Our group consisted of six people: four adults aged between 40 and 80, and two children aged 7 and 10. We planned a 15-day, 14-night tour across four Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. Due to the diverse age range and the complexity of scheduling multiple cities, countries, and flights, we decided to use a travel company. We initially considered about 10 companies and narrowed it down to those that were the most responsive and local to our destinations. We are incredibly thankful we chose Indochina Voyages!
Indochina Voyages has a local team with extensive experience in planning the types of experiences we sought. Despite our limited time in each country, they managed to schedule major attractions and a diverse range of activities, keeping the children engaged. Our consultant, Hue, was particularly helpful, gently advising us on where to trim back to keep the schedule manageable. I am very grateful I listened!
I don’t want to go on and on about the service, but I’ll share one example to show how much Hue and Indochina Voyages care. During one of our transfer flights, the airline made a mistake. It was late at night and the last flight of the day. Hue was reachable, worked with the airline, and likely spent most of the night rearranging our itinerary for the following day. This is the type of above-and-beyond service they provide.
Regarding the tours, we had some initial ideas and were able to cover almost everything we had in mind. What surprised me most, now that we’re back, is the cultural immersion Indochina Voyages arranged for us. This included motorbike food tours, elephant camps, bike rides through rice fields, visits to local villages, and coffee tours. Nothing Hue arranged was ‘stock’; it was all tailored, flexible, and absolutely amazing.
I will not drone on about each city and stop we were on but some memories that I will have for a lifetime are:
• Ho Chi Minh City: Evening motorbike food tour. (Yes, even with the kids, their favorite part of the trip)
• Siem Reap: Angkor Temples at sunrise. (WOW)
• Bangkok: Chinatown. 100%
• Chiang Mai: Elephant camp!
• Luang Prabang: Kuangsi Waterfall.
• Hanoi: Spending time in the city (my wife and I now want to live part of the year here) and the kids favorite, squid fishing in Halong Bay.
To cap it all off, our last stop was Hanoi. Hue went out of her way to meet my family and me while we were there. This demonstrates the commitment and care that the team at Indochina Voyages has for their clients. I highly recommend anyone looking to visit the region to work with Indochina Voyages. Take a minute to visit their Core Values page on their website—this is what they live by, and it was 100% my experience with them!
Thank you!
Dan Springman