Private tour guides in Vietnam

Has anyone had any problems with "missing the shiip" due to being on a private tour? I am looking into private tours from Halong Bay (Hanoi), Chan May (Hue), Phu My (HCMC) and Laemchabang (Bangkok). The ship docks overnight in Halong Bay, Phu My and Bangkok so I would be comfortable with a tour on day 1 but I'm a bit wary of day 2. The tour companies I have contacted are recommended on this board. There is such a difference in tour prices between private tours and ship tours!

Thank you.

Has anyone had any problems with "missing the shiip" due to being on a private tour? I am looking into private tours from Halong Bay (Hanoi), Chan May (Hue), Phu My (HCMC) and Laemchabang (Bangkok). The ship docks overnight in Halong Bay, Phu My and Bangkok so I would be comfortable with a tour on day 1 but I'm a bit wary of day 2. The tour companies I have contacted are recommended on this board. There is such a difference in tour prices between private tours and ship tours!

Thank you.

We generally book our own tours and have had no problems returning to ship in Caribbean, Europe, Turkey, or South America. We find private tours or going on our own to usually be better and much cheaper than ships' shore excursions.

So we're in the process of booking our own tours for our 3 Feb 13 SE Asia cruise on the Azamara Journey. Here's a good blog by a couple who have cruised a lot and do their own tours (see their SE Asia cruise.) http://www.thepreismans.com/

Good luck!

Vietnam's tourism is in its infancy & there's plenty of wannabe tour operators who haven't a clue, but that's the joy of personal recommendations such as on CC.

I've never come across anyone missing a sailing when booked on a private tour anywhere - those with such problems are normally independents who've mis-understood distances, local public transportation logistics, back-on-board time vs sailing-time, ship's time vs local time, or those who just plain try to jam in too much. Alcohol sometimes comes into it too ;)

Cost is by no means the only advantage of private tours. Flexibility, personal attention, not travelling at the speed of the slowest, not being held up waiting for folk who've misunderstood timings, no unwanted long lunchstops or visits to commission-earning shops etc etc are amongst the other advantages.

I've not gone Phu My to Saigon, but although its about 2 hours the local operators will know their stuff.

Chan May to Hue is only about an hour, shouldn't be a problem.

Laem Chabang to Bangkok is about 90 mins, but allow 2.5 hours for the return because the city can get snarled-up. No problem if you're using an experienced operator.

Halong Bay is the only one I'm not too sure about. Halong City has nothing to offer, your choice is effectively a junk cruise amongst the eerie limestone karsts (which I rate highly) or the 3 hour drive to Hanoi which might be better done with a ship's tour.

In Saigon (only officialdom calls it HCMC) and Bangkok, and in Hanoi if that's your preference from Halong Bay, do consider an overnite city hotel. Good city centre hotels are cheap & give you so much more time to explore, including evenings, and save you the wasted time & expense of doubling-up your travelling time on pretty boring roads.

For Saigon, once in the city, you can get by very well without a tour operator - all the main sights are in easy walking distance. So just a reliable transfer from/to the ship would do the job if you're overniting in a hotel.

For Bangkok, broadly the same applies - pre-booked transfers, then once in the city getting around is easy by taxi or tuk-tuk or skytrain or ferries but you do need to do a bit of research in advance.

For Hanoi, sorry, can't help.

Just MHO

JB :)

Thanks for the info. I've done private tours in the Mediterranean and Mexico based on the recommendations on these boards so I guess if I continue doing so I should be fine. Good to know that we may not need a tour guide in Saigon or Bangkok but I would want a reliable driver to and from the ports. We may just skip Hanoi and go with a day-long junk cruise in Halong Bay. I was originally thinking of spending the full day in Hanoi and then a 2-3 hour junk cruise the next morning before the ship departs at 1:00; but the price of a short cruise through the ship is awfully high and I'm not comfortable with taking any tour operator off the pier for fear of missing the ship's departure time.

Consider Ann's Tours based in Saigon. Family biz run by expats from the US who returned home from California - Ann's son Tony now manages the company. A.T. handle small tours in Thailand, Vietnam etc. I used them in 2000 for a private tour of Saigon - their pre-tour communication was excellent & thorough, the Saigon tour provided was terrific.

Last month, I was in Asia once again on an Oceania cruise. Based on my rec, Ann's Tours was used by others for small group tours in Ko Samui, Saigon and Cambodia. All I spoke with were very pleased with the results in Feb. 2012 for those different locations.

In Nha Trang, Vietnam, search this board for raves on Mr. Pham's city tour at nhatrangrivercruise.com. I can vouch for the experience. Phamcan take up to 50 people on a tour. Personally, I will not take a tour with more than 20 - that emulates the ship tour stuffing so many people on a bus and degrades the experience.

