Looking for private guide recommendations for Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong

[mahdnc]

We are booked on a Celebrity cruise (Solstice) that starts in Singapore and ends in Hong Kong.  Assuming that the itinerary is not altered by the time the cruise starts in late December, we plan on spending 5 nights in Singapore and 5 nights in Hong Kong.  The ship overnights in Bangkok and we plan on staying in a hotel in the city for that night.  I am in the early process of shopping for a private guide for all 3 locations for just my wife and me.  If any of you have a person/company to recommend based on your experience, I would appreciate it if you would post it.  Thank you.

 

David

[hubofhockey]

I would highly recommend Victor Cheung or Hong Kong, and you can email him at victorcheung10@hotmail.com .  He’s young and one of the best guides we used 3 years ago. I know he may have been looking to move to the US, but it’s worth a shot emailing him.  One of the best guides we had.  

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, hubofhockey said:

I would highly recommend Victor Cheung or Hong Kong, and you can email him at victorcheung10@hotmail.com .  He’s young and one of the best guides we used 3 years ago. I know he may have been looking to move to the US, but it’s worth a shot emailing him.  One of the best guides we had.  

 

Thank you for the suggestion!!

[Mrs. Claypool]

In Singapore, we booked a tour through the Secret Food Tours website.

 

Our guide was Edwin Lee and he was just excellent.

[mahdnc]

35 minutes ago, Mrs. Claypool said:

In Singapore, we booked a tour through the Secret Food Tours website.

 

Our guide was Edwin Lee and he was just excellent.

Thank you!

[beach bunnie]

On 1/25/2023 at 11:38 AM, mahdnc said:

We are booked on a Celebrity cruise (Solstice) that starts in Singapore and ends in Hong Kong.  Assuming that the itinerary is not altered by the time the cruise starts in late December, we plan on spending 5 nights in Singapore and 5 nights in Hong Kong.  The ship overnights in Bangkok and we plan on staying in a hotel in the city for that night.  I am in the early process of shopping for a private guide for all 3 locations for just my wife and me.  If any of you have a person/company to recommend based on your experience, I would appreciate it if you would post it.  Thank you.

 

David

I'm looking for a guide in Bangkok, too.  Have you found any recommendations?

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, beach bunnie said:

I'm looking for a guide in Bangkok, too.  Have you found any recommendations?

 

I first contacted two private guides and could not get them to commit to a tour (one said it was too early to ask, the other said she had family coming in from overseas during Christmas and would not be available).  My dates of interest happen to be Christmas Day and Dec 26 of this year. 

 

OTOH, I did end up booking with Thai Tour Guide.  The reason that I liked them is that they are geared towards the cruise ship passenger who is planning on spending their overnight in a hotel in Bangkok.  There were several different type of tours that you could pick from or you could customize your own.

 

Our tour was quoted at 19,800 BHT (currently $568 USD) for two people for both days and it included pickup and dropoff at Laem Chabang port which is great.  The first two tour guides started and ended their tours in Bangkok.  So I originally was going to buy the bus transfers into and out of Bangkok from Celebrity which currently cost $86 USD pp ($172 for both of us). 

 

Thai Tour Guide will drop you off and pick you up at your hotel for the overnight.  The price also includes an air conditioned mini-van with driver and English speaking guide.  There is no deposit required.  Their pricing does not include the hotel as you book that yourself independently.  No meals are included either.

 

Their website is excellent and the emailing back and forth (with questions from me) was handled very well.  Things are spelled out fairly well in writing.  They appear to be well reviewed in Tripadvisor.  One drawback is that this company has a set of tour guides from which they assign to you.  I prefer to work with a one person company because it's easier to evaluate from reviews how good they are and because I prefer to do my email planning directly with the guide.  When you look at the Tripadvisor reviews, it appears that all their guides are favorably reviewed.

 

The other drawback I have found so far is that their tours start so early.  9 am pickup at the port which is fine (that time is defined by when our ship arrives and is allowed to let passengers come ashore).  However the tour on the second day starts at 7 am.  And because that is the day we have to get back to the ship, there is no time to shift the tour to a later start (I am beginning to realize that this cruise is going to be exhausting!).  What I have found is that it is pretty common among Bangkok tour guides to start very early in the morning.

