Cu Chi Tunnels
 

What is the main difference between the various different tours? Ideally, we'd like a good guide but it's so hard to choose given all the reviews I'm reading on Trip Advisor. I get the impression the short video covers most things we'd need to know.

I'm planning a trip to Vietnam and am seriously wondering if it's even possible to hire good quality private guides in Vietnam - I guess that is a different topic in and of itself.

Back to the Cu Chi Tunnels, what should we look for in a tour? How long should we expect to spend at the tunnels? I've read of the two different locations,Ben Dinh and Den Duoc. Niether of us have small, slim Asian size frames - which leads me to believe Ben Dinh might be better.

Finally, I've found this company that combines a cooking class with the Cu Chi Tunnels, http://www.hochiminhcookingclass.com
The appeal of this tour is that it would allow us to kill two birds with one stone and free up sometime in Hoi An where we had originally intended to take the cooking class.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.

The tour I took to the Cu Chi tunnels included the Cao Dai temple. I very much preferred the temple. I did not go down the tunnels, having recently discovered (thanks to an MRI) that I have some claustrophobia and I don't see much point if you are not going down.

I really wouldn’t bother with Cu Chi. I went during my first visit to Vietnam 30 years ago and it was largely unrestored and reasonably interesting ex Vietnam military who actually used the tunnels would explain their lives down there. These days it is very much a theme park.

Not sure where else you are going but if you haven’t any time in the delta, I would consider a day trip to Ben Tre. An overnight would be better but you should be able to get a tour and see quite a lot. It is easy to arrange a boat trip, private or shared which will get you around some interesting sights. Some of our photos and a little detail @ https://accidentalnomads.com/2015/02...delta-ben-tre/

We stayed at Oasis Guesthouse who were very food in arranging the boat trip. We shared with an Aussie family. It took 4-5 hours and included lunch out in one of the villages.

I wouldn't skip the tunnels. I went 7-8 years ago and still talk about it today. I think the outfit we used was Buffalo Tours. They had a desk inside our hotel, but we found the same Buffalo Tours shop on the street for a lower price than the hotel desk.

We went as part of a larger group tour so I don't have specific guide recommendations but we definitely found the tunnels to be a worthwhile visit. We visited the Ben Dinh tunnels.

I don't recall the particular tunnel my wife and I visited but it was 18 years ago and I was a mere slip of a lad compared to now. Although the tunnel entrance and part of the tunnel had been widened to accommodate chubby Westeners we reached a point where the tunnels remained how they were originallly. My wife elected to leave the tunnel at this point whilst I agreed to carry on. By now I was crawling on my belly with barely an inch above my head, the guide in front who had the only torch decided to shoot ahead and as soon as he turned a corner I was in darkness. This was the point were panic took hold and my thoughts were obsessed with snakes and how long before we reached the exit. Fortunately it wasn't too long and I was extremely relieved to be leaving the tunnel. I can only imagine what it must have been like to be down there facing an enemy (from either side).

Nowadays I think I'm unlikely to fit down the Westerners part let alone the original section.