Tailormade Tours - Cambodia

An excellent tour operator for bespoke Indochina itineraries - you give the guidelines, they do the hard work

You know why you’re going to Cambodia, but you're not sure where to stay and what to do. Or whether everything is the best value for your budget. And you’re worried about the practicalities of linking it all together – flights, transfers, hotel availability, choosing the best itineraries and booking the best guides. In fact, planning has suddenly become stressful. Heaps of people feel like this, which is why we’ve teamed up with a tailormade tour operator to help you find your feet in Indochina. They’ll help you create the holiday just as you'd like it, then take on all the boring stuff: making bookings, arranging payments, checking schedules and generally giving you an Angkor to rely on (ahem).

In Cambodia, we have partnered with Exotissimo (based in Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City), who have been designing and arranging top-end bespoke holidays in the region for over 15 years. You can choose which places you’d like to visit and roughly how many days in each; they'll advise you where to stay and how to travel between them, book tour guides (their own staff) and hotels (based on our selection but not limited to it), and arrange payments (you just need to make one – to them). If you ask nicely, they'll even suggest a few hidden gems you might not have thought of: visiting temples on elephant back, watching a traditional Khmer ballet or taking a boat trip to see endangered freshwater dolphins.

Why we chose this partner

• They're well established, with 15 years' experience, winning the Vietnamese Tourist organisation's 'Top Tour Operator' 2 years running; they have 14 offices and a good mix of foreign and local management
• They employ their own guides, which means they don't struggle to find freelancers in overstretched places like Siem Reap and Luang Prabang; and they train them well – Unesco courses, 1-day Red Cross training, excellent English – and assess their performance through feedback
• All their vehicles are air-conditioned, and their drivers are careful and punctual. Their bicycles are sturdy Trek 4500 series front-suspension mountain bikes
• They work with local communities to protect the area and foster its people: they have helped build 2 schools in Akha villages in Laos, and have brought Duke University students to work in Cambodian NGOs
• Because they guarantee your tour will cost no more than an identical product through any other channel
• Lastly – the acid test – they helped arrange our own labyrinthine trip to Indochina: a total of 8 guided tours, 20 ground transfers and 7 flights spread over 3 countries, not to mention numerous hotel and restaurants – and all without a hiccough (OK, sunrise at Angkor Wat was 5 minutes later than promised...