 

David

[beach bunnie]

Thank you.  I was doing some research yesterday and found this company.  I haven't looked too deep into reviews yet.  I did notice the second day started early, too.  But we have 3 days - 2 nights in Bangkok.

 

https://www.travelbangkoktours.com/tour-category/bangkok-shore-excursions.html

[ssawjo]

14 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

I first contacted two private guides and could not get them to commit to a tour (one said it was too early to ask, the other said she had family coming in from overseas during Christmas and would not be available).  My dates of interest happen to be Christmas Day and Dec 26 of this year. 

 

OTOH, I did end up booking with Thai Tour Guide.  The reason that I liked them is that they are geared towards the cruise ship passenger who is planning on spending their overnight in a hotel in Bangkok.  There were several different type of tours that you could pick from or you could customize your own.

 

Our tour was quoted at 19,800 BHT (currently $568 USD) for two people for both days and it included pickup and dropoff at Laem Chabang port which is great.  The first two tour guides started and ended their tours in Bangkok.  So I originally was going to buy the bus transfers into and out of Bangkok from Celebrity which currently cost $86 USD pp ($172 for both of us). 

 

Thai Tour Guide will drop you off and pick you up at your hotel for the overnight.  The price also includes an air conditioned mini-van with driver and English speaking guide.  There is no deposit required.  Their pricing does not include the hotel as you book that yourself independently.  No meals are included either.

 

Their website is excellent and the emailing back and forth (with questions from me) was handled very well.  Things are spelled out fairly well in writing.  They appear to be well reviewed in Tripadvisor.  One drawback is that this company has a set of tour guides from which they assign to you.  I prefer to work with a one person company because it's easier to evaluate from reviews how good they are and because I prefer to do my email planning directly with the guide.  When you look at the Tripadvisor reviews, it appears that all their guides are favorably reviewed.

 

The other drawback I have found so far is that their tours start so early.  9 am pickup at the port which is fine (that time is defined by when our ship arrives and is allowed to let passengers come ashore).  However the tour on the second day starts at 7 am.  And because that is the day we have to get back to the ship, there is no time to shift the tour to a later start (I am beginning to realize that this cruise is going to be exhausting!).  What I have found is that it is pretty common among Bangkok tour guides to start very early in the morning.

 

David

They start very early because of the heat in the city.  We will also be staying in Bangkok, not during your time, but appreciate the recommendation.  Do you know which hotel you will be staying at?

 

We will be debarking the ship, staying a few days in Bangkok, before flying to Angkok Wat.  That's the plan, anyway.

 

Bill

[mahdnc]

13 hours ago, beach bunnie said:

Thank you.  I was doing some research yesterday and found this company.  I haven't looked too deep into reviews yet.  I did notice the second day started early, too.  But we have 3 days - 2 nights in Bangkok.

 

https://www.travelbangkoktours.com/tour-category/bangkok-shore-excursions.html

 

Thank you as well.  I will take a closer look at this tour company.

[mahdnc]

9 hours ago, ssawjo said:

They start very early because of the heat in the city.  We will also be staying in Bangkok, not during your time, but appreciate the recommendation.  Do you know which hotel you will be staying at?

 

We will be debarking the ship, staying a few days in Bangkok, before flying to Angkok Wat.  That's the plan, anyway.

 

Bill

 

Yes, that was my guess on the reason for the early start, but still.....

 

After doing some research, I settled on making our overnight stay in Bangkok at the Banyan Tree Hotel.  The rate was reasonable for a "luxury" hotel.  It is very well reviewed in Tripadvisor and it has a very nice roof top restaurant.  The only downside is that we might not get much time to spend at the hotel.  I will be curious to hear what you ended up settling on.

 

Your itinerary sounds very nice, btw.

 

David

[mahdnc]

20 hours ago, ssawjo said:

They start very early because of the heat in the city.  We will also be staying in Bangkok, not during your time, but appreciate the recommendation.  Do you know which hotel you will be staying at?

 

We will be debarking the ship, staying a few days in Bangkok, before flying to Angkok Wat.  That's the plan, anyway.

 

Bill

 

Only because we have the Marriott Rewards points available, I am also re-examining the possibility of staying at the St Regis Bangkok or the Athenee Hotel. 

