Four kinds of Mekong cruise

One night in the delta

The shortest overnight on the river. You leave Saigon in the morning, board a converted rice barge or a small steel cruiser, sleep on board somewhere on the Mang Thit or a side canal, and step off the next morning at the other end. It suits a trip that has room for the delta but not for Cambodia. The boats carry between one and sixteen cabins.

Two nights in the delta

The same boats, a longer line. A second night lets the boat reach Cai Rang market near Can Tho at dawn without a hurried start, or carry on west to Chau Doc near the border. From Chau Doc a scheduled speedboat runs to Phnom Penh, which turns a delta cruise into a slow way into Cambodia.

Saigon to Phnom Penh

Three nights on most ships, four on a few, crossing into Cambodia at Vinh Xuong. You board near My Tho after a coach from Saigon and step off on the riverfront in the centre of Phnom Penh. This is the shortest cruise that crosses the border, and the one least affected by low water.

Saigon to Siem Reap

The full lower-Mekong cruise: seven nights on Heritage Line and Pandaw, a 9-day package on CroisiEurope, an 8-day river voyage inside a 15-day Viking holiday. Whether the ship reaches the Siem Reap side by water depends on the month, and in the low-water months the last part is by road, or by air on Aqua Mekong.

Three questions decide most enquiries. First, does the trip need to get into Cambodia? If not, a delta boat does everything a ship would do in Vietnam, in a smaller vessel and for fewer nights. Second, how many nights can the river have? Below three, it is a delta boat. Third, are you travelling between December and July? If so, a ship to Siem Reap will finish by road or by air, and the question becomes whether the river days before that are worth it to you.

The delta boat or Cambodia ship page goes through these questions in more detail. The water page covers the months, and cabins and what is included covers the gap between what two fares appear to buy.

We do not set cruise fares. Operators do, by date, cabin and season, and they change them often: one ship page we read showed a sale fare next to a fare almost half as much again, and one delta operator's page showed two different starting prices for the same cruise. Publishing a figure of our own would mean either copying a number that will be out of date next month or inventing one. Instead, the cruise pages quote published fares with their source and date, and your quote carries the figure the operator confirms for your dates.

The pricing page shows what a fare usually leaves out, and how to book sets out the steps from first form to confirmed cabin.