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Private Tours in Vietnam and Bangkok

djandbj

By djandbj,
in Asia

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yojimbo

yojimbo

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Posted
oh that's great- I cannot recommend tommy highly enough- i've known him for a few year's now and he is an extremely professional and reliable young man.

 

Oh, you are going to love Hoi An- it's my most favourite place in the world. The atmosphere and the restaurants are just amazing. and the people just gorgeous.

 

If anyone else is interested, I know Tommy can also arrange large vehicles too if you have a group interested in just a transfer or a tour

 

We arranged for Tommy to pick us up at Danang and take us to Hoi An on our recent cruise. Unfortunately Tommy was not there to meet us at the port.

 

We reached him on the phone and he seemed very apologetic. We got a taxi to Hoi An and Tommy unexpectedly met us there and apologized in person.

 

Though Tommy obviously let us down, it seems clear that he is normally quite reliable and a first-rate guide.

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Busybean

Busybean

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We have recently returned from our S E Asia cruise on Celebrity Millennium. For shore tours from the Saigon & Halong Bay ports we booked with Stefan @ Best Cruises Travel. We formed a as mall group for each tour via the CC thread and had 3 brilliant efficiently organised tours. All participants enjoyed the tours with a driver + guides who spoke excellent English. I recommend this company to others proposing to visit S E Asia.. I understand that Stefan is able to offer tours in several S E asia countries. His personal level of service was outstanding.

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  • 2 weeks later...
seabirds_vn

seabirds_vn

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Passionate, well informed, scrupulously honest, good business man, photographer, you tube aficionado, proud father whose son just graduated from Uni in Australia. Proud Vietnamese.

 

We were lucky enough to have him for 2 days of private touring in Jan 2011. Highly recommended . You will find references to him all over trip advisor.

 

http://www.saigonprivatetour.com

I just toured with my senior. We had Zoom in Saigon ( HCMC ). The impression he left us with was his interpretation of the social changes after years of war in VN. He took hundreds of photos of us, burnt on discs, and even surprised me with his numberous pieces of English writing on Vietnam.

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xander

xander

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Just back from our HK - Singapore trip on Azamara.

Our tour in Danang with Smile Tours was fantastic , and our guide Bic , excellent. I would use them again , and recommend them.

We had two tours in Bangkok, both with Tong .

1st tour was a night food tour , was good but had issues with Songkran , and also with our guide - we just didn't click. After speaking with Tong (she's always available by phone) she arrange to change our guide for our "Floating market / Train market / fish market" tour the following day . Tong was very professional , and I would recommend calling her if you have issues - email takes days to get a hurried reply.

This 2nd tour was fantastic , and was the highlight of our BKK visit. Our guide was Ni Wat , and was superb.

Before the trip I was in two minds as to whether to do the floating market or not.

I am so glad we did the tour ! Yes the floating market is very touristy but very interesting ,the rest of the itinerary was very local and had very few tourists so felt very genuine/ real. Starting the tour an hour earlier at 6 AM to go to a local fish market was definitely worth . The "swallow" temple was amazing and totally unexpected and the train market was superb.

If you are a keen photographer then this itinerary is a feast , you will be trigger happy !

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General Max

General Max

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Just a note of caution when booking tours in Viet Nam. Pay any requested deposit by Credit Card only. Do not wire money via Western Union or bank transfer to a local bank account in Viet Nam. Always assume that your money is at risk.

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markincanada

markincanada

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I just toured with my senior. We had Zoom in Saigon ( HCMC ). The impression he left us with was his interpretation of the social changes after years of war in VN. He took hundreds of photos of us, burnt on discs, and even surprised me with his numberous pieces of English writing on Vietnam.

 

We also just returned from our SE Asia cruise. We also enjoyed our time and tour with Zoom. He was flexible in his arrangements to allow us to do an early Mekong Delta tour, had interesting commentary of his experiences in Vietnam, and was very passionate about taking the pictures. Also the driver we used was excellent - very calm in a sea of small motorcycles and mopeds.

 

We would recommend him highly.

 

Cheers

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  • 7 months later...
cashmeremypuppydog

cashmeremypuppydog

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Thanks for this recommendation. I contacted Tommy and he replied immediately, quoting us a reasonable rate for a taxi for our family of four, taking us from Danang to Hoian via Marble Mountains, and back to port. We will pay the driver at the end of the trip in cash. So it all sounds good! We're going to Danang in December - will come back and let you know how it went.

 

Could you please share with us how much you paid? Thank you

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Mim Lloyd

Mim Lloyd

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We're on the Mariner sailing out of Singapore on 15 Feb (4 of us). We've ended up booking a 2 day tour of Bangkok and the surrounding area with http://www.thaitourguides.com. They get great reviews on Trip Advisor. Mr Chob from the company responds promptly to enquiries. They also do transport only which is what we were originally looking for but their prices for private tours were so good, we ended up booking them. They tailor to exactly what you want. As it's about 2 hours travel from the port we've decided to stay overnight in Bangkok yo make the most of our time there. The hotels are very cheap.

