Intrepid Travel tour through Vietnam, Cambodia, & Thailand
Tuesday, April 23rd 2019 Travel
I’ve recently come back from the trip of a lifetime to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, where I went on a tour with Intrepid Travel. When I decided to go, I knew I was going to be travelling solo, so I wanted to go on a tour. This was both to have travel companions and to have some of the hard parts of travel planning taken care of. Intrepid Travel came highly recommended, and they’d recently launched youth tours for 18-29, which sounded perfect for me. I decided upon doing the Intrepid Travel Real Cambodia tour which started in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, before spending 10 days in different cities in Cambodia, then ending in Bangkok, Thailand.
First up, I flew from Auckland to Ho Chi Minh City with a brief layover in Hong Kong. My flights were booked with Cathay Pacific, but the first leg of the journey was with Air New Zealand as they’ve partnered together. All up, it was about 13 hours of flight time. I followed all of my mum’s tips for surviving a long flight feeling comfortable – thank God for noise cancelling headphones!
I arrived in Vietnam the day before the tour started, so I had some time on my own to adjust to the time zone change, the heat, and overall extremely different environment. The first day I just explored the neighbourhood near my hotel, and tried to stay awake!! The following day was considered the first day of the tour, but we weren’t scheduled to meet up until the evening so I was still solo at this point. It was actually my 28th birthday, and I spent it doing the Ho Chi Minh City Discovery tour with Urban Adventures which is a sub-set of Intrepid. We saw the main sights of the city including the former President’s palace, the heartbreaking War Remnants Museum, and a Chinese temple, as well as stopping for a traditonal pho for lunch.
Then it was time to meet my tour group and leader. The tour is for a max of 15 people but my group was only 6 – apparently they have an average of 10 people. The group size was great because we could easily go to restaurants and activities together without booking ahead like you’d need to do in tours that are 50 people. Sometimes it felt like we were just a group of friends on holiday, with one particularly knowledgeable person (our guide!) I was the eldest, turning 28 the day we started, and the others ranged from 19-25.
We all got on well despite being from different walks of life. There was me from New Zealand, 2 men and 1 woman from the USA, and 2 women from Switzerland. Everyone except me was continuing on from a tour that had started in Hanoi, the Epic Vietnam to Cambodia. This comprised the Essential Vietnam tour plus the Real Cambodia tour that I was on. Sometimes I felt a bit left out because they’d already bonded before I joined, but I made friends quickly. We had some hilarious conversations about things such as the fact I am so old I read the Harry Potter books as they came out, which was before the boys was even born. You wouldn’t think that 9 years was such a big gap but sometimes it felt like it!!
There’s an option to pay extra for your own room, but I figured sharing would be less lonely. I’m glad I made that choice, as I got on with my roommate really well and we hung out basically the entire time. She was 25, from the USA, and a nurse so we had some things in common. We had quite a a lot of time during the trip with no scheduled activities, and then we’d usually spend it together. Either seeing the town, going for a swim where we could, or having a cocktail (or ten).
Our guide Channy was fantastic, he always had great recommendations, and was fun to hang out with too. He knew the best spots at the temples for Instagram photos and would even direct our posing while photographing!!! What more could a blogger dream of? He directed the photo below, and took the one above. What a star! I was sad to say goodbye, but we’ve stayed in touch on Facebook.
Our transport varied, we weren’t on one coach the whole time like we had on my Trafalgar tour around Europe. Some of the trips between cities were in a private mini bus, others were on buses aimed at tourists – limited stops, mostly tourists aboard, think the likes of Intercity in New Zealand – and one was on a public bus that we were the only tourists on. That was definitely an experience for me! When the seats filled up, they placed plastic chairs in the aisle and people sat in them. Thankfully we had proper seats, and it was just the one day. Again, my noise cancelling headphones and/or ear plugs came in handy. Within the cities we mostly either walked or took tuktuks, we only once needed to take a van going to the outskirts of town.
The accommodation was fine, good for the price we paid, some much nicer than others, depends how much your money can buy you in each town. Intrepid classes it’s tours into 3 levels – Basix, Original, and Comfort – and the Real Cambodia tour is a Basix one. I’d have preferred a bit more comfort but the 18-29 tours don’t offer that so I decided I could cope with roughing it. Most Intrepid Travel tours are open to all ages and we met up with another tour group doing a very similar trip to us which was the Cambodia Discovery. Their hotels were fancier than ours, and they had a few more inclusions but overall it seemed much the same.
You can’t go to Cambodia and not learn about the Khmer Rouge regime, and I think it was handled sensitively. There was an optional tour of the Killing Fields & Toul Sleng Genocide Museum/S-21, and our whole group went. Most of us ended up in tears, but I think it’s important to visit these places and learn. One thing I appreciated about our guide was that he didn’t shy away from talking about the horrific events of the Khmer Rouge . He even shared stories from his own family, which helped expand our understanding. I felt shamefully ignorant of what horrific things happened in Cambodia, as well as the details of the Vietnam War. This trip definitely made me feel more grateful for the privileged life that I lead.
I liked that Intrepid Travel supports local businesses and socially conscious ventures. We went to Friends restaurant in Phnom Penh, which is a training institution for marginalised young people, some who had formerly been living on the streets. The food was amazing, and we contributed to an excellent cause. Intrepid also gave us reusable bags so we could refrain from adding to the rubbish and pollution with plastic bags. We also did a Homestay experience at Chambok eco-tourism village, and hiked in the national park there. I was really nervous about the homestay as it was such an unfamiliar environment, but it ended up being fantastic. I even managed to avoid using a squat toilet which was one of my bigger fears.
A few people have asked me how much the trip cost me, so I’ll share that here. I didn’t really try to make it a frugal trip, there were things I paid extra for out of convenience or just enjoying a bit of luxury where it was possible. I did hardly any shopping, I bought a few cheap things at the markets and that’s about it. More of my money was spent on experiences like the cycle tour, numerous massages, as well as food and drinks. There weren’t as many inclusions on this tour as there are on the comfort & classic tours, but that’s fine as the cost is considerably lower. Intrepid booked most things for me such as flights, extra accommodation, and even airport transfers. Prices are what I paid between October 2018 and April 2019, and in New Zealand dollars.
| Intrepid tour | $1145 |
| Flights | $1,121 |
| 2 nights additional accommodation | $113 |
| Airport transfers | $96 |
| Vietnam & Cambodia Visa | $91 |
| Ho Chi Mingh city tour | $75 |
| Vaccines | $422 |
| Extra activities, meals, shopping (approx) | $1000 |
| Total | $4063 |
Overall, touring with Intrepid was a good way to travel, as it meant the more stressful stuff taken care of, and built in friends even as a solo traveller. I’ve only been home for a few months and I’m already bookmarking other trips I’d like to take with Intrepid, which I think says it all. It’s a great niche in the market, youth age small group tours that aren’t aimed at partying.
I’m planning a follow up post with my advice & recommendations for travelling in South East Asia, so if you have any questions – ask away!
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