Vietnam + Cambodia Visa Combo for Australians: 2026 Indochina Trip Guide

Order of operations: which to book first

Both visas take three working days to process. Both portals run independently. The practical advice is short: apply for both on the same day, ideally 10 to 14 days before your flight into the first country. There is no scheduling reason to stagger them, and applying together means you can compare the two approval letters side by side when they arrive.

If you are flying into Vietnam first — by far the most common Aussie shape — file the Vietnam e-Visa first in the morning and the Cambodia eVisa second in the afternoon. The Vietnam portal occasionally throws an extra verification request on Australian passports because the bio-page MRZ font sometimes confuses their OCR, and front-loading that lets you fix it on the same day. The Cambodia application is shorter and rarely throws anything back.

Why 10 to 14 days, not 7? Because two separate visas mean two chances for a holiday or weekend to fall in the wrong spot. Cambodian Immigration does not process on Saturdays or Sundays, and the Vietnam unit closes for Tet (the lunar new year, late January or February), Reunification Day (30 April), Labour Day (1 May), and National Day (2 September). Around any of those dates, build in extra buffer. The Cambodia visa processing time from Australia guide breaks the windows down in more detail.

One sequencing nuance: the 90-day validity on the Vietnam e-Visa starts from the issue date, but the date you nominate as your planned entry locks the start of your stay window. Pick a planned entry date that matches your real flight, give or take a couple of days. The Cambodia eVisa is simpler — three months of validity from issue, with the 30-day stay clock only starting when you land in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, or Sihanoukville.

The classic Indochina routes for Aussies

Three trips cover almost every Australian Indochina itinerary in 2026. None of them needs anything more than the two eVisas and the Cambodia e-Arrival Card. None of them involves Thailand on the ground — the Thai land borders are still closed, so any Bangkok stopover in 2026 needs to be by air on either end, not overland.

Route 1 — Saigon to Phnom Penh by bus (Moc Bai–Bavet)

The classic budget overland. Fly into Tan Son Nhat (SGN) in Saigon — most Aussies pick up a direct flight from Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth, or a stopover via Singapore. Spend 4 to 7 days in southern Vietnam (Saigon, Mekong Delta, Phu Quoc beaches), then board a Phnom Penh-bound bus from one of the operators on Pham Ngu Lao Street. The bus runs through the Moc Bai border on the Vietnam side and the Bavet border on the Cambodia side. The full SGN-to-Phnom Penh journey is 6 to 7 hours including the border processing, and the Aussie passport with both eVisas already approved walks through without drama.

Route 2 — Hanoi north, then fly into Phnom Penh

If you want the rice terraces of Sapa, Halong Bay, or the old quarter of Hanoi, fly into Noi Bai International (HAN) instead of Saigon. Spend 7 to 10 days in northern Vietnam, then jump on a one-hour internal flight from Hanoi or Da Nang to Phnom Penh. This route skips the land border entirely. Useful for Aussies who do not want to spend a day on a bus, or whose Cambodia time is short. The visa requirements are identical — both eVisas, both approved before boarding the first flight out of Australia.

Route 3 — The full Indochina loop

For a three-week trip, Aussies often run the longer shape: Sydney or Melbourne to Bangkok by air (visa-free 60 days), short Bangkok stop, then fly down to Saigon (Vietnam e-Visa kicks in), overland bus to Phnom Penh (Cambodia eVisa kicks in), up to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat, fly home from REP. Total time on visas: about 25 minutes online before you leave Australia. Total combined visa cost for the trip: $105 USD (~$160 AUD), more on that below. The Cambodia visa for Australia pillar has the full background on the Cambodia leg.

Phu Quoc Island: the visa-free exception

Vietnam runs one notable visa exception, and Australians qualify for it. Phu Quoc Island, the large tropical island off Vietnam's southern coast, sits inside a special economic zone that grants 30-day visa-free entry to every nationality — including Aussies. No e-Visa, no fee, no application. You arrive, you get a 30-day stamp, you leave by the same airport before the 30 days are up.

The catch is in the routing. The visa-free status only applies if you fly directly into Phu Quoc International Airport (PQC) from outside Vietnam. The moment you transit Saigon or Hanoi to get there, you are no longer 'arriving on Phu Quoc' — you have arrived in mainland Vietnam first, and you need the e-Visa. Direct flights to Phu Quoc are limited but they exist from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and a few seasonal routes. From Australia, the cleanest path is Sydney or Melbourne to Singapore on a long-haul carrier, then a 90-minute Scoot or Singapore Airlines hop to PQC.

Common Aussie use case: Cambodia trip first, then five nights on a Phu Quoc beach to wind down before flying home. If you are leaving Cambodia by air and going straight to Phu Quoc on a direct connection, the Vietnam e-Visa is not required — but you must not stop in Saigon on the way. Even a transit stop counts as a Vietnam entry. Aussies who plan this poorly land in Saigon, get told they need an e-Visa for the connecting Phu Quoc flight, and lose half a day at the airport business centre filing one on the spot.

If your trip definitely involves any mainland Vietnam — Saigon, Hanoi, Da Nang, Hue, Sapa — file the e-Visa. The $25 USD (~$38 AUD) is not worth the airport drama at the connection.

Combined cost example: a 14-day Vietnam–Cambodia trip

Run the numbers honestly for an Australian doing two weeks across both countries. Visa fees first, separate from everything else.

• Vietnam e-Visa (single-entry): $25 USD (~$38 AUD), 3 working days
• Cambodia Tourist eVisa: $80 USD (~$122 AUD), 3 business days
• Cambodia e-Arrival Card (verified): $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD), submitted 7 days before arrival
• Combined visa total: $110 USD (~$167 AUD) for both countries

Less than $170 AUD total for both visas and the mandatory Cambodia e-Arrival, on a trip that will easily run $4,000 to $7,000 per person all in. Visas are typically less than 5% of an Indochina trip cost — cheaper than most Aussies expect when they first start pricing the loop. For a multi-entry Vietnam e-Visa (useful if you plan to enter Vietnam twice), the total rises to $135 USD (~$205 AUD). Still under $250 AUD for both countries' paperwork.

Compared to other Asia trips Aussies take, the Indochina combo is one of the better-value visa setups. Japan is visa-free; Thailand is visa-free; but neither covers the Mekong region. For a fully-loaded Cambodia visa cost guide for Australians, including the AUD breakdown and what each line item covers, the standalone cost guide has the deep version. If you are still weighing the airport options, our eVisa vs Visa on Arrival comparison is the honest take.

When you are ready, the Cambodia eVisa application is short — a passport scan, a digital photo, and a card payment, with the approval PDF in your inbox within three business days. Before you book, the Smartraveller advisory for Cambodia and Smartraveller advisory for Vietnam are both worth a five-minute read, especially around the wet season (May to October) when river crossings and Mekong Delta routes can shift.

Next steps and related reading for Australians: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when you are ready to lodge, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for Australian citizens as the single canonical reference, skim the FAQ on Cambodia visa eligibility for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide; for a structured side-by-side visa vs vietnam visa comparison, see the dedicated comparison page.