Intro Travel review: 9 day Cambodia tour of Angkor Wat, Koh Rong, Kampot and Phnom Penh
An honest review of my experience with Intro Travel in Cambodia
When I was planning my trip to South East Asia, I knew that a visit to the historic Angkor Wat temples was definitely on my list, but I wasn’t sure about what else to visit in Cambodia. I also travelled by myself for a while in Vietnam, and I wanted a break from solo travelling and I was looking for the social aspect of a small group of other budget backpackers, so this 10 day tour with Intro Travel seemed like a good way to visit some highlights of Cambodia. I booked this tour in October 2019 and I paid for it myself, so this is a completely independent review.
I had some great experiences on this tour, like the the white sand beaches and island lifestyle on Koh Rong, experiencing the unique culture of the floating villages near Siem Reap, making traditional Cambodian curry during a cooking class in Kampot, taking a sunset boat cruise and kayaking tour and of course, seeing the sunrise at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Angkor Wat.
You can read a detailed day-by-day summary of all the experiences I had on this tour or jump straight to the end where I share what I liked, what could have been better and my final recommendation for this tour of Cambodia by Intro Travel.
Overview of the Intro Cambodia Tour
Highlights: Visiting Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage site, learning about pepper during an organic farm visit, seeing the beautiful white sand beaches on Koh Rong and having so many excellent vegetarian curries !
Destinations: Phnom Penh, Kampot, Koh Rong, Koh Rong Samloem, Siem Reap and surrounding area for Angkor Wat.
Who was on the trip: Ten people, all British except for two Australians and one Canadian (me!). The age range on this Intro Travel tour was all under 30, mostly early 20s, and a few people were university aged students.
Who was the guide: We had one main guide for the whole trip who was British, and we had several local drivers and local guides for tours of particular stops, like the floating village and Angkor Wat.
How did we travel: Often in tuk-tuk style taxis around the cities, private minivan buses for a few longer drives, one public overnight bus, and the ferry to reach Koh Rong.
Where did we stay: Simple hotels, guest cabins and a hotel style room in a hostel. All had pools, although one pool was not working.
Recommended Luggage: Ideally a backpack, you should be able to move and carry the luggage yourself as you will have to bring it on the ferry and move it between hotel rooms and buses.
Arrival in Phnom Penh
I flew into Phnom Penh from Ho Chi Minh City with Cambodia Angkor Air, and let me tell you, they do not mess around with their luggage size restrictions. It felt like one of the more sketchy flights I have ever taken, and if your luggage was even a kilo over, there was a 60 dollar charge that could only be paid for in US cash dollars. Upon arrival in Cambodia, I paid for a visa, made it through customs and was able to locate the transfer driver after buying some mozzarella sticks at a Burger King to use their WIFI.
Read More : 11 things I should have packed for my first trip to South East Asia
The hotel was located in downtown Phnom Penh and I had to walk under a crane and through an active construction site to reach it, which was slightly concerning and would definitely not be allowed for health and safety reasons back home.
The leader for this Intro Travel Cambodia tour was at the hotel for check in and explained that we had a free day until dinner time. I also met my roommate, a very tired British teacher who had come off a delayed flight from Dubai and wasn’t feeling well. There were a few other people on the tour out by the pool area and I went over to a convenience store to get a SIM card and some American dollars.
Travel Tip : Cambodia uses the US dollar for larger purchase amounts, and the Cambodian Riel for small change amounts. You will probably end up with a mix of both in your wallet. The typical advice is that bank machines in Cambodia will dispense American money in hundred dollar bills and you want to break those as soon as possible for smaller bills, because the hundreds won’t be accepted if they get any creases or tears.
Phnom Penh Royal Palace
I decided this free afternoon would be a good time to explore the city and visit the Royal Palace of Cambodia about half an hour walking distance from the hotel. Walking in heavy traffic is not my favourite activity, but I had been in Asia for about a month at this point so I was comfortable enough with it, and walking can be the best way to learn about a new city. I do genuinely sometimes worry about the amount of pollution I probably inhaled in Asia, but what can you do.
The late afternoon is a beautiful time to visit the Royal Palace complex if you want good lighting for the photos, I left it a bit too close to closing time and had to rush through, I also didn’t get a guide, and the English signage is limited so ideally I would recommend getting a guide if you choose to go.
