La Marguerite Mekong Cruise Review: Saigon to Siem Reap the DIY Way
The Mekong had been on my bucket list for years. When a gap opened up in the diary and some friends were keen, we booked it. Most Australian packages add extras you don’t need or have done before, such as extra nights in Hanoi and Saigon, Halong Bay and hotels you don’t get to choose. We’d already done the north and wanted only the river, so I used AI to research cruise-only options and booked with a local agency in Hanoi.
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La Marguerite Mekong cruise at a glance
| Ship | RV La Marguerite |
|---|---|
| Route | Saigon to Siem Reap, 8 days / 7 nights |
| Sailed | 1–8 October 2026 |
| Cabin | Deluxe, Upper Deck (Level 1) |
| Price | USD 4,330 for two, about AUD 6,300 all in (estimate) |
| Per person per night | About AUD 450 |
| Booked through | Southeast Asia Travel (mekongrivercruises.com), Hanoi |
| Best bits | Local guides, home visits, traditional workshops, local factories, handicraft displays and traditional food manufacturing |
| Worst bit | The free wine |
| Verdict | Double thumbs up. More expedition than cruise. Would book the same way again |
Mekong river cruise: package or DIY?
| Australian package | DIY (what we did) | |
|---|---|---|
| Flights and hotels | Included, chosen for you | Your choice |
| Price | Higher, with flights and extra nights bundled in | About AUD 3,150 per person, cruise only |
| Consumer protection | Australian law | Your credit card, and that’s it |
| Deposit | Usually some flexibility | 20%, non-refundable from day one |
| On the boat | Often the same ship (a UK group was on ours) | Same ship, same excursions |
The Riviera Travel group on our boat did exactly the same excursions we did. Our own hotel choices were excellent.
La Marguerite Mekong cruise price (and the 4% surprise)
Included: all meals from lunch on day 1 to breakfast on day 8; water, soft drinks, local beer and local spirits throughout the day, and local wine with meals; tips; all excursions with English-speaking guides; port taxes; and private transfers from our Saigon hotel and to our Siem Reap hotel.
Not included: flights, visas, insurance, wine outside meals, and anything from the paid wine list.
| Payment | Amount |
|---|---|
| List price per cabin | USD 4,480 |
| Discounts | USD 150 |
| Paid | USD 4,330 for two |
| Deposit (20%, non-refundable) | USD 880 |
| Balance (due 95 days before departure) | USD 3,450 |
Cancellation after the deposit: as with these types of trips, you forfeit your deposit, so make sure you use a credit card that also gives you travel protection insurance.
What the card did to the price
I paid with my CommBank card for the purchase protection. The travel agency offered a direct payment option, but I wanted the protection you get from paying with a credit card. They also charged an eye-watering 4% commission on top, regardless of the card used. Ouch.
That 4% added about USD 173 (roughly AUD 240) to the cost of our trip. On the USD 880 deposit alone, it came to about AUD 49.
Check what your own card costs overseas with the FX Ripoff Calculator.
Who else was on board La Marguerite
The boat was about three-quarters full: a Riviera Travel group from the UK with its own escort, a Japanese group, a French group, and eight independent travellers, including our group of four. On day tours the eight of us independents joined the Riviera group’s English-speaking guide, but each group sat separately at lunch and dinner. With one guide per group, excursions felt far smaller than the passenger numbers suggest.
Saigon to Siem Reap itinerary, day by day
| Day | Where | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saigon → Vinh Long | Cholon Market, lacquer workshop, boarding |
| 2 | Vinh Long → Ben Tre | Brick kilns, coconut factory and market |
| 3 | Cai Be → Sa Dec | Fruit gardens, rice paper makers, the house from The Lover |
| 4 | Tan Chau → border | Silk and mat weaving, border crossing |
| 5 | Phnom Penh | Royal Palace, National Museum, Tuol Sleng (S-21) |
| 6 | Silk Island | Weaving village by tuk-tuk, school visit |
| 7 | Angkor Ban | Stilt village that survived the Khmer Rouge |
| 8 | Kampong Cham → Siem Reap | Coach through the countryside |
I was a bit nervous about visiting markets and handicraft workshops, expecting the hard sell. In fact it was the opposite. The itinerary was so packed that you had 10 minutes at the end of each stop if you wanted to buy anything (I could have spent all day at Cholon Market).
Sailing downstream from Vietnam into Cambodia worked well. Vietnam is about how people live on the Mekong Delta. Cambodia is completely different, with Khmer culture and a thousand years of history. The poverty and litter there can be confronting.
Mekong Delta shore excursions: more expedition than cruise
You’re ashore so often that this feels more like an expedition than a cruise. It’s less about sightseeing and more about seeing everyday life up close.
- The coconut factory. No part of the coconut is wasted, and every step is done by hand, from unloading the boats to husking and processing. Sad to see the conditions of family and child labour, but fascinating.
- Silk workshops with old looms still running on punch cards, essentially the first computers.
- Wet markets, and homes on stilts in Cambodia and a farmhouse on the Mekong. The owners were happy to talk about their lives.
- The guides. These are survivors whose brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles died of starvation under the Khmer Rouge or in what Vietnamese call the American War. They share their stories openly.
The trip ran like clockwork. There was very little waiting time, we often left five minutes early, and the crew regularly ran the boat up onto the riverbank so we could walk straight off.
