To get to Cambodia from Vietnam, make your way to Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon.
Reasons to get to Cambodia from Vietnam:
a) Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, is only less than 2 hours away to Cambodia at the Vietnam Moc Bai border. And from the Moc Bai border, Phnom Penh is only another 3 hours away by bus. With Cambodia being so close to Vietnam, why not take the chance to ‘conquer’ another country while you are touring Vietnam?
b) It cost only US$10 for an air conditioned tourist bus to get from Vietnam to Cambodia.
c) At the very least, cross over to Cambodia to check out Tuol Sleng Museum, better known as the S21 Prison and the almighty Angkok Wat (see more photos here). I promise you that you won’t regret visiting these 2 places.
Convinced? Here’s how to get to Cambodia from Vietnam:
Buy your tickets at the Saigon backpackers hostel area. I got mine from Sinh Cafe. I had actually went to check with 2 other travel agencies and Sinh Cafe was the only one with the bus to Cambodia leaving at 6.30am. The other 2 travel agencies start the journey earliest at 8am. They say the early bird catches the worm 
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
Comfortable air condition tourist bus. Comes with a bottle of mineral water and wet tissue too And because I took the early bus, it was only half filled. Put your big backpacks in the baggage compartment (by the sides of the bus) and throw your hand carries on the rack above your seats.
I’m a Singaporean so I don’t have to worry about getting a Cambodia visa. But when I was doing this trip, I noticed that the guide (yes, there’s a guide, besides the bus driver, who will bring you all the way to Phnom Penh) was offering Cambodia visa on arrival for only US$25. Do ask about this Cambodia visa when you are buying your tickets.
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
This is the Vietnam Moc Bai border.
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
Carry all your belongings when you alight the bus as they need to be scanned when you leave Vietnam. After you are done at the Vietnam immigration, you go back up to the bus for the short trip, about 200m, into the Cambodian border. You then alight again and this time round, there’s no need to carry all your belongings into the Cambodian immigration as there is no baggage scanner. I advise that you should carry with you all your valuable stuffs anyway.
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
Catch the last glimpse of Vietnam after you have cleared your immigration.
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
This is how the Cambodian border looks like. In the past, we used to walk on foot into the border with our big and heavy backpacks.
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
This is about the dividing line between Vietnam and Cambodia. Without the tent, it will make for a great picture
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
After clearing the custom at the Cambodian border, you will be greeted with the scenes below. You are now in Cambodia
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
To the left of this hotel, just outside the Cambodian border, is where you’ll have your 1st and only break for about 30mins. After that, it’s the 3 hours drive to Phnom Penh.
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
On your way back from Cambodia to Vietnam, you will be greeted with these images.
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
How to get to Cambodia from Vietnam
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This is very helpful indeed. I will be in HCMC from 12-20th and am planning the itinerary. Is it OK to ask you some questions?
Sure Danny. But I’ll prefer that u ask them here so that the rest can hopefully benefit from my humble opinion
Thanks! It sounds kind of ambitious but I am planning to cover in 9 days:-
HCMC- Hue – Hoa An- Mui Ne – Nha Trang – HCMC – Cambodia – HCMC then flight back to SG
Should I drop some of them?
Would be glad if you can recommend the mode of transport and accomodation?
I am thinking internal flight from HCMC to Hue and travel downward on bus/train. But not really sure how long it takes from 1 place to another?
Thanks a lot in advance for any help! =)
Hello Danny,
I urge you to reconsider your iternary. For a start, if you wanna do Cambodia, you MUST visit Angkok Wat which is in Siem Riep. That will make another 8 to 12 hours of travel from Phnom Penh taking up at least 4 days already.
For Vietnam, if you haven’t gotten any tickets, I suggest doing the north 1st and then south on another trip. With 9 days, you can visit Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa comfortably.
