2020: Ancient Kingdoms: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam

20 days
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Small Group Tour
Veer off Southeast Asia’s trodden paths to uncover the glory days of lost empires—and immerse yourself in the vibrant cultures that have emerged in their wakes. Traveling the Indochina peninsula through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, you’ll connect with locals who will share their homes, markets, and schools with you. In our small group, we'll slip in...

Overview

Trip type
Small Group Tour
Lodging level
Standard - 3 star
Physical level
Moderate
Trip pace
Balanced schedule

Highlights

    • Discover Bangkok
    • Explore Bangkok
    • Explore Pak Ou Cave
    • Visit Vientiane
    • Visit Killing Fields of Choeung Ek & Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

What's this trip about?

    Veer off Southeast Asia’s trodden paths to uncover the glory days of lost empires—and immerse yourself in the vibrant cultures that have emerged in their wakes. Traveling the Indochina peninsula through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, you’ll connect with locals who will share their homes, markets, and schools with you. In our small group, we'll slip into daily life in Southeast Asia for A Day in the Life of a Laotian village, where we'll meet young schoolchildren and Hmong villagers. Get a glimpse into the future of the region during a visit to a local school; absorb the quiet tranquility of the early morning as you participate in an alms-giving ceremony with local monks; and truly get a taste of local life here when you join a Laotian family for a meal in their home.

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Details

Itinerary focusClassic Highlights
Group sizeSmall Group - max of 16 people
Age rangeNo age restrictions
Flights and transportN/A
Start CityBangkok
End CityHo Chi Minh

Travel Themes

  • Cultural
  • National Parks
  • Nature & Wildlife
  • Small Ship Cruise

Destinations

  • Asia
  • Cambodia
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam

Attractions

  • Angkor Wat
  • Ho Chi Minh
  • Luang Prabang
  • Phnom Penh
  • Vientiane

Activities

  • Cooking
  • Culture
  • Educational/ learning
  • Historic sightseeing
  • History
  • Homestays & Cultural Immersion
  • Nature
  • River cruise
  • Swimming

Trip includes

    • International airfare, airport transfers, government taxes, fees, and airline fuel surcharges unless you choose to make your own air arrangements*
    • All land transportation and 4 internal flights
    • Accommodations for 18 nights
    • 32 small group activities
    • Explore in a small group of 8-16 travelers (average group size of 14)
    • Services of a local O.A.T. Trip Experience Leader
    • Gratuities for local guides, drivers, and luggage porters
    • 5% Frequent Traveler Credit toward your next adventure—an average of $315

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Itinerary

Day 1: Depart U.S.
Fly overnight from the U.S. to Bangkok, Thailand, losing one day en route as you cross the International Date Line over the Pacific.