[ssawjo]

13 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

Yes, that was my guess on the reason for the early start, but still.....

 

After doing some research, I settled on making our overnight stay in Bangkok at the Banyan Tree Hotel.  The rate was reasonable for a "luxury" hotel.  It is very well reviewed in Tripadvisor and it has a very nice roof top restaurant.  The only downside is that we might not get much time to spend at the hotel.  I will be curious to hear what you ended up settling on.

 

Your itinerary sounds very nice, btw.

 

David

I will let you know.  It is about a year away, so no rush to decide for us.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[margbem]

We have used Thai Tour Guide twice when in Bangkok for two day tours. Can't recommend them highly enough!

[CAcruzfunatic]

We just returned from a cruise on Spectrum of the Seas out of Singapore.  We did a back to back and the first 9 night cruise included a overnight stop in Bangkok.   We were in Bangkok the beginning of March 2023.  We used ToursByLocals for five of our ports including Bangkok.  Our guide in Bangkok was Tommy W. (Wisawasompop).   He was fantastic!   He had a driver pick us up at the port and drive us to Bangkok where he met us.   It took about two hours for the drive.   We also spent the night in Bangkok.   We stayed at the Salil Riverside Hotel, fantastic hotel in the area of many of sights we wanted to see, right on the Chao Phraya River.  I think we paid $120 for the night.  Hotel opened in late 2022 so everything was beautiful and new.  We couldn't have been happier with that choice.   Tommy planned out every aspect of our day. He was open to any changes we wanted to make but we just trusted him with the itinerary for the day and it was great.  Tommy then delivered us to the hotel for a rest and refresh.  He then had another guide, Ling, pick us up and take us to dinner, (He had to take his visiting mother to the airport) then a sky bar along the river, tuk tuk ride.  Ling was also amazing.   She is also listed on ToursByLocals. Tommy and the driver picked us up in the morning and returned us to the ship in plenty of time for the ships departure.   We would definitely use Tommy and Ling again without hesitation.   We saw so many things, ate local food, had lunch at a Michelin Star Thai restaurant ($40 for the two of us).  Tommy's communication was fantastic during booking and subsequent follow ups.   He used What'sApp in country so we could communicate as long as we had some form of WIFI.   We used our cell phone service in each port without problem.  All of our TourByLocals guides on the trip were fantastic.   We did have one port canceled due to weather and had no issue canceling the tour and received a refund.   Have a fantastic trip!

[mahdnc]

16 minutes ago, CAcruzfunatic said:

We just returned from a cruise on Spectrum of the Seas out of Singapore.  We did a back to back and the first 9 night cruise included a overnight stop in Bangkok.   We were in Bangkok the beginning of March 2023.  We used ToursByLocals for five of our ports including Bangkok.  Our guide in Bangkok was Tommy W. (Wisawasompop).   He was fantastic!   He had a driver pick us up at the port and drive us to Bangkok where he met us.   It took about two hours for the drive.   We also spent the night in Bangkok.   We stayed at the Salil Riverside Hotel, fantastic hotel in the area of many of sights we wanted to see, right on the Chao Phraya River.  I think we paid $120 for the night.  Hotel opened in late 2022 so everything was beautiful and new.  We couldn't have been happier with that choice.   Tommy planned out every aspect of our day. He was open to any changes we wanted to make but we just trusted him with the itinerary for the day and it was great.  Tommy then delivered us to the hotel for a rest and refresh.  He then had another guide, Ling, pick us up and take us to dinner, (He had to take his visiting mother to the airport) then a sky bar along the river, tuk tuk ride.  Ling was also amazing.   She is also listed on ToursByLocals. Tommy and the driver picked us up in the morning and returned us to the ship in plenty of time for the ships departure.   We would definitely use Tommy and Ling again without hesitation.   We saw so many things, ate local food, had lunch at a Michelin Star Thai restaurant ($40 for the two of us).  Tommy's communication was fantastic during booking and subsequent follow ups.   He used What'sApp in country so we could communicate as long as we had some form of WIFI.   We used our cell phone service in each port without problem.  All of our TourByLocals guides on the trip were fantastic.   We did have one port canceled due to weather and had no issue canceling the tour and received a refund.   Have a fantastic trip!

 

Sounds very nice.  Thank you for sharing your experience!