cruisesgn

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 visited Saigon on our cruise in February. We toured with Zoom for the day while we were there. We had the good fortune to be there on their New Year's Day and Zoom made it a very special day for us. We visited several areas where celebrations were taking place and the feeling in the city was wonderful. Zoom also took the time to take several pictures of us during the day, as well as pictures of all the places we visited. When we returned home, he mailed us a disc of all the pictures and it's a wonderful remembrance of our time there. We learned a lot from Zoom as he has so much knowledge about his country and city and he loves to share it with his clients. I highly recommend Zoom as a tour guide for Saigon. We are planning to return to Asia in 2012 and hope to tour with him again.

From Saigon one can take a two day tour to Sa Dec for a boat ride viewing local boats carrying flowers to Saigon two days before Lunar New Year (Jan. 23, 2012). The disembarkment of flowers at Binh Dong pier is interesting. Then in the morning of the last day of the Lunar Year ( Jan. 22 ) one can take a short stroll downtown Saigon to view the rushy pushy atmosphere of the last day of a year. Same stroll the next day in direction to Chinatown will release a sacred cultural environment with Unicorn dance performances. Lunch at Majestic hotel is fantastic with Vietnamese traditional foods.

Tet Lunar New Year festivities continue your enjoyment in Hanoi on the fifth Tet day ( Jan. 27 ) with festival at Dong Da dramatizing the victory by King Quang Trung in 1789 over the foreign invaders.

Greetings,

 

I'll be in Vietnam, along with two others, in October on a land-based trip and we want to do an overnight cruise of Halong Bay. One of us is elderly, with some mobility issues, and we will want a luxury experience with suite-service, private baths, private balconies, top-notch food and amenities. I am narrowing my choices to: Valentine, Emeraude, and Paradise Explorer. Any input on these or other possibilities in the luxury range?

 

Cheers,

My company's partners just had a good way to visit Saigon and Halong. They flew in late at 11 P from Narita. Next morning they started their two-day visits to the city, Cuchi and My Tho. They flew very early the next day to Hai Phong. From Hai Phong they drove shortly to Tuan Chau where they got onboard the P. Yatch for a two day & one night stay. From Tuan Chau two days later they drove to Hanoi. Upon arrival at 5 P they had enough time for a rickshaw tour and a water puppet show.

Good and time saving points are first to fly to Hai Phong instead of Hanoi. To pre book a stay onboard a ship is the second time saving point.

Saigon is Saigon. Ships weighing over 30,000 tons ( or 26K tons sometimes ) have to dock at Phu My port, 110 km or 2hrs10' to downtown Saigon.

Ships weighing under 26,000 tons do not automatically dock at Nha Rong Dragon House port which is 5 minutes to downtown Saigon. The height of the ship's chimney is now limited by the height of a newly-built bridge. In such a risk of chimney-to-bridge damage the ship has to dock at Hiep Phuoc port which lies 45-60 minutes to downtown Saigon.

This is an update since March. Between 5 to 60 minutes there are two other ports lying some 30 minutes to downtown Saigon. Docking at Dragon House port is always best giving visitors chance to come back to downtown by night time after the day-time tour.

Also in the sense of good for Vietnam, good for my country's reputation I wish to mention the rapid commercialization in Mekong Delta's places of interest. Tour for people from Phu My port is to My Tho. Tour from Saigon Nha Rong port is to Cai Be. The latter serves cruisers' expectations much better than the first. My Tho tour's places are full of shops and don't open your eyes to vast views of rural environments. In the garden they even hang fruits on the tree and the "amateur" music band sing like a machine, never forgetting to put a basket for tips on your table at the end of their "show". Almost everything at your places of visits meant to sell not to show visitors greeness of the land.

Time spent for the tour is also too long. Four to five hours two ways sitting in the van might be quite tiring. Time for touring not much, just rushy, pushy. There are some longer time tours in which people can be away from crowded places but out of time permit.

Mine is a local's personal views. You cruisers should refer to others' especially those who have done it.

From Phu My, roughly 80% visitors buy a city tour to Saigon. If you are coming back to Saigon on your second time, make some reading and buy a free & easy tour if not Cuchi tunnels excursion.

For people coming to HCMC by Diamond Princess, Ocean Princess,... which dock at Phu My the Mekong Delta Tour is really a big rush in which driving time is 5 hrs two ways. Now that the return time could be extended there's still one thing to concern, very long sitting time. Six people in a minivan.

From DP, OP I would do the City tour in HCMC and the countryside tour in Nha Trang instead.

My DH and I will be on board the Cunard QE from Sydney to Dubai next year and 2 of our port stops is in Vietnam. Cunard has informed me that they will issue visas to us on board.

 

Can anyone advise me if they have too only got their visa for Vietnam on board and were not asked for it prior to boarding which in our case would be in Sydney?

 

Any help or advise would be most helpful.

 

Many thanks

Rosita

You don't have to get prepared with Vietnam visa prior to your boarding. The Tour management of your ship ( Cunard QE ) will submit a list for visas to all who wish to get on land at Vietnam ports. A landing card will be issued for everyone.

Also in the sense of good for Vietnam, good for my country's reputation I wish to mention the rapid commercialization in Mekong Delta's places of interest. Tour for people from Phu My port is to My Tho. Tour from Saigon Nha Rong port is to Cai Be. The latter serves cruisers' expectations much better than the first. My Tho tour's places are full of shops and don't open your eyes to vast views of rural environments. In the garden they even hang fruits on the tree and the "amateur" music band sing like a machine, never forgetting to put a basket for tips on your table at the end of their "show". Almost everything at your places of visits meant to sell not to show visitors greeness of the land.

Time spent for the tour is also too long. Four to five hours two ways sitting in the van might be quite tiring. Time for touring not much, just rushy, pushy. There are some longer time tours in which people can be away from crowded places but out of time permit.

Mine is a local's personal views. You cruisers should refer to others' especially those who have done it.

From Phu My, roughly 80% visitors buy a city tour to Saigon. If you are coming back to Saigon on your second time, make some reading and buy a free & easy tour if not Cuchi tunnels excursion.

How do I find these?

It's simple, Glutenhab..

First, check in http://www.youtube.com

Secondly, search for dungzoom

After viewing his clips in dungzoom you can search for dungzoom1 for more.

Few days ago some posters mentioned the growing number of video clips about Saigon HCMC, Cu Chi, My Tho posted on You Tube by a guide from the same place. I viewed all and thought that was something. Something good for people planning to go there. Something good from an individual. Up to now, there haven't been many things of same nature about places of interest in VN. There should be more efforts like those since many, many people can find one or two things clearer prior to arrival.