Thailand Tours for Couples

Singapore and Thailand Adventure 19 February 2024

Dates: January 24th, 2024 through February 14th, 2024

In short, we were happy with the itinerary and enjoyed each location on our trip.

The execution of our travel plan and support we received from the Zicasso travel agency left much to be desired.

Highlights:

The hotels booked were excellent with highest marks for the hotel in Bangkok and the one in Krabi, which was one of the best hotels we have ever stayed at. Locations and amenities of all the hotels were beyond reproach.

The Elephant Sanctuary was fun and everything we hoped it would be.

The night market in Chiang Mai was a highlight. Our host in Chiang Mai was the best, and super helpful.

The airport transfers and check-ins all went according to plan and were all on time with no glitches.

The lunches/restaurants on both the Krabi and Koh Samui speedboat excursions were really good and had delicious food.

Lowlights:

When we checked into our first hotel (in Singapore) early the morning of January 26th after our 17-hour flight from San Francisco, we were happy knowing that we would be getting an early check-in. However, we were surprised to learn that we were actually paying for the night of January 25th, which was not indicated in our itinerary. In fact, the itinerary stated 3 nights in Singapore, January 26th – 28th. We were not pleased with the deception and would like to be reimbursed for the additional night’s lodging.

Our biggest issue, throughout the trip came with baggage allowances and weight for all of our intra-Thailand flights. We had a total of 5 flights booked by the travel company, in addition to the SFO – SIN round trip which we booked ourselves. The problem was that all 5 flights were booked on the cheapest economy fare with minimal baggage allowances. I think it’s fair to say that when you’re taking a high-end “luxury” vacation, you don’t expect to be limited to a single 20 piece of luggage, which was what we had on our AirAsia and Bangkok Air flights. We upgraded some of the flights ourselves for additional weight and AirAsia’s “Red Carpet” Service (both at additional cost) but were unable to make some of the upgrades since the travel company used their own contact information (instead of ours) to book the flights. When we tried to make changes ourselves, the contact information didn’t match, and we couldn’t make the desired changes. We then asked to upgrade all of our remaining flights but had problems at every step.

We notified the company of Adriana’s requirements for gluten-free meals in advance of the trip. The hosts or the hotels we stayed at were rarely aware of this requirement which became a constant source of frustration.

We took a city tour in Singapore which included dinner… the Chinese restaurant was TERRIBLE and there was barely anything (gluten-free) that Adriana could eat.

We had no “host” in either Krabi or Koh Samui, but were only given a phone number to call with questions, etc. We never met anyone at either location.

We had several instances where our excursion guide didn’t know what our itinerary included. As an example, In Koh Samui, our guide and speedboat captain didn’t know that we were supposed to have a “5 Island Tour” which would include the best snorkeling spots available. It wasn’t until more than halfway through our 6-hour excursion that we showed them our itinerary to confirm. They then did a high-speed pass by 3 of the islands and the snorkeling location we stopped at was a complete waste of time. Had we known better, we would have been taken to Koh Tao, which is supposed to be one of the best snorkeling sites in the world.

My wife and I were looking for honeymoon destinations. Through Zicasso, we were directed to a travel agency that specializes in Southeast Asia tours. Our travel agent was great to work with. She gave us good destinations to travel and we chose Thailand. She new Thailand very well and knew exactly what we were looking for. We did a 10 night trip which included Bangkok, Chiang Mai and finally Krabi. Krabi was our favorite destination. Our travel agent set us up in very nice hotels in all three areas. Our agent also selected Qatar airlines for our flight. Qatar airlines was a very good airline. We were served dinner and hour after take off, then breakfast then Lunch. The food was great for an airline and they exuded great customer service.

My husband and I booked our honeymoon in Thailand with Zicasso's travel agency. We worked with our travel agent to plan it and the itinerary was incredible! I barely had to do anything. He booked all of our activities, hotels, and transfers.

Transportation:

We went to four locations (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, and Krabi) and each time we traveled internally, a guide would drop us off and pick us up. Truly door-to-door service! We also had a private guide and driver for each of our planned activities. Our domestic travel was so incredibly easy and we were super lucky to have all of them be on time and seamless! Our tour operator monitored all the flights and before our honeymoon, made sure to update a couple whose times had changed to ensure we got to our destinations with enough time.

Activities:

We wanted our honeymoon to be equal parts adventure and relaxation. We spent the first half of our trip in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We toured temples, did a street food tour, took a day trip to a floating market, spent a day learning to cook with a local family, spent a day with rescue elephants, and visited a gorgeous national park, to name a few things. All were private tours with private guides! A shout-out to our amazing guides in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We then spent intentionally unstructured time at the beaches of Koh Samui and Krabi (I’d recommend Krabi over Koh Samui (I was the one who added Koh Samui to the itinerary, but should have listened to our travel agent!). Krabi was so perfect for a honeymoon.

Accommodations:

All were five stars and beautiful! We had cute honeymoon welcome gifts everywhere we went.

In summary, it was so worth working with our travel team to plan a stress-free honeymoon. We had an incredible time and couldn’t have loved it more!

This travel agency really impressed us! From meeting us at the airport once we arrived in Thailand to providing tours to us throughout the entire country, our travel agency provided top notch customer service the entire way through. The booking experience was productive and smooth, all of the logistics were a breeze (shuttle pickup to and from airports, private van rides to and from hotel to our daily destinations - with ice cold refreshments), and the local flavor was refreshing (all of the tour guides were local in each city we stopped in with many years of experience). We enjoyed all 3 of our tour guides in each city - Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Krabi. They were very knowledgable and the specific activities that were booked through Trails of Indochina were exactly what we were looking for: 

The guides had everything we needed (waters, snacks, offering to take photos the whole time, etc.)

We would highly recommend this company.

Trip: My wife and I traveled to Bangkok, Chaing Mai, Phuket, and Hong Kong (for a long layover). Overall, the trip was excellent.  We cannot say enough about the places we visted:

1. Bangkok: While a large city, it has a special charm. You can see amazing historical Buddhist temples and then quickly transition to the local street vendors/markets and/or modern stores/hotels, etc. We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental (great location, awesome staff - would highly recommend). Peter was an amazing guide!!

2. Chaing Mai: Great city and more of the "local" Thailand relative to Bangkok. Great place to do elephant camps and we did an amazing private cooking class. Four Seasons hotel is a must! Hong, our guide, was great!!

3. Phuket:  Beautiful coastal town. Would highly recommend going to the Phi Phi islands via a private boat charter. Thanks to Arun, our amazing guide!!

4. Hong Kong: We were here for ~12 hour layover for our flight, but had a great time shopping and eating dinner overlooking the harbour. Joyce was incredible - - we did the "must sees" in 1/2 a day, plus got to sample the local flavor via some neighborhoods and a local tea shop

A special thanks to each one of our local guides  - - you all made a great trip absoulutely unforgettable!! Also, the local Thai people are so so nice and welcomed us everywhere we went.

Travel Company: We used this Thailand travel company and would highly, highly recommend using them. Their staff (special thanks to Vu and Chuong) were incredible - - they put together multiple alternatives for us to consider, provided "local" insights/opinions as we were deciding between options, and we very responsive to our every need. Most importantly, the guides we had were incredible in every locale - - they made the trip!! Every logisital aspect of the trip went off exactly as our travel agency said it would (and the itenerary was very informative/detailed). Perhaps the best way to summarize how much we thought of this company and the experiences they coordinated for us is that upon returing from our trip, we have already contacted the team about returning to SE Asia again next year....and there was absoulutely no question that we are going to use  to arrange everything for us again!!

My wife and I just returned from a 2 week trip that included a few days in each of the following locations: Tokyo, Bangkok, Chiang Rai/GoldenTriangle, and Koh Samui. Our agent at this Asia travel company quickly understood the type of trip we wanted to plan and presented a competitively priced itinerary, which included great hotels, private guides, transportation, and activities. 

Your overall comments on Zicasso

We were pleased with both travel companies that responded to our request submitted via Zicasso. Both responded quickly and thoroughly.