Vietnam Tours Reviews - Vietnam Private Tours Review

Durations: 12 Days - 11 Nights

Travel consultant: Ms Thao Ly

Customer name: Mr James Carlin

Address: UK

Start date: 2018-11-11

Finish date: 2018-11-23

Extremely well organised, with all transfers, tours and information provided excellent. Our guides were extremely knowledgeable, were friendly, and good fun to spend time with. Drivers were all very experienced and we felt safe at all times on the extremely hectic roads! The itinerary had a good balance of sightseeing and free time too, which meant we were able to relax and unwind each evening.
There were only a few areas that we'd suggest as improvements, but please don't see this as criticism:
Some of the places that we were taken to for lunch were a little too 'tourist focused' - i.e. very large restaurants that weren't particularly good value, but we do accept they were clean and therefore safe. The smaller places were nicer.
All hotels we stayed at were outstanding, apart from the one in Hanoi (O'Gallery Premier), which was, for us, a little disappointing. I'd suggest trying to recommend an alternative. Our late arrival meant we didn't get any form of welcome (literally just handed the room card and told to get the lift), the appearance of the properly felt very dated, the room dark and dingy, and facilities were limited - somewhat different to the reviews on Trip Advisor! Breakfast was OK, but nothing particularly special. As a suggestion, the JM Marvel Hotel (literally around the corner on Hang Da) had a wonderful restaurant and rooftop bar, has been recently refurbished, and was cheaper cost wise).
The visit to the 'workshop' where they sold the gloss painting wasn't something we'd have chosen to include. We're happy to buy locally made items, but taking people to a showroom where you're followed around trying to get us to buy something isn't something we enjoy. We felt similarly about the traditional medicine museum, but at least that was informative, and the emphasis on buying something at the end wasn't there (a good thing).
Can Tho was a somewhat strange destination to visit, although appreciate it was an addition that we asked to be added to the agenda. We enjoyed the trip to the floating market, but Can Tho itself didn't really appeal to us. The Vin Pearl hotel was wonderful though! If we were to do the trip all over again, I'm not convinced we'd stay in Can Tho, although recognise it broke up the journey to Phu Quoc.
Those comments aside, we were extremely impressed with ATL, from initial engagement all the way though to the trip itself. We thoroughly enjoyed our Cambodia and Vietnam trip! I've already recommended ATL to friends and colleagues, and will be providing a shining review on Trip Advisor. The suggestions above are purely for ATLs feedback as things to consider. We'll definitely get back in touch with ATL on our next Indochina trip - we're keen to see Mayanmar and Laos, and probably central Vietnam at some point in the future (we've still got so much of the rest of the world to visit too).

Mr James Carlin from UK.