Best tour company for Vietnam

MarkY91

Hi I've been on countless websites looking at their tours. There is too many tour websites so I'm looking for advice from people who done a tour.

I looked at contiki, backpacking through vietnam.com and more which are all extremelly like eachother.

What company did you choose? I want to do a tour as I'll be solo travelling and want some social aspect. I will be doing some travelling in between the tour so my whole trip won't be the tour.

I'm already going to Thailand with my brother in march so I'm thinking next time to do vietnam and the philippines. I know people in philippines so I don't necessarily need a tour group there.

Contiki seems like the most famous tour website for, well, most of the world..but it's quite expensive.

I like how the other site is geared toward just the one country. Although they do have a sister site called backpacking through Thailand

MarkY91

TruTravel seems very good. They party alot of their tours so it seems.

MarkY91

I'll probably have to fly into bangkok so I may just spend a few days there..

Then I want to go off to Cambodia and hopefully vietnam. Then off to the philippines.

Skyscanner isn't helping. It's giving me stupid flight prices like 4000 but if I break down each flight and use cebu Pacific airways website for phnom phnem to manila, then in getting about 1200 for flights.

Like I said, I'm doing 8 days in Thailand with my brother n march but he's more into partying so I doubt I'll get to see too much outside of khao san road..would yu reccomend doing bkk again solo and seeing more of the city?

duffman13

MarkY91 wrote: »

I'll probably have to fly into bangkok so I may just spend a few days there..

Then I want to go off to Cambodia and hopefully vietnam. Then off to the philippines.

Skyscanner isn't helping. It's giving me stupid flight prices like 4000 but if I break down each flight and use cebu Pacific airways website for phnom phnem to manila, then in getting about 1200 for flights.

Like I said, I'm doing 8 days in Thailand with my brother n march but he's more into partying so I doubt I'll get to see too much outside of khao san road..would yu reccomend doing bkk again solo and seeing more of the city?

Can't comment on a tour company as I did it myself, its fairly social and well travelled so had no problem meeting people. However with your flights have a look at flying to Siem Reap from Bangkok, air asia fly there and it's very cheap same with flying to Manila although you will stop off through Kuala Lumpur but will save you a fortune. I actually flew directly to Kalibo (airport for Borocay) and it was cheaper than flying to Manila.

Have you a rough itenary of a route? A common one would be to go through from Hanoi as far Ho Chi Min then split across to Cambodia, you could fly from there to Phillipines and stop in Bangkok on the way if you fancied it.

8 days in Bangkok is probably about 4 days too much. I've been there probably 6 or 7 times and the first time was the longest I stayed which was 4 days. Khaosan is manic but you will get sick of it quickly as it's actually very small. The grand palace and the buddha can be done in an afternoon and the palace is only about a 15 minute walk from Khaosan. Outside of that you've got the floating market and a few minor attractions left to see. I love Bangkok but seem to be in the minority so maybe wait and see how ya feel after your first trip

MarkY91

Hi duff man. Brilliant post from you!

My plans have hopefully changed. Like stated, I'm going to Thailand with my brother (then off to Sydney and on up to my brother in brisbane.

I'm currently in the process of contemplating changing my flights around instead of going home with my brother, I will head on off to Vietnam solo for a few weeks.

I would ideally like to fly from brisbane as I'm sure I'll be getting sick of airports by then to go down to Sydney connecting. Problem is that most tour companies go the route you mentioned..hanoi to ho chi minh. But I'm have problems finding flights on Emirates website to hanoi, ho chi minh is ok to het flights..I must do it through Emirates obviously as I'm changing itenorary details and can't fully cancel.

There are some tours from ho chi minh to hanoi but they're not the trutravels/contiki young party type or tours. That's fine, I guess.

I would then fly from Hanoi to Bangkok and stay a night then be on my way home from then on.

I know I'm ding it all arse ways by going to bkk then off to australia then back to south east asia bug when I originally booked, I was just going by my brothers time off work schedule, now I'm realising I want to travel a little longer.

duffman13

You've pretty much got three options, use one of the lesser known tour companies and go from South to North. It's still common and I met a lot of people in Hanoi who were finished there trip when I was just starting.

Option 2 is to go solo, I did it and met a tonne of people on the same route. Also If your comfortable on a bike a lot of people drive from south to North and vice versa and absolutely love it.

Option 3 which is probably easiest if you wanna use someone like Contiki is to fly from Ho Chi Min to Hanoi which will cost about 30 to 40 euros and then fly out from Ho Chi Min with Emirates of that's possible. Internal flights are very cheap. Vietnam is probably my favourite country in South East Asia. Whatever you do, you won't regret it!

MarkY91

duffman13 wrote: »

You've pretty much got three options, use one of the lesser known tour companies and go from South to North. It's still common and I met a lot of people in Hanoi who were finished there trip when I was just starting.

Option 2 is to go solo, I did it and met a tonne of people on the same route. Also If your comfortable on a bike a lot of people drive from south to North and vice versa and absolutely love it.

Option 3 which is probably easiest if you wanna use someone like Contiki is to fly from Ho Chi Min to Hanoi which will cost about 30 to 40 euros and then fly out from Ho Chi Min with Emirates of that's possible. Internal flights are very cheap. Vietnam is probably my favourite country in South East Asia. Whatever you do, you won't regret it!