Back at the hotel, I met the rest of the Intro Travel group in the lobby for dinner. About half of the group had been in Vietnam together already for around two weeks with a bigger group and another guide as part of the longer Intro Travel ‘Epic Asia’ or Intro Vietnam tour. They had done an 8 hour overland bus crossing from Vietnam that day and several people mentioned they would have preferred to fly, as the crossing was not comfortable.
I had actually run into a different Intro Travel Vietnam group about a week earlier during a cruise of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and you can read about that experience here.
Phnom Penh
After introductions we headed over to a restaurant and got some really nice happy hour cocktails for about 2USD each and I had an excellent vegetarian lasagne. (I realize that none of my meals on the first day were traditional Cambodian cuisine, but I just hadn’t eaten cheese based dishes in a while and I wanted to change it up from rice, noodles, and curries).
I got to know some other people over dinner, there were a few students, someone who worked at a bank, a teacher. All British, except for myself and two Australians. At this point we had both our guide for the Intro Cambodia tour and the previous guide from the Intro Vietnam tour with us.
Several people from the Vietnam portion of the tour did mention that the Vietnam guide was only really paying attention to one group of girls on their tour and not helping other people as much. I wasn’t there for the Vietnam part of the tour, but this issue was a bit of a discussion topic that evening.
I was worried that joining a group of people who had already been together for a while on a longer Intro Travel tour would be difficult, but it was fine, they were very inclusive and about half of us were new people joining the tour.
We finished off our first night at a cool bar that was in a repurposed London double decker bus and had a few drinks. I believe we were all back at the hotel before midnight as many people were tired from so much travelling that day and we had some more serious activities planned for the next morning. (Also please note that is a stock image of mixed drinks, I promise we did not waste that many plastic straws.)
Cambodia History Day Tour
Breakfast was included at the hotel and then we separated into a few little groups to take tuk-tuk taxis to the first stop of the day to learn about the history of Cambodia and some tragic events which took place during the war years in the 1970s under the Khmer Rouge.
First, we had a local guide at the Genocide Museum who provided commentary as we walked through the former prison complex where many people were killed. It is very sad to think this happened in living memory, not that long before many of us were born. There are still survivors and the Cambodian government is making an effort through the museum to record their testimony and experiences. Some survivors have also authored books about their experiences and you can learn more about the museum itself on the official website.
Afterwards we had a tuk tuk ride out into the countryside with a stop for an included lunch at a family restaurant. They served a vegetarian curry and there was an option to pay for added drinks or sodas.
Our next stop was the memorial site of Choeung Ek which is commonly referred to as ‘the killing fields’. There were actually several sites, but this one is the most well known, sadly because of the large number of people killed there. We did an audio guide tour individually at Choeung Ek, and I personally didn’t feel like taking any pictures during our visit, if you would like to learn more, I suggest this article from the Culture Trip .
I remember learning about the war in Cambodia in world history class during high school, so the guided visit of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek ‘killing fields’ area really helped me to understand the series of events that lead to so many lives being lost.
The rest of the afternoon was free time in Pnomh Penh, and we went out for dinner again as a group later that night.
Drive to Kampot
Breakfast was provided at the hotel and then we split into two groups in minivans to start the drive to Kampot. The road quality in Cambodia is all over the place, sometimes we were on perfectly good paved highways and sometimes dirt roads with pot holes. I slept for most of the drive and we arrived at our next hotel in the early afternoon.
We had two person shared rooms with air conditioning and we were hoping to go for a swim but the pool on site had just been constructed and unfortunately wasn’t filled yet. So then we thought maybe we could swim in the river but were told very quickly that swimming was not recommended.
The hotel was situated directly on the river front, and the kayak departure point was just down the road. There was an included lunch at the kayak place, with a sweet potato curry, fresh bread and these random fruit flavoured energy drinks. Something I liked about this Intro Travel tour was that meals were well arranged for the most part, and we were not stuck waiting hours for group dinners, (which happened during my tours in Bali and Thailand especially) so I think that was good organization on their part.
