Cómo Dividir 30 Días Entre Cambodia, Vietnam y Laos Como Viajero Estadounidense

The 30-day split, country by country

There is no single correct division, but after years of watching how this loop actually plays out for US travelers, a 14 / 9 / 7 split — Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos — is the version that leaves the fewest regrets. It gives the largest country the most room, treats Cambodia as the temple-and-history core rather than a quick stop, and lets Laos be the unhurried finish it deserves. Here is what each block buys you.

Vietnam: 14 days

Vietnam is the long, narrow country that rewards a north-to-south or south-to-north sweep, so it earns the biggest slice. Two weeks covers Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta in the south, the central coast around Hoi An and Da Nang, and Hanoi with an overnight Halong Bay cruise in the north. Cheap domestic flights stitch the regions together. Cut Vietnam below ten days and you are choosing between the north and the south rather than seeing both.

Cambodia: 9 days

Cambodia is the temple-and-history heart of the loop, and nine days is enough to do it justice without padding. Budget two to three days in Phnom Penh for the Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng, and the Killing Fields, then four to five days in Siem Reap so Angkor Wat is a multi-day exploration rather than a single rushed sunrise. That still leaves a couple of days for Battambang or the southern coast at Kampot and the islands if you want a beach pause. The Cambodia Tourist eVisa allows a 30-day stay, so nine days never bumps the limit.

Laos: 7 days

Laos is the slow close. A week covers Luang Prabang — the UNESCO old town, the Kuang Si waterfalls, the morning alms-giving — plus Vang Vieng for the karst scenery and the capital Vientiane if you fly out from there. Laos is the country travelers most often wish they had given more time, not less, so seven days is a floor, not a target. If you want to weigh the Cambodia portion against the whole region in more detail, our days-per-country planner for US travelers breaks down how many days Cambodia really needs on its own.

The three visas this loop needs

Because the loop crosses two international borders, you need exactly three visas: one for Vietnam, one for Cambodia, and one for Laos. They are issued by three different governments, on three different portals, and you carry all three as separate approvals. None covers another country, and there is no shared product that covers the set. The reassuring part is that the visa stay-lengths are all generous relative to a 30-day loop — none of them forces you to cut a country short.

The Cambodia eVisa

The Cambodia Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in for US citizens, with the Business eVisa at $90. Both are approved in 3 business days and delivered as a printable PDF by email. The visa is valid for 3 months from issue and allows a 30-day single-entry stay — far more than the nine days a balanced loop spends in Cambodia, so the visa is never the thing that limits your days there. There is no return flight, hotel booking, or bank statement required at the application stage; the Cambodia eVisa is one of the lightest application packs in the region.

The Vietnam and Laos e-visas

Vietnam issues US citizens an e-visa that costs about $25 for single-entry or $50 for multiple-entry, valid up to 90 days depending on the option. For a clean one-way loop where you never re-enter Vietnam, single-entry is all you need. Laos issues an eVisa for roughly $50 that covers a 30-day stay; a visa on arrival exists at major Laos entry points for about $35 to $40, but the eVisa filed ahead saves you the arrival-counter queue. Each is its own application with a passport scan, a digital photo, and a card payment.

The three run as parallel mini-processes that never talk to each other, so a flagged photo on one side has no effect on the others. If you want the full side-by-side on all three systems — every price, document, and stay-length for the trio — our Indochina loop visa guide for Americans lays the whole set out in one place.

Direction of travel and the order to apply

Direction matters more than most travelers expect, because it decides whether you can get away with cheaper single-entry visas. The most popular loop for US travelers runs Vietnam to Cambodia to Laos, or the reverse, in one continuous arc with no backtracking. As long as you never leave and re-enter the same country, three single-entry visas cover the entire month. The moment your route loops back into Vietnam — say to fly home from Hanoi after Laos — you need the $50 multiple-entry Vietnam e-visa instead of the $25 single.

On timing, apply for all three visas on the same day, ideally 10 to 14 days before your first international flight. There is no operational reason to stagger them — the three portals process independently, in parallel, in roughly three business days each. Filing together means all three approvals land with buffer to spare, so a flagged photo on any one side does not put your departure at risk.

