Heart of Southeast Asian Culture Tour for Seniors

Thankfully they got the most important things right: we were reliably met at airports by guides who could communicate with us in our language (English); we always had our lodgings with included breakfast arranged; we had guides, vehicles and drivers, and really interesting activities arranged. The trip itself, 33 days in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, was an outstanding life experience full of a wonderful and fascinating array of sights, people, food, culture.There were some issues that came up which could have been avoided if the tour operator had been more attentive, and which caused us annoyance and occasional stress. It started with our first guide, in Hanoi; they never told us they were switching us to a different guide than the one listed in our itinerary; they never gave our guide a copy of our itinerary; the guide we got was sweet enough but very inexperienced, did not adequately understand her responsibility to keep us safe, did not manage our time well, lost her phone and led us to feel we needed to take care of her instead of vice versa, deviated from our itinerary although that was really the fault of the tour operator who never gave her a copy of it (which we did when we realized the problem), and - probably due to a language skills gap - lied about whether we would get a bathroom stop in a 3-hour car ride and then tried to fix it so she made a stupid fruitless detour through Hanoi in rush hour en route to the airport to unsuccessfully look for a restroom even though she was told not to, and fail to adequately adjust to accommodate a member of our tour group with balance issues. 

Another issue was van transportation. We invariably got very comfortable vans for short trips between sites within a city, when it least mattered. But even though it was a luxury level vacation, several times we were provided with uncomfortable lower end older transit vans for longer road trips, and a couple of them didn’t have a full complement of seat belts - even after we complained and they told us it wouldn’t happen again. Also, none of the guides had microphones and my partner, who has hearing loss issues, often could not hear what they said on the vans.Our daily activity schedule proved to be unrealistic at times. Several times it was simply impossible to get to all the itinerary destinations, and even more often it was impossible to get the scheduled rest breaks in the middle of the day, and/or the daily activities ended much later at night than the itinerary schedule showed. As a result, we were often frazzled and tired, which undermined our ability to fully enjoy the trip.Some of the lodgings recommended by the tour operator, which we booked through them, were truly wonderful and memorable, but some were very disappointing and made us wonder if the tour operator had ever actually spent time checking them out in person. The resort in Ninh Binh in Vietnam was fabulous, with a terrific restaurant, but we didn’t get to enjoy it adequately because our guide didn’t get us there until almost 9 pm - when we were starving because we had again been unable to get through the itinerary schedule on time - and we had to leave right after breakfast the next morning. The hotel in Siem Reap is out of this world wonderful, with a good location, incredible decor, extraordinary service and excellent food; we were lucky to spend 4 nights there. We ended our trip at a resort on a cliff at Kata Noi beach in Phuket, where we got an upgrade to a huge comfortable suite with sunset views from its private porch. We also liked the hotel in Hue. But some of the other hotels were very disappointing, with mediocre (although always ample) breakfast food and spotty restaurant service (and due to our busy schedules we had to rely on eating in the hotels at times, as there was no time to venture further). The worst was the hotel in Chiang Mai in Thailand: location not near other restaurants and their dinner service very poor, room very dark and small; after one night, we checked ourselves out and moved to a more reliable luxury hotel at our own expense even though we had already paid for the other hotel and we understood we could not get a refund.

Most of our scheduled prepaid activities were fabulous bu there were a few glitches that could have been avoided by a more attentive tour operator. The first glitch was the water puppet show; we were promised that we could meet with puppeteers to learn more about it afterwards but this didn’t happen (nor could it because another show was scheduled to start right after ours), and the Hanoi guide didn’t know it was on the itinerary nor even that it could be arranged. This was a highlight experience much anticipated by my partner, a retired theater and TV designer/technician with experience in puppetry, and had been personally discussed beforehand on the phone with the tour operator, who had assured us it would be included. The tour guide said it was impossible and even laughed (nervously) at my partner when he insisted; he got angry at her, which was very awkward; she then called her contact with the tour operator company and they got us tickets to another water puppet show, with a backstage interview with puppeteers afterwards, the next night. In the end, we thoroughly enjoyed seeing two different water puppet companies and the backstage interview, but the whole snafu was extremely awkward with the tour guide caught in the middle - and also meant our scheduled Hanoi street food tour the second night had to be abbreviated to a stop in a crowded restaurant for a $3-4 bowl of pho after the second show.We totally enjoyed the many performance opportunities we had in our schedule: two fantastic circuses (in Saigon and Siem Reap), a couple of traditional dance performances with dinners, etc. The Royal Lunch in Hue was really a sort of theatrical experience, with artistically presented food that was also top quality. 

