Vacation Review: Luxury Vietnam & Cambodia Trip, Hue, Halong Bay, Ho Chi Minh City, Varied Food Tour, Culture & History

Review by traveler

Alex Z.

3.11.2019

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Vietnam

Cambodia

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Just back from two week trip to Vietnam/Cambodia. As a seasoned traveler and limited time to travel, I decided to opt for a customized tour by this travel company to allow complete focus on the discovery and immersion into the cultures and the landscapes of the countries at hand. Vietnam does lend itself well to a relatively rapid journey from northern to central to southern Vietnam, without the sensation of feeling overly rushed. This is what I opted for - 3 days in the north (Hanoi/Halong Bay), 4 days in the center (Hue/Hoi An), and 2 days in the south (HCMC) - in addition to a foray to Siem Reap. This travel company, under the tutelage of our trip planner, greatly facilitated this journey by running a very smooth logistical operation where no detail is overlooked. From transportation to and fro, to drivers, to guides, to planned/unplanned excursions, to hotel selection - all nearly beyond reproach. Vietnam and Cambodia are beautiful countries with a rich history and cultural heritage well worth discovering. Truly a memorable trip.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

1) Peering out into the stillness of Halong Bay at night

2) Private Vespa food tour in Hue that took us into peoples' homes rather than just local restaurants

3) The sunrise at Angkor Wat

4) Eating snails on the sidewalks of HCMC

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

1) When deciding on a hotel in Hoi An, I went along with the travel company's recommendation, opting for location over more luxurious options. While the hotel certainly provided the best location as far as walkability to the old city, the hotel was far from a five star experience (I am really not of the complaining/nitpicking variety) - very distinct odor of mold in the room, poor instructions/miscommunication as far as our executive floor advantages leading to items that should have been free being charged, terrible breakfast set-up where people are constantly running into each other/staff and where service is sparse (took over 15 minutes to get a waiter to provide a napkin and a spoon one morning), questionable spa services (my girlfriend came back with several bleeding cut marks from her manicure), and facilities that are visibly getting long in the tooth. This is the only hotel out of 7 hotels we stayed at in this trip where staff was not overly warm and welcoming.

2) The Mekong Delta - I would have opted for the longer journey to Cai Rang floating market rather than Cai Be. Cai Be is just a remnant of what it once was - one is left imagining the hustle and bustle rather than seeing/experiencing it. From all accounts, Cai Rang still maintains an appreciable amount of activity on the waters.

3) Siem Reap - would have skipped Beng Melea Temple. It's not that it's not interesting but the distance/time invested to get there is just not worth the reward.

Travel Company Comments:

Thank you for booking with our company. We are happy that you had a memorable trip.

We do apologize for your unsatisfactory stay at the hotel in Hoi An. We contacted them immediately after we received your feedback and they provided the following comment below:

We always strive to provide the best service to our guests and on this occasion, we did not exceed your basic expectation. I hope that the clients can forgive this inconvenience and moving forward, we will ensure that the team will deliver the best possible service and pay extra attention to your client.

Thank you once again and we hope to have the opportunity to provide you with another great experience.

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