catladyva

I am planning of my Vietnam trip and scanning information for this company, had a look at their website already, but want to hear if anyone has used them before I sent them a request.
There are so many travel agents in Vietnam, i am a bit confused with who to go with.

CFW

I booked a Mekong Delta trip with them in February. I liked that they were flexible, responsive to what I wanted to see and do, offered more than just the well-worn tourist routes, and prices were more reasonable than the agents that everyone uses on TripAdvisor, which were very "packaged" and offered just set routes with little flexibility.

Kathie

For a while they were spamming this board daily. For that reason alone, I, personally wouldn't use them.

CFW, in my experience, all of the VN agents will first offer you a variety of pre-set tours, but all are willing to set up a tour exactly to your specifications.

catladyva

Thanks for your replies. I think I should give them a try then. First to compare the prices and how they replies the email, cause i received some replies with just itinerary and price, no clear advice, no warnings for the matters that I am worrying about.

Kathie, I had searched through the forum and saw their replies but sometimes it's good to have people living in the country give you the insight thoughts (as a travel agent i meant). But i agreed, it's not good if they do spam and advertise themselves in a community like this.

Kathie

I am always glad to have the perspective of someone "on the ground." And there are a few highly regarded members of the forum who are in the travel business, but reply with great information and no advertising. Travelsenseasia spammed the board, and a number of the replies offered inaccurate travel information. I hope their service is better than their self-promotion.

Let us know how your negotiations with them go.

CFW

Kathie, Do a search on travelsenseasia and I think you will find a lot of good helpful information about places, restaurants, and even a recommendation for Craftlink, a shop I know you like. I think she had one post with some mixed up advice for getting between Hue and Hoi An or something like that, but I don't she's ever self-promoted or spammed the board. I actually picked her because I liked so much of the information she provided on TripAdvisor and really never promotes her travel agency. My e-mail communications with her have been great. She's very responsive and accomodating. I had e-mail exchanges with three other very popular Mekong area tour guides/companies and the difference was very apparent. Two came back with canned trips, despite my requests about the type of trip I wanted and the things I was interested in seeing. The third was much more expensive than Travelsense for the same itinerary I had worked out with her, and he was totally inflexible in price and not as responsive to questions as Travelsense. Her name, by the way, is Hien Cao.

Of course I haven't used her services yet and I'll let you know when I come back, but I just wanted to give another perspective.

Kathie

CFW, the spams have been deleted, so your search won't turn them up. I'm glad you are having a good experience so far. I hope you'll let us know how it went for you.

catladyva

Just wanted to update that after a few days, I decided to pick Travel Sense Asia among 4 proposals. I think they do pay attention at details. Everything is ready to go. CFW, I am going before you - early Dec, so will let you know how it goes!!! Hopefully it is good as their itinerary showed. Trying new guys in the market are always fun and a bit thrilling

CFW

Thanks, Catlady, Looking forward to your report! What is your itinerary?

catladyva

we booked a museum walk in Hanoi with a cultural specialist - I want something different. After that we will go for Halong Bay, fly to Hoi An, stay a few nights and then to Saigon with a private Song Xanh Sampan 2 day trip, also booked some airport transfers and hotels in Hanoi,Hoi An and HCMC.
I also want to try the weasel coffee (read an article about that the other day) and they advised me to go to a cafe near WestLake, so yeah, look forward to be in Hanoi and try street foods and coffee.
By the way, do you think I should take malaria pills?

CFW

As to malaria pills it depends on where exactly you are going and time of year. You really need to check with a travel med specialist. If you are in the US. in some states there are county health departments that have travel med clinics.