Travel Review: Luxury Southeast Asia Photography Tour, Vietnam, Laos, Luang Prabang, Hanoi, Hoi An, Sa Pa, Fansipan Mountain

The overall experience was very good.

Laos was much better than we expected, the hotel was nice and the staff friendly, we had some issues with the water on one of the rooms, because water was very hot most of the time and taking a shower was a challenge, but the breakfast was outstanding and the view from the room, the pool and in general the view from the hotel to the city and the mountains was beautiful.   The group did not like to much our tour guide, we think that he was really not involved on what we want.  He was helpful and attentive but he think that was limited to just do his job.  We had an issue when taking the plane out of Laos, because one person of the group bought a Buddha figure and we were told at the airport that we need a certificate (I strong believe that they only wanted money), our travel agency travel told us latter that we need the certificate, but the tour guide never told us that if we wanted a Buddha we need to ask for the certificate.  this was a very unpleasant moment but what we do, see and taste in Laos was incredible.   We loved the temples, the Kuang Si Waterfalls, the Tak Bath was also a great experience.   We took an elephant ride tour that was not in the program and was one of the best memories we have for this trip. this should be included or at least mentioned.

Vietnam.

Hanoi, was a very interesting city, hotel very well located by the city lake, very good quality rooms, food and staff very helpful as any big hotel.   The tour guide was a very nice guy and he create a very good atmosphere with the group.  He took us to different places and gave us enough time for our pictures, his level of spanish was good.   Our main memory will not be the temples, was the traffic that is amazing most of the time.    The food was very good, we loved the Vietnamese food in general and he create good memories. We really regret not be able to experiece Ha Long Bay as planned, because of the bad weather.

Hoi An,  We did not have an idea about this beautiful town, we as a group loved the city, the hotel was the best we had in the tour, very nice, small, luxury, nice food, nice staff.   Our guide was an incredible guide, very supportive and took us to many nice spots for picture taking, that he loved photography was a plus, because was easy for him to know where to take us.   The bike tour was voted as the best experience in Hoi An and during the tour in the top 3.   The agency arrange  a tour to Mi Son, using Jeeps and took us for surprise that where original jeeps from the Vietnam war,   this was incredible, unfortunalety was raining that day and the jeeps were the worst option to use that day.  no matter that we enjoy the day an the tour.

We loved the food in Hoi An, our guide was very supportive on this matter with good recommendations and lot of advice about what not to miss.   

Sa Pa,

We had great expectations about Sa Pa, that were not fulfilled, we expected to see the rice paddles but no one told us that Nov/Dec are the wort months to visit them. since there is no rice and the weather is very cold.   However our tour guide was incredible, he has a very good spanish skills indeed was our best tour guide, he mixed with the group very, very good, was very attentive, supportive, helped us all the time beyond our expectations,  He never mentioned that he was taking picture of us and he created an incredible photographic memories of us taking pictures, that later he share with us.   He helped us to translate and communicate with the local, visit a local house, visit a local school, etc. this guy saved by far this part of the trip and it become the best part no matter we did not have the rice paddles to take pictures.  He also took us to Fansipan Mountain and we had one of the best sunset over the clouds at our disposal for picture taking.

Sorry if my English is not good enough, but not a native speaker.