Cambodia & Vietnam- 2 Weeks with Kids
 

My husband and I are interested in travelling to Cambodia and Vietnam with our two kids (ages 8 & 10) at the end of March and will have about two weeks. We want a combination of sights/adventure and beach. Any suggestions including itinerary, places to stay, tours, things to do or must have experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for responding!

Is this the first trip to Asia for all of you?

I assume that what attracts you to Cambodia are the Angkor temples, but are there other places in Cambodia you want to visit? And tell us what parts of VN interest you most. Budget per night for hotels? Are you comfortable visiting places on your own or do you want a guide with you all the time?

How many nights will you have on the ground in SE Asia?

A little more information, and we can be helpful.

Thanks for the reply. This is our first trip to Asia. You are correct, the temples are the main draw in Cambodia, but would also like to visit an elephant sanctuary if possible. Open to other ideas too. As for Vietnam, the beaches and a small amount of Ho Chi Minh city. We would prefer to stay in very nice hotels with pools if possible and air con. 10-12 nights on the ground. Would be great to pre-arrange a guide for the sightseeing in particular. How easy is it to get around? What would you suggest?

Visiting an elephant sanctuary is problematic. In general, elephants are badly treated at the vast majority of places set up for tourists to interact with elephants. I know of one excellent elephant sanctuary in Thailand, The Elephant Nature Park. But save that for a future trip. Unless you can confirm the humane treatment of elephants at a place you are interested in, I'd avoid any elephant camps.

It takes three full days (4 nights) to see the major temples at Angkor. (I don't know the level of interest in the temples that your children have, so you might not want that much time.) Get a copy of Dawn Rooney's book, Angkor: A Guide to Cambodia's Wondrous Temples to prepare for your trip. There are many, many nice hotels in Siem Reap with lovely pools. You hotel can arrange a car and driver and guide for you. If you and your kids have an interest in interacting with local children, let me recommend www.theplf.org a charity that was formed by a Fodorite to help Cambodian children get an education. Go to the site and read about it and look at some of the videos. This might be the highlight of the trip for your two children.

Are you flying into and out of HCMC? That will make it easy, as you'll want to fly to Siem Reap and there are non-stop flights between HCMC and Siem Reap.

I'm not an expert on VN beaches, but choose a beach fairly close to HCMC. You might benefit from the assistance of a local travel agent. Tonkin Travel is the one most often used by people on this forum. They can reserve hotels, make flight reservations, recommend beach resorts, schedule a car and driver, etc for you. The one caution I'd give you is that agents often think that cramming in as much as they can will make you feel like you have gotten your money's worth. In fact, you will all be much happier if you take it slow. You idea to limit you stops to three: Siem Reap, HCMC and a beach is a good one. If you can arrange for 12 nights on the ground, do. You will need to move slowly in the heat, and you will be affected by jet lag when you arrive.

Have a wonderful trip!

Wow! Amazing information. Thanks so much.

Thanks for the recommendation Kathie.

Tracip, PLF would love to have you and your kids at school. Guaranteed to be a highlight. Email me if it percolates up. [email protected]

Tracie, at the end of March the beaches in the south will probably offer better weather. Phu Quoc is worth looking at.

If you are looking for adventure then I would suggest travelling from Saigon down to Can Tho maybe stay at http://nguyenshack.com for a couple of days, explore the delta by bike, visit Cai Rang Market.

From there you could make your way by boat and/or bus or car to Chau Doc close to the Cambodian border (lots to see around that town. If looking for upscale hotels, Victoria have a lovely property there.

From Chau Doc you can get a boat up river all the way to Phnom Penh and from there fly to Siem Reap.




We did a similar trip earlier this year (albeit over a much longer period).There is a lot more detail with lots of photos on our blog @

http://accidentalnomads.com

Just click on the destinations drop down and then the country tab.


In Siem Reap we stayed at the Seven Candles Guesthouse which was very nice and is part of the Ponheary Lee Foudation mention above.

If your kids are a bit adventurous consider Flight of the Gibbon. Its ziplining near Siem Reap. Also make sure you visit one of the more unspoiled temples like 'Tan Ae temple near Ta Prohm. I made a return trip to Beng Melea a few weeks ago and there are a lot more walkways and less scrambling through the ruins. Not quite as much an 'Indiana Jones' experience anymore.

Its very easy to get around in Siem Reap. Your hotel/guesthouse will be able to hire drivers and guides for you for the temples. I prefer tuk tuks to cars myself because there is not the dramatic change between the heat outside and the air con but each to their own. Whichever you do, make sure you drink plenty of water as it will be very hot and dehydration can be a problem!

Another must do with children is Phare, the Cambodian circus. However I saw Sokha a few weeks ago and a couple of small children in front of us were a bit disturbed. It deals in part with the Khmer Rouge era. I've seen several shows and, while all good, I feel from an adult perspective this was the best.

I can't think of any elephant sanctuaries in Cambodia but I would agree with Kathie, treat with caution!

Another thing I did a few years ago was a countryside bike tour with Grasshopper Adventures. As a young 65 year old I thoroughly enjoyed it. They also do temple tours and would be a different way of seeing the temples.

I've gone flying in a micro light a couple of times and loved it. However, I notice the sign for Aero Cambodia was missing and the gate was shut so not sure if they've gone out of business or not.

I prefer to stay within walking distance of Pub Street for restaurants, markets etc. Try out one of the cheap massage places for $6 foot massages. I'm a fan of Master Feet. Your children would probably like the concept of a fish massage! A bit ticklish but very different.

Re interacting with children. Personally not my scene, do a Google search for orphanage tourism and make up your own mind.

There are other places to volunteer besides orphanages and other poorly run/shady places. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater! :)

So true. I don't recommend visits to orphanages as these are often exploitive. But I highly recommend the PLF. An entirely different beast.

Can't help with Vietnam but I just took my two kids (11/12) to Siem Reap to see the temples and it was incredible. Also, we stayed at the Sarai Resort. Affordable, brand new, modern, great pool, fantastic food and service and walking distance to the town (Pub Street). SR far exceeded my expectations. We did Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. It was the best thing we could have done!

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