Monday, December 19, 2011

JIM CHOWS * 2 pax | Vietnam

Itinerary: Tailor made tour in Vietnam
Date: Oct 7 - Oct 29, 2011
Nationality: American

We all really enjoyed the trip immensely. 

The itinerary you put together for us was excellent and fantastic.  The Trek was an incredible experience - the scenery, the ethnic minority villages, the homestays, the food (the porters Tonny had were incredible cooks!!!).  

In between the Trek and the Halong Bay excursion we had more than enough time to walk through all nooks and crannies of the old quarters of Hanoi which was by itself a very enjoyable thing to do.
With regards to our assigned tour guides - Tonny for our Trekking adventure, and Hai for our Hanoi and Halong Bay tours - they were both very good.  In fact, I'd like to find out from you if you have Tonny's email address as we'd like to thank him directly as well.   I have Hai's email address and have kept in touch with him.  It's always a good sign when tourists decide to stay in touch with their guides - it says "job well done"!

I will definitely be recommending your company to people who express any interest in a trip to Vietnam. 

Sunday, December 11, 2011

NOWELL UPHAM * 2 pax | Northern | Vietnam

Itinerary: Northern Highlights
Date: Oct 16 - Oct 22, 2011
Nationality: American  

I travel a lot. As does my brother. We usually do all the planning ourselves, go somewhere adventurous, and cram a ton into what amounts to 7 days on the ground. And we always go on a budget, with an intent to book last minute land arrangements, and splurge when we see a high-end value. For our recent trip to Vietnam, we did only about half the homework we typically, do, and we left the rest, and our fate, in the hands of Miss Jessie at Active Travel Asia. All my communications with her were by email. We outlined everything we found on the Web that we were interested in, and what we thought a fair price was (based on our research) and she did all the rest. She arranged our transportation (we asked for a private car everywhere), train rides, tour guides (private again), motorbikes, sail boat, as well as our hotel stays. And get this, when we cancelled our private driver for the second to last day, she actually insisted on coming to our hotel and returning $65 in USD to me, as a credit. We spent two nights in Hanoi, two nights in Sapa, and a night in Hulong Bay. Plus a couple nights on an over night train to Sapa. In Sapa, we had a terrific guide (Hi-eep is how we pronounced it) be sure to ask them for him if you go, he's the guy you want to show you around. He young, and his english is great, and he's funny, and very attentive your every need. Enjoy.


Visited October 2011
Source: Tripadvisor