Best of Thailand and Vietnam Tour

We had an amazing trip to the travel company, truly a life-changing experience!  We visited Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An in Vietnam, then traveled to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and ended our journey in Bangkok and Chaing Mai, Thailand.  The travel company assigned us to very friendly, informative and knowledgeable guides in each city.  Our excursions led us through the streets of Hanoi, sampling street foods and beverages, visiting floating fishing villages and the sheer serenity and beauty on Halong Bay, experiencing the Vietnamese countryside on the back of a scooter, sunrise tour of Angkor Wat, and other temples in Cambodia, Thai massage and temple tours in Bangkok, and hands-on cooking class in Chaing Mai.  But our favorite adventure was caring for the elephants at a sanctuary in the mountains outside of Chaing Mai.  

I cannot properly articulate how special and easy this trip was for us.  Every transition to each country was smooth and relaxed.  Our guides were always there to help us navigate the new cultures, tastes and experiences.  The hotels the travel company booked were comfortable, luxurious and classy.  

Working with the travel company was a joy!  Our travel specialist adjusted our itinerary to match our interests and pace.  While planning our trip, if we had questions or wanted to adjust the itinerary, our specialist returned our emails within 24 hours, and would tweak our itinerary until we were satisfied.  I highly recommend the travel company!  

Hello!

We are in Phnom Penh and on our last day of the trip. I want to thank you and your affiliates for the great job all of you did to pull together this incredible journey. It was our first time in this part of the world, and we learned so much from your knowledgeable guides who did a seamless job of pulling together each day’s activities. We had a wonderful time in this part of the world, and enjoyed meeting the gentle, peaceful, accommodating people of Southeast Asia. I will highly recommend your company to anyone looking to plan a trip to these countries. Thank you so much for all of your efforts on our behalf to make this trip so fulfilling and memorable. Best regards,Lisa and Maria FI want to offer some specific comments and feedback to share for your information.

The airport meet-ups were terrific and welcoming. Nice not to have to figure out navigating to the hotels, etc. and it was a nice way to meet the guides before touring.The guides:  In Hanoi. Of all of the guides, we had the hardest time understanding him. And he tended to repeat himself (data and facts) quite a bit. Apart from that, he was very kind and accommodating. Our guide in Hue/Hoi An. He was also very good and kind. He had us thru a difficult part of the trip…3 consecutive 1-night stays, and three 5:30am wake ups, which I had discussed with you how much I wanted to avoid that…and with the flight change, it was unavoidable. Our guide in Saigon. She was by far the best guide of them all. She was smart, accessible, natural, and generous on all levels. She was outstanding, through one of the tougher parts (emotionally) of the trip (all of the war sites). Our guide in Laos. He was very competent, but not very enthusiastic. It seemed he was distracted, on the phone a lot, and just sort of going through the motions without too much energy. Our gude in Siem Reap. He was truly lovely. Young and energetic and very caring. He was very knowledgeable about all of the religious history of the Angkor area, and we enjoyed touring with him. And finally our guide in Phnom Penh. Our time with him was very brief, but he was also very knowledgeable and very pleasant. He obviously loves this line of work.

