Good tour/tour operator for Vietnam
 

We would like to visit Hanoi, Ho Chi Min City and Hue. Can fodorites please suggest a good tour/tour operator for Vietnam. Thanks in advance.

I used Advantage Travel and Tours in San Diego. Cathy Tang Parda is the owner. She left Saigon right before it fell and was one of the first tour operators to go into Vietnam so she knows it very well.

Gloria

We went to Vietnam twice and did everything ourselves.. A lot cheaper.. When you arrive in Ho Chi Minh, you'll soon find out all about the great places to visit - Cu Chi Tunnels, Cao Dai Temple, The War Museum, Banana Plantation etc... If you would like me to recommend a great private guide, I can recommend our taxi driver - Leo - he took us places off the beaten track and if you would like, I could give you his telephone number. We flew up to Hue from Ho Chi Minh and found lots of cheap tour operators there who took us to all the places of interest. We also flew up to Hanoi and went up to the Sapa Mountains by train (an absolute MUST). If you can afford it, I'm sure it's just as easy to use a tour operators before you leave, but believe me you'll find it a lot cheaper if you do it yourself. And much more fun.. ;)) Let me know if you'd like our taxi drivers name.. He is a sweet man who took great care of us in Ho Chi Minh...

Try www.innovasian.com

InnovAsian Travel
Hartsdale, NY
Ask for Gregg - we used them for Thailand and Cambodia; they specialize in SEAsia and provide excellent and competitive prices and great support.

i used www.asiantrails.com very suggessfully for my travels in norther vietnam two years ago...very reasonable...i customized one of their standard tours

I did vietnam on my own also.Did lots of reasearch; there is a website vietnamadventures.com very helpful. In the downtown area of saigon there are many tour operators, and buses line up in the morning to take you on the tour of your choise. I did a three day tour of mekong delta very cheaply and many others. I am a female, had no problems going alone. enjoy your trip

Artisans of Leisure handled our tour and they were excellent. We combined Vietnam with Cambodia and Thailand.

You might try smartours.com I have traveled with them before to so. africa; they are very well spoken of and have good prices.

www.vietnamstay.com are very reliable. Have used them on two visits and several air, hotel, train etc bookings. No payment until arrival-I like that!!!

We did everything ourselves too. We booked our hotels online/by email and arranged with the hotel to have a driver to pick us up at each of the airports. It was super easy. We didn't arrange private tours until we arrived in Vietnam. In Hanoi we used Buffalo Tours to do an overnight to an ethnic Thai village. Our hotel in Hoi An arranged a driver to take us to the Marble Mountains, China Beach, and Hoi Van Pass. We arranged with Tony at Ann Tours via email to have a guide meet us at the airport in Saigon. We went directly from the airport to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The next day our guide and driver took us to the Mekong Delta.
http://www.buffalotours.com/
http://www.anntours.com/

I have nothing but the highest praise for Tony at Ann Tours! It is an excellent agency and one of the very best I have found in all my time traveling all around Asia. Tony is extremely professional and knows a lot of great information that you won't find in any guidebook.

We planned a last minute trip to Vietnam last summer. I wrote to about 10 agencies with very specific questions and asked for some very off-the-beaten-path suggestions. I also asked for special hotel recommendations, describing exactly what we were looking for. Well, Tony blew away all the competition. He answered all of my e-mails incredibly fast and shared a lot of detailed information. He even responded on the weekends and late at night to ensure everything would go smoothly with our trip. He was clearly the top professional, so we booked our domestic tickets, hotels (which included some special discounts and upgrades that I couldn't find anywhere else), and private tours with him.

The service was excellent and all of the guides were wonderful. Tony is the very best and I highly recommend Ann Tours for anyone planning a trip to Vietnam!

Tony is at the main office in HCMC.