Gay Group Trip: Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia

Days 1–3: Hanoi

Your Indochina adventure begins in Hanoi. You’ll be met at Noi Bai International Airport by a private transfer to the Sofitel Legend Metropole, the French colonial hotel that has been the city’s address since 1901. Past guests include Charlie Chaplin (on his honeymoon), Graham Greene (who wrote The Quiet American here) and most US presidents of the past two decades. The Bamboo Bar in the courtyard is where the trip really starts.

Day two is a private morning with an English-speaking gay-friendly guide. You’ll cover the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university dating to 1070, the Single Pillar Pagoda and Tran Quoc Pagoda, the oldest pagoda in Hanoi. The afternoon takes in Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple, followed by a traditional water puppet performance and a cyclo ride through the Old Quarter, where thirty-six original guild streets are still working in their original trades.

Hanoi has a small but growing gay scene if you want it. The bars are mostly clustered around the Old Quarter and Truc Bach Lake; we’ll send you the up-to-date list before you travel. Discretion is the cultural register here, regardless of orientation, and PDAs in temples and rural settings are simply less common than in Western contexts.

Days 3–4: Halong Bay

A morning drive east brings you to Halong Bay, where you’ll board the Grand Pioneers cruise for an overnight in one of the Ocean Suites. The Grand Pioneers launched in 2023 and is the most sophisticated vessel in the bay: forty square-meter suites with floor-to-ceiling windows and private balconies, a pool, spa, sky bar and a dining room that feels closer to a boutique hotel than a cruise ship.

The afternoon is yours to use the bay. Kayak through hidden lagoons, swim in the karst pools, or hold the sun deck and a cocktail. Dinner is on board as the sun sets over the limestone islands, followed by a night anchored among them. Sunrise on the deck the following morning, with Tai Chi if you want it, is the right way to wake up before brunch and the afternoon transfer back to the mainland for the flight to Laos.

Days 4–7: Luang Prabang

A short flight brings you to Luang Prabang, the UNESCO-listed former royal capital of Laos, set on a peninsula where the Mekong and the Nam Khan meet. Three nights at the Sofitel Luang Prabang, a converted French colonial governor’s residence outside the historic center, with lush gardens, a large pool and rooms that have private outdoor soaking tubs.

Day five is the town: local markets, historic temples and the former Royal Palace, now the National Museum. The afternoon takes you out to the Kuang Si Waterfalls, where turquoise pools cascade through the jungle, with a stop at a Hmong village to learn about traditional textiles and rural Laos.

Day six is the trip’s quietest morning and one of its most affecting. You’ll be up before sunrise for the Tak Bat, the alms-giving ceremony where Buddhist monks collect offerings in silence along the main street, a daily ritual that has been running here for centuries. Brunch follows on a private boat along the Mekong, with champagne as the light comes up. A private Lao cooking class with a local chef closes the day, and you’ll eat what you cook.

Days 7–10: Siem Reap

A morning cruise on the Mekong to the Pak Ou Caves, a sacred site filled with thousands of Buddha statues left by pilgrims, before disembarking and flying to Siem Reap. Three nights at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap, the Bill Bensley-redesigned property that reopened in 2013 and has held its place as the city’s luxury benchmark since.

Day eight starts before dawn. You’ll be at Angkor Wat for sunrise, which is the only way to see it: around 4,000 visitors a day pass through, and the first hour is when the light works and the crowds are still arriving. The morning continues to Angkor Thom, the last great Khmer capital, the smiling stone faces of Bayon Temple, and the jungle-clad ruins of Ta Prohm, where the silk-cotton tree roots that the Tomb Raider film made famous are gradually consuming the stone.

Day nine covers the pink sandstone carvings at Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre in the morning, then the Tonle Sap floating villages in the afternoon, finishing with a sunset cruise across the lake with cocktails and canapés. Evenings in Siem Reap are best spent walking the Old French Quarter or, if you want it, the small gay scene around Pub Street.

Days 10–13: Cambodian Coast

A morning flight takes you to Sihanoukville on the Cambodian coast and a fifteen-minute speedboat onward to Six Senses Krabey Island, a thirty-acre private island that opened in 2019. You’ll stay for three nights in an Ocean Pool Villa Suite: 111 square meters, floor-to-ceiling glass, private infinity pool, deep soaking tub and an unbroken ocean view.

The point of these three nights is the slow finish. The resort runs an excellent spa, two restaurants with Khmer cooking sourced from its own gardens, an open-air cinema and an observatory for the kind of stargazing the bigger destinations don’t allow for. Optional add-ons include snorkeling, kayaking and boat excursions to nearby reefs and islands.

On day thirteen, a transfer back to the mainland and onward to Phnom Penh International Airport, timed to your flight home.

Ready to start planning your luxury gay Indochina trip? Speak to one of our LGBTQ+ travel experts today and we’ll build the itinerary around you.