Inside Vietnam + Cambodia Highlights

This 19-night tour with Explore Worldwide follows a thoughtful route from Hanoi’s crowded alleyways and colonial buildings down Vietnam’s coast to Saigon’s bustling streets, before crossing into Cambodia. Along the way, there’s time to wander Hanoi’s Old Quarter with its craft-named streets and street food vendors, and to visit quieter spots like Lan Ha Bay on Cat Ba Island, where limestone cliffs rise sharply from the sea.

A night on the Reunification Express train whisks you south to Hue, famed for its Imperial Citadel and the gentle flow of the Perfume River. Later, Hoi An offers old trading port streets and opportunities to join a cooking class or lantern workshop. The Mekong Delta follows with narrow canals and small villages where life moves at river speed. Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh brings French colonial architecture alongside sobering reminders of its past, before the trip ends in Siem Reap, where the vast Angkor Wat complex unfolds across the landscape.

There’s a steady pace to this tour – long drives, early starts and local transport mean it’s no quiet holiday. But the mix of sites and experiences gives a sense of how history and daily life overlap across these two neighbouring countries, with small moments of calm amid busy city streets and river scenes.

Halong Bay, and the dragon that explains nothing

3 min read

These are the places the trip visits, in order. Explore Worldwide publishes the day-by-day itinerary on its own site.