Vietnam & Cambodia Adventure

You will meet your Bucket List Leaders at the airport and fly out as a group for Bucket Lister + Trips. If you have booked a Bucket Lister Trip we will see you in Vietnam soon!

You’ll arrive at Noi Bai International Airport today to a warm welcome by your guide. We’ll whizz you over to your hotel in the city centre and if your flight arrived early enough, you could go for a look around before dinner and bed.

After a tasty breakfast at the hotel, you’ll head to Ho Chi Minh’s iconic mausoleum before exploring his gorgeous garden and house on stilts (yes, really). From there, you’ll walk to the 11th-century One Pillar Pagoda, a beautiful temple that was built in a pond on a single stone pillar. It’s a full day as you’ll visit the Temple of Literature and head to the Old Quarter for a cycle tour of the old streets, before arriving at the peaceful Hoan Kiem Lake for a water puppet show!

…Not before a 6-hour transfer to get there though! You’ll arrive in Sapa in time for lunch, then enjoy the shorter drive to Lao Chai village to trek to the village of Ta Van where you’ll meet the Dzay people. If trekking’s your thing, you can carry on along a slightly more challenging 4km route, to Su Pan and Giang Ta Chai.

You’ll drive a short way out of Sapa to begin trekking downhill and across streams to the beautiful Suoi Ho village. Here, you’ll meet local people and get to know more about life in the Ma Tra valley, before carrying on hiking across stunning hillsides to Ma Tra village itself. Terraced paddies, flower farms, old ruins and gorgeous valley scenes all included. After lunch you’ll travel back to Hanoi.

It’s a 2.5 hour drive to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site where more than 3,000 spectacular limestone islands rise above the crystal clear waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. This place is nuts. Stunning. You’ll board your cruise boat, where you’ll stay tonight, enjoying fine food and drinks in the most beautiful of settings. You’ll explore Vung Vieng fishing village by rowing boat and enjoy a Vietnamese cooking demo back on board later this evening.

Enjoy your morning tipple on the top deck as the sun rises, or join us for a Tai Chi session early doors. After breakfast, you’ll visit the wild and mysterious Thien Canh Son cave and islets, before docking for the transfer back to Hanoi around lunchtime. In the afternoon you’ll fly to Danang and transfer to Hoi An.

After breakfast, you’ll enjoy a guided walking tour of Hoi An Ancient Town which sits on the water in serene beauty. You’ll visit the Japanese Covered Bridge, Chinese Assembly Hall and the local market, plus galleries and souvenir shops if you like. Later in the afternoon you’ll catch a short flight to Ho Chi Minh City and check into your hotel.

It’s a pleasant 2-hour drive to Ben Tre province where you’ll arrive at Hung Vuong Pier and enjoy a boat ride on the Ben Tre River, a tributary of the Mekong. Keep an eye out for the fascinating fishing activity and boats piled high with fruit, flowers, and rice.

You’ll stop at a kiln and find out how bricks are made, visit a coconut workshop, and wind your way through the creeks to see local houses and witness the intricate weaving of sleeping mats.

After lunch, you’ll row along a beautiful creek, intimately lined with dense palm trees, before transferring back to Ho Chi Minh. If you like you could visit Notre Dame Cathedral, Old Centre Post Office and Ben Thanh market.

Fascinating day today, and your last in Vietnam. You’ll visit the Cu Chi Tunnels north west of Ho Chi Minh City, which were created in 1948 to aid the fight against the French. See if you can fit into one of these tiny tunnels! From here, you’ll transfer to the Moc Bai Border Gate for immigration and then stroll on into Cambodia to meet your bus to Phnom Penh.

It’s a sobering day today. You’ll face Cambodia’s devastating and shockingly recent history under the Khmer Rouge regime, beginning with the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former prison. In the afternoon, you’ll visit the Killing Fields, where thousands of Khmer people were tragically murdered. In the evening, you’ll reflect on what you’ve learned during a sunset boat trip with great views of the city.

You’ll head to Cambodia’s “Temple Town” today. Siem Reap is home of the world’s largest Hindu temple, Angkor Wat (which you’ll visit tomorrow). Once you’ve arrived after a fairly lengthy transfer, you’ll have a walking tour around the old town before a group dinner at a local restaurant.

Pray for a cloudless sky as there’s nothing quite like the sunrise over Angkor Wat… Spend the day visiting all the beautiful temples in the area and count the trees that have “become one” with the buildings! Keep an eye out for the heads of Buddha overseeing the jungle too. Make sure you’ve got your arms and legs covered for today’s outing so you can visit all the amazing buildings within the temple complex.

It’s a 20km round cycle ride around Siem Reap today, to explore the beautiful countryside surrounding the old town. You’ll meet Cambodian families, visit local markets, farms and distilleries and really get a feel for how the people here live. Once you’ve arrived back in Siem Reap in the afternoon, you’ll have a free afternoon to spend however you like – perhaps getting an inexpensive massage or trying more of the local food. In the evening, you’ll enjoy swapping stories from the trip over the final group dinner.

This marks the end of our Asian adventure.