I'm trying to put together a rough itinerary for our trip to Cambodia at Christmas and New Year's, so that I can book internal flights and maybe make hotel reservations for the holidays and hotspots. We have 18 days, flying into HCMC the evening of 22 Dec and out the evening of 9 Jan.
Right now I'm thinking: 23-24 Dec - 2 days in Ho Chi Minh City (1 to visit Cu Chi) 25-26 Dec - travel to Kep via Ha Tian (preferably partway by boat through the Mekong delta) 27-28 Dec - 2 days in Kep 29 Dec - travel to Phnom Penh 30-31 Dec - 2 days in Phnom Penh 1 Jan - travel to Battambang 2-3 Jan - 2 days in Battambang 4 Jan - river trip to Siem Reap 5-8 Jan - 3½ days in Siem Reap (fly back to HCMC in the evening on 8 Dec) 9 Jan - 1 day in Ho Chi Minh City (fly out at midnight)
Should we consider more (or less) time anywhere? Is there anywhere else we should strongly consider instead?
I'm wondering whether we should scrap Battambang to give us more flexibility in exploring the Mekong delta and more time on the south coast in Kampot and Sihanoukville, or maybe Phu Quoc. I considered Kratie, but I haven't really been inspired by anything I've read.
Of those, I've done Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Sadly, we got sick on day one of Siem Reap, so I can't say if that's enough time, but there's certainly enough exploring at Angkor Wat for a few days.
We spent several days at Ho Chi Minh, so I might think just 2 days isn't enough. What are you planning on seeing in Phnom Penh? I highly recommend the palace and s-21.
I think 3.5 days is a bit steep for Siem Reap. I mean, there are only so mammy temples you can do consecutively before glazing over. We were on a mini bus tour that took us to a few temples (3 I think) in a day. I was happy with one day of all temples, then no more.
Shinoukville is just beaches as far as I know. Is that what you're looking for? I didn't think it added much to my time in Kampuchea (I disproportionately love that word). But I was not there to relax, which is why I'd prefer somewhere more scenic/active over that.
Everything I've read suggested at least 3 days in Siem Reap (even Frommers says 3-4, and they're the place I typically check for 1-day highlight itineraries in major cities). Good to know that I will probably not feel bad if we trim that back a day!
wise_rita I would like at least a day or two to relax. Normally I don't, but I feel like I'm getting old, and my travel style has definitely slowed down without XH pushing me to be up by 7am and out until 10pm every day. I haven't heard much enthusiasm about Sihanoukville, so maybe two days in Kep/Kampot would be fine.
I'm still considering chopping Battambang to allow more flexibility for a Mekong delta cruise, which has been on my wishlist for a while. Though I worry that I might be spoiled after the Kerala backwaters.
A trip to the Mekong Delta is a must. We didn't do a cruise, just a structured tour highlighting different industries (honey making, etc.). It was pretty cool riding a canoe down the tributaries.
I think 2-3 days is good in Siem Reap. We spent 1 day exploring Angkor Wat, and then did one day out at Beng Melea, which I highly, highly recommend. It is 70 km from Siem Reap (we hired a driver for the two days and he took us out there) and compared to Angkor Wat it was virtually empty, and you could really explore every part of it. We loved it. On the way back we stopped at Banteay Srei, which was cool. Pub street is touristy but worth a visit. That is the only place we went in Cambodia.
Honestly I would spend less time in Cambodia and add in Laos, but we loved Laos more than Cambodia.
We did 3.5 days in SR and it was perfect as far as timing goes. Our travel style is pretty laid back though. We were definitely templed out by the last day but there are plenty of places to relax and drink or have a massage. The temples aren't the only thing to do and I pretty much hate being rushed. We also spent an afternoon going out to a land mine museum set up by a former child soldier who now goes around decommissioning them. That was pretty eye opening if you're bored and looking for something to see that isn't a temple.
I want to say we spent 2.5 days in PP just because of how the flights worked. We got to see everything we wanted but there are so many great places to eat there and it's such a great city for wandering that we definitely could have spent a lot of time there relaxing and not really doing much of anything.