John Bull's post is on the money. You can easily tour on your own Saigon & Bangkok. But if you are on a large ship which must dock so far from the city, perhaps a tour company would be wise with your limited time. Small cruise ships dock right in the city and its easy to get around both cities. Bangkok has excellent public transportation and the cabs are metered and cheap. Saigon is walkable but a crazier with the traffic and frantic activity.

Consider Ann's Tours based in Saigon. Family biz run by expats from the US who returned home from California - Ann's son Tony now manages the company. A.T. handle small tours in Thailand, Vietnam etc. I used them in 2000 for a private tour of Saigon - their pre-tour communication was excellent & thorough, the Saigon tour provided was terrific.

 

Last month, I was in Asia once again on an Oceania cruise. Based on my rec, Ann's Tours was used by others for small group tours in Ko Samui, Saigon and Cambodia. All I spoke with were very pleased with the results in Feb. 2012 for those different locations.

 

In Nha Trang, Vietnam, search this board for raves on Mr. Pham's city tour at nhatrangrivercruise.com. I can vouch for the experience. Phamcan take up to 50 people on a tour. Personally, I will not take a tour with more than 20 - that emulates the ship tour stuffing so many people on a bus and degrades the experience.

 

John Bull's post is on the money. You can easily tour on your own Saigon & Bangkok. But if you are on a large ship which must dock so far from the city, perhaps a tour company would be wise with your limited time. Small cruise ships dock right in the city and its easy to get around both cities. Bangkok has excellent public transportation and the cabs are metered and cheap. Saigon is walkable but a crazier with the traffic and frantic activity.

Me think a good guide is better than a good company. Priority should be direct contact to a good guide since his / her reputation has been seasoned and proved. Whilst, a good company might have not good guides. Best is name of a good company and its guides to be recommended. When you contact a good guide the risk is his/ her availability only. You can avoid it by contacting him/ her quite early. When you contact a company make sure that company gives you the guide's contact number/ email address long time prior to your arrival.

We used Smile Tours in Phu My for HCM - look up their website. Thi was wonderful - she's very friendly and everything went smoothly. Cheap too.

We used Zoom in Saigon and were more than pleased. We were there for two days and he did an awesome job of taking us where we wanted to go and making it very comfortable. He had a good understanding of what we wanted in a tour. We spent one day in Saigon and the other day at the Mekong Delta. We used Tong in Bangkok (but she wasn't our actual guide) and we were very pleased with our two day tour there as well. In Nha Trang and Hanoi, we used Mrs. Ha. We had no problems whatsoever getting back to the ship on time and there were never any worries as we always had plenty of time. We had a two day stopover in Halong Bay so we went into Hanoi on the first day and then took a junk ride in Halong Bay the second day. The ride to Hanoi was over three hours, the traffic was terrible and the road was worse.....very bumpy. Unfortunately, the day we were there was rainy and chilly which didn't help either. We felt pretty rushed since we only had about 4 hours there because we had to turn around and come back. None of us felt it had been worth it. That being said, the people that did overnights in Hanoi had a much better experience and really liked Hanoi. The junk ride was lovely....we stopped at two caves and rode around for several hours in Halong Bay. We loved Southeast Asia and consider it one of our favorite cruises.

Thanks to everyone for their assistance. There's a little while yet 'till my trip so I have a lot of time to plan.

another vote for Zoom - the only tour we booked through the ship was Halong Bay as we wanted to make sure that we wouldn't have a problem with the ship leaving - as mentioned, bear in mind for Hanoi that the road from Halong Bay is not great and that it takes at least 3 hours each way. Also most people stop at a very large shop with lacquerware, silk paintings, clothes etc en route. In Bangkok, we used Wandee and had no problem with getting back to the boat in time. Usually when asked when we need to be back, I shave a couple of hours off to ensure that we are back well within time.

Check out my tour write-ups for Vietnam. We had great luck with private tours and loved being able to see what we wanted to see without spending time getting on and off the bus and going to the bathroom and shopping. The group that went to Hanoi on the ship's tour spent all their time driving and going to the two shops along the way.

http://spendingthekidsinheritance.us/site/Nha_Trang,_Vietnam.html

If you have questions, my e-mail is ggsesq@gmail.com

Gay

Has anyone had any problems with "missing the shiip" due to being on a private tour? I am looking into private tours from Halong Bay (Hanoi), Chan May (Hue), Phu My (HCMC) and Laemchabang (Bangkok). The ship docks overnight in Halong Bay, Phu My and Bangkok so I would be comfortable with a tour on day 1 but I'm a bit wary of day 2. The tour companies I have contacted are recommended on this board. There is such a difference in tour prices between private tours and ship tours!

