Saigon to Phnom Penh by Bus in 7 Hours: The Aussie Border Playbook for 2026

Why the Saigon-to-Phnom Penh bus is the default Aussie route in 2026

Of every Australian who crosses into Cambodia overland in 2026, the single biggest share is doing it on a tour bus out of Ho Chi Minh City. The numbers tell the story. Thailand–Cambodia land crossings have been closed since June 2025, with no reopening on the calendar. Laos is a quieter northern route used mainly by backpackers coming south from Luang Prabang. Vietnam–Cambodia, specifically the Bavet–Moc Bai crossing on Highway 1 between Saigon and Phnom Penh, is the workhorse.

The route is straightforward, the operators are well-practised, and the visa logistics are clean once you understand the order of operations. Seven hours door to door, twenty US dollars on a comfortable coach, one printed eVisa, one Vietnamese exit stamp, one Cambodian entry stamp, done. The reverse direction — Bavet–Moc Bai from Cambodia into Vietnam — is covered in detail elsewhere; this article is specifically for Aussies travelling Saigon to Phnom Penh, which is the more common direction for first-trip travellers flying into Vietnam first.

I have personally done this crossing more than thirty times since 2019. The rhythm has barely changed in five years. The visa policy around it has changed more — particularly the rise of eVisa preference over VoA — and the broad message in 2026 is the same one we have been giving Aussie clients for years: apply for the eVisa before you board, do not rely on the Bavet VoA queue. The eVisa is faster end-to-end and removes the single biggest risk on the day.

The 7-hour journey, broken down

The bus journey splits cleanly into four phases: the early-morning Saigon leg, the Vietnamese exit at Moc Bai, the Cambodian entry at Bavet, and the run into Phnom Penh. Each one is roughly the length you would guess. Here is what an Aussie can expect from each.

The Saigon morning leg

Mekong Express and Giant Ibis both run early-morning departures from offices on or near Pham Ngu Lao Street in District 1, Saigon. Most services pull out between 6:30am and 8:30am. The deliberate early start is to land at the border before Cambodian Immigration's slower afternoon shift kicks in around 3pm. Aim for the morning, not an overnight — the few overnight services that exist do not save you time and cost you a sleep cycle.

The Bavet entry

This is the only part of the day where your visa choice really matters. If you have an eVisa printout, you join the eVisa lane: 20 to 40 minutes for a full bus. If you arrive without one and try the VoA route at Bavet, you join the on-arrival queue with 30 to 60 minutes of waiting, $35 USD (~$53 AUD) in clean small notes, and a 4cm x 6cm passport photo. The maths is straightforward: the eVisa is faster on the day and adds only $45 USD (~$69 AUD) to your trip cost end-to-end.

Visa logistics: eVisa is faster than the Bavet VoA queue

The Cambodia eVisa for Australians is $80 USD (~$122 AUD) all-in. Approved in 3 business days. Delivered as a printable PDF by email. No flight booking, no hotel reservation, no bank statement. Apply at least a week before you fly out of Australia. The Australian application walkthrough covers every field in order, and the country pillar covers the broader eligibility picture for Aussie passports.

The Bavet visa-on-arrival exists in 2026, but it carries a documented 30 to 60 minute queue on most afternoon arrivals and a smaller-but-real risk of a temporary sticker stockout that can hold you in a side room for several hours. The eVisa vs Visa on Arrival comparison breaks the trade-off down in detail. The short version: for a Bavet land crossing the answer is the eVisa, every time. Free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction, Aussie-timezone support, and you walk through the Cambodian-side checkpoint in the time it takes the bus attendant to bring your passport back.

Print two A4 colour copies of the eVisa PDF. Hand one to the officer at Bavet, keep the second in the bottom of your daypack as backup. A phone screen is not accepted at the land border. Your passport needs at least six months of validity from the crossing date and one clean blank page for the entry stamp. The 30-day single-entry stay clock starts on the day you cross, not the day the visa was issued.

What to do at the border, step by step

Most Aussies cross Bavet for the first time and the small details catch them off guard — when to get off the bus, where to queue, what to hold in your hand. Here is the simple order of operations, written for someone doing it cold the first time.

• On the bus before the border: complete the Vietnamese exit card (a tiny scrap of paper handed out by the attendant). Have your passport and your printed Cambodia eVisa loose in your daypack, not buried in a money belt.
• At Moc Bai (Vietnamese exit): on Mekong Express and Giant Ibis you stay seated, the attendant takes the stack of passports and exit cards, and returns 15 to 25 minutes later with everything stamped. On cheaper operators you queue yourself at the desk — stay with the bus group, do not wander off.
• Walk across no-man's-land: 5 to 10 minutes on foot or by short shuttle. Keep your passport, eVisa printout, and any small valuables on you. The bus and your hold luggage go around separately and are reunited on the Cambodian side.
• At Bavet (Cambodian entry): hand over your passport plus the printed eVisa PDF (one A4 sheet, colour). The officer scans the QR code, stamps your passport with a 30-day single-entry stamp, and waves you through. No e-Arrival card is required for land crossings — only air arrivals into KTI, SAI, and KOS.
• Reboard the bus at the Cambodian-side carpark. The attendant does a final headcount. Anyone missing causes a delay; do not be that person.

