2-Week Vietnam and Cambodia Itinerary for Americans: Visas, Order, and Costs

The 14-day route, day by day

The most popular direction for Americans is Vietnam first, Cambodia second, finishing at Siem Reap so Angkor Wat is the grand finale of the trip. It also fits the geography: you fly into the south of Vietnam, work your way through the country, then cross or fly into Cambodia. Here is how the two weeks break down in practice, with the visa checkpoint flagged at each border.

Days 1-4: Ho Chi Minh City and the south

Fly into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) — most US routings connect through a regional hub, so plan a full first day to land and reset. Two to three days covers the War Remnants Museum, the Cu Chi tunnels as a half-day trip, and a Mekong Delta day tour. Visa checkpoint: your Vietnam e-visa must be approved and printed before you board your flight to Saigon. The airline checks it at the US gate.

Days 5-8: Hanoi and Halong Bay

Take a short domestic flight north to Hanoi — about two hours, and cheap if booked ahead. Two days for the Old Quarter, the lakes, and the street food, then an overnight cruise on Halong Bay, which is the single image most travelers come home with. No new visa is needed for the internal Vietnam leg; your single Vietnam e-visa covers the whole Vietnam portion as long as you do not leave and re-enter.

Days 9-14: Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

Move into Cambodia — most two-week travelers fly Hanoi or Saigon to Phnom Penh, or take the Saigon-to-Phnom Penh bus over the Moc Bai-Bavet land border. Two days in Phnom Penh for the Royal Palace and the sobering Tuol Sleng and Killing Fields, then on to Siem Reap for three days at Angkor — temple sunrise, a full circuit, and a slower second day. If you want to give Cambodia more room, our 10-day Cambodia itinerary for Americans expands this leg into a standalone trip. Visa checkpoint: your Cambodia eVisa must be approved before this leg, and if you fly into Cambodia you also need the e-Arrival Card filed in the 7 days before that flight.

The two visas this trip needs

Because the route crosses one international border in the middle, you need exactly two visas for the standard one-way version of this trip: one Vietnam e-visa and one Cambodia eVisa. They are issued by two different governments, on two different portals, and you carry both as separate approvals. Neither covers the other country, and there is no shared product that covers both.

The Vietnam e-visa

Vietnam issues Americans an e-visa that costs about $25 for single-entry or $50 for multiple-entry, valid for up to 90 days depending on the option you choose. For the standard one-way route in this itinerary — Vietnam then Cambodia, never returning to Vietnam — single-entry is all you need. You apply with a US passport scan, a digital photo, a card, and a nominated entry and exit port, and approval takes roughly three working days.

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, which comfortably covers the 5-to-6-day Cambodia portion of a two-week trip. 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 two run as parallel mini-processes that never talk to each other, so a flagged photo on one side has no effect on the other. If you want the full side-by-side on both systems — every price, document, and rule for the pair — our Cambodia and Vietnam visa combo guide for Americans lays it all out, and the budget breakdown shows exactly where each dollar goes across the whole trip.

The order to apply and when to file

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

If you want a sequencing preference, treat whichever country you enter first as the priority application. For the standard route in this guide, that is Vietnam — it is the one the airline checks at your US gate before you have even left, so it is the visa that absolutely cannot be late. The Vietnam e-visa asks you to nominate an entry and exit port, so have your first Vietnam airport decided before you start that form.

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 Cambodian or Vietnamese public holiday 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. Leaving both visas to the final 72 hours is the single most common way two-week travelers turn a routine application into an avoidable scramble.

There is no real cost or timing penalty to either order, so the choice comes down to your route and your nerves. If you are still deciding which country to start in, our guide on whether to do Vietnam or Cambodia first weighs the visa, flight, and seasonal factors for Americans planning the same trip.

Crossing between the two: fly or take the bus

Between the Vietnam and Cambodia legs you have two clean options, and both work for Americans who already hold both visas. The first is flying: Saigon to Phnom Penh and Hanoi to Siem Reap are short, well-served, inexpensive hops that save a day over the land route. The second is the overland crossing, which many first-timers enjoy as part of the experience.

The overland route runs from Saigon to Phnom Penh through the Moc Bai border on the Vietnamese side and Bavet on the Cambodian side. Tourist buses run it daily, the journey takes roughly 6 to 7 hours including border processing, and travelers with both approved visas in hand walk through without issues. The non-negotiable rule is that both visas must already be approved before you reach the border — neither country issues a casual tourist visa at the land crossing, so a missing approval means you do not cross.

One regional note that reshapes any wider overland plan: every Thailand-Cambodia land border has been closed since June 2025, with no scheduled reopening confirmed as of April 2026. If you were thinking of bolting a Thailand leg onto this trip overland, that no longer works — you fly between Thailand and Cambodia instead. The Vietnam-Cambodia land border is unaffected and remains the reliable overland link for this itinerary.

If the bus is your plan, our Bavet border crossing guide for US citizens covers the routes, what the officers check, and how long each side actually takes. Note that the e-Arrival Card requirement applies to air arrivals into Cambodia — if you fly into Phnom Penh or Siem Reap rather than crossing by land, you file it before that flight.

What the visas and the trip 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 version of this trip, the visa math is simple: a single-entry Vietnam e-visa at $25 plus a Cambodia Tourist eVisa at $80 comes to $105 in visa fees. Add the $5 verified Cambodia e-Arrival Card and the total reaches $110 for both countries, fully covered, per traveler.

The Cambodia figure 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 the flights and two weeks of accommodation, the 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 route, the combined visa-and-arrival cost is $220.

The bigger trip budget

Beyond visas, two weeks across Vietnam and Cambodia is one of the better-value long trips an American can take — both countries run on US dollars in practice (Cambodia officially uses USD alongside the riel), domestic flights are cheap, and food and lodging are a fraction of US prices. Our full Vietnam and Cambodia trip budget for Americans breaks the daily costs down by city, and the Cambodia trip budget guide focuses on the Cambodia leg in detail.

The Cambodia e-Arrival step and putting it together

One last piece that Vietnam has no 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 or Siem Reap, both served by the new airports including KTI Techo International near Phnom Penh — you file the e-Arrival Card. If you cross into Cambodia by land at Bavet instead, the e-Arrival step does not apply the same way, but your Cambodia eVisa still has to be approved and in hand. Vietnam asks for nothing equivalent on either side; the e-visa PDF is the whole document set at the Vietnamese desk.

So the full two weeks, start to finish: 7 to 8 days in Vietnam, 5 to 6 in Cambodia, with two separate visas filed online on the same day 10 to 14 days out, one crossing in the middle, 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.