Has anyone used 'Journeys Within' for a tour,found them on the internet and they look good. Any help or advice about a visit to Vietnam and Cambodia would be appreciated. We aim to spend about two weeks on the tour.Thanks in advance

I talked at length to Andrea, the US owner who has a boutique hotel w/ her UK husband in Siem Reap. Their hotel looks lovely (I am handicapped & need to stay at an accessible hotel), and if I were not handicapped I would stay there... She offered to book us a guide for the temple tour, but I preferred to control the temple tour myself... but she gave excellent advice, which I followed.

I looked at the prices of their tour & if you can afford it, they really know their stuff.. Conde Nast Traveler has given her the top SE Asia travel agent award 2 years in a row.

Since I book travel as part of my job in the film business, I am a control freak & like doing it myself... and we did not want to spend that amount of money on a trip to SE Asia...

One of the problems w/ a tour is, IMO most of them don't spend enough time in Siem Reap if you want to see remote temples or go to the bird sanctuary...

I think that Adventure Center in Emeryville, CA is an excellent tour group & you should check out all of their trips to Vietnam & Cambodia too... they offer adventure, hiking, biking & volunteer tours... as well as culture, etc.

If you do not want any of the above & don't want to self-book, I think that Andrea's heart is in the right place.

Adventure Center isn't a tour company per se - it books for other companies, such as Gecko and Sundowners, that tend to offer small group tours at the budget end. Vietnam and Cambodia are easy to do on your own - see other recent threads. You can have your hotel arrange transport, and a guide if you want one, in Siem Reap. There are plenty of outfits arranging tours in Vietnam, and your hotel will have a selection of brochures if you don't want to go out and look for one. Or you can arrange with outfits like Sinh Cafe and Handspan ahead of time.

Thanks for your help. I would happily travel independently but my partner likes things to be more organised!
We will be doing part of the trip on our own as we are going to Beijing first to visit my son,we have been to China before so will arrange our own tours.
Will check out Handspan

Try Exotissimo. They are very strong in Vietnam and I was pleased with their services.



http://www.exotissimo.com/travel-asia/vietnam.html

Thanks for a great recommendation.I have just spent ages looking at the website,looks very interesting. I would also like to visit Myanmar as my Father was born in Rangoon but not sure if we should because of the political situation and also it will make our trip a lot more costly

There have been several threads here discussing the pros and cons of visiting Myanmar. It doesn't have to be expensive if you're willing to drive around rather than fly (getting to see more of the countryside) and stay in guest houses - try www.myinttours.com.

Thanks I supose if I'm honest it's the political situation that concerns me.

ekscrunchy I spent hours last night reading your post on your trip to China,brought back memories of our visit to in Oct/Nov 06. Can't wait to return this year, and to see my son again,he moved from Shanghai to Beijing last week.

Joandg I am glad that you enjoyed that report. One of these days I will get started on a Vietnam/Laos/Bkk saga. How exciting that your son is living in China!