Overhead view of two wooden boats at a floating market with vendors cooking, steam rising, bowls and produce visible.

Mekong Waterways: Saigon to Phnom Penh

Three days down the Mekong Delta and across the border by river.

Instead of flying, follow the Mekong from Vietnam into Cambodia. We travel through orchards and canals, spend a night with a family on a river island, watch the floating market of Can Tho at dawn, visit the multi-cultural town of Chau Doc and finish with a speedboat ride upriver to Phnom Penh.

Tour highlights

  • Sampan rides through the canals of Cai Be and Vinh Long
  • Overnight homestay on a fruit orchard island
  • Dawn boat trip to the Cai Rang floating market
  • Sunset over the rice plains from Sam Mountain in Chau Doc
  • Cross into Cambodia by speedboat on the Mekong

Itinerary

Every part can be changed to suit your group.

  1. Day 1 Saigon to Cai Be and a River Island Homestay

    We leave Saigon at around 8:00 AM and drive to Cai Be. A boat takes us through small canals to see rice paper, puffed rice and coconut candy being made by family workshops. We continue to a river island near Vinh Long, cycle or walk through fruit orchards and settle into a family homestay, helping to cook dinner in the evening. The homestay is simple and clean, with fans, mosquito nets and shared bathrooms, and the family grows longan, rambutan and other fruits in their garden. In the evening you help prepare dinner, often fish from the river and vegetables from the garden, and share the meal with the family.

    A traveler paddling a wooden boat through dense mangrove forest in the Mekong Delta.
  2. Day 2 Cai Rang Floating Market and Chau Doc

    An early boat takes us to the Cai Rang floating market near Can Tho, where farmers sell fruit and vegetables from their boats, hanging samples on tall poles. After breakfast we drive west through rice fields to Chau Doc, a border town where Vietnamese, Khmer, Cham and Chinese communities live side by side. We end the day on Sam Mountain watching the sun set over the plains. Chau Doc lies on the Bassac River close to the border, and its mix of cultures is visible in its mosques, Khmer pagodas, Chinese temples and Vietnamese churches. Sam Mountain is a place of pilgrimage for many Vietnamese, with temples and shrines along the way to the top.

    Overhead view of two wooden boats at a floating market with vendors cooking, steam rising, bowls and produce visible.
  3. Day 3 By Speedboat to Phnom Penh

    In the morning we visit a Cham village and its floating fish farms on the river. The speedboat leaves Chau Doc at around 7:30 to 8:00 AM and follows the Mekong upstream, stopping at the border for immigration. You arrive in Phnom Penh around 1:00 PM, where the trip ends. The speedboat is comfortable and covered, with a toilet on board, and the journey takes about five hours including the border stop. The landscape changes slowly as you enter Cambodia, with stilt houses, temples and fishing villages along the riverbanks. Please bring your passport and Cambodia visa or the documents for a visa on arrival.

    Motorboat traveling through a narrow waterway in the Mekong Delta surrounded by palm trees and riverside houses.

What is included

Included

  • 1 night homestay, 1 night hotel in Chau Doc
  • Private transportation in Vietnam
  • English-speaking local guide in Vietnam
  • Boat trips in the itinerary
  • Speedboat ticket Chau Doc to Phnom Penh
  • Meals as listed in the itinerary

Not included

  • Cambodia visa fee
  • Accommodation in Phnom Penh
  • Drinks
  • Personal travel insurance
  • Tips for guide and driver
  • Personal expenses

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Tour: Mekong Waterways: Saigon to Phnom Penh

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