Day 2: Arrive Bangkok, Thailand
Destination: Bangkok Accommodations: Evergreen Laurel Hotel or similar Evening: This evening, arrive in Bangkok where you will be met at the airport by an O.A.T. representative. You’ll take around one hour to transfer by van to our hotel, which is located in the hear...
Day 3: Discover Bangkok • Exclusive cooking lesson • Chaophraya River cruise
Destination: Bangkok Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Evergreen Laurel Hotel or similar Activity Note: We will ride in a boat on the Chaophraya River and Bangkok Noi Canal for about 45 minutes. Depending on weather conditions, the water may be choppy. B...
Day 4: Explore Bangkok • Grand Palace • Conversation with university students
Destination: Bangkok Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Evergreen Laurel Hotel or similar Activity Note: The Grand Palace has a strict dress code. Men should wear pants, women should wear pants or long skirts that cover their knees, and both men and women s...
Day 5: Explore Ayutthaya • Koh Kerd Village visit
Destination: Ayutthaya Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Accommodations: Evergreen Laurel Hotel or similar Activity Note: Because Ayutthaya is a religious site, visitors are asked to abide by the dress code. Men should wear knee-length shorts and women should wear...
Day 6: Bangkok • Fly to Luang Prabang, Laos
Destinations: Luang Prabang, Laos Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Accommodations: Parasol Blanc Hotel or similar Activity Note: Jumbos, our main mode of transportation in Luang Prabang, can only carry five to six people at a time. Therefore, our small group will...
Day 7: Cruise the Mekong River • Explore Pak Ou Cave
Destination: Luang Prabang Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Accommodations: Parasol Blanc Hotel or similar Activity Note: We’ll cruise for 1.5 hours in a traditional wooden boat on the Mekong River today. To access the Pak Ou Cave, you’ll need to walk up steep st...
Day 8: Alms-giving ceremony • A Day in the Life of a local village
Foundation Visit Destination: Luang Prabang Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Parasol Blanc Hotel or similar Activity Note: This morning, you have the option to rise very early to depart the hotel by 5:45am for the alms-giving ceremony. Then during our A...
Day 9: Fly to Vientiane • Home-Hosted Dinner
Destination: Vientiane Meals: Breakfast and Dinner Accommodations: Sabaidee @ Lao Hotel or similar Breakfast: Served buffet-style at the hotel starting at 6:30am, with Laotian and American options available. Morning: You have the morning to relax before we leave ...
Day 10: Explore Vientiane • Meet a Buddhist monk
Destination: Vientiane Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Sabaidee @ Lao Hotel or similar Activity Note: Men should wear knee-length shorts and women should wear knee-length shorts or skirts for the Wat Sisaket visit. Breakfast: Served buffet-style at the...
Day 11: Vientiane • Fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia • Champey Academy of Arts
Destinations: Phnom Penh, Cambodia Meals: Breakfast and Dinner Accommodations: Almond Hotel or similar Activity Note: The Champey Academy of Arts is closed Sundays and public holidays. If your visit falls on one of these days, you may visit the academy on Day 12. A...
Day 12: Phnom Penh • Visit Killing Fields of Choeung Ek & Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Destination: Phnom Penh Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Almond Hotel or similar Activity Note: Today’s visits to the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum cover particularly difficult subject matter. While it may be hard to hear the specifics of ...
Day 13: Phnom Penh • Overland to Siem Reap • Local interaction
Destination: Siem Reap Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Accommodations: Regency Angkor Hotel or similar   Activity Note: Our overland transfer to Siem Reap will take approximately eight hours in an air-conditioned bus, with included stops for lunch and activiti...
Day 14: Tonle Sap Lake • Explore Angkor
Destination: Siem Reap Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Regency Angkor Hotel or similar Activity Note: Depending on the season, our drive to the local village and the boat pier may be particularly bumpy as we’ll pass over dirt roads that have been eroded ...
Day 15: Siem Reap • Explore Angkor Wat temples
Destination: Siem Reap Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Regency Angkor Hotel or similar Activity Note: Today’s activities include about three hours of walking through three miles of Angkor Wat on uneven surfaces and up steep stairs. Angkor Wat has a stric...
Day 16: Optional Banteay Srei tour • Fly to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Optional Tour Destinations: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Orchids Hotel or similar Breakfast: Served buffet-style at the hotel starting at 6:30am, with Cambodian and American options available. Morning: Enjoy free...
Day 17: Ho Chi Minh City • Mekong Delta discovery
Destination: Ho Chi Minh City Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Orchids Hotel or similar Breakfast: Served buffet-style at the hotel starting at 6:30am, with Vietnamese and American options available. Morning: We'll depart the hotel by 8am for a 1.5-hour...
Day 18: Ho Chi Minh City • Optional traditional water puppet show, cyclo-rickshaw ride & dinner
Optional Tour Destination: Ho Chi Minh City Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Accommodations: Orchids Hotel or similar Breakfast: Served buffet-style at the hotel starting at 6:30am, with Vietnamese and American options available. Morning: At 8:30am, we’ll board our b...
Day 19: Ho Chi Minh City • Visit Cu Chi Tunnels
Destination: Ho Chi Minh City Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Accommodations: Orchids Hotel or similar Breakfast: Served buffet-style at the hotel starting at 6:30am, with Vietnamese and American options available. Morning: We'll leave the hotel around 8am. We...
Day 20: Ho Chi Minh City • Return to U.S. or begin post-trip extension
Destination: U.S. Meals: Breafast Early Morning: Enjoy a breakfast box provided by the hotel this morning. Then, board a bus with your luggage and take a 45-minute drive to the airport early this morning for your return flight home. Or, fly to Hanoi or Bangkok to begin your post-trip extension to New! Northern Vietnam: Hanoi & Sapa or New! Thailand’s Golden Triangle & the River Kwai.

