Travel Review: Cambodia & Laos, Luxury 13-Day Family Trip, Champasak Province, Angkor Wat, Mekong River, Stunning Sunrises

On our return from Luang Prabang to Phnom Penh, we spent the whole day traveling. This was primarily because there was no direct flight from Luang Prabang to Phnom Penh, and the layover in Bangkok was nearly 6 hours. If we had to have such a layover, we would've just cut out one day in Laos and spent that one day exploring Bangkok. I was way too busy with work in the few months before we left on this vacation and did not have time to discuss this aspect with the travel company even though it occurred to me that I should. And I realized that was the one mistake I made in planning this trip.

The other, minor, issue was that we spent 2 nights at the hotel in Champasak, but they were not consecutive nights. The two nights at the 4000 Islands were sandwiched between those 2 nights at the hotel in Champasak.  I should've worked with the travel company before the trip such that we spent only one night at the 4000 islands and the remaining nights consecutively at the hotel in Champasak.

We also should have made alternative plans for dinners on Christmas and New Year's eve. Both nights we banked on our hotel to have dinner (since we arrived there usually at or after 8 PM). However, they both had expensive fixed price, fixed menu dinners on those two nights. And it was full of western dishes and red meat (which we don't eat). I did not know this and ended up eating appetizers and salads only on both nights. If you are planning a trip around these dates, and don't want to end up eating mediocre western food for exorbitant prices, you should plan to eat elsewhere. Note that I did see plenty of other people eating these dinners and they seemed perfectly satisfied; so, this is mostly a personal preference.