Kampot Kayaking Tour
Our major activity for the day was kayaking through the jungle area on the river called the ‘Green Cathedral’ just a few kilometres outside of town. It was a pretty relaxed afternoon and it was interesting to pass by different homes on the river front, including what appeared to be a fairly loud karaoke birthday party at one point. I really liked having a more active included activity after sitting on the bus that morning.
Read More: 10 Things to do in Kampot , Cambodia
The evening was quite relaxed as well, we just had some more curry (but it was a green curry this time !) at the restaurant next door to our hotel. The tour leader organized a travel trivia game in the bar area later and I won a cute little reusable shopping bag with the Intro Travel logo. There was also weirdly a lot of lightning in the sky but no rain, which I think has to do with the constant heat during the day.
Kampot Market Visit
When I originally saw Kampot on the Intro Travel tour itinerary, I didn’t know what to expect, I just thought it would be nice to see the countryside of Cambodia as a contrast to the bigger cities, but we actually experienced and learned so much at this stop.
The first activity for the day was market tour and food tasting in the actual town of Kampot. We split into two groups and had local guides bring us around to different parts of the market both so we could buy supplies for the upcoming cooking class and sample some fruits. The guides asked if anyone wanted to check out the meat section and fortunately or me (as a vegetarian), no one really wanted to.
The Kampot region is known for producing both pepper and durians. There is a giant durian statue in the centre of town, but we did not try any durian at the market, which I was also ok with as I sampled some durian ice cream in Singapore previously and it’s a very unusual taste.
Our next stop was an organic pepper farm out in the countryside and we took about an hour long ride down some dusty, muddy roads. I was in a minivan, but the people in the tuk-tuks were having a hard time with the dust and were given masks. The farm is called ‘ La Plantation’ and is owned by some French people who had purchased it and then renovated and replanted everything that got destroyed during the war years, and this now provides good employment for many local people.
Kampot Organic Farm and Cooking Class
The first activity at the farm was a cooking class, where we made several traditional dishes, including both meat based and vegetarian ones, including a curry and a spiced mushroom mix baked in banana leaf baskets. I was assigned to pepper grinding at first, but didn’t do it forcefully enough so I got reassigned to onion chopping.
After lunch, we had a tour of the actual farm where they grow pepper, along with other organic fruits and vegetables like pineapples. I loved learning about this, I had never in my life seriously contemplated where pepper comes from and I think it’s important to be aware of how our food is produced.
Finally, we had a pepper tasting in the gift shop, with about 10 different kinds to try and little score cards so you could remember what you wanted to buy. The only thing with that, is that pepper is quite spicy, and we had nothing to drink in between different varieties, so near the end of the tasting a few people had given up.
Pepper would have been such a nice, useful, gift to bring home, but I still had a month left in Asia and only a 12kg little backpack so there was just no way I could think of to get the pepper safely back to Canada without carrying it around for 6 more weeks.
Kampot Sunset Boat Cruise
At this point we had already done a lot, but we still had one more included activity today, a sunset boat cruise down the Kampot river. There was enough time to change back at the hotel and have a drink at the small harbour area while we waited for the boat. It was nice to just hang out with everyone on the roof deck and have a few beers as the sun went down.
I loved hearing about what kind of trips people were on, some were doing months-long graduation trips before they started school or work, other people were just doing the Intro Travel Asia tours as a holiday, and many (like me) were doing a mix of solo backpacking and tour groups with stops in Bali, Thailand and Vietnam.
Once it was dark, they also steered the boat into an area with fireflies which was cool and the boat passed under a few bridges lit up with bright neon lights on the way back into the main town for dinner. We got tuk-tuk taxis back to the hotel after dinner, I think everyone was too tired from such an interesting, busy, day to do anything else in town.
Drive to Sihanoukville
It was time to leave for the islands, so we had breakfast at the hotel, and also refilled our water bottles in the lobby. It was good that they encouraged not wasting plastic at many hotels by having safe water in dispensers available usually in the lobby.
The morning was a several hour drive to the ferry port in Sihanoukville to reach the island of Koh Rong. There was one main stop at a big convenience store for restrooms and supplies because there is more selection and better pricing than on the islands. I stocked up on bug repellent because it is essential to use proper, actual bug spray in Cambodia (like the DEET ones, not ‘essential oils’) because some areas can have mosquito-carried diseases. I also found some tortilla chips and looked everywhere for some salsa but the closest I could find was were small jars of pasta sauce which didn’t sound… quite right so I gave up and got popcorn instead.
