Chau Doc, hills and river, 3 nights

Day 1

Saigon to Chau Doc

We leave Saigon at about 07:30. The route follows the expressway to Can Tho and then turns north-west along the Hau River through Long Xuyen to Chau Doc: about 235 km, four and a half to five and a half hours with a lunch stop. If you are flying into Can Tho from another Vietnamese city instead, the drive from there to Chau Doc is about 120 km, two and a half to three hours.

You reach the riverfront in mid-afternoon. The hotel looks straight over the Hau River; take a river-view room if you can, because that is the reason to sleep here rather than on the hill. Dinner on the terrace by the water, or in town. Chau Doc is known for bun ca, a fish noodle soup, and for mam, the fermented fish sold in its market.

Day 2

The river at Chau Doc, then up to Sam Mountain

The Cham villages across the river by private boat

A private boat leaves the hotel pier at about 07:00 for two to three hours on the river. You pass the floating fish-farm village, where families have raised catfish in cages beneath their houses for around fifty years, and cross to the Cham communities on the far bank at Chau Giang. The Mubarak mosque there was first built in 1750 and rebuilt in 1922; dress modestly if you go inside.

Back at the hotel by late morning, you check out and drive about 6 km to Victoria Nui Sam Lodge. The afternoon is for the pool on the hill. Toward 17:30 the light drops over the rice fields to the west; the pool bar closes at 19:00 and dinner is at the lodge's restaurant.

Day 3

Tra Su forest early, Sam Mountain in the afternoon

The sampan into Tra Su in the first hour after opening

Tra Su is a melaleuca forest of about 850 ha, roughly thirty minutes from the lodge. It opens at 06:30, and the first two hours have the softest light. A motorboat runs along the main channel, then a rowed sampan takes you into the narrower waterways under the trees. From September to November, when the floodwater is high, the forest is at its fullest; in the dry months the water is lower.

Back for breakfast and a long midday. At about 15:30 we visit the foot of Sam Mountain: Mieu Ba Chua Xu, the temple of the Lady of the Realm, centre of a festival now on UNESCO's intangible heritage list; Tay An pagoda, built in 1847; and the tomb of Thoai Ngoc Hau, from 1822. The mountain is about 284 m high, and you can drive or take the cable car to the summit for the view before returning to the lodge.

Day 4

Leaving Chau Doc

Three ways out, chosen when you book. Back to Saigon by road, leaving at about 10:00 and arriving mid-afternoon. To Can Tho airport, about three hours, for a domestic flight. Or downriver to Phnom Penh: the Hang Chau boat leaves Chau Doc at 07:00 and arrives at 13:30, crossing the border at Vinh Xuong.

If you take the boat, you need a Cambodian visa arrangement in advance or on arrival, and the boat has no air-conditioning. We confirm the operator's current schedule and the visa rules for your passport before we book it.