This 15-day tour explores Southern Vietnam and Cambodia, blending rich wildlife with cultural highlights. Discover Cat Tien, Tram Chim, and Siem Reap’s wetlands alongside iconic landmarks like Angkor Wat and Cu Chi.
A private journey through southern Vietnam and Cambodia combining Cat Tien, the Mekong Delta, and Cambodia’s wetlands, dry forests, and Angkor heritage. The itinerary blends serious birding with cultural experiences and can be adjusted for a more birding-intensive or relaxed pace.
Embark on an extraordinary 15-day journey through the rich wildlife and vibrant cultures of Southern Vietnam and Cambodia. Beginning in Ho Chi Minh City, you will explore Cat Tien National Park, home to rare endemics like the Germain’s Peacock-Pheasant and Siamese Fireback. In the Mekong Delta, private boat trips through Tram Chim National Park offer unforgettable sightings of the majestic Sarus Crane and diverse wetland species. Traveling past local delta communities, a scenic river journey takes you across the border into Phnom Penh. From Siem Reap, you will discover the ancient marvels of Angkor Wat alongside the rich avian habitats of Prek Toal and Ang Trapeang Thmor, a sanctuary for rare storks, pelicans, and ibises. Returning to Vietnam, choose between exploring the coastal ecology of the Can Gio Mangrove Reserve or the historic Cu Chi Tunnels. With comfortable accommodations, seamless transport, and authentic local cuisine throughout, this expertly guided tour offers a complete Southeast Asian adventure.
VIETNAM
An early-season visit captures Vietnam at its absolute best, with wintering birds still present alongside resident species preparing for the breeding season. The country is a premier destination for high-end avifauna, harboring a remarkable collection of endemics, near-endemics restricted to Indochina, and distinct subspecies primed for future taxonomic splits. Combined with a rich mix of regional specialties and winter migrants, it offers an exceptional birding experience.
In the south, the fertile floodplains and alluvial habitats of the Mekong Delta provide a unique landscape, supporting a diverse array of waterbirds, coastal migrants, and specialized wetland species.
CAMBODIA
Cambodia holds the largest remaining block of Indochina’s unique deciduous dipterocarp forest, providing a crucial sanctuary for rare waterbirds and dry-forest specialties that have largely vanished elsewhere in the region.
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Our comprehensive itinerary seamlessly blends exceptional birding with cultural highlights across Southern Vietnam and Cambodia. Key targets include Green Peafowl, Siamese Fireback, and Pittas in Cat Tien, alongside Sarus Crane in Tram Chim. In Cambodia, we target critically endangered species such as Giant Ibis, White-shouldered Ibis, Bengal Florican, and Greater Adjutant around the Tonle Sap basin, concluding with an unforgettable visit to the iconic Angkor Wat temples.
Transport is by late-model minibus, accommodation is in luxury/good standard hotels and park bungalows, and we will be served memorable Vietnamese/Khmer food throughout.
Itinerary:
Participants will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City by flight from their homes today. A private car transfer from the airport to the hotel is available.
Overnight at Majestic Hotel
We will enjoy breakfast on the hotel roof overlooking the Sai Gon River, followed by a tour of the city. After lunch, we travel to Cat Tien National Park (4-hour drive), the premier National Park in South Vietnam. Cat Tien is located in Cochinchina in the Da Lat foothills and boasts an impressive mosaic of forest and seasonal wetlands, which largely escaped the defoliants used in the Vietnam War. We will bird on jeep tracks and forest trails to seek out the endemic Germain’s Peacock-Pheasant, other spectacular birds such as Siamese Fireback, Green Peafowl and Scaly-breasted Partridge, endemic Pittas, the endemic Grey-faced Tit-Babbler, and a host of other species from Malaysia and Thailand are also seen here. We will start exploring the park with some late-afternoon birding around the park headquarters to see the Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Oriental Pied Hornbill, and many bulbuls and drongos. For those who are keen birders, we will have a night safari after dinner to look for owls, nightjars, and other nocturnal birds.
