise’s shuttle. You will arrive at Hanoi in the late afternoon.

Accommodation: Silk Path Boutique Hotel

Day 12: Hanoi | Farewell!

Meals: Breakfast

Today our guide will transfer you to the airport before your onward flight and will bid you a fond farewell. Thank you for traveling with us!

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