Those are the only two places in Cambodia I've been. As I understand from friends though, Sihanoukville is pretty much everything that can go wrong with a SE Asia beach without many of the attributes that can go really right. Based on that I wouldn't cut something you actually want to see out of your itinerary for it.
I believe we flew into SR in the late afternoon, spent two full days exploring temples, then flew out the morning of the 4th day. It took us two full days to see the temples because we weren't pushing to be up and out by a certain hour, and we were there during the summer so we'd go back to our hotel to eat lunch and avoid the worst heat in the early afternoon. Then we'd head back out for a little more temple-seeing before dark. I really enjoyed the temples and was glad to have the time we did, and it would have been incredible to see Beng Mealea as frlcb mentioned, so I'm not going to try to talk you into cutting down SR.
And thanks for tagging me! I need to start planning for Vietnam in April so I'm curious to see what everyone has to say about that.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. Mark Twain
I definitely plan to go to Laos at some point! With such a short time for this trip, I thought it might make more sense to save it for later, when we have more time. Maybe pairing it with northern Vietnam or Thailand. Unless there's somewhere in the southern tip of Laos (maybe Wat Phou?) that's a must-see and hard to reach from the north?
Post by wanderlustfoodie on Nov 18, 2014 11:18:36 GMT -5
I didn’t go to Kep or Battambang but from what I learned while I was there they both sound like fantastic places worth a visit and I’d love to see them eventually.
Seems to be the dissenting opinion here, but we had 3 days in Siem Reap and I wish we had more. We visited some of the lesser frequented temples, which was a great way to see the temples without tons of other people (Banteay Kdei and Banteay Samre were wonderful) but there were other temples a bit outside Siem Reap that I wish we’d been able to see, too. We also spent a day on the Tonle Sap lake visiting the floating villages and volunteering at a school by helping the students practice English. So we did 2 days of temples and then the day trip but I would've loved a third temple day. We also saw the sunset from atop one of the temples. It was comically overcrowded with tourists but we really enjoyed it. When in Rome!
I did not love HCMC. Excluding the tunnels, which were really interesting and worth visiting, we had 1.5 days in the city proper, and I thought that was plenty. By contrast, in hindsight, I wish we could have spent more time in the Mekong, as we loved that part of the trip. Seems like you’re trying to travel the Mekong from Vietnam to Cambodia so that would give you river time, but if you don’t end up doing that, or if you want more Mekong time, we did this and loved it. www.lecochinchine.com/
Of the places on your list, I have only been to PP and SR. IIRC, we had two nights in PP and four nights in SR. That was about the right time for both. We did spend one afternoon in a floating village around SR and that was really interesting too.
We stayed at the Pippeli Pension in SR and it was great. I would recommend it. I liked being across the river where it was quieter.
Make sure you dress conservatively for the temples. They were quite strict with the dress code.
Also, my favorite place of our SE Asia trip was Luang Prabang, Laos. Might be a place to consider, but I'm not sure the logistics in getting there via boat if thats your preferred method of travel. We flew to LP from SR.
YES!!! Luang Probang AND Vang Vieng - Laos. Not much to do in Vientiane IMO.
We were in Siem Reap for 2-3 days and that was enough. Temples and walking around the night market in town...that's about it. Good soup at the Soup Dragon, I recommend it. They also have a good "American Breakfast" if you want eggs, toast, cooked tomato and a hot dog.
Quit trying to make Laos happen, ladies, it's not going to happen.
GilliC Look into getting between PP and SR by boat. We were on a bus and it royally sucked. I know the boat is how a lot of tourists do it.
If we stick to Battambang, we'd be doing Battambang to Siem Reap by boat, which (according to 2-3 sources) is supposed to be one of the most scenic river trips in the country.
I definitely plan to go to Laos at some point! With such a short time for this trip, I thought it might make more sense to save it for later, when we have more time. Maybe pairing it with northern Vietnam or Thailand. Unless there's somewhere in the southern tip of Laos (maybe Wat Phou?) that's a must-see and hard to reach from the north?
I'm still working on planning my Belize/Guatemala trip this December, Puerto Rico in May, Italy in July, and then Vietnam/Cambodia next December. It will probably be a while before deets are even considered. Although, I would like to thank you for posting, because I can get some good advice in this thread!!!! :Y: