Asia Travel Agents & Reviews

After returning home from a month-long trip to Asia, I am still wowed by the service provided by the travel agency and our guides in Vietnam. Since this was our first visit to the country, I reached out to the agency for itinerary recommendations, and thankfully, I was connected with Albee. She was incredibly responsive before and during our trip, and she paired us with such knowledgeable and hospitable guides.

Our first guide during the trip hosted us in Hanoi and SaPa. We opted to stay a bit more off the beaten path at an ecolodge which we can highly recommend, which is about 30 minutes away from the SaPa village center. We let our guide know we were interested in learning more about the local culture and exploring the countryside, and wow, he delivered! 

We went on the most memorable hike through the rice terraces and stopped to chat with several villagers along the way. He knew everyone. On top of that, he taught us about local flora and customs while on the hike and then the bike ride. We are already looking forward to returning to the North and further exploring the Vietnam/China border, but only if we can do it with him! The mountains were truly the highlight of our trip, and it wouldn't have been possible without him as our guide. If you are lucky enough to add SaPa to your itinerary, do yourself a favor and request him.

Our guide in Saigon, which was the last leg of our Vietnam trip, was so accommodating to our changing needs. After a couple of weeks of travel, we arrived in Saigon wanting a more relaxing pace. She seamlessly made alternate arrangements for us that were a perfect end to the trip. The most hospitable moment from our entire trip to Asia came when we expressed an interest in visiting a local family. She immediately suggested that she and her family host us for lunch at their home in the Mekong Delta the next afternoon. This was such an unexpected yet memorable end to our time in Vietnam. Our guide’s and her family's hospitality were unmatched, and we were so fortunate to have her as our guide.

Overall, Zicasso’s travel company did a pretty good job of planning the trip. The staff were very friendly and welcoming. The spacing of the events on the itinerary was well-balanced, with a good mix of activities and free time!

The South Korea portion of our trip was flawless, with excellent guides and events planned for each day. Our local tour guides knew to change the itinerary when they noticed there was a chance to optimize timing for certain events to avoid crowds or that we were doing too many activities that were similar, which was excellent!

One point of feedback: Key transfers were missed (eg, We were expected to find our own way out of Hakone to get to the train station to Tokyo, only to find out the night before that taxis were refusing to come out to our hotel for fares because it was too far, and the hotel didn’t offer any good solutions. We were very lucky that our wonderful tour guide for Hakone offered to drive us at the last minute, otherwise we would’ve missed the train and our subsequent booked teamLab Planets and food tour in Tokyo.)

I was connected with Zicasso’s travel agent in fall of 2023. She put together a dream father-son tour for my husband and son to go to Japan this past summer (2024). It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that they absolutely loved because of our travel agent and her company. There's no way I could have done it by myself.

She had contacts there who helped me to book dinners, she found English-speaking tour guides to help them in each city, and she arranged amazing experiences for them (a ramen tour, a tea ceremony, a knife-making workshop at an ancient Japanese forge, a stay at a top ryokan with its own hot spring, etc).

She also helped with troubleshooting while they were there (my son left his airpods in the first hotel. She contacted the hotel, they were found (!), and then she arranged for them to be delivered to their last hotel).

She was patient with all of our changes and incredibly responsive to all of my emails. Her itinerary was incredible. Each day was broken down so they always knew where they were going and at what time. Our agent provided instructions to get them to every destination (whether it was on foot, by car, bus, or train), had all of the hotel vouchers set up, plus their tickets to venues, and even had signs in Japanese so they could easily hop a cab and give over the sign and get back to their hotel. She was really amazing. I highly recommend this travel company!

I cannot recommend the Zicasso travel partner enough! Our tour operator made the whole process easy and a once-in-a-lifetime experience affordable. Delhi, the airports, and Varanasi would have been challenging to navigate without the expert guides who made person-to-person handoffs from the minute we stepped off the plane. Our kids (older teens) were very jet lagged and not feeling well the first few days (the pollution is significant), so we needed some itinerary adjustments. These were quick and seamless, and our travel agent was even able to swap days/activities on the fly.

Everyone was so accommodating; we really appreciated it. We always felt safe and enjoyed truly authentic, off-the-beaten-path experiences, such as spiritual Varanasi’s Ganges River ceremonies and the ISKCON temple in Vrindavan.

Zicasso’s travel agent and his team were outstanding. Thank you for being so patient and accommodating with our requests. It was a pleasure working with someone who was so knowledgeable and professional. The accommodations you chose were perfect and exactly what we were looking for. The detail given to us in the itinerary was impeccable.

We had a good relationship with our Zicasso travel agent, who helped to organize our dream trip to Japan. The trip itself was lovely. The accommodations were top-notch and our agent created a customized itinerary that accommodated our special requests to attend a baseball game, overnight at a Zen monastery, and visit a tea farm.

The only downside was that once we were in Japan, our main contact ended up being another outfit, one that organizes tours for countless tourists each year. As a result, we didn't have consistent contact with our tour operator. It was only possible to reach their representatives via email or by using roaming to call them on ($$$). It would have been better to be able to reach reps and local guides via text message or WhatsApp.

The information provided by the in-country tour company hadn't been updated since before the Covid-19 pandemic. It consisted of a series of PDF files with hyperlinks that weren't live, so you couldn't simply click for more information. It left a less-than-luxurious impression.

Nevertheless, the trip was still spectacular and we had a great time.

Our planner provided us with an imaginative itinerary that we would never have imagined ourselves. She was responsive with her suggestions and answers to our questions. We had planned to stay in Shanghai and perhaps to go out to one of the water towns, then our planner suggested that we think a little bigger and go to Huangshan and stay for three nights. We loved the boutique hotel, probably our favorite place.

Our trip required a lot of moving around, however our three guides and drivers got us to and from each location without a single misstep. We didn't waste a minute trying to figure out our logistics, and I would say that each one went above our expectations. Also, the Shanghai itinerary got us to the top spots without a hitch.

The only thing I would fault is that our guide in Huangshan did not speak English as clearly as we would have liked, but he certainly did his best. All three guides were soft-spoken, personable, and attentive to detail.

Also, while knowledgeable about China, none of the guides were academic or history experts. But we have no complaints!

The communication between our family and Zicasso’s travel agency was exceptional. We felt confident and comfortable traveling to a country we’d never been to before due to their efficient, detailed, and timely responses. At one point, just before we left, we sent a list of restaurant reservations we made on our own, outside our itinerary. Our agent checked our flights in relation to the time of our reservation and the distance from the hotel to the restaurant, letting us know that based on recent flight delays, we may not make our dinner reservation and would be charged a 100% cancellation fee by the restaurant. We thought this deep analysis into our plans and the “heads up” were a great example of the level of detail that went into our trip planning.

Each excursion was thoughtfully planned and valuable/memorable. We would not have missed a single one, with the exception of one tour at the very end of our trip when our guide was not as strong as the others had been.

We liked that we started with Tokyo and then traveled the country from that starting point because we liked the other cities much more. Because we started in Tokyo, we didn’t really know any differently.

Though it was low season in Japan, I would not travel there again in the summer months. It was just too hot and humid for me. Our other family members did not mind the heat as much as I did.

We would use our travel company’s services again and recommend them to our friends and family without hesitation.