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centralvalleygrl

centralvalleygrl

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I would concur with those recommending an individual who comes recommended, and perhaps arranging your own hotel and transportation if necessary. 8 of us booked with Vietnam Pathfinders for 2 cities (HCMC and Nha Trang) with mixed results. HCMC was a disaster; they booked a hotel w/o telling us what/where it was. (fwiw, New Pacific Hotel, avoid like the plague.) See my review on Trip advisor or email me. Our guide was extremely political, not a pleasant vacation experience. However, in HaLong Bay and DaNang we used Ann Tours, which were quite good and a good value. Used Absolute Bangkok (Miss Fong) and it was very good. we had to do 2 day trips rather than an o'nite as there were so many cruise ships in port they could not accommodate us. Make certain you have the proper visa if you will be overnighting ashore - this caused about 50 people on our sailing a lot of heartache. we had one fellow traveler accosted on the street (HCMC) by motorcyclist who ripped gold chain from her neck so be smart and careful. Hotel will hold your visa (!!!) and you may have to pay a "fee" to get it back. A better guide could probably help with this type of thing.

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raringtogo

raringtogo

Posted
Posted (edited)
I would concur with those recommending an individual who comes recommended, and perhaps arranging your own hotel and transportation if necessary. 8 of us booked with Vietnam Pathfinders for 2 cities (HCMC and Nha Trang) with mixed results. HCMC was a disaster; they booked a hotel w/o telling us what/where it was. (fwiw, New Pacific Hotel, avoid like the plague.) See my review on Trip advisor or email me. Our guide was extremely political, not a pleasant vacation experience. However, in HaLong Bay and DaNang we used Ann Tours, which were quite good and a good value. Used Absolute Bangkok (Miss Fong) and it was very good. we had to do 2 day trips rather than an o'nite as there were so many cruise ships in port they could not accommodate us. Make certain you have the proper visa if you will be overnighting ashore - this caused about 50 people on our sailing a lot of heartache. we had one fellow traveler accosted on the street (HCMC) by motorcyclist who ripped gold chain from her neck so be smart and careful. Hotel will hold your visa (!!!) and you may have to pay a "fee" to get it back. A better guide could probably help with this type of thing.

 

 

knowing Vietnam so well now, as I go there every year during our winter- I understand how important it is to have a really well-recommended contact. It is not worth the aggravation if using an unknown and it all goes pear-shaped, ruining what should be an amazing experience in a truly amazing country with wonderful people.

 

with regard to HCMC - we used (and continue to use) SASCO or SATCO (two difference transport companies. I think both of these can pick you up from the port. as an alternative I would like to highly recommend a lovely young man called LOC for Saigon (or HCMC) - another honest and reliable young man who will arrange a wonderful tour of HCMC from a cruise ship. If anyone is interested in LOC'S details- please reply back here and I will post his details.

Edited by raringtogo
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nfkura

nfkura

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I would concur with those recommending an individual who comes recommended, and perhaps arranging your own hotel and transportation if necessary. 8 of us booked with Vietnam Pathfinders for 2 cities (HCMC and Nha Trang) with mixed results. HCMC was a disaster; they booked a hotel w/o telling us what/where it was. (fwiw, New Pacific Hotel, avoid like the plague.) See my review on Trip advisor or email me. Our guide was extremely political, not a pleasant vacation experience. However, in HaLong Bay and DaNang we used Ann Tours, which were quite good and a good value. Used Absolute Bangkok (Miss Fong) and it was very good. we had to do 2 day trips rather than an o'nite as there were so many cruise ships in port they could not accommodate us. Make certain you have the proper visa if you will be overnighting ashore - this caused about 50 people on our sailing a lot of heartache. we had one fellow traveler accosted on the street (HCMC) by motorcyclist who ripped gold chain from her neck so be smart and careful. Hotel will hold your visa (!!!) and you may have to pay a "fee" to get it back. A better guide could probably help with this type of thing.

 

Can you elaborate on "proper visa"? We are planning to use visas obtained onboard through Holland America -- and to stay overnight in Bangkok. Will this get us into the problems you mentioned? Thanks for any information...nk

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cashmeremypuppydog

cashmeremypuppydog

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for 4 people it's $30 per person

and for 2 people it's $40 per person

 

this was from Tien Sa Port

 

Raringtogo,

Just to let you know I have contacted Tommy and have made reservation for him (or another driver, not sure) to pick us up at Tien Sa Port. Thank you so much for sharing his name and info. I will make sure I leave a post on each port of call and tour after our 28 day cruise (HAL- Volendam) in January 2015 as there is not much info yet on Asia. Thank you again. The Canadians!:D

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raringtogo

raringtogo

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Posted (edited)

hi cashmere-

so happy to hear you got to meet this charming young local man from HoiAn-

 

Hope you had a really wonderful day and enjoyed HOiAn- truly one of my most favourite places.