Sihanoukville is kind of a weird place, years ago it was just a quiet city but we were told that a lot of Chinese investment money is coming into the country so there were buildings going up all over the place, I think with the intention of China eventually having a big shipping port in the country. There were also many casinos in town aimed at tourists, unfortunately I think this is an example of unregulated growth driven by foreign investment, probably partly in response to tourism. We were just there to catch the ferry, and the ferry port itself was quite basic and it was hard to find restrooms, there were none on the actual ferry either so I ended up going into a random restaurant.
Ferry to Koh Rong Island
We were also informed by one of the British girls that a backpacker had gone missing on Koh Rong a few days earlier when she didn’t return back to her accommodation after a beach party. There was an official search underway on the island with police and the military to try and locate the girl. This was obviously incredibly sad and also a bit concerning that we were on our way to a place where an active missing person investigation was underway. Finding this out on our way there changed the mood a bit, from being excited to get out on the beaches to wondering if we could help with the search or whether we should even still be going ? The same British girl posted on Instagram with a location tag for Koh Rong later that day and got some pretty mean messages about the fact we were visiting there while the backpacker was still missing.
I was also concerned about the Koh Rong visit because I had read on someone else’s blog that they got awful sand fly bites on the beaches there and that the accommodation was quite basic. I almost considered not booking this Intro Travel tour because it included Koh Rong as a stop, but I decided to go and just be super careful on the beach and always wear insect repellent.
When we arrived at the actual resort, the accommodation was fine, we had individual or shared little cabins with regular beds and bathrooms, same as any hotel, they also included mosquito nets to sleep under. We went swimming right away and met some Germans who were cleaning plastic off the beach area. This was the same issue for many places I visited in Asia, seeing trash and plastic in the water and on beaches. So if you are visiting, be aware of your plastic usage and reduce it wherever possible.
We also saw a group of military and police with search dogs going through the resort, and one of the girls inquired whether there was anything we should be doing to help, because honestly it felt weird doing regular resort vacation activities while the missing backpacker might still have been on the island somewhere. We were told there was nothing we could do.
Kong Rong Beach
Later in the afternoon, we walked maybe 30 minutes around the island to another resort to visit a better beach and have a drink before dinner. There are pretty clear pathways through the jungle but we also had to cross some fairly fast moving water at one point on a sketchy bridge, so you could kind of see how someone could get lost or fall at night-time. We walked past the hostel the lost girl had been staying at and it was completely empty, same with the resort where we had some drinks and relaxed in hammocks for a while.
It was probably the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life, pure white sand, turquoise blue water, completely deserted except for us. But I think we were all just so preoccupied with the missing girl, like maybe she just hit her head and got lost in the jungle somehow, or whether she was kidnapped by someone, just very sad and concerning.
We walked into the only little town area on the island for dinner and had pizza, and we went to a bar afterwards that had games like beer pong and had a few drinks, but as you can imagine, it just didn’t feel like the right time to be having a party.
Travel Tip: Leave your mosquito net in place all the time rather than pushing it out of the way on the bed during the day. Otherwise, when you move it back into place to go to sleep at night, you could have mosquitos trapped underneath.
Koh Rong Boat Tour
We had a full day included activity consisting of a boat tour and a visit to the neighbouring island of Koh Rong Samloem. The first stop was for snorkelling, I saw some colourful corals and fish and then back on the boat they provided trays of fruit and beers for snack. We headed out into open water for deep sea fishing, which is actually not as complicated as it sounds, you just hold these big reels of fishing line with bait on the end and slowly reel them in. I participated, but didn’t catch anything which is good, because I am vegetarian and probably would have felt bad if I was implicated in killing a fish.
We arrived on the smaller island of Koh Rong Samloem for lunch, the boats have to be moored quite far out because the beach area is so shallow and you have to wade in quite a ways and hold your backpack over your head to keep it dry. So it kind of felt like washing up on a desert island somewhere, except that there is a long beach front area with shops and resorts.