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Dates & Availability

Price From $4,095
Price per day$205
Last Updated: 0/27/2020

Check Current Availability, prices, specials with Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T. Tours).

The total tour cost includes the tour price (regular or promotional) and the compulsory local payment. The promotional price is subject to change. Check directly with the operator for the latest price offer. The tour operator requires you to pay only the tour price to purchase your travel. The compulsory local payment will be paid when you join the trip. All prices are based on double, twin or triple share occupancy. Solo passengers will be accommodated in a double, twin or triple room according to availability with a passenger(s) of the same gender. Single supplement only needs to be paid if the passenger does not want to share and requests their own room. Discounts can only be applied at the time of booking and cannot be added at a later date, regardless of any changes made to the original booking.

Prices may vary due to local taxes and trip seasonality. Click "Request Info" to inquire directly with the tour operator for the final trip price.

Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T. Tours) Reviews & Ratings

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don't expect humanity or common sense

This letter is effectively what was communicated no less than 8 times in writing and conversation to OAT representatives up the chain, beginning 19 days before the t...

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Our recent Tanzanian Safari was indeed the trip of a lifetime. Saw the big 5, met the wonderful locals and spent 5 days in the Serengeti. Saw many lions, zebras, gi...

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Booked for July and gave them $12,000. They talked us into early arrival and then come back to us a two months later saying we can't offer. We have to keep our airli...

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Overseas Adventure Travel offers unique small group adventures worldwide to Americans over 50. By land and sea, we explore on—and off—the beaten path with a resident OAT Trip Leader, immersing ourselves in local cultures, sampling unique modes of transportation, and staying in authentic lodgings that reflect the essence of your destination. Grand Circle Small Ship Cruises serves both our GCT and OAT brands with an award-winning fleet known for exceptional value and high-quality experiences in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Custom-designed according to our travelers’ specifications, our fleet includes 50+ small river and ocean-going ships that we own or privately charter.

Grand Circle Corporation is a global enterprise—comprised of a family of travel companies—committed to changing people’s lives by offering high-impact experiences to our travelers and building local communities through philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, and volunteerism.

Simply by traveling with OAT, you support the work of the nonprofit Grand Circle Foundation, which was created with the mission of changing people’s lives through travel—both those of our travelers, and of the people who welcome us so warmly into their homelands.

Journey with the Leader in Adventure Travel and Watch Your Dreams Take Flight: It is the stuff of dreams: gazelles bowing to lap at a glassy pool in the Serengeti as the vast sky turns purple with night, the tiered splendor of the Himalayas, rising behind a Tibetan monastery. Dreams like these are everyday realities for OAT travelers, thanks to the principles which ground every OAT adventure: value, choice, discovery, and carefully paced itineraries.

Our Value puts your travel dreams within reach: OAT can help you realize your travel dreams for a lot less than you thought possible. Together with our regional offices located throughout the world, we’ve been able to establish long-term relationships with many local vendors and hotels. Buying direct brings down our costs—and allows us to pass the savings on to you. And negotiating directly for hotel space also allows us to secure as many single room allotments as possible for our solo travelers. That way, we can also extend our great value to solo travelers. In fact, we offer the best value for solo travelers, guaranteed.