A highlight for us was the 2-day boat cruise on the Mekong River from Luang Prabang to the Thai border. I enjoyed the beautiful hotel on the hill in Pak Beng, but the tour operators should have warned us that it was on a steep mountain with many stairs and could present accessibility issues - which it did for my travel companions, one of whom fell and was pretty badly bruised with a loosened tooth. 

We booked a three-week trip to Vietnam with a side trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the Angkor temple complex. We are three 60-something women who had never been to Southeast Asia before. Before we left, our travel company patiently helped us customize our trip, down to the last details, providing great advice along the way. Our trip started in Hanoi, and our guide was there at the airport to pick us up and take us to our hotel, even though it took longer than we expected to get our visas. The hotel they booked for us on the south shore of Hoan Kiem Lake, was lovely and it turned out to be a terrific location. Throughout the trip, which included stops in Ha Long Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City, we felt well taken care of, with great hotels throughout. And our guides were flexible enough to change our itineraries on the fly. For example, one of my companions fell and injured her leg in a market in Hoi An. We asked if we could rearrange the itinerary to accommodate a trip to a hospital clinic, and they happily obliged. And later they modified the schedule for my friend, so she could skip some of the more strenuous activities.

The trip itself was wonderful. We experienced the markets, the organic gardens, the temples and pagodas, the waterways and the food that makes Vietnam so unique and wonderful. All of our local guides were so helpful and willing to put up with our eccentricities.

The only glitch we had on the trip was when we arrived at the Siem Reap airport for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. It turned out we did not have tickets on the flight. We called our travel company and immediately got a call back -- we would be met at the airport by a guide with tickets for the next flight out, and in the meantime he would take us to a lovely nearby hotel and buy us lunch. He also offered to get us a room if we wanted to shower or change clothes, but we just stayed in the restaurant overlooking the lovely swimming pool and sipped our mojitos, courtesy of of the company.

Also I should mention the value. Zicasso connected us with three travel agents who submitted proposals. This company was the only one that really understood our budget parameters and what we wanted to do within the budget. We felt the price was quite reasonable and were very happy with our trip.

Overall, the service provided by this travel company was exceptional.  During the planning phase, our sales contact was very responsive to shaping the itinerary, accommodations, and other details to meet our requests. We received travel documents (e.g., visa letter) and an updated itinerary (mostly filling in tour guide names that were pending) before departing the USA.  A few details were pending, such as travel guide contact in Bangkok (at the end of trip), but this was provided via email during the trip.  This company hires freelancer guides in each destination (as is fairly standard across all travel agencies).  We had five different guides and drivers throughout this trip and all were excellent. We felt from the very moment we arrived in Hanoi that we were in capable hands and enjoyed our time spent touring and learning about each of our destinations from our guides. Indeed, they felt like friends more than just guides by the end!  As an example of the guides' dedication to providing excellent service, we had to modify our plan to visit Halong Bay due to a typhoon that made it impossible to take the boat excursion out into the bay.  Anticipating this possibility, our guide in Hanoi suggested an alternative destination called Ninh Binh, known as the "Halong Bay on Land."  We were so terribly disappointed about missing Halong Bay, but this alternative ended up being spectacular -- gorgeous scenery!  Although not Halong Bay, we really loved seeing Ninh Binh.  Our guide knew that many travelers would divert to Ninh Binh due to the storms, and he made sure we had hotel arrangements and also planned short biking excursion to see a pagoda in that area among other sites.  The drivers were friendly and great at navigating sometimes crowded urban centers as well as more rural, rustic roads.  We felt completely safe the entire time.  The accommodations were truly superior.  We requested booking in 4-star hotels mainly, but selected on our own two 5-star hotels to include in our itinerary, which our travel company was able to accommodate.  Of the hotels arranged by this company, my favorites were the hotels in Hue and Hoi An -- felt like 5 star, for sure!   Of course eating well is a major focus in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.  We had breakfast included with our lodging, which ended up being spectacular buffets with a broad variety of asian and western dishes.  Many lunches and a couple of dinners were arranged at local restaurants - some more westernized than others, but we were really pleased with almost every arranged meal.  A couple of exceptions was the dinner show in Cambodia (show as good, food was just ok), and a buffet lunch in Bangkok (horrible!).  There was one miscommunication regarding our pick-up in Bangkok, our last destination on this trip.  Our travel company had changed our flight from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, to a later flight to better accommodate our itinerary in Siem Reap. The tour guide and hotel in Bangkok had not received this updated information, even though it had been changed several weeks before our departure.  We arrived in Bangkok, and were not met by our guide.  I called her and she explained that she did not know about our earlier flight and had been waiting for us for 3 hours at the hotel (thinking we had gone straight to the hotel).  Our hotel had a representative at the airport and we were able to arrange a car to the hotel, but had to pay for it. This cost was refunded to us the next day due to the miscommunication. One other comment regarding service in Bangkok.  There was less attention to detail in Bangkok in general than in the other places we visited.  For instance, in every location our guides provided water and arranged more authentic eating experiences.  In Bangkok, we had to purchase water mostly, and the arranged buffet lunch was terrible -- not acceptable for an eating destination like Bangkok!  In other areas, however, our guide went out of her way.  Helping us arrange a cabaret show and guiding us through one of the night markets.  Overall, we felt this trip was an incredible value given the exceptional service, quality of guides, transportation, and accommodations.