For south Vietnam, I suggest HCMC, (maybe) Mekong Delta, Mui Ne and Hoi An. Squeeze too much and you’ll lose the fun of exploring. Plus S’pore is so close to Vietnam. Book your tickets in advance and you can get 2-way trips from under S$150.
I think the flight from HCMC to Hue is about 2 hours.
Thank you so much!
Yes I was wondering if the time allows me to get to Angkor Wat.
I did Hanoi/Sapa last year and enjoyed a lot.=)
I will consider the Southern part and save Cambodia for another day!
Good boy Danny
From HCMC to angkor wat… how long does it take? n which bus agency shud i use for a direct route and how much does it cost?
Thanks
Hi Ray, according to the Sinh Cafe’s handbook, it’s 12hours from HCMC to Siem Reap and it cost about US$18.
ok thanks…
ok thanks… whr can i get that Sinh Cafe’s Handbook???
At Sinh Cafe
But u can also go to their website to check the prices.
http://www.thesinhtourist.vn/
We plan to travel to Vietnam this December, and like to ask you this: Between TheSinhTourist (originally SinhCafe on DeTham st) and current SinhCafe( on BanCo st ?),which one provide better bus services? Your Vietnam720 is very informative, Thank you.
Dear Harry, thank you for dropping by and the compliment.
According to their website, there is no branch at ‘BanCo’ street. De Tham is the headquarter. U should check out that one 1st. Plus it’s right in the backpacker’s area.
Hi,
How long does it take from HCMC to Phnom Penh, and does the bus has restroom?
I will traveling with kid. thanks.
Time taken already mentioned in this post. 5 hrs. No restroom.
Thanks for the very informative post. Five of us (girls only) are traveling to Vietnam at the end of the year. This gave us a great travel plan.
Welcome and have LOTS of fun
this has been very very helpful. Cheers again!
even the post on Sinh Cafe Saigon rocks! got a reply and booked our bus tickets within minutes!
Cheers to you too Clementine
Great, clear, concise information! Your the best!
Thank you Jamie
Hi Ben,
(not sure if I got your name right since I couldn’t find it anywhere)
Thanks for sharing the wonderful info!
I’m planning to do the HCMC-PP-HCMC trip in aug. Do you happen to know the return bus timings from Phnom Penh to HCMC?
Thanks!
Alo CK, thank you for dropping by here. Yeah, Ben’s my name
There are buses from PP to HCMC on an hourly basis starting from 7am. But those are the local bus which are not comfortable. For the tourist bus, they start from around 9am.
Hi again!
Do you happen to know the time of the earliest bus from Saigon to PP or Siam Reap? Thanks! =)
Hi Kat, thanks lots for dropping by Vietnam720.
As mention in the last few comments here, the earliest starts from about 7am
Hi Ben,
Glad to stumble on your site. Very helpful
My friends and I will be arriving HCMC on 12 Aug 2010 @ 00:30 & will leave on 17 Aug 2010 @ 04:00 local time.
Do you think we’ll be able to visit these places:
Mekong Delta
Cu Chi Tunnel
Angkor Wat
HCMC
Cai Dai Temple
with our schedule?
Alo Anna, thank you for your compliment
You won’t be able to cover them all as doing Angkok Wat itself will take at least 3 days for a return trip from HCMC.
Hi Ben,
Can I check with you whether the Sinh Cafe office in Phnom Penh via this bus that transits from Sai Gon is out of the way from the city area?
I’m wondering if you will recommend their hotel/guesthouse in Phnom Penh.
Thanks!
Haha, CK, I have no idea about that man
I’m back from a trip to Sai Gon and booked return trip bus tickets via Sinh Tourist (their new name) for Phnom Penh. Tto play it safe, I booked their hotel in Phnom Penh for the last night before i take their bus the next morning (7:30am) back to Sai Gon.