Why "business days" matters for the timing

Three business days is the standard approval window for each visa, but the word "business" is doing real work. A US weekend or a public holiday in Cambodia, Vietnam, or Laos extends the calendar wait, so a Friday-night application does not start moving until the following week. Filing 10 to 14 days out absorbs all of that comfortably. Treat whichever country you enter first as the priority application, since that is the visa the airline checks at your US gate before you have even left.

There is no real cost or timing penalty to the order, so the choice comes down to your route and your flights. One regional caveat that reshapes any overland plan: every Thailand-Cambodia land border has been closed since June 2025, with no scheduled reopening confirmed as of April 2026, so a Thailand bolt-on has to be flown, not driven. For the full two-country version of this trip, our 2-week Vietnam and Cambodia itinerary for Americans maps the shorter route in day-by-day detail.

How Cambodia's 30-day rule fits the loop

A common worry is that spending part of a 30-day trip in Cambodia somehow eats into a Cambodian time limit. It does not. The Cambodia Tourist eVisa grants a 30-day single-entry stay that starts when you enter Cambodia, not when the trip begins. So even if Cambodia is the third leg of your loop and you arrive on day 21 of the month, your Cambodian clock starts fresh that day and runs for 30 days — far more than the nine days a balanced loop plans there.

The detail that does matter is single entry. The Tourist eVisa is single-entry, so if your route leaves Cambodia and comes back — for example a quick hop out to Laos and back into Cambodia before flying home — the second Cambodia entry needs a fresh visa. For the standard one-direction loop where Cambodia is visited once in a continuous block, single entry is exactly right and you never touch the issue.

The other thing worth knowing for 2026: the tourist auto-extension that some travelers remembered from earlier years ended in November 2025, so the 30-day Tourist stay is the stay — plan your nine Cambodia days inside it rather than counting on extending at the desk. If you want the precise rules on how long a US citizen can stay and what the options are at the limit, our stay-length guide for US citizens covers it in full.

What the three visas cost in 2026

Start with the paperwork, because it is the part this guide can pin down to the dollar. For the standard one-way loop, the visa math is simple: a single-entry Vietnam e-visa at about $25, a Cambodia Tourist eVisa at $80, and a Laos eVisa at about $50 comes to roughly $155 in visa fees per traveler. Add the $5 verified Cambodia e-Arrival Card and the total reaches about $160 for all three countries, fully covered, per person.

The Cambodia figure is the one that is fixed and all-in: it includes the approval delivered as a printable PDF, free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction, and US-timezone support, so there is no second invoice if your photo bounces. Against a month of flights, accommodation, and overland transport, the combined visa cost barely registers — but it is worth budgeting at the start so it never becomes a last-minute surprise. For two travelers on the standard loop, the combined visa-and-arrival cost is about $320.

If your route backtracks into Vietnam, swap the $25 single-entry Vietnam e-visa for the $50 multiple-entry version, which nudges the per-person total to roughly $185 plus the e-Arrival Card. That is the single biggest variable in the visa budget, and it is entirely a function of your route direction — another reason to settle the loop's shape before you file anything.

The Cambodia e-Arrival step and putting it together

One last piece that neither Vietnam nor Laos has an exact equivalent for: the Cambodia e-Arrival Card. Every air arrival into Cambodia must file it — 14 fields covering your passport, flight number, arrival date, accommodation, and a short customs declaration. It is separate from the eVisa, mandatory, and submitted within 7 days before your flight into Cambodia. Our verified e-Arrival is $5 USD, checked end-to-end before it reaches Cambodian Immigration. A single date-format slip on the Card is one of the most common reasons travelers get bounced back at the kiosk.

If you fly into Cambodia at the start of the Cambodia leg — Phnom Penh's new KTI Techo International or Siem Reap — you file the e-Arrival Card. If you cross into Cambodia by land from Vietnam instead, the e-Arrival step does not apply the same way, but your Cambodia eVisa still has to be approved and in hand. Time it so the Card goes in once your Cambodia flight is booked and you are inside the 7-day window, not before.

So the full month, start to finish: about 14 days in Vietnam, 9 in Cambodia, and 7 in Laos, with three separate visas filed online on the same day 10 to 14 days out, two crossings along the loop, and the Cambodia e-Arrival Card if you fly into Cambodia. When you are ready, you can apply for your Cambodia eVisa now, and keep our Cambodia visa hub for United States citizens bookmarked as the single reference for every Cambodia rule, fee, and document on the trip.