A typical day on a Mekong river cruise
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 7:00am | Breakfast |
| 9:00am to 12:00pm | Morning excursion |
| Lunch | On board |
| Afternoon | Second excursion |
| Evening | Debrief, then a movie or the crew talent show |
La Marguerite cabins: which deck to book
Clean, with plenty of hot water. Level 1, the same level as the dining room, puts you right at water level. There’s a Juliet balcony, but we never opened it, for fear of mosquitoes and whatever they carry. Avoid Level 0, where you get grubby portholes instead of windows.
Up top there’s a small rooftop pool. It isn’t deep, but it’s good for blobbing and cooling down after a hot day ashore.
Food and drink on La Marguerite
The food was fair (Julie rated it higher, as she loves Asian food). Each meal offered a Western or an Asian choice, with meat, fish or vegetarian options.
The included wine was not to my standard. Some British passengers told me the red tastes fine mixed with Coke, which they said the Spanish do all the time. I nodded sagely, and our group bought our own bottles at about USD 40 each. The nightly debrief cocktail was a mixed bag too. If you like a beer at 9:30am (some passengers did) or you’re not fussy about wine, you’ll be well served.
Kampong Cham to Siem Reap by coach
You leave the boat at Kampong Cham and take a coach for about five hours to Siem Reap. I was dreading it, and it turned out to be another highlight: chaotic traffic on “main roads”, villages drying rice and fish by the roadside, and handicraft stalls. No cruise shows you that.
Mekong cruise visas and getting organised
- WhatsApp: the agency kept in touch with us on WhatsApp, which made organising pickups and drivers easy.
- Vietnam visa: you must get an e-visa before you travel. Here’s what happens if you don’t.
- Cambodia visa: issued on board for USD 50 cash per person. The Cambodian e-visa is not accepted at the river border.
Staying connected on a Mekong cruise: ship Wi-Fi vs eSIM
The ship’s Wi-Fi was free but patchy, so I ran my Airalo Asia eSIM for the whole trip and hotspotted Julie’s phone off it. We crossed the border on the river and it just worked: the phone switched from Vinaphone to Cellcard on its own.
| Where | Network | Download | How it felt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ho Chi Minh City | Vinaphone 5G | 883 Mb/s | Fast, upload weak (4 Mb/s) |
| On the Mekong, Dong Thap | Vinaphone 4G+ | 54 Mb/s | Usable 4G on a river boat |
| Cambodian border | Cellcard 4G | 21 Mb/s | Slower, fine for maps and messages |
Two tips. Turn on Data Roaming for the eSIM, or it shows signal but nothing loads. And if you’re hotspotting, switch on Data Saver (Pixel) or Low Data Mode (iPhone) on every phone, because background backups chew through data fast.
Full speed tests, the Asia plan vs the global plan, and my setup are in my Airalo Asia eSIM review.
The eSIM I used on this cruise
Airalo’s Asia plan covers Vietnam and Cambodia on one eSIM, crosses the river border without you touching it, and installs before you leave home.
Where we stayed in Saigon and Siem Reap
- Saigon: Vignette Collection Rêve. A new boutique hotel on Le Cong Kieu, Saigon’s Antique Street. The rooms were small but spotless and breakfast was excellent. Highly recommended.
- Siem Reap: Angkor Village Hotel. An amazing hotel a short walk to everything, with villa-style rooms in a forest setting. You need umbrellas to walk to breakfast. We also used them to book our Angkor Wat tour, which was excellent.
How I used AI to book a Mekong cruise
I don’t think I could have booked this trip without AI. AI changes how travel gets organised and checked. I used it to find cruise-only options, check that the agency was legitimate, compare ships, and review the paperwork. It caught the agency’s USD 300 balance error and drafted the email asking for a corrected invoice.
The key with AI is to use it to do the legwork, then check the important details yourself.
Verdict: would we book La Marguerite again?
We loved the trip. It was a genuine immersion into two cultures we had only read about. We went into people’s homes and got a real glimpse of their lives.
We were so happy with the outcome that we’re planning a similar trip on the Red River in northern Vietnam. We’ll go local again, with the same tour operators (Mekong River Cruises) or the owners of the boat. Stay tuned.
La Marguerite Mekong cruise FAQ
How much does a La Marguerite Mekong cruise cost?
We paid USD 4,330 for two people in a Deluxe Upper Deck cabin for 8 days in October 2026, booked through a local agency in Hanoi. That’s about AUD 6,300 all in, or roughly AUD 450 per person per night.
Which deck should I book on La Marguerite?
Level 1 (Upper Deck), the same level as the dining room. Level 0 cabins have portholes instead of windows.
Do I need a visa for a Mekong cruise from Saigon to Siem Reap?
Yes. Get a Vietnam e-visa before you travel. The Cambodian visa is issued on board for USD 50 cash per person, and the Cambodian e-visa isn’t accepted at the river border.
Is wine included on La Marguerite?
Local wine is included with meals only. Local beer, local spirits, soft drinks and water are included all day. Most people in our group bought their own wine at about USD 40 a bottle.
Is there Wi-Fi on a Mekong river cruise?
La Marguerite has free Wi-Fi, but it was patchy on the river. An Airalo Asia eSIM gave us usable 4G on the Mekong in Vietnam and switched networks on its own at the Cambodian border.
Is booking a Mekong cruise through a local agency safe?
It worked well for us, but the 20% deposit is non-refundable and you don’t get Australian consumer protection. Pay by credit card and buy travel insurance when you pay the deposit.
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