Thailand, Laos, Cambodia

It will be hot in that area of the world. Can you change the dates to, say, Feb?

We have an event in Nepal the beginning of April, thought we would take advantage of being in that part of the world and extend our visit. Already booked the flights, just thought I’d see if anyone had experience with Vietasia travel.

I have never heard of Vietasia, but that doesn’t mean anything. You might want to look into these companies with good track records: Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), Gate One, and Odysseys Unlimited. I did a wonderful tour in Myanmar and Laos with OAT, and another terrific tour of South India with Gate One. I have not traveled with Odysseys Unlimited, but have heard good things from other experienced travelers.

Siem Reap, Cambodia is very easy to travel independently as is Thailand. Many car services with English speakers for plan it yourself days out of town or within from major locations. Taxi in all major cities. Solo female, never a problem. Multiple time times to Seam Reap and different areas of Thailand. Sadly, research only on Laos - Covid nixed that journey and I haven’t rescheduled.

April 2024 is not a good time for conducting tours in Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar since mid-April is the BUDDHIST NEW YEAR holiday period for these countries.

Avoid Peak season between December 2023-Feb 2024. Either March 2024, or May 2024 before the start of the rainy season (June-Sep) or October-November 2024 would be better for a group tour. Avoid Peak season between December 2023-Feb 2024.

I am going there at the same time--April 2024. Attending a wedding in Vietnam (Da Nang and Hoi An). Looking at trying to to do Laos side-trip. Another member of the forum recommended 365 Travel.

I spent a week this summer in Cambodia as part of a four-week solo trip to Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Without a doubt the highlight of my time were the two days I spent at the Angkor Archaeological Park. I’ve had the privilege of seeing a lot of neat things in my life, but the temples there blew me away. I saw about 10 temples and wish I had planned more time there to see many others. On the first day, I had a bike tour that took me through the jungle to the site of 5 temples. Because it was “rainy season” and not high tourist season, I had the tour guide to myself. On the second day, I hired a guide who took me by tuk tuk to another 5 temples. The first tour I booked online through Viator and the second I booked with a guide I had used for a tour of Siem Reap earlier in the week. Guides are easy to find and everyone seems to be one or know one, so there’s no need to have everything lined up in advance.

A restaurant I’d suggest in Siem Reap is Haven. Its food is great and it’s mission makes it even better.

About 8 years ago my son and I spent 2.5 weeks in Cambodia. Great country I much preferred over Thailand - except for the beaches.

Angor Wat is definitely worth a minimum of 2 days. We opted to read up about the different temples rather than use a guide. We had a tuk tuk hired for 5 days to take us wherever we wanted. This was prearranged through our hotel.

Not too far away in Siem Reap area is the Landmine Museum. The story behind it is very interesting. We were lucky enough to talk at length with a volunteer there. It’s a worthwhile stop if you are nearby.

I absolutely loved Phnom Penh! What a bustling city. Here we did hire a guide with tuk tuk to take us a a few places for 1 full day. We paid our respects at one of the killing fields and went to the Genocide Museum. My son took a Cambodian boxing class with a local professional. He did not speak English except for the numbers one, two, three, four. Still he was able to communicate well and my son really enjoyed it.

Hired a guide for another 2 days to go in the country side to a national park. Also went to some food markets which were super interesting.
Saw people picking rice in the fields. Pictures just don’t show hard this work is.

Kampot was a relaxing stop. Sunsets on the river were stunning. It seemed like everywhere we went had delicious food. And very inexpensive by American standards.

Have a great trip!

@NS

To answer your first question. Vietasia is headquartered in Hanoi and I do not know anyone who has experience with them.

Pakistan and India across to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam etc, are part of my backyard. I am not a tour person. It helps that most of these countries drive on my side of the road.

Bunnik Tours from Adelaide, https://www.bunniktours.com.au/ has tours to the areas you have highlighted. I asked about Laos, but they are not going there at present. Troll through the website for ideas.

Dennis and I have the accounting profession in common. He wisely branched into travel and has, together with family members built a great business and an enjoyable life. I when to mining. In hindsight I think he has been the big winner. Is actively involved in national tourism operators umbrella organisations. Business has received national awards.

A top YouTube blogger on airline travel. https://www.youtube.com/@DennisBunnikTravels/videos Business class is his preferred mode. I concur with him in that the journey is an important part of the travel experience, like the destination.

Might be useful. Chat facilities on the website.

Regards Ron

I toured northern Thailand (Chiang Rai) and Siem Reap with private guides. The rates were very reasonable. I also made my own hotel reservations and internal flights (rail/bus are said to be slow and uncomfortable). I found it easy to see Chiang Mai and Bangkok on my own, with a few local day tours. Public transportation is very good in Bangkok.

The above post describes my experience precisely. A private guide also caters to your personal interests. Also insights from a local re living in the country. Very reasonable cost for these locations.

I have not..but for 2 trips to Vietnam..Cambodia..Laos..I used 365travel. Absolutely perfect trip..all guides wonderful. Both trips were a bit different..one very cultural..one very active and cultural..including a 3 day trek out of Sapa. Wr toured the whole country..1st trip 17 days..next trip one month. Would go back in an instant and will use 365 travel. They are located in Hanoi..I had the opportunity to go to the office to meet them. You might want to check out their wrbsite..and..they will put together anything that interests you!

We recently had the pleasure of traveling with VietAsia Travel during or Southeast Asia trip and had a phenomenal experience! Mr. Do Ha was absolutely wonderful- his professionalism, responsiveness, and willingness to amend our itinerary (several times) far exceeded our expectations, and we couldn’t have been happier with our experience. He put together an itinerary full of exciting excursions and activities, connected us with friendly and knowledgeable guides, and booked beautiful hotel and homestay accommodations. He also answered all questions we had leading up to and during the trip and even made a last minute change to our schedule when we needed to amend our plans. We were absolutely thrilled with the experience and would highly recommend VietAsia Travel to anyone looking for a top notch tour company!

Just back, literally forty eight hours ago, from a trip to Laos and Cambodia with Wild Frontiers on their ‘Heart of Indochina’ trip. See here: https://www.wildfrontierstravel.com/en_GB/tour-search?region_code=SE&types[]=group-tour

Really excellent and if you go to their website you can opt for the USA version. Very hectic, but lots to see. For the Thailand bit we just booked Bangkok independently a couple of days either side of the tour, although we lost a day thanks to Storm Ciaran (on our flight out to Bangkok there were some Americans who had their flight cancelled - I’m guessing not due to Ciaran - whose alternate route went Kansas City - Seattle - London - Bangkok. By the time they got home they would have circumnavigated the entire world. Made our cancelled flight look like the proverbial ‘little local difficulty’).

Ian