Thank you.

///

John Bull's comment is right on the money-"Vietnam's tourism is in its infancy & there's plenty of wannabe tour operators who haven't a clue, but that's the joy of personal recommendations such as on CC."

There are so many Smile and Sinh tour operators in Vietnam that you don't know who you are actually booking with-the REAL, original company or someone who has ripped off the name and may or may not have a clue what they are doing. Quite a few sell on price alone-there have been numerous instances posted on CC, Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet, etc. where the tour operator had no idea that it cost XXX dollars for gas, car and driver and the passengers were asked to pony up money mid way through the tour for gas, entrance fees, etc.

I posted this on another CC thread almost 3 years ago: "There are MANY, MANY companies names Smile and Sinh. Be VERY careful who you do business with. The ORIGINAL SINH cafe, started by Le Van Sinh, is reputable and one of the first tour operators in Vietnam when Vietnam opened to the West. Same thing with SMILE. There is the original and then there are the imitators. In Hanoi, every other travel agency is named Sinh something or other.

Some are merely booking agencies that book "seat in coach" with the original. MAKE SURE you want a seat in coach trip before you book and ask about the coach and other passengers. Some seat in coach buses are no better than the ramshackle vehicles that are used all over Vietnam and much more suited to 20 something backpackers than cruise tourists.

SOME copy cat tour agencies try to do their own tours-basically a one car/one or two people operation. Quite a few travel agencies in Vietnam has just not quite mastered the art of tour operators. They charge too little, they use old cars, they forget to add in the cost of admissions/other fees for stuff. So you are 1/2 way there, they are essentially out of gas because they charged too little to pay the car owner PLUS gas or you get someplace and they ask for money for entry fees. Just be careful."

This agency is owned by an American Vietnam Vet. He now lives in Vietnam and is married to a Vietnamese. I arranged a tour through him for friends who had been in Vietnam during the war. They wanted to see sites around the DMZ. He handled it very well and got them to all the places they wanted to go.

http://www.indochinatours.com/

We just returned from an Asian cruise and used Ann Tours in Vietnam. Tony was fabulous to work with...very flexible and accomodations. We used them for a 2 night trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. We then had a day in Ho Chi Minh City and it was a fantastic tour!

We'd HIGHLY RECOMMEND Ann Tours!!! :)

Thank you both for your postings. It is people like you who take the time to post that our trips have always been successful. We use CC for all our trips and we have never been disappointed. If we hadn't found CC we would have been stuck on ship tours, that were both expensive and impersonal.

I have been in touch with Tony, and so far he has been patient and informative and our 1st choice. In Siem Reap we are touring with Miriams (forgot her handle) choice.

Regarding Vietnam we are in a hugh state of confusion. We will probably never be back to visit Vietnam so we are trying to make the most of it. Our dilemma is concerning our Celebrity Feb 17 tender port at Hanoi/Halong Bay. We have 1 full day and 2nd day until 1pm! We are considering flying from Hong Kong missing a sea day or, missing Chan May. Either way it involves flights. Or we have even considered cancelling the cruise.:( Decisions, decisions.

Thank you again, and also I appreciate John Bulls contributions as well.

lesley

Regarding Vietnam we are in a hugh state of confusion. We will probably never be back to visit Vietnam so we are trying to make the most of it. Our dilemma is concerning our Celebrity Feb 17 tender port at Hanoi/Halong Bay. We have 1 full day and 2nd day until 1pm! We are considering flying from Hong Kong missing a sea day or, missing Chan May. Either way it involves flights. Or we have even considered cancelling the cruise.:( Decisions, decisions.

 

 

lesley

Just be aware that if you are off the ship and FLYING someplace either intra Vietnam or as you post from Hong Kong to Hanoi, a SHIP ISSUED visa is NO GOOD. You will have to get a regular tourist visa or arrange with a Vietnamese travel agency for visa on arrival.

And it is NOT really visa on arrival like it is in other countries-you have to fill out the paperwork at least two weeks in advance, it must be approved by the government, the Vietnamese travel agency then transmits the info to the airport/immigration dept. You MUST have passport photos and the paper from the Vietnamese travel agency in hand or you will not get a visa.

Also remember passport photos for visa on arrival in Siem Reap. That is TRUE visa on arrival-hand immigration your passport, answer a few questions (where you are staying, how long you are going to be in country, etc., etc.) and they issue the visa.

I don't know your itinerary but flying from Hong Kong to Hanoi would give you a day plus an overnight in Hanoi. Depending on how many days you actually have, I would still make time for a full day Halong Bay cruise. Hanoi is not particularly interesting to me (one day and an evening is enough for me). It is the one place in Vietnam where you can really FEEL you are in a Communist country with all the "watchers" as it was in China and Russia of old.

Thanks for the info on the Visa. Will keep it in mind. After reading your thoughts on Hanoi and Halong Bay and knowing we will probably never get back, I know I have to visit both.

The airfare one way from Hong Kong to Hanoi is pricey $400 + .

We are cruising on Celebritys Feb 17 SE Asia cruise.

Again thanks.

lesley

Thanks for the info on the Visa. Will keep it in mind. After reading your thoughts on Hanoi and Halong Bay and knowing we will probably never get back, I know I have to visit both.

The airfare one way from Hong Kong to Hanoi is pricey $400 + .

We are cruising on Celebritys Feb 17 SE Asia cruise.

Again thanks.

lesley

Lesley,

Tony took care of getting ours visas (we just paid for them). He was the best!! We even got to meet him in Ho Chi Minh City and what a great guy. The story of he and his mom (on their website ) is fasinating. The hotel that Tony arranged in Siem Reap was fantastic. Make sure you ride an elephant around the Banyon temple while there. :)

Thanks to everyone for their assistance. There's a little while yet 'till my trip so I have a lot of time to plan.

Should confirm your tour now esp. for guide. In the low season ( May - end of Sep. ) guides are not only available but also not booked for ending months yet.

Vietnam's tourism is in its infancy & there's plenty of wannabe tour operators who haven't a clue, but that's the joy of personal recommendations such as on CC.

 

I've never come across anyone missing a sailing when booked on a private tour anywhere - those with such problems are normally independents who've mis-understood distances, local public transportation logistics, back-on-board time vs sailing-time, ship's time vs local time, or those who just plain try to jam in too much. Alcohol sometimes comes into it too ;)

 

Cost is by no means the only advantage of private tours. Flexibility, personal attention, not travelling at the speed of the slowest, not being held up waiting for folk who've misunderstood timings, no unwanted long lunchstops or visits to commission-earning shops etc etc are amongst the other advantages.

 

I've not gone Phu My to Saigon, but although its about 2 hours the local operators will know their stuff.

Chan May to Hue is only about an hour, shouldn't be a problem.

Laem Chabang to Bangkok is about 90 mins, but allow 2.5 hours for the return because the city can get snarled-up. No problem if you're using an experienced operator.

Halong Bay is the only one I'm not too sure about. Halong City has nothing to offer, your choice is effectively a junk cruise amongst the eerie limestone karsts (which I rate highly) or the 3 hour drive to Hanoi which might be better done with a ship's tour.

 

In Saigon (only officialdom calls it HCMC) and Bangkok, and in Hanoi if that's your preference from Halong Bay, do consider an overnite city hotel. Good city centre hotels are cheap & give you so much more time to explore, including evenings, and save you the wasted time & expense of doubling-up your travelling time on pretty boring roads.

 

For Saigon, once in the city, you can get by very well without a tour operator - all the main sights are in easy walking distance. So just a reliable transfer from/to the ship would do the job if you're overniting in a hotel.

For Bangkok, broadly the same applies - pre-booked transfers, then once in the city getting around is easy by taxi or tuk-tuk or skytrain or ferries but you do need to do a bit of research in advance.

For Hanoi, sorry, can't help.

 

Just MHO

 

JB :)

John we have booked a private tour in HCMC with a recommended tour operator but I wonder if there would be a chance to go to a pharmacy and purchase some prescription medicines ;like one can in Fiji and India? Do you know if you can buy over the counter in Vietnam? Such a saving if you can

I have just heard from my TA that Celebrity won't confirm right now whether we require another visa for an overnight in Saigon. The tour guide I've been in contact with says a ship's visa would be fine but I understand those are only for the day. Has anyone had any problems with the ship's visa on an overnight stay off a cruiseship in any city in Vietnam?

Thanks

I have just heard from my TA that Celebrity won't confirm right now whether we require another visa for an overnight in Saigon. The tour guide I've been in contact with says a ship's visa would be fine but I understand those are only for the day. Has anyone had any problems with the ship's visa on an overnight stay off a cruiseship in any city in Vietnam?

Thanks

We had a two day one night stay in Saigon on the Azamara Quest a couple of years ago. the ship organised our visa and there was no problems with the ship's visa so I am sure you will be ok with what is issued by the ship. It is fairly common for ships to stay overnight in Vietnam these days and I have never heard that people need to obtain extra visas.

The only situation where things could be different is where passengers get off the ship and perhaps fly to Ankor Wat for an overnight stay and then rejoin the ship the next day. In this case you would certainly need a different visa to the one issued by the ship

Hope this helps