From the start to the finish, this travel agency did a marvelous job in helping us set up our 19 day trip to Vietnam and Cambodia in Feb. - March 2018. The four of us, two couples, had lots of ideas and questions about the trip. Our representative was wonderful. I told her what we were thinking of, our budget, what we wanted to see and where our focus was and she devised an itinerary that hit all the objectives of our trip. We did a bunch of tweaking and sending questions and concerns over  time and she answered all very promptly and made sure that what we wanted in the trip was fulfilled.  When I told her we wanted to up-grade our hotels, she handled all the changes  without any problems.  She phoned several times to make sure all was going well with our planning and that we were happy with what she had set up for us.

Our guides were fabulous. They did everything and more to make sure we had the experiences we wanted. If they thought that what was supposed to happen that day wasn't what they would recommend, ie., eating at certain food markets, etc., they pointed us in another direction. They took into account some of the physical limitations of several of us and made adjustments accordingly. They were friendly, helpful, caring and fun. At several points in our journey we had some requests for things that weren't in the itinerary and they made sure that those requests were fulfilled. We couldn't have asked for better service. More that once we asked where we could buy a certain thing and they went out of their way to find the store where it could be procured, even after the tour for the day was done and they were off their time with us. Wonderful service. All of our drivers were excellent, friendly and helpful. They always had bottles of cold water for us when we returned to the vans, which was much appreciated. 

Our hotels were perfect. The hotel in Hanoi, our private boat in Ha Long Bay and the staff on board, the hotel in Hue, the boutique hotel in Hoi An, where we had a wonderful 2 day rest period to enjoy the beach and relax,  the resort in Saigon, which was luxury at it's best, and the hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia were the perfect places to relax, rest and explore after our days of seeing the sights. They all had wonderful breakfasts and the staff of all of them were friendly, helpful and informative when we needed some advice. 

They also made getting our visas easy and painless, and arranged our internal flights and the flight to Cambodia with no problems. 

I highly recommend this travel company for any trip you are planning to Vietnam. Their service was outstanding and we have no complaints about anything they booked, recommended or suggested. 

We had a very enjoyable trip to Bangkok, Cambodia (Angor Wat) and Phuket.  Most of the arrangements were carried out well.  The visit to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see Angor Wat and related temples was amazing and well coordinated from landing at the airport to return to the airport.  The coordination of the Phuket leg of our visit was more chaotic as our guide there did not provide us with an updated itinerary and we had to keep calling in to see when and where we were to meet.  Overall, I requested 4 star to 5 star accommodations, but the venues in Bangkok and Phuket seemed to be quite aged and closer to 3 star accommodations.  The planning of activities by the agency was excellent and we enjoyed the bike ride tour, elephant sanctuary, snorkel trip, and cave kayaking.   In general, I would recommend this agency however, I might make changes to the guides used in Phuket and also upgrade the accommodations suggested via Zicasso as most of the clientele of Zicasso is looking for at least 4 star accommodations if available.

My wife and I just returned from a 3-week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia organized by the travel company.  We had used a company referred by Zicasso for a trip to Argentina in 2018 and were curious to see if we would be as satisfied after this trip as we had been after that one.  Suffice it to say, we were not disappointed!  This company did a terrific job in organizing our trip, securing comfortable, welcoming and well-located accommodations, setting us up with incredible guides with terrific local knowledge and very good English (we're from the US), arranging all our in-country flights and planning some extremely engaging and memorable outings and adventures.  

While I can't be sure, I think they also dialed up the weather - we only experienced 1 day of light precipitation in 19 days in the country!  They ensured we spent time in the North (Hanoi, Ninh Binh and Lan Ha Bay), Central (Hue and Hoi An), and South (Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta) parts of Vietnam and the temples (Siem Reap) in Cambodia. They also arranged an extensive array of food experiences and venues and provided many other memorable personal encounters with locals throughout Vietnam.  

Without fail, every day revealed many interesting aspects of the culture and history of Vietnam and Cambodia.  Our contact at the company was always responsive to our inquiries and requests - both before we left the US and while we were on our trip - and took time to meet with us personally in Ho Chi Minh City.  We were happy to be able to express our appreciation for his efforts in designing such a personalized adventure.  HIGHLY recommended.