 

I hope everyone looking for a great tour or just transfer from Danang port- either Tien Sa or Chan May, writes to him- it really makes a huge difference to your experience in Vietnam to meet someone local who really cares about his home town.

 

so- i'll post his details again in case anyone else is looking:

 

tommyxuanha@gmail.com

 

cashmere, please come back and tell us about your experience.

Edited by raringtogo
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cashmeremypuppydog

cashmeremypuppydog

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hi cashmere-

so happy to hear you got to meet this charming young local man from HoiAn-

 

Hope you had a really wonderful day and enjoyed HOiAn- truly one of my most favourite places.

 

I hope everyone looking for a great tour or just transfer from Danang port- either Tien Sa or Chan May, writes to him- it really makes a huge difference to your experience in Vietnam to meet someone local who really cares about his home town.

 

so- i'll post his details again in case anyone else is looking:

 

tommyxuanha@gmail.com

 

cashmere, please come back and tell us about your experience.

 

Hello Raringtogo,

I just want to clarify that I have not met him yet as we will be in Da Nang in January 2015. However, I have booked him as he seems very professional and he replied to my e-mails very quickly... His prices are very reasonable! Tommy Dao Travel, Tour operator Email: tommyxuanha@gmail.com Cellphone: +84 905044564 Skype: tommyxuan1

 

The flexible itinerary is:

8:00 Pick up by the guide/driver outside the port.

9:00 Arrival at the Marble Mountain. Take a lift up to the mountains to visit Lin Ung pagoda (huge white Buddha). Tang Chon cave, the Heaven cave, the Huyen Khong cave, the Tam Thanh pagoda, and the River watching terrace. Take a lift down the mountains.

10:30: Drive to China Beach (My Khe beach) and to a big marble workshop along the seafront road. 11:30: Transfer to Hoi An, the pleasant ancient town of Vietnam, a World Cultural Heritage site since 1999. Enjoy pleasant city walk to the Hoian history museum, Hoian market, the Fujien Chinese temple, Tan Ky ancient house, the famous Japanese pagoda bridge & great shopping. Enjoy lunch of local specialties (“cao lau” noodle, fried wontons, white roses, chicken rice etc.) at the riverside restaurant to enjoy the view around (not included).

16:00 Drive back to the port through Danang city main streets for an idea of what it looks like. If we have time maybe visit Da Nang.

17:00 Drop-off at the Tien Sa port

 

Tommy (or his driver) is not a guide (but speak English), you can plan your own day as you wish or follow the above itinerary... The prices are: For 2 to 3 people: 45$/each and transportation will be a car

For 4 to 15 people:35$/each and transportation will be a mini van (4-10) or a large van (11-15). Good luck!

**Ask the driver if we have time to go to Tra Que Vegetable Village (3km N/E of Hoi An) which is famous for herbal plants and vegetables. This land was formed 300 years ago, surrounded by De Vong River and Tra Que Lagoon, so it has very good atmosphere with fresh air.... We could learn how local farmers cultivate the vegetables, could enjoy taking beautiful photos of the green fields and the village.

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Sheindoors

Sheindoors

Posted
Posted
knowing Vietnam so well now, as I go there every year during our winter- I understand how important it is to have a really well-recommended contact. It is not worth the aggravation if using an unknown and it all goes pear-shaped, ruining what should be an amazing experience in a truly amazing country with wonderful people.

 

with regard to HCMC - we used (and continue to use) SASCO or SATCO (two difference transport companies. I think both of these can pick you up from the port. as an alternative I would like to highly recommend a lovely young man called LOC for Saigon (or HCMC) - another honest and reliable young man who will arrange a wonderful tour of HCMC from a cruise ship. If anyone is interested in LOC'S details- please reply back here and I will post his details.

 

Could you please email me the details as well, raringtogo. My email is <perthie@btopenworld.com>. We are visiting in October and we are thinking of staying overnight. It would be great if you could email some hotels as well. Will the driver pick us up from the port and drop us off at the hotel? Also picking us up in the morning from the hotel to the port? Hope so, it saves a lot of worry and getting lost :eek:.

 

Di

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cashmeremypuppydog

cashmeremypuppydog

Posted
Posted
Sorry raringtogo, although we are visiting Vietnam we won't be staying there overnight. I meant to ask about Bangkok, Thailand where we will be staying overnight. If anyone has recommendations, please let me know?

 

Thank you for any info.

 

Di

 

Raringrogo, could you post Bangkok info here please as I would need it as well. Thank you

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