About Beyond Cambodia
We sell one country. Every itinerary on this site begins and ends inside Cambodia, and the people who write them live here. This page explains how that changes what we can offer, and what it costs you.
One country is the whole idea
Most operators selling Cambodia sell six or seven countries. The itineraries are assembled by a planner in another city, handed to a local agent, and the agent subcontracts the guide. By the time you meet the person who will spend three days with you, your trip has passed through four sets of hands and each has taken a margin and lost a detail.
We do the whole thing ourselves inside one country. The person who answers your first email knows the guide who will meet you, has driven the road you are asking about, and can tell you what the Tonle Sap looked like last week rather than what it looks like in September in general.
The cost of that is narrowness. If you want Vietnam and Laos in the same booking, we are the wrong company, and we will say so in the first reply rather than the fourth.
Three structural commitments
Eight travellers, as a ceiling
Not an average. Above eight, a guide inside a temple gallery is inaudible to half the group and every stop runs on the slowest person's clock.
Guides paid whether you buy anything or not
Roughly 30 to 40 percent above the local norm, because the norm assumes shop commission. It is in our price and we would rather explain it than hide it.
Every hotel named in the quotation
Never '4-star or similar'. If you dislike one, we swap it and show you the difference in cost, in both directions.
What we are not good at
Four things, stated plainly, because a bad fit costs you a holiday.
- Large groups. Above eight we do not have a product, and we will not quietly hand you to an operator who does.
- The lowest price. If a quote comes in 25 percent under ours, it is nearly always a guide on commission, an unnamed hotel, or a coach shared with strangers. Sometimes that is the right trade for a traveller and we will tell you when we think it is.
- Guiding in languages other than English. Khmer-French guides exist and we can hire one, but we cannot vouch for depth in a language we do not assess ourselves.
- Luxury as a category. We book the two or three genuinely excellent hotels in the country when you want them, but we are a trip-planning company that uses good hotels, not a luxury brand.
Why there are no customer reviews on this site
We do not publish testimonials. Written reviews on an operator's own website cannot be verified by the reader, they are trivially easy to write, and the good ones read exactly like the invented ones. Publishing them would ask you to trust the least trustworthy format available.
What we offer instead is more useful and more uncomfortable for us: ask, and we will put you in touch with two people from your own country who travelled with us in the last twelve months, on a route similar to yours, and you can email them directly without us in the thread. Independent review platforms exist for a reason and we are happy to be judged there.
How we handle the things that go wrong
Over a long enough period, something on every itinerary will fail. A flight moves, a road floods, a hotel oversells, someone gets a stomach bug on the morning of a long drive. The difference between operators is not whether this happens but what happens in the next hour.
- You have one number that a person answers, 24 hours a day, for the whole time you are in Cambodia. It is a Cambodian number and the person on it can authorise spending.
- The guide and driver on your trip carry the same number and use it before you have to.
- If we have to substitute anything, we tell you what changed and what it cost or saved, in writing, before you leave the country.
- If the substitution is cheaper than what you paid for, we refund the difference without being asked. This happens a few times a year and it is the part of the policy we are proudest of.
The full commercial terms are on the booking terms page, and how deposits and balances work is on how to pay.
What we would like you to do before booking anything
Not book. Send a question instead, and make it a hard one. The most useful first email we receive looks like this: the month, the number of people, how many days, and one thing you are worried about.
Our reply will contain at least one thing we think you should change about your plan. That is the actual product. The itinerary is easy; knowing that April at Preah Vihear is a mistake, or that your Tonle Sap boat in March will be a drive to a puddle, is what you are paying for.
Ask us something difficult
Tell us the month, the party and the worry. We answer within one working day, and the answer will include what we would change.
Questions travellers ask most
Are you a Cambodian company?
We operate inside Cambodia with Cambodian guides and drivers, all paid directly and on our own terms rather than through a subcontracted agent. Our full company and licence details appear on the booking terms page and on every invoice.
Why do you not show testimonials?
Because a testimonial on our own site is unverifiable and the honest ones read exactly like the invented ones. Ask and we will introduce you to two recent travellers from your country who you can email directly, without us in the thread.
Do you use the same guides every time?
We work with a small regular group rather than a pool. That is why we can tell you the guide's name at the quotation stage on most dates, and why we can match a guide to an interest such as epigraphy, textiles or birds.
Can you plan a trip that includes Vietnam or Thailand?
We will plan and guide the Cambodian half properly and hand you over at the border to people who know the other country. We will not pretend to expertise we do not have outside Cambodia.
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Tell us what you want out of Cambodia
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.