At the restaurant/hostel/dive shop place where we had lunch, they had WIFI and there were still no updates about the missing British girl. We spoke to the bartender for a while and she was an American who had quit her job and come to live on this little tropical island to teach diving. I always think that’s interesting to hear from people who go on adventures like that, it sounds so fun and chill to live on an island, but on the other hand maybe you would get tired of it after a while ?
In the late afternoon, we met up with the whole group to walk across the island to reach a resort that was supposed to have the best sunset views. Some friendly stray dogs tried to join us, and we passed all kinds of construction projects for big resorts being built. I think sooner than later there could be issues with ‘over tourism’ and there are questions about whether it is really sustainable for these islands to have big resorts. I would suggest you do your own research to see how you feel about visiting Koh Rong in the future (regarding sustainability etc.), because it will likely be very different than how it was when we were there in late 2019.
Koh Rong Samloem
We went swimming again and had a beer at the resort and finally, very sadly, news came through from the resort owner that searchers had located the remains of the missing girl off the coast of Thailand and she likely had fallen into the ocean and drowned at night, as explained in this newspaper article . I am so sorry for that girl and her family and how difficult it must have been for them. Please remember to never go swimming at night and discourage others from doing so, never underestimate the power of the ocean even if you are a good swimmer.
After the sun went down, we walked back across the island to re-board our boat it was kind of creepy walking through the jungle at night. Obviously we were a good sized group with the guide and there’s no particular danger, but it just felt so weird with no one else around. On the boat ride back we made some mixed drinks and they turned disco lights on and we had a little dance party.
Over dinner at the resort, we also had a SCUBA diving presentation from a local company, but everyone on our Intro Travel tour had already done it elsewhere in Asia, mostly Bali or Thailand, so no one signed up. I tried it on the island of Gili T on a trip to Bali and you can read more about that here.
This particular night also happened to be Halloween, and usually there would be a big beach party with DJs and a costume contest but that was all cancelled out of respect for the girl who had passed away, which I fully support and understand. There were still signs up for it all over the island, and we walked back into the little town on Koh Rong to see what was going on, a few bars had Halloween decorations and drink specials but it was still a sad atmosphere with the news from earlier in the day, so we all returned to the resort before midnight.
Koh Rong, Ferry, and Night Bus
Our last half day on Koh Rong had an included massage back in the little village. Now, I am just not a big massage person, and had never actually had a professional one before, and this was a bit extreme, the massage lady was sitting on me at one point, but I did feel better afterwards.
A few people also went off for a zipline/tree top walking course optional and the rest of us had lunch in the village. We went swimming one last time in the afternoon, and got our phones charged and luggage sorted for the night bus journey to Siem Reap. After the ferry ride, back in Sihanoukville, I just had a very average pad Thai at a tourist restaurant on the harbourfront and we went to wait for the night bus.
At the night bus stop, our tour guide helped out a confused German backpacker figure out where he needed to go, and it just made me think, of all places I went in Asia, I was most happy being with a tour group in Cambodia and Vietnam. Having a guide and being with the group made such a difference, I personally would not have wanted to be standing by myself in the dark in a strange city waiting for the delayed night bus.
When the bus finally arrived, it was weirdly filled only with tourists and backpackers, we had these double size mattresses to share, one per two people, not super comfortable but you could lie down properly.
Two people on our tour were suffering from terrible carsickness nausea for the whole trip and decided to just fly from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap and re-join us at the hostel the next morning. That night bus trip was uneventful and we transferred to tuk-tuks to reach our final hostel for the tour.
Siem Reap
The accommodation in Siem Reap was super nice for a hostel, more like a hotel, we had two person share rooms and there was a big pool area with included breakfast. There was an optional walking tour of Siem Reap after breakfast and I wanted to go and signed up for it, but there was a Facebook message sent to confirm numbers that I never saw, so the walking tour got cancelled because there were technically not enough people. I did not know that, so I was waiting around at the hostel trying to find the group until my roommate was able to confirm it was cancelled. That mix up was a bit frustrating, but I only had one full day in Siem Reap so I downloaded an audio walking tour and just went off by myself.
Siem Reap itself is quite a small city, I walked along the riverfront, past a temple and garden complex and later through the markets to try and find a souvenir pin. Someone from the tour found a really nice air conditioned vegetarian restaurant nearby for lunch.
