Mekong River Cruise Guide

A Sa Dec shore excursion puts you ashore on the Tien River in Dong Thap Province, in one of the delta’s old merchant towns. You can walk the old quarter, visit the rice-flour kilns at dawn, or tour the flower gardens. Each stop takes 75 minutes to 2 hours. The house opens at 08:30, the…

A Kampong Chhnang shore excursion takes you from the Tonle Sap River port through rice paddies to Andong Russei, where women shape terracotta pots with a wooden paddle and anvil, often beneath their stilted houses. A shore visit usually takes 2–4 hours, ride included. Red clay from the hills beside the village feeds the work,…

A Tan Chau shore excursion lands you on the Tien River, in An Giang Province, and takes you to a family silk workshop. You watch weavers work Lanh My A, the black silk dyed with mac nua fruit and dried in the sun. A visit runs 60–90 minutes. The river gave the town its mulberry…

Mekong river cruise routes fall into five families: Delta cruises of 2 to 4 days, Saigon to Phnom Penh stretches, the full path from Saigon to Siem Reap, Upper Mekong cruises in Laos, and extended programmes of 12 to 20 days. A sailing path is the ordered list of waterways, border posts, and overnight anchorages…

Pack one soft-sided bag of up to 40 lb (18 kg) for a river cruise on the Mekong between August and December: quick-dry clothes, shoes with grip, covered shoulders and knees for temples, a rain jacket, and a small medical kit. The vessel supplies slippers, a laundry service, and a marine medical kit, so the…

The best time to cruise the Mekong River depends on one choice: cool, dry weather from November to February, or high water that opens the Tonle Sap lake to vessels from mid-August to November. High water lasts about 3.5 to 4 months, and one month, November, sits in both windows. Plan for the days up…

A Mekong river cruise is a voyage of one or more nights on a cabin vessel along the Mekong River, most often between Saigon and Siem Reap through Vietnam and Cambodia. This Mekong river cruise guide covers five decisions in turn: route, season, length, cost, and vessel size. Calypso Mekong operates one vessel on the…