Tour companies for Vietnam and Cambodia

[LadyEmmaHamilton]

We'd like to do a joint trip to Vietnam and Cambodia at the end of this year/beginning of next. We don't have kids. Can anyone recommend a company to go with? We've just done a tour of China and that was a little structured for us, we'd prefer to be able to mould things a bit.

We've seen some stuff on About Asia and Selective Asia, but it's difficult to know who to use. I appreciate that I could plan and organise this all myself, but that's not what we're after.

Our next neighbours had an amazing trip with these people

next door not next

Thanks Pomme, they look great, but a bit like what we did in Chiba. We're looking for something a bit more independent.

Why not go completely independent? Buy a travel guide and read Internet travel forums. I travelled southeast Asia by plane, boat, rail and road and had no problems at all. It's cheaper too

Thanks Doblet, but we've been down that route. This time, time is more precious than money and we'd like someone else to take the strain.

So you don't want a day by day prescriptive tour, but you dont want to go independent and do it all yourselves either, hmmm.

By my deduction then you want the middle ground option: to find a tour operator with good local knowledge, who can arrange flights, suggest and book the various hotels in the key cities you wish to visit, explain to you how to effect the various transfers and provide you with relevant information about the top sites and how to visit them. if i'm right then you want to call Trailfinders and explain exactly that. Trailfinders helped me to organise and book a similar sort of itinerary in East Africa a couple of years ago. I made all the decisions and tailor-made the trip to include exactly what we wanted but they did all the leg work.

Or you want a specialist tour operator who deals exclusively in this region and can then provide the services I suggested above with cherries on. In which case I don't know of such an operator as I've never visited this region, but I'd try Googling:

Here's one their home page says:

"What makes Haivenu's tailor-made Vietnam tours special?
Imagine a holiday without restrictive itineraries, impersonal treatment and unwanted travelling companions. If you want to escape from indifferent service and small print extras, you'll love the freedom of our fully-customized Vietnam travel."

I'd give them a ring!

here

we took the family to Vietnam last year and initially we planned to go to Cambodia too. In the end we did it independently and it was very easy. To start with though, I wanted to find a company to take us there, and I looked on the Lonely Planet website which has loads of tips. this is one website I did look at although I can't say how good it is.

I'm very jealous

My DH and I travelled in Borneo with these guys and I know they do trips all over the place so worth considering.

Both DH and I are quite against the idea of group tours but quite liked them as they did all the organising of travel, accommodation, some activities however a lot of the time we were left to explore independently as well.

Thanks all. Pounamu that's interesting to hear. We did get a bit fed up of being shepherded everywhere in China, so more free time would be great.

Selective Asia (in my OP) seem to promise a lot but it's difficult to know and they seems to have a fair bit of overly glowing praise - the kind that would set off all sorts of reports to MNHQ and chatter about bridges if it were posted here

It can be tricky. For what it's worth we also spent 6 weeks travelling independently throughout China in the same trip and in that time did two organised day trips (the things we wanted to see were only logistically feasible as a day tour (eg. Dragon's backbone rice terraces, boat down the Li river from Guilin to Yangshuo).

We hated the tour aspect of them because they were so overbearing, shepherding us from the bus into their mates shops then back again, absolutely no freedom whatsoever, but experiencing the rice terraces and the Li River outweighed the negatives of the tour if that makes sense. Yeah, not to sound like an advertisement for them but Intrepid are not like that at all, they give you loads of freedom as they expect you to do a lot of exploring yourself, they just facilitate.

Forgot to say they also give experiences it may be difficult to have if you are travelling independently, eg. homestays, camping in the jungle, local guides where applicable etc.. and these are incorporated into their tours. They also have different comfort levels, so if you really want to rough it you can choose the 'basic' option, but if you prefer to stay in hotels go for the 'comfort' option. This only applies to the transport and accommodation I think, not the activities? God now I'm really sounding like I work for them, honestly I don't!

We've travelled independentaly throughout SE Asia, but I'd agree - you probably want some assistance if you're time limited. We used Imaginative Traveller for Cambodia/Laos. Also, I know friends have used them in Vietnam. A good mix between some structure and some independence. You'll love Vietnam. :) I am sooo jealous - would love to go back.

Can strongly recommend Kuoni who can do a tailor made tour and are fantastic at looking after you if things go wrong - personal experience!

My friend runs a company which specialises in unusual destinations; Lupine Travel. May be of interest.