Our big activity for the day was a boat cruise visit to a floating village. We had a local guide join us and we stopped at a market to stock up on traditional snacks, like banana chips and steamed sweet coconut rice in bamboo. They also had a bug sampling for those who were interested (not me, as bugs aren’t vegetarian, but I have heard they are a good source of protein).
Floating Village Visit
I enjoyed the drive through the countryside, just seeing how people actually live outside the bigger towns and cities. We passed by rice farms, forests, random cows, local markets and a big wedding celebration with lots of music and dancing. But, there is also a lot of trash just all over the side of the roads, they just don’t have the infrastructure in place to manage it properly. We arrived at the harbour area to start the boat ride, and the water was quite polluted with garbage floating and did not smell very good.
As part of the tour, we passed by many floating houses, floating shops and people out fishing and stopped for a visit inside a local floating home. I believe this was part of an eco-tourism cooperative and residents who do the home tours are properly compensated for their time. Later in Thailand, I visited a ‘floating market’ that was really just a tourist attraction, so I appreciated just seeing someone’s regular average life in the home, not any kind of tourist presentation.
There is a school for the children on a nearby island and I believe they can also get fresh water there. The incentive for living in this situation, is that they don’t pay property taxes and also most people have family nearby and its part of their culture to live on the water and most are involved in fishing as a job.
We watched the sunset from the roof of the boat and I was thinking this was the kind of experience I don’t think I would have had if I just visited Cambodia by myself.
Floating Village Visit
I was also thinking on the ride back that everyone on this Intro Travel Cambodia tour got along quite well. Ten people was a good size to be able to move around easily, but still split off into smaller groups for other activities. I thought everyone in our particular group was quite inclusive, and I was happy I chose to spend my time in Cambodia with them rather than be alone for two weeks.
Back on shore, we stopped quickly to use the restrooms before reboarding the minivan and all these school children suddenly appeared and requested money from us to go inside. I realized afterwards that there probably was no actual charge to go in, but they probably needed a dollar more than I did. That said, I try to be quite careful about giving children money or buying things from them when I travel because they should be in school and them getting money can incentivize parents to keep them out of school. I think in this situation though, they just saw an opportunity to make money off of some foreign people who desperately needed a restroom.
Back in Siem Reap, we just had some burgers at the hostel for dinner and I wandered into town with two of the British girls to get some gelato for dessert at a well-reviewed place I had seen earlier. There was absolutely no going out or parties this evening, because we had to be up around 3:30am to start the journey to Angkor Wat, which was the entire reason I booked a trip to Cambodia.
Angkor Wat Temples
Years ago I think you could probably just show up whenever to visit Angkor Wat, but that is not the case anymore. It is the most valuable tourist site the country has, and the Cambodian government has strongly regulated the visiting process in recent years, I think both for the preservation of the temple complex and because it’s a source of revenue for the country.
All that to say, we had to wake up at 4 in the morning to arrive at the visitor centre on time to get tickets and be in before the sunrise. The hostel provided a breakfast to-go to eat during the tuk-tuk ride there. When we arrived at the visitor complex , we were practically the first ones in line, and you get a little admission card with your picture on it so that it can’t be resold (don’t lose it because they will check them and they will not be replaced if lost). Also, you need to wear ‘temple appropriate’ clothing, and have shoulders and knees covered.
Our local guide joined us at this point and we followed along with hundreds of other people walking in the dark to get in place for sunrise over the main temple. We stopped for coffee somewhere along the way as well. And then finally…. sunrise !
It was actually pretty disappointing, we just got a bad weather day, so there were no beautiful colours, just dark grey sky to light grey sky. The main temple area is roped off until official opening time and a random girl (not from our tour) climbed over the barrier to get pictures with no one in the background and got yelled at by hundreds of people. I definitely suggest you respect the procedures in place for visiting.
Angkor Wat Temple Visits
Our guide brought us straight to a part of the temple where you climb up some fairly steep stairs to get a good view over the complex and we went around that morning learning about the different decorative designs, construction methods and history (it started out as a Hindu temple and became a Buddhist one over the years) and there was an option to be blessed by monks at one point.