The Choice is yours: You’ll always have plenty of choices with OAT. We offer you a breadth of awe-inspiring travel destinations—from the peaks of the Andes to the sweeping desert sands of the Sahara to the rugged natural beauty of Iceland. You'll also enjoy more trip extension choices than ever before—like hiking to ancient monasteries in Bhutan or discovering the Moai monolithic rock statues on Easter Island. You have plenty of choices within each adventure, too, including several interesting optional tours. And the free time we’ve woven into our itineraries allows you plenty of opportunities for independent exploration. You can shop, unwind, perhaps linger at a sidewalk café, visit an interesting gallery or museum, or explore a cobbled street that caught your eye earlier in the day. You can do as much or as little as you want on an OAT adventure—the choice is yours.

OAT Difference

Adventure Travel: Adventure travel with OAT is a journey beyond the familiar, one that takes you into the very heart of a destination—to meet people where they work and live.

OAT Advantages: Journey with the leader in adventure travel and watch your dreams take flight, thanks to the principles which ground every OAT adventure: value, choice, discovery, and carefully paced itineraries.

Small Groups, Big Discoveries: When you discover the world in an OAT small group, you’ll journey off the beaten path to the places the big tour groups miss—and enjoy an intimate, discovery-filled adventure filled with personal connections, shared experiences, and treasured memories.

Trip Leaders: No matter where in the world you venture with OAT, you'll have one of our resident, expert Trip Leaders by your side. All are fluent in English and possess the skills, certification, and experience necessary to ensure an enriching adventure.

Airport Transfers: We’ve listened to your feedback, and will now offer international airport transfers to and from your hotel to our travelers who choose to purchase their own airfare on OAT adventures as part of our Personalize Your Trip program, which allows you create the OAT adventure that's right for you.

Personalize your trip: OAT travelers have long expressed the desire to decide exactly where they’re going, how they get there, and when they wish to leave. That’s why we developed a variety of choices that enhance the value of every trip we offer, allowing you to create the adventure that works best for you.

Traveling solo? Enjoy your own room or cabin—at no extra cost: You’re in control of your travel dreams—and we’re making them more affordable than ever: Maybe you prefer the freedom of solo travel—or maybe you and your usual traveling companion can’t agree on a destination. Whatever the reason, you don’t have to put your travel dreams on hold. When it’s time to go it alone, you’ll never pay a Single Supplement to have your own room or cabin with OAT.

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Logistics

Cancellation policy
If you need to cancel your trip for any reason, please call us as soon as possible, and follow up in writing. You are also required to return any airline tickets that may have been issued to you. Cancellation refunds will be calculated as of the date we receive your written cancellation. We will issue your refund in the manner in which we received your payment. If you paid your deposit by credit card and your balance by check, your refund will be divided accordingly. Refunds are generated manually by our accounting department to ensure accuracy. Please allow for a 30-day processing period before receiving your refund. There is a non-refundable, $300 per person processing fee for each trip you cancel, which reflects our costs of administering a reservation. Other cancellation fees depend upon your trip type and time of cancellation.
Travel Insurance
We strongly recommend purchasing travel insurance alongside your travel package to safeguard against unforeseen circumstances such as medical expenses, trip cancellations, and other contingencies. It offers you peace of mind and ensures you are prepared for unexpected events that may occur before or during your journey
Visa requirements
Visa requirements vary depending on your country of origin and your country of destination. It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the relevant requirements. For a handy tool that can help you quickly find the requirements, please visit this link .
Meals Included
Daily Breakfast, 15 Lunches and 7 Dinners  (including 1 Home-Hosted Dinner and 1 community lunch)
Age Requirements
No age restrictions
Additional Information
*Airport transfers are only available for travelers arriving and departing to/from the same airport and on the same arrival/departure dates as the main trip.
Trip ID
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