Trip overview
Chau Doc sits close to the Cambodian border, in delta country that most first-time visitors to Vietnam never reach, since it lies well past the more heavily toured stretch around Can Tho and My Tho. This trip bases you there for three nights and uses that base for three different sides of the region: a flooded melaleuca forest, a mountain of pilgrims and incense smoke, and a river-edge village where the muezzin’s call carries over fish farms rather than rice paddies.
Since the 2025 provincial merger, Chau Doc sits within Vietnam’s enlarged An Giang province, whose new administrative centre is Rach Gia rather than the more commonly assumed Long Xuyen. None of that changes what you see on the ground: Chau Doc remains the practical base for Tra Su, Sam Mountain and the river crossing toward Cambodia.
Trip highlights
- The flooded forest at Tra Su, gliding under a canopy in a hand-rowed sampan
- Sam Mountain and the Ba Chua Xu Temple, the delta’s largest pilgrimage site
- Chau Giang, a Cham Muslim village with its own mosque and weaving tradition
- Fish-farming villages of floating cages on the Hau River
- A base for onward river travel toward Phnom Penh, if your trip continues into Cambodia
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City to Chau Doc (about 5–6 hours by road, via Long Xuyen)
The drive west from Ho Chi Minh City crosses the delta’s flat rice country by way of Long Xuyen before reaching Chau Doc by mid-afternoon. There is time to settle into the hotel and take an early evening walk along the river before dinner.
Day 2: Tra Su flooded forest and Sam Mountain (about 30 km / 45 minutes to Tra Su, one way)
The morning heads to the flooded melaleuca forest at Tra Su, roughly 30 km from Chau Doc. A motorised boat covers the open channels before switching to a hand-rowed sampan for the narrower, quieter stretches under the canopy, best from September to November when the water is high and the duckweed spreads bright green across the surface. In the afternoon you climb Sam Mountain and visit the Ba Chua Xu Temple, the delta’s busiest pilgrimage site; if your dates fall around the 23rd to 27th day of the fourth lunar month, expect the temple at its most crowded, during the annual Via Ba Chua Xu festival, listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2024.
Day 3: Chau Giang Cham village and the fish-farming villages of the Hau River
A short boat crossing takes you to Chau Giang, a Cham Muslim community with its own mosque, the Mubarak Mosque, and a tradition of hand-loom weaving still practised in a handful of households. In the afternoon a boat runs past the floating fish farms on the Hau River, where families raise basa and other river fish in cages tied beneath their houses, a quieter, more working side of the delta than the market towns further east.
Day 4: Chau Doc to Ho Chi Minh City, departure
The morning is free for a last walk through Chau Doc’s market streets before the drive back to Ho Chi Minh City and your onward flight. Travellers continuing into Cambodia can instead join our river route on to Phnom Penh from Chau Doc rather than turning back toward Ho Chi Minh City.
What’s included
- Hotels in the class you choose, twin or double occupancy, with breakfast each morning, or an equivalent property if the one named is full.
- All meals written into the day-by-day programme below.
- A private air-conditioned vehicle for every transfer and excursion in the programme.
- An English-speaking local guide at each stop on the route.
- Every boat trip, river crossing and cruise named in the itinerary.
- Entrance fees for the sites listed in the programme.
- Drinking water in the vehicle and on boat days.
- Government tax and service charge.
Not included
- International and domestic flights, and rail tickets.
- Visas, and any fee collected at a border post.
- Travel insurance.
- Meals and drinks that are not written into the programme.
- Personal spending such as laundry, phone calls, minibar, souvenirs and watersports.
- Early check-in, late check-out and room upgrades.
- Anything added on the day at your request outside the printed programme.
- Gratuities for your guide and driver.
- Costs arising from weather, flooding, road closures or other events beyond our control.
- Bank transfer charges.
Booking this trip
- Days
- 4 days / 3 nights
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