Our first surprise came when we were told to board Capitol Tours bus instead on the morning of our boarding. We booked Sinh Cafe over the other companies (there are a handful of others in Pham Ngu Lao) because we found that the buses were indeed new and clean (like it appeared on the photos above).
However, at the point in time when we purchased the tickets, the person at Sinh Cafe did not tell us that we were the only 2 pax taking the bus so they would put us on the bus of another company. So we ended up on a bus full of vietnamese and cambodians. The bus was not too bad so it was ok, except that the price of the bus ticket was US$9 but we paid US$10 (per pax) to Sinh Cafe. For visitors who wish to do the same trip in the future, you might want to check if they are going to put you on the bus of another company and go straight to the other bus company along the same street/area and buy from them direct instead.
The same thing happened for the bus trip back from Phnom Penh to Sai Gon but we sort of expected it.
However, the second surprise came because we booked the Sinh Cafe hotel which was far away from the city area in Phnom Penh. We booked the hotel believeing that we were boarding the bus at the hotel. It ended up that since we were going on another company’s bus, we were transferred to another bus terminal far away enough from the hotel.
I will recommend Sinh Cafe buses but not their hotel in Phnom Penh because of its poor location.
Thanks Ben for reviewing the Sinh Cafe and helping me plan my trip to Vietnam/Cambodia!
Thank you CK yet again.
Yeah, the problem with things in Vietnam is that they are not always consistent. There are big fans of Sinh but also people who hate Sinh to the core.
ben, where can we buy tickets of Mekong Express Buses? heard this was better than most of the bus lines? any thoughts? thanks
Alo Amhuirnin,
No idea bout an exact ‘Mekong Express Bus’ but there are many buses going to the Mekong and u can buy tickets at the backpacker’s area.
umm Mekong Express i believe is a bus to SR
but thank you very much for all the replies you gave; pardon if i unloaded so many queries in one go 
Hi Amhuirnin,
If it’s a bus to Cambodia, I have 1 such post on this site. Try the ‘How-To-Get-To’ tag
Hi Ben!
Do you happen to know if there is a way to go to Cao Dai in Tay Ninh and/or Cu Chi Tunnel on our way to HCMC from PP? I think these places are on the way to HCMC. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thank you so much!
Hey Kat,
If you are asking whether you can do Cao Dai, Cu Chi and cross over to Cambodia or not, then I guess you’ll need a private driver. Not aware of such tour.
The Cambodian border is in between Cu Chi and Cao Dai with Cu Chi nearer to HCMC.
This is my dream trip. I am sure i can make it…
YES…!!!
hi ben. is it possible to take a bus leaving 630am from hcmc to PP and back to hcmc the same day? can we arrange that ahead as we settle our hcmc-pp route?
It’s possible Len. A friend just did that 2 weeks ago.
If I didn’t remember wrongly, you can book a 2-way trip in HCMC. But don’t worry. Many buses returning from PP too.
But why not venture into Cambodia and then go up further to see Angkok Wat? Will be worth the trip.
Thanks Ben.
Would that be worthwhile, what can you say? 
Actually, we would love to stay in Cambodia a little longer but the schedule is very tight for us. We are arriving HCMC on Sat early morning and our return flight back here in Manila is Midnight of Monday. It appears that we only have like 3 days there. That’s why I am planning to do arrange our itinerary to step on and see cambodia instead of going to Can Tho, on our first day. Second day in Vung Tau, and our third day to explore Saigon
Len, stepping onto Cambodia for a few hours like that is certainly not worthwhile. Plus depending on which country you are from, you may have to go through the trouble of getting a visa to get in.
Save it for another trip Len
Your idea is right. Thanks a lot, Ben
hi ben! do you know how much it wud cost if il ride a plane from hcmc to sr or from hcmc to pp? is there aNy other airlines that offers a cheap or sale tickets? i become sick when i ride the bus more than 2hours
help..thanks
Sorry Rence, yet to do a plane for HCMC to Siem Reap so no clue for you.