What the full Saigon-to-Phnom Penh day actually costs

The bus ticket itself is the cheap part. The full day, all-in for an Australian doing it solo with an eVisa already in hand, comes to roughly $115 to $130 AUD before you eat dinner in Phnom Penh. Here is the breakdown in honest Aussie dollars at June 2026 exchange rates.

Tickets can be booked online through the operator's website (Mekong Express and Giant Ibis both accept Aussie cards) or in person at the Pham Ngu Lao Street offices in District 1 a day in advance. The cheaper operators — Kumho Samco at $15 to $18 USD (~$23 to $27 AUD), Sapaco at $12 to $15 USD (~$18 to $23 AUD) — save you a few Aussie dollars but are noticeably slower at the border and less helpful with the visa paperwork. For first-time crossings, Mekong Express or Giant Ibis is worth the small premium.

The currency situation is straightforward. The bus ticket is paid in Vietnamese dong or US dollars at the office. The visa is paid in US dollars to us when you apply online. Phnom Penh tuk-tuks run on US dollars — small clean notes are the rule. The visa cost guide breaks the broader AUD picture down for 2026, and the AUD conversion piece covers the exchange-rate maths in detail.

Common Aussie mistakes on the Saigon-to-Phnom Penh run

After hundreds of Aussie crossings on this exact route, the same four things come up over and over. Each one is preventable with a five-minute check before you board.

• Turning up at Bavet without an eVisa, hoping VoA will be quick. The Bavet VoA queue is reliably 30 to 60 minutes and on bad days hits two hours. The eVisa lane is 20 to 40 minutes max for the whole bus. Apply before you board.
• Bringing damaged or pre-2006 USD notes for the rest stops and the tuk-tuk. Cambodia is strict about clean US notes — torn corners, marker pen, or pre-2006 printing dates are commonly refused. Pull fresh notes from an Aussie bank before you fly out.
• Booking the cheapest available bus to save $5. Sapaco and the smaller operators are fine for hardened travellers but they handle the passport flow yourself rather than running it through the attendant. New travellers, families, and anyone over fifty should pay the extra for Mekong Express or Giant Ibis.
• Filing a Cambodia e-Arrival 'just in case' for the land crossing. You do not need one — the e-Arrival is for air arrivals only. Save the $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) for a later flight leg if your trip includes one.

One last point on the Thailand alternative. Some older guidebooks suggest a Bangkok-Aranyaprathet-Poipet-Siem Reap overland loop as an alternative entry into Cambodia. That route has been off the table since June 2025 — every one of the seven Thailand–Cambodia land borders remains closed, with no reopening date scheduled. Bangkok is still a useful flight stopover, but it does not connect overland to Cambodia in 2026. The Thailand–Cambodia border closure update covers the closure context, and the visa-on-arrival airports guide covers the air-arrival contingency if you decide last-minute to fly into KTI instead.

Pre-departure checklist for the Saigon bus

The day before you board, run through this short list. None of it is fiddly, none of it costs much, and missing any single item is the source of most of the avoidable trouble at the border.

• Cambodia eVisa: approved, downloaded, two A4 colour prints made, one in your daypack, one in your main bag.
• Australian passport: at least 6 months validity from the crossing date, at least one clean blank page.
• US dollars: $50 to $100 in clean post-2006 small notes ($1, $5, $10) for the rest stops, the tuk-tuk, and the first Phnom Penh night.
• Vietnamese dong: roughly VND 200,000 to 500,000 for the morning coffee, the rest stop, and a Saigon breakfast if you eat on the way to the bus.
• Hotel address in Phnom Penh: written down on paper, not just on your phone. The Phnom Penh terminal taxi drivers do not always read English screens fluently.
• Travel insurance reference: emergency contact saved offline. Smartraveller advice read at least skim-level.
• e-Arrival QR: only if your return flight is out of KTI, SAI, or KOS. Save to your phone's photo album, not just inbox.

If you are tying this bus journey into a wider Indochina loop, the Vietnam–Cambodia visa combo guide covers the dual-visa sequencing, and the Indochina first-trip planning checklist covers the broader twelve-step pre-trip prep. The visa edge-cases piece is worth a five-minute read if your passport situation is anything other than a standard recent-issue Australian adult passport.

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.