I found tours on a tour rating website called tour radar that go from south to North. I like the look of a tour done by "hoi an express" it's about 1100 but oh tour radar the exact tour on the exact day is about 650 with a 400 odd discount advertised. How? Why? I'm confused how a 3rd party gives about 40% off whereas the tour companies website is full price.

4th choice would just to go back home with my brother but then I'd only be spending 8 days in SE Asia with most of that being in just Bangkok and it will kill me not to not explore more while I have the opportunity.

I wouldn't mind spending a few days alone before and after the tour but I'd ideally want some organisation and. Orea so, some guaranteed company as I'm sure it'd get a little lonely at times.

I would love driving a bike around but I've no license. I doubt even in Vietnam I would be given the bike lol.

davo2001

We used Swallow Travel (http://swallowtravel.com/) when we toured Vietnam last year, found them great. Jenny (the lady we were dealing with for months via email and then met in Hanoi) really went the extra yard for us.

MarkY91

davo2001 wrote: »

We used Swallow Travel (http://swallowtravel.com/) when we toured Vietnam last year, found them great. Jenny (the lady we were dealing with for months via email and then met in Hanoi) really went the extra yard for us.

Nice website. I can't see one starting in ho chi minh where I would like to start as I can't find emirates flights from Australia to hanoi and I don't fancy ANOTHER plane journey. As I'll most likely have to get a plane to Bangkok once I'm done in Vietnam.

I'm guessing you had an amazing time?

davo2001

MarkY91 wrote: »

Nice website. I can't see one starting in ho chi minh where I would like to start as I can't find emirates flights from Australia to hanoi and I don't fancy ANOTHER plane journey. As I'll most likely have to get a plane to Bangkok once I'm done in Vietnam.

I'm guessing you had an amazing time?

Unbelievable!! It was our honeymoon and spent 3 weeks going from North to South.

MarkY91

davo2001 wrote: »

MarkY91 wrote: »

Nice website. I can't see one starting in ho chi minh where I would like to start as I can't find emirates flights from Australia to hanoi and I don't fancy ANOTHER plane journey. As I'll most likely have to get a plane to Bangkok once I'm done in Vietnam.

I'm guessing you had an amazing time?

Unbelievable!! It was our honeymoon and spent 3 weeks going from North to South.

3 weeks. Would have been a nce relaxed pace then. I seen tours that take as little as 8 days. They're surely travelling half of the 8 days.

I'll look at your website again on my laptop as it didn't work very well on my phone. Maybe they have a south to North trip that I didn't see.

duffman13

MarkY91 wrote: »

I found tours on a tour rating website called tour radar that go from south to North. I like the look of a tour done by "hoi an express" it's about 1100 but oh tour radar the exact tour on the exact day is about 650 with a 400 odd discount advertised. How? Why? I'm confused how a 3rd party gives about 40% off whereas the tour companies website is full price.

4th choice would just to go back home with my brother but then I'd only be spending 8 days in SE Asia with most of that being in just Bangkok and it will kill me not to not explore more while I have the opportunity.

I wouldn't mind spending a few days alone before and after the tour but I'd ideally want some organisation and. Orea so, some guaranteed company as I'm sure it'd get a little lonely at times.

I would love driving a bike around but I've no license. I doubt even in Vietnam I would be given the bike lol.

Just with your question about the advertised discount, its common enough to see it in Asia, Australia and NZ that a third party website can get you a better price on excursions and tours. Might be an idea to screen shot it and email the company directly if you don't feel comfortable using a 3rd party. Save some money, does that price include accommodation? And what is the length of the tour? Seems a winner if suits your needs.

MarkY91

duffman13 wrote: »

MarkY91 wrote: »

I found tours on a tour rating website called tour radar that go from south to North. I like the look of a tour done by "hoi an express" it's about 1100 but oh tour radar the exact tour on the exact day is about 650 with a 400 odd discount advertised. How? Why? I'm confused how a 3rd party gives about 40% off whereas the tour companies website is full price.

4th choice would just to go back home with my brother but then I'd only be spending 8 days in SE Asia with most of that being in just Bangkok and it will kill me not to not explore more while I have the opportunity.

I wouldn't mind spending a few days alone before and after the tour but I'd ideally want some organisation and. Orea so, some guaranteed company as I'm sure it'd get a little lonely at times.

I would love driving a bike around but I've no license. I doubt even in Vietnam I would be given the bike lol.

Just with your question about the advertised discount, its common enough to see it in Asia, Australia and NZ that a third party website can get you a better price on excursions and tours. Might be an idea to screen shot it and email the company directly if you don't feel comfortable using a 3rd party. Save some money, does that price include accommodation? And what is the length of the tour? Seems a winner if suits your needs.

10 day tour from HCM to Hanoi. Probably very short but I'm ok with it as I plan to do my own think in both cities staying in hostels before and after the tour.

The tour itself is 3 star hotels, couple of meals, plane or two etc. It does however say that a solo traveller most pay a single supplement of $200 to het their own room as I may not be able to share. Fair enough..I understand that totally.

So it will be about 850 in the end.

http://www.tourradar.com/t/59429

There is a link to the tour being advertised on the 3rd party site. My issue is that if you look at their upcoming start dates, it says 10+ seats available even for ones starting next week..hmm.

MarkY91

UPDATE:

I changed my flights home from brisbane to Singapore on 31st March and then home from Bangkok on 23rd April.

So I can now book flights to hanoi or ho chi minh from Singapore then freely make my way to Bangkok whenever I want.