Questions concerning tour guides
 

My family of 4 will be taking our first trip to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, the end of January. We will be spending time in Bangkok, Chaing Mai, Chaing Rai, Siem Reap, and Hanoi. I have seen so much written about the wonderful tour guides available, and I would love to book a few.

Question: I have no idea how much they charge per hour? 1/2 day? day? Do I pay them up front? Do I tip on top of their fee? Just general pricing will help me plan. I would be contacting the "regulars" I see on this board.

Also, I have no idea where I "need" guides and where it is fine to go on our own. We have a lot of travel experience, but have never used a guide.

Thank you for any help.

tongs prices are on her web site- depends on which tour you do, whether you use public transit (eg the bangkok highlights) a car or a large van with driver. prices depend on 1/2 day (5 hrs) vs full day (8-10 hrs)

I would do the in city bangkok part on my own (having just come back and done that tour, I think it could easily be done on your own) on the other hand the full day combo of floating market and fishing village was amazing, not to be missed, and a must do with the guide. we paid more for that day- 4 pple needs the van and a driver and a guide, you pay all admissions and the gas and your food. we did tip the guide and driver. I think the day cost well under $200 canadian all in. this may sound like a lot but it was well worth it.

for sgt kai, we also paid in that range, but he included everything (lunches, admissions, gas and one night in a hotel. make sure you are comparing apples and apples when pricing tours. we did 4 days up north

both tours were fabulous and highly recommended. we just returned yesterday, and are also a family of 4.

with the political and economic situation in thailand now, there have been lots of cancellations, so you should be able to get a guide.

4bams - You are a big help. Thank you so much. I did finally find Tong's website - which makes everything much clearer. I thank you for the tip for the "in city" sights. Where is the fishing village you visited? I will do the floating market but would like to know more about the fishing village.
THANKS!

by all means you tip the people taking you around....they are so good that you will want to anyways...tip the driver too if you have one...

its short notice to get the best guides at this point.....but in bkk it may work for you as there have been so many cancellations...

as you have seen tong's basic charge is about 3000 B per day with extras like the fishing village, etc...

its money so well spent that you will never regret it...

the fishing village is also outside of bangkok, so doing a combo day of the village and floating market makes sense, as they are not too far from each other. there are so many things to see and do that day it is a must!

P.S. the vilage is a lot more than just "seeing a village"- especially with kids (I have teens) it is a tour full of neat experiences

My husband & I used both guides in Thailand that were rec'd on this site. Both top rate. Tong is wonderful-when we went to The Tiger Temple she got us in front to walk with the tigers and then be with them. Sgt. Kai was also wonderful. We went on a 5 day tour with him-like someone mentioned his price included accomodations-lunches-entrances. I loved his choice of the River View Lodge in Chang Mai. We saw an elephant show-went on a boat trip up a river-went in a hot mineral bath. One of our hotels was not up to my standards-Not his fault at all so when we were heading to Chaing Rai I had him see how much extra to upgrade to the room that had a private pool at The Legend-he made a few calls and for not much extra we had a room that was for The Rich & Famous. I can't say enough about how accomodating he was. His E-mail is [email protected]
If you use him tell him Chris says hi-Also say hi to Tong.
After hiring a guide in Portugal this last year anything you pay in Thailand in reasonable-Chris