Vietnam & Cambodia View Basket

Create your kind of holiday with this fantastic planning guide

Visitors to Vietnam are overwhelmed by the sublime beauty of the country's natural setting.

The mountainous Sapa in the north, the Mekong Delta in the south and almost the entire coastal strip are a patchwork of brilliant green rice paddies.

There are some divine beaches along the coast, while inland there are soaring mountains, some of which are cloaked by dense, misty forests. Vietnam offers an opportunity to see a country of traditional charm and rare beauty rapidly opening up to the outside world.

Creative Holidays understands that everybody has their own unique idea of the perfect holiday and creates guides to equip you with a diverse range of holiday options including Lonely Planet maps and destinational content, sightseeing, transfers, mini stays, group tours, cruises and independent touring – everything you need to create your perfect holiday. Choose from an extensive range of budget, moderate, superior, deluxe or luxury hotels.

About Vietnam

The sights are spectacular, thanks to a rich civilization that has left its temples and traditions throughout the land, and a lucky hand with nature, which has dealt Vietnam breathtaking mountains, a stunning coastline and sublime scenery.

Vietnamese society has undergone a profound transition in the past decade. Communism the mantra for a generation, has taken a back seat to capitalism and the rush to embrace the market. Vietnam stretches more than 1600km along the eastern coast of Indochina.

The country's land area is 326,797 sq km, making it bigger than Italy and slightly smaller than Japan. Vietnam has 3451km of coastline and 318km of land borders. The country is S shaped, broad in the north and south and very narrow in the centre, where at one point it is only 50km wide.

Languages in Vietnam

Vietnamese (kinh) is the official language of the country, although there are dialectic differences across Vietnam. There are dozens of different languages spoken by various ethnic minorities and Khmer and Laotian are spoken in some parts. The most widely spoken foreign languages in Vietnam are Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), English, French and Russian, more or less in that order.

Vietnam's population hovers at nearly 83 million, making it the 13th most populous country in the world, and with its population growth rate it might soon make the top ten. Vietnam is a young country, with an incredible 65% of the population under the age of 30. After years of revolutionary initiatives encouraging large families, a two child policy is now enforced in urban areas.

Religion in Vietnam

Four great philosophies and religions have shaped the spiritual life of the Vietnamese. Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and later Christianity. Over the centuries, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have fused with popular Chinese beliefs and ancient Vietnamese animism to create the Tam Giao (Triple Religion). Special prayers are held at Vietnamese and Chinese pagodas on days when the moon is either full or the merest sliver.

Many Buddhists eat only vegetarian food on these days. The Tet Nguyen Dan (Festival of the First Day) announces the Lunar New Year and is the most important date in the Vietnamese festival calendar. Commonly known as Tet, it is a time when families reunite in the hope of good fortune for the coming year, and ancient spirits are welcomed back into the family home. And Tet is everybody's birthday, on this day everyone becomes one year older.

Vietnamese cuisine

Vietnamese cuisine is especially varied - there are said to be nearly 500 different traditional dishes that include exotic meats and fantastic vegetarian creations. However, the staple of Vietnamese cuisine is plain white rice dressed up with a plethora of vegetables, fish (which is common in Vietnam), meat, spices and sauces. Spring rolls, noodles and steamed rice dumplings are popular snacks. Pho is a delicious soup containing beef or chicken with noodles. Fruit is abundant; some of the more unusual ones include green dragon fruit, jujube, khaki, longan, mangosteen, pomelo, three-seed cherry and water apple. Vietnamese coffee (ca phe phin) is very good; it's usually served very strong and very sweet.

Vietnamese dance

Vietnamese dance has traditionally been reserved for ceremonies and festivals, now tourism has bought folk dancing back into the mainstream. The Conical Hat Dance is one of the most visually stunning dances, in which a group of women wearing ao dai (the traditional dress of Vietnam) spin around, whirling their classic conical hats.

With a multitude of altitudes and latitudes there's always somewhere that is pleasantly sunny and warm. There are some divine beaches along the coast, while inland there are soaring mountains, some of which are cloaked by dense, misty forests. Vietnam is a country of traditional charm and rare beauty rapidly opening up to the outside world.

About Cambodia

Ancient temples, mighty rivers and remote forests. Cambodia has emerged from decades of isolation and is well and truly back on the Southeast Asian travel map. The successor-state of the mighty Khmer Empire, which ruled much of what is now Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, Cambodia boasts a rich culture, a weathered French-era capital and impressive natural scenery.

Cambodia is bounded on the west by Thailand, on the north by Laos, on the east by Vietnam and to the south by the Gulf of Thailand. It's about half the size of Vietnam or Italy. Topographically, the country is dominated by the mighty Mekong River, which cuts a swathe through the country from north to south; the fish-filled Tonlé Sap (Great Lake); the Elephant and Cardamom mountains in the southwest; the Dangkrek Mountains along the Thai border; and the Eastern Highlands in the northeast.

Most Cambodians live on the fertile central plains of the Mekong-Tonlé basin. The average Cambodian landscape is a patchwork of cultivated rice paddies guarded by numerous sugar palms, the national tree. Elsewhere are grasslands, lush rainforest cloaking the remote areas and at higher elevations, unlikely clumps of pines.

Phnom Penh

Cambodia's capital retains an undeniable charm despite its tumultuous, often violent past. The crumbling colonial architecture makes an attractive backdrop to bustling streetside cafes and the redeveloped riverfront precinct. The city has several impressive wats (temple-monasteries), including Wat Ounalom, Wat Phnom and Wat Moha Montrei. Pride of place goes to the spectacular Silver Pagoda, one of the few places in Cambodia where artefacts embodying the richness of Khmer culture were preserved by the Khmer Rouge.

Siem Reap

Siem Reap is the gateway to the temples of Angkor, Cambodia's spiritual and cultural heartbeat. Built during the height of the Angkorian period in the 12th century, Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples, are why people come to Siem Reap. Some of the more noteworthy temples worth visiting are Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, The Bayon, Preah Khan, the Baphuon, Terrace of Elephants and Banteay Srei, to name just a few. Spend as much time as you wish wandering through the amazing Angkor region. At the end of a day of walking around temples, a great way to unwind is a massage at the blind institute - and a very worthy cause.