Overnight at Forest Floor Lodge for 2 nights
Our first full day birding in Cat Tien National Park: we will trek 5 km to Crocodile Lake, a Ramsar site located in the middle of the jungle. Along the trail, we might have a chance to see the elusive Siamese Fireback, an endemic Germain’s Peacock-Pheasant, or the most-sought Bar-bellied Pitta. Picnic lunch at the lake while we stay to watch several waterbirds, such as Woolly-necked and Lesser Adjutant Storks, Bronze-winged Jacana, bitterns, herons, etc.
After early-morning birding and breakfast, we will make a longish drive to Tram Chim National Park, Dong Thap Province (6–7-hour drive). We'll stop en route for sightseeing and lunch. In the mid-afternoon, we will take a boat trip to Zone A4 in Tram Chim National Park. Today's birdwatching focuses on our main target, the Sarus Crane, but we will also see many other species, including Yellow and Cinnamon Bitterns, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Asian Openbill, and passerines such as Grassbird and Asian Golden Weaver.
Overnight at Wildbird Hotel for 2 nights
We will have a full day to explore Tram Chim National Park. In the morning, we will take another boat trip to Zone A2 to study the conservation situation and do some birding, and then return to the town for lunch. In the afternoon, we will take a walk along the dike boundary to see local cultures, landscape, and birding.
Day 6 (B, L, D): Tram Chim/Ha Tien
We leave Tram Chim in the morning and travel to Ha Tien Town, Kien Giang Province (4-hour drive). On the way, we will have a chance to see how the Vietnamese live day-to-day in the Mekong Delta region. We will have lunch in Ha Tien and check in to our hotel by noon. Later in the afternoon, we'll take a city tour around Ha Tien town and visit several cultural sites. Dinner at Nui Den Restaurant overlooking the Gulf of Thailand.
Overnight at Green Island Hotel for 1 night
After breakfast at our hotel, we will visit the Phu My Project to learn about community-based wetland conservation and have lunch at the Phu My Project office. We will depart for Chau Doc in the afternoon, and we will check in to our five-star hotel on the bank of the Bassac River later in the day.
Overnight at Victoria Hotel for 1 night
We spend our early morning taking a look at the river and seeing local people in their daily activities. Later we will travel up the river by boat to Phnom Penh, arriving by noon for check-in at our hotel. The afternoon is free time for a city tour, a visit to a market, or to the Golden and Silver pagodas. We will dine at the Foreign Correspondent Club.
Overnight at Hotel TBA for 1 night
This morning, we will take an early morning flight to Siem Reap and transfer to our hotel. There will be free time to visit Angkor Wat or Siem Reap city in the afternoon.
Overnight at Apsara Holiday Hotel for 3 nights
We have a full-day visit to Prek Toal Wildlife Sanctuary on Tonle Sap Lake. Birding here is good, and we should see the Greater and Lesser Adjutant storks, Black-headed Ibis, Painted Stork, Milky Stork, Spot-billed Pelican, Grey-Headed Fish Eagle, and many more species. Return to Siem Reap later afternoon.
We'll leave Siem Reap after breakfast for a full-day trip to Ang Trapeang Thmor, a nature reserve based around a reservoir dating from the Khmer Rouge era. The reserve now harbors a unique wetland set among grasslands, dipterocarp forest and rice fields. Ang Trapeang Thmor is an important wintering site for the endangered Eastern Sarus Crane between February and March. Other highlights of Ang Trapeang Thmor are the breeding colonies of Spot-billed Pelican and Painted Stork and often large numbers of waterfowl, including Spot-billed Duck, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Garganey, Black-backed Swamphen, and Pheasant-tailed and Bronze-winged Jacanas.
We will have a final morning of free time in Siem Reap to pursue other interests around the town before flying to Ho Chi Minh City in the afternoon.
Overnight at Majestic Hotel for 3 nights
Here we'll visit Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve to learn about mangrove ecology and restoration. Keen birders will have a chance to see many species of waders, including the White-faced Plover, the rare and endangered Nordmann’s Greenshank, and a slight chance of seeing a rare and endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper or two. An alternative option is to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, a renowned Vietnam War historical site some 50km from Ho Chi Minh City center. Located here are just a part of the huge and complex underground tunnel system constructed and used by the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War.
Free time in the afternoon for shopping and farewell dinner this evening.
Transfer to the Ho Chi Minh City International Airport for flight check-in and departure.
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