The hotels: I've been trying to find the original list of options to see what I passed up in favor of the hotels I selected. No luck. Overall, the hotels were good, but I think it would be nice to have a couple of choices at the 4* and 5* levels, rather than just one. The hotel in Hanoi. We really didn't love this hotel. The service was fair, as was the room. The wood floors were so slippery, they were dangerous. HALONG BAY…was completely lovely. Great boat. Great cabin. Hotel in Hue. This hotel was fabulous…the room was huge and comfortable. We slept for hours. Unfortunately, they claimed to have 24-hour room service; but when we awoke at midnight and called for food, no one answered. The hotel in HoiAn. This hotel was ok, but not great. We didn't have hot water for showers. The hotel in Saigon. I had high expectations for this hotel…I had read good things and I've stayed at several wonderful hotels of this brand. This one was just ok. Nothing special about the room. And the beds were like a piece of plywood. We had to have them pad the mattress, which they did with a duvet, and then I sweated through the night between 2 duvets. Also, there was only one chance for us to enjoy the pool (it rained), and when we went up to use it, we found it being set up for a private party…one whose thumping music and noise disturbed us all night. I've been in this business for 35 years…and I've never seen a hotel restrict an amenity for all if it's guests to accommodate only a few guests. It's very bad business. I let them know my displeasure, and they offered me a 30% credit on my restaurant charges, which was very kind of them. The hotel  in Luong Prabang was really nice. We had a room right off the pool, and the entire property was very pretty and well located. The hotel in Siem Reap. This hotel was fantastic. But we had a similar issue with the pool, which they closed early (5pm) for a dinner event for just 20 guests! As it turned out, it was raining at 5pm, so we couldn't use it anyway, but I just don't understand the thinking of interfering with a crucial amenity such as a pool, at a critical time (after touring on a 90 degree day!)…especially for just 20 or so guests. That is simply crazy! The hotel in Phnom Penh. This hotel was also spectacular and huge! The rooms. The pool. The lobby. All of it was massive. We enjoyed our brief stay there very much.The itinerary: My only complaint about the itinerary was at the beginning with the three consecutive one-night stays that also required super early morning departures. That really wiped us out, and took a toll on our energy early on in the trip. I know the flight change made this an issue, but it was really rough on us during that part of the trip. The main question I now have about our itinerary, is WHY DIDN’T WE BEGIN IN SAIGON? We'd have gone north from there, and then from Hanoi to Luong Prabang, which would have avoided the day of connecting flights from Saigon to Laos. We'd have then gone from Laos to Cambodia, and our journey would have been a continuous circle, rather than the jumping around we did. I also question why we went to Phnom Penh at all. After we chose not to see 2 main sites (Pol Pot’s Torture and The Killing Fields), it seems silly to have spent a day flying 45 minutes from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh just to spend a half day touring a palace and a cycle tour…although I admit I did enjoy seeing Phnom Penh…though we probably could've skipped it. The one serious complaint I had was the 1500 meter hike in Siem Reap to the waterfall. This was a technically challenging CLIMB with rocks and tree roots and difficult and dangerous footing throughout. We started with the best of intentions, but after the third or fourth very technical stretch, we became very concerned about our ability to manage the descent. We bailed on it after going half way up, and relied on a tree branch walking stick and our guide's support to make our way down. I think you need to advise guests of this challenge…and give the option whether you include it or not. With bad feet, knees, hips, and back issues, this hike provided too much danger and risk versus the “reward” of a waterfall (in the dry season).

I hope you accept this input in the spirit it is intended…to help you and your team provide an ideal experience in this part of the world. We remain very grateful for your hard work and fine coordination efforts of your associates throughout the region.

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 travelled to Siem Reap, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City. At each stop our guide was there to meet us and each one was very knowledgable about the area,culture and history, able to provide very personal perspective on the areas. The hotels we stayed at were boutique style hotels all centrally located with great service and staff. The trip was effortless as our travel agency thought of everything and it all went very smoothly.

Thank you to our travel agency for a very enjoyable and interesting trip. You tailored the perfect trip for us!

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.

Fantastic trip to Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue and Hoi An

I'm so happy that we chose to work with this agency, found through Zicasso. This is our 4th trip planned through Zicasso agents, and I'm planning our 5th already! I'm a firm believer in working with in-country travel agents, and this experience confirmed the advantages. When beset by bad weather in Halong Bay literally 15 minutes prior to departure of our boat, the agency was able to confirm a room back at our Hanoi hotel of choice within minutes, and extend the driver and guide into the late evening, so that we could still have a quick excursion on the Bay before turning back around to Hanoi.

Their private guide in Hanoi was extremely punctual, knowledgeable and flexible. He responded to our interests and was able to modify plans. We learned so much from our guide about the history of Vietnam and we will never forget him. The same with our guide in Hue and Hoi An. He squeezed in 1.5 days of activities into 1 day, so that we could have an extra half day at the beach. We made several very last minute changes to our itinerary, such as changing the order of activities, changing the restaurant choice for lunch in the morning, and canceling one excursion altogether since we wanted some "down time". The Agency was able to refund us for one excursion and explained fairly when a refund was not possible.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and all three of us had a great time. In the planning stages, the agent was extremely patient and professional. He listened to my feedback and provided revisions to the itinerary in the planning phases, always with ample amount of details. The hotel recommendations were all perfect, and we were especially impressed that the agency got in touch with us one week before the trip to offer a different hotel in Hue, since other travelers had complained about the construction noise from nearby the hotel. We ended up deciding to stay with the original, and were very happy with the lodging--we were out all day anyway, so the construction noise was not a bother. After experiencing the bustle of Hanoi, Hue was quiet!