Chau Doc to Phnom Penh, by boat or road

1. About 06:30. Arrive at the jetty with your passport, US dollars in cash for a Cambodian visa on arrival if you need one, and a passport photo.
2. Boarding. Staff collect passports, documents and visa money at the start of the trip. You get your passport back after the border.
3. The first two hours. Up the Hau River and north-east along a canal, past the Cham houses and mosques of Chau Phong and the sand barges that work the river.
4. Vinh Xuong. The Vietnamese exit post. Staff take the passports in; passengers wait, at the post reported in 2023 in a café with a river balcony.
5. Kaam Samnor. The Cambodian post, between Kandal and Prey Veng provinces. Visas on arrival are issued here. There is nothing to buy at this stop, so carry water and a snack.
6. The Mekong to Phnom Penh. A wide river with a few fishing villages along the banks. Arrival on the riverside in the north of Daun Penh.

A traveller's account published in 2023 and updated in 2024 describes a boat for up to 60 passengers with coach-style seats, a flush toilet, an open rear deck where you get wet if it rains, and no air-conditioning or fans, with water and snacks included. Boats change; treat that as a description, not a promise.

By car, Chau Doc to Phnom Penh is roughly 110 to 160 km depending on the border post. The established international road crossing for foreign visitors near Chau Doc is Tinh Bien – Phnom Den, which is on Vietnam's e-visa list; it is the longer way round, about 160 km in the route model. A shorter road crossing, Khanh Binh – Chrey Thom, about 110 km, was upgraded to an international gate and opened on 3 October 2026; it is not on the 2023 e-visa list, and we will not route foreign travellers through it until its e-visa status is clear.

Allow about four to six hours door to door, including the border; that is our estimate, not a timetable. By private car, the usual plan is one car to the border and a second on the Cambodian side, which we arrange on request. The road wins when the boat's timetable does not fit, when the heat on board worries you, or when you have more luggage than a speedboat handles comfortably.

The five-day route ends on this boat, with the ticket included and a second night in Chau Doc so you reach the 07:00 departure without a 05:00 start. The four-day route ends in Chau Doc, and adding the boat to it means adding a night. In the other direction, you can take the 12:30 boat from Phnom Penh, arrive in Chau Doc at 18:30, and start a delta route the next morning running east.

Your guide sees you onto the boat but does not cross; on board, the boat staff handle the paperwork. More about the town itself is on the Chau Doc page.