The Angkor Pass ticket actually covers access to a number of temples in the area, so we visited a few more, including one called Ta Prohm which is famous from the ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ movie, which you can learn about here.
I had watched a big YouTube documentary about Angkor Wat for research at home, but it was just amazing to walk around these temples and think they were built so long ago and some could have just been lost to the jungle over the years until they were restored.
By the late morning, people were getting tired and the sun was getting quite hot so we started the tuk-tuk ride back into Siem Reap.
Siem Reap
In the afternoon, the tour guide did a presentation at the hostel with a video about some of the other tours offered by Intro Travel, I thought the Mexico and Japan tours looked good.
He also briefly explained the Intro Travel ‘Small Change’ initiative which is to encourage socially conscious travel relating to environmental protection, animal welfare, cultural exchange and supporting local communities.
They also mentioned supporting land mine removal and providing school supplies (from what I remember) so I was happy to see they are supporting some local projects ‘behind the scenes’ as well and are conscious of the impact travel and tourism activities have on the local community.
I had my luggage packed and ready to go before dinner time, as I had a flight to Bangkok that night to join a Life Before Work tour group for 19 days in Thailand, which you can read about here. [link coming soon]
The last included activity with the Intro Travel Cambodia group was a farewell dinner at a nicer restaurant and the tour guide was really good about making sure everything was on time so I could participate before leaving for the airport. Most tour groups make the final dinner an optional you have to pay for, so I thought it was really nice and different to see it included. It was sad to leave everyone and not join them for one last night out, but the flight this evening was the only way to make the dates work with the next tour.
Final Recommendation for the Intro Travel Cambodia Tour
What I liked:
Honestly, I came to Cambodia with very few expectations, I knew I wanted to see Angkor Wat and the rest of the tour activities sounded good on the Intro Travel website so I booked. I was very impressed with both the range of activities we did and the pace of the tour. I thought it was very well organized and we made the most of our days having different experiences like the farm visit, sunset cruise, floating village, and island tour. I also didn’t find it too rushed, I thought we had the right amount of time to get a sense of each destination.
I also liked that we had destinations in the city, the countryside and out in the islands, for a tour that covers one country in about 10 days, it was a really nice balance of experiences.
I also appreciated that there was a focus on sustainability and encouraging the use of reusable water bottles, which is not something I’ve always seen on other tours.
The main guide we had was absolutely professional the entire time, very organized and got us where we needed to go, I also appreciated that we had local guides in most destinations as well. I was additionally impressed with the amount of food inclusions, several meals and the farewell dinner being included seemed like very good value.
Communication regarding pre-departure emails was generally good, although I submitted my flight arrival info through Tour Radar and that apparently wasn’t passed on to Intro, causing some confusion with the airport transfer times on the first day.
What could have better:
So, as you can probably understand, our experience on Koh Rong was affected by the situation with the missing backpacker which has nothing to do with Intro Travel. I do not believe there were any government warnings or advisories to stay away from the island during that time but I felt like we could have used a bit more info or reassurance from the tour company during that situation.
The mix up around the walking tour that ended up with it being cancelled was disappointing, though a minor issue overall. Sometimes info doesn’t get through over Facebook messenger if people are off WIFI for a while, which is what happened here. I also would have liked a functional swimming pool at the hotel in Kampot, but I understand that sometimes things are under construction.
Final Recommendation:
I think this tour is a great option for someone in the 20-30 age range who wants to experience some highlights of Cambodia with a group of like-minded budget travellers. I think even if someone generally does solo travel and hostels, it’s nice to take a break from the planning and coordination for a while and be with the same group of people for almost 2 weeks.
This wouldn’t suit someone looking for a luxury experience, as we stayed in perfectly nice, simple hotels, and took a public bus at one point.
When I think about the range of included activities we had and private guided tours, I don’t think I could have done everything we did on this tour by myself for the same amount of money. So for me the value was definitely there on this Intro Travel Cambodia tour and I also really liked that it was well-organised, the commitment to sustainability and the smaller group size .
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On this 9 day tour from Phnom Penh, you can visit floating villages, white sand beaches, take a sunset boat cruise, cooking class, and a guided visit of the temples at Angkor Wat ! Find out if I recommend this Cambodia tour with Intro Travel.