Southeast Asian Culinary Tour of the North and South

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!

We went to Hanoi, Ho chi minh city in Vietnam, Siem Reap in Cambodia and Luang Prabang in Laos.

We had a great vacation. It was really easy working with our agent at this Southeast Asia travel company. She was very prompt in getting back to us with all our concerns and questions. We went back and forth with the the hotels we wanted and how we wanted to arrange our site seeing schedule. The agent worked with us and guided and helped us all the way. Very professional ! We would recommend using this company to our friends.

The guides were there to pick us up on time and waiting.  The vans were clean and nice. The guides were knowledgeable and helpful.  

This was our first time using a tour company through Zicasso as before this we were doing group tours only but were finding the pace there too hectic and felt were not getting enough time to look and enjoy things the way we would have liked to. We like to travel a lot and feel would like to do things the way we did for our Indo china tour.

I have food allergies and our agent conveyed the same to our gudes snd they made sure i was able to get food I was comfortable with.

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.

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.  

My husband and I decided on a custom trip to Indochina to celebrate our 32nd anniversary. As an avid traveler I always prefer to do my own planning, but dealing with the logistics of covering 4 countries in 24 days where there are 3 alphabets I was unable to read did not sound overly appealing. I compared 4 travel agencies in both the U.S. and Asia. Having utilized Zicasso once before, I selected one of their recommendations as the best fit. Our travel specialist, who is the founder and co-owner of his company, was a newcomer to Zicasso. He was professional, thorough, and accommodating in designing our customized journey. From our initial phone conversation to the extensive emails I sent, our trip evolved over 6 months of planning. Throughout the process, our agent responded promptly to countless questions and truly listened to my input and needs.

We requested a fairly fast-paced trip with some downtime at the end to relax. We wanted to have a variety of hands-on activities and authentic cultural experiences with an opportunity to get off the beaten path and away from crowds of tourists. Although I had done extensive research on my own, our agent offered many additional suggestions tailor made to enhance our travel. He was open to and appreciative of honest feedback (even during the trip), always striving to provide the best possible travel experience. Our vacation took us to Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Luang Prabang, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Tre (along the Mekong), Hoi An, Ninh Binh, Hanoi, and Bai Tu Long Bay. The trip included 6 internal flights, a 2-night cruise, 4-5 star hotels, 3 food tours, 2 shows, expedited visa service, private guides and drivers, and all entrance fees and activities. Food, when included, was abundant and delicious. All hotels were excellent and beautifully appointed.

There were a few glitches during our journey. Since I had worked as a tour guide myself, having enthusiastic and engaging guides was a top priority for me. We had fabulous guides in Luang Prabang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi- guides whose knowledge, passion, and personalities made their culture come to life. Several others, however, did not measure up, and this was a huge disappointment. Since the company is based in Vietnam, I wondered how much control they had over guides selected in other countries. Another problem we encountered is that, after a flight delay, there was no official to meet us at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City for expedited visa service. We contacted our travel specialist in Hanoi who tried his best to help us, but we still spent over 2 hours getting through the process. As an apology, he upgraded our hotel room in Hanoi for 3 nights and treated us to a luxurious dinner. Sometimes there are unforeseen hiccups while traveling and we were most grateful for this kind gesture.

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!