Help me with planning a three week Vietnam and Cambodia trip

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I am hoping to put together a 3 week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia next year for me and my DH. I am a bit stuck with the planning and where to start. Is this too ambitious? I'm thinking of 4 stops in Vietnam and 2 in Cambodia. At the moment I just want to get the flights booked and plan the finer details later.

Sticking points: Where to fly in and out of? How to travel between different places? I'm tentatively thinking we will start in Hanoi, move down the country, travel up through Cambodia and then fly somewhere to fly home. Will we need another internal flight or two to get down through Vietnam?

Is it best to book with a specialist travel agent and if so does this work out more expensive? What bits does the travel agent sort out.

I like the sound of a cruise on the Mekong to get from Vietnam to Cambodia. Are there any budget-friendly ways to do it? Would we then need to fly back to Vietnam to connect with a flight or is it easier to fly to Bangkok to get back to London?

We're in our mid 50s. We've been to South East Asia before. I've coeliac disease so I need to weave in some decent hotels that provide safe gluten free food as it becomes exhausting traveling and finding safe places to eat every single day.

I know I can use AI and google searches but if you've done this trip yourself at a similar age I would be grateful to hear any words of wisdom?

Budget would be helpful for suggestions

We did this trip 2 years ago, it was a package from Emerald Cruises - part of Scenic.
Flew to Hanoi, various stops to Saigon, river cruise on the Mekong to Siem Reap, then more Cambodia.
I can thoroughly recommend it. Nearly all meals were included, plus drinks on the boat, so not as dear as it might seem. Also, well organised & hassle free !

P.S. Only the Mekong & a 2 day cruise in Halong Bay were on the water.

I’ve done half of this trip (northern and central Vietnam) and have the second half booked for later on (southern Vietnam and Cambodia). I have to say, my favourite way of drawing an initial draft is to look at the day-by-day itineraries of a company like G Adventures. They usually cover the main cities and sights, so I take that as a base and then research each stop myself to see if I can add something or if there’s any day trips I’ve missed…

I recommend starting in Hanoi - with short stays in Ninh Binh and/or Sapa and/or a Ha Long Bay cruise, then flying down to Hue and from there Da Nang or Hoi An (I chose the latter). I guess you’d need another flight from Da Nang to HCMC if you’re on a timeframe.

How many stops and how long you actually spend in each of them, will depend on how much time you have available. I chose to split it in two because I never have more than 2 weeks off in a row, which means 12 days at the destination.

It was very easy to organise - I booked flights through Hong Kong as they were cheaper, and then just booked hotels on booking.com and activities on the usual sites. In to Hanoi, out of Da Nang. For the south + Cambodia, my plan is to fly into HCMC, take an organised group tour into Cambodia via bus, and then once I’ve done a few places there, fly onwards to Bangkok for the flight home, or back to HCMC, depending what’s cheapest. You can probably book the Phnom Penh - home trip in one go too, so play around with all those options.

What are your 4 stops in Vietnam?
2 internal flights minimum for traveling North to Central VN and Central to South VN.
Did you mean taking a fast boat from Chau Doc/ Vietnam to Phnom Penh/ Cambodia?

I’m doing a Vietnam only trip - Ho Chi Minh, Hoi an, hue, ninh binh, hanoi, bai tu long bay. 2 internal flights, the rest road transfers.

like a pp said I compared itineraries of lots of providers, followed some fb groups etc to come up with my ideal split.

I am going solo though, have researched some companies for the trips to Mekong, tunnels, bai tu long bay.

We are interested in going to Cambodia next year. Can you tell me who you are going to book with to get you from Vietnam to Cambodia please?

Lonely Planet/Rough Guide usually my starting point. Agree with browsing tour companies like Intrepid/Explore/G adventures to see what prioritise on their tours. Also compare prices for open jaw ticket, i.e flying into Hanoi from UK and out of Bangkok to the UK versus return flights to Hanoi from the UK. I probably wouldn't back track to Hanoi unless it's cheaper. You can either fly from Hanoi down to Hue or you can take an overnight train, same to reach Saigon/Ho Chi Minh from Hue, not sure where you might have in mind for your third stop. In my late 20s I have done both Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh (over 3 weeks), no flights, and Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh via Angkor (over 2 weeks) with no flights. Definitely possible to minimise extra flights within SE Asia, but I probably would fly Siem Reap to Bangkok though as don't recall there being anything unique to see enroute.

Did a 3 week Vietnam and Cambodia Odyssey trip with Mercury holidays. Direct flights. Hanoi 2 nights Halong Bay and down the coast to Ho Chi Minh City via coach and train. No internal flights. 3 nights along the Mekong River and into Cambodia Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Great holiday.

Are you up for using the trains? A lot of these places you can get a sleeper train between in Vietnam. Such as Hanoi and hue. Hue only needs a day. And consider a motorbike ride between hue and hoi an.

i am planning a self tour of Sri Lanka and to get ideas I am looking at other people’s blogs and things like intrepid tours to get an idea of an itinerary.

lots in vietnam you can plan yourself. Also it’s a huge backpacker route (I did it 20 years ago) so huge amount of tourist infrastructure once you get there.

When?
We were in Central Vietnam in July, which is wet season in the North - there were terrible floods in Ha Noi and 4 people died.

Look up the weather seasons.

If you want an agent, Selective Asia are really brilliant (used them 3 times) and much better value than eg Audley Travel. They will organise whatever you want.

If it were me, with only three weeks I’d seriously consider reducing the number of stops, and possibly saving Cambodia for another trip. Six stops plus a border crossing can end up feeling much more tiring in reality than it looks on a map.

I think your coeliac disease is quite an important factor too. Every time you move somewhere new, you have to start again with checking hotels and finding places where you can eat safely. I’d probably rather stay a little longer in fewer places and have a few hotels properly checked in advance for gluten-free food.

As for using a specialist travel agent, I do think there’s value in it for a trip like this, but I wouldn’t necessarily pay someone to organise everything. International flights are fairly easy to compare and book yourself.

Where a good local specialist can really help is with the arrangements on the ground – reliable transfers and drivers, getting between places, choosing hotels that actually work for your needs, and contacting the hotels in advance about your dietary requirements. If you’re crossing borders, I’d also want someone to make sure you’re aware of the current visa, entry and other local requirements rather than discovering something after you arrive.

For me, that’s the real value of a good local travel specialist. They don’t need to put you on an organised tour or plan every hour of your holiday. They can just take care of the awkward bits while you still decide where you want to go and what you want to do.

If you do decide to keep both Vietnam and Cambodia, I’d work out the best arrival and departure points first, based around the international flights, and then build the route between them rather than choosing six stops first and trying to join them all together afterwards.

We went last Easter but with teen DCs and went Leeds Bradford to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur (3 nights have friends there), then to Siem Reap (2 nights), Hanoi (3 nights), Halong Bay cruise (1 night), Hoi An (5 nights), Saigon (3 nights).

Plug your trip into Chat GPT and they’ll sort an itinerary out for you. Also put your question on a Trip Advisor Forum for your destination(s) and you’ll get some suggestions.