Asia Escorted Tours and Guided Trips

I did the Cycling Tour in March and our Vietnamese guide tour was Doan who was truly excellent and made our experience very special. Always above and beyond. He shared lots of interesting knowledge and had always good recommendations. The cycling was wonderfuly through villages, along the coast, one day up a mountain pass, around a lagoon, through towns and villages. We always stopped at markets or places of interest, where other tourists would not get to because the cycling took us of the beaten track. The itinery is very busy but we saw a lot in 2 weeks! There is a lot of coach travel too but that was needed to cover the length of the country. Everything was really well organised and the support team were also fantastic. I would recommend it - it's an adventure. I felt I saw and learnt a lot about this beautiful, complex country.

An excellent trip and great fun. I took 1 star off because the food at the lodges was boring and unimaginative. Basically it was the same food for lunch and dinner at every lodge. A 2nd star was taken off because of the overnight train ride. It was long, 10 hours, uncomfortable and difficult for those over 60. All our bunks were at the top so no windows to see out. It was difficult to get in and out for those over 70. Uncomfortable to sleep on. One lady on our trip was in placed in a different carrage, fortunately our guide swapped with her but that meant the guide was not with us. The rest of the trip was incredible and we saw 14 tigers from 15 game drives.

Ana was the best tour guide we’ve ever experienced. Her positivity, energy, organization, and knowledge were exceptional. Hard to pick a favorite place. That beautiful park, the big fish market, the Hiroshima peace memorial, and the sky rope way ride stand out. Also loved the young girl who performed at our dinner.

The tour itself was fantastic. Great pace, a good amount of sites and not too much travel. It was our guide, Ildar who let down the experience. Among the group there was lots of chatter about his dismissive tone towards some of the older group members (one in particular who had a lot of questions), and his inadequency to listen to the feedback of the group, especially when it concerned group safety. At every attraction he would walk far ahead, only turning around to check on us after he had walked too far. The sites were often busy, so it was difficult to keep track of him as he didn't wear any identifying clothing, carry a flag or even wear a brightly coloured hat to keep himself visible in crowds. The group was often left to keep track of each other, guiding each other in the right direction. His fast pace was brought up by several group members many times, but he never took the feedback on and continued his fast walking at every site and location. Many of the group members were older and this was a huge oversight by him. This led to a very scary and unsafe situation where the group needed to cross a fast moving and busy freeway in a rural area of Uzbekistan. He was so far ahead that only half the group were able to cross safely with him, the rest, despite calling out for him to wait, were left stranded on the other side of the road. He did not look back once before crossing to check that everyone was with him. This was a 4 lane freeway where large trucks and cars were EASILY going over 100km/hr. A few of us had stern words with him when we reunited, and he apologised, but it made no difference to his behaviour going forward. He continued to walk ahead and neglect to check behind him for the group before leading the group into new areas/sites. He knew his information, but it felt often rehearsed like a script, and when extra questions were asked, his responses were often very short, like "yes" or "no". By the end, many group members decided not to ask him questions anymore as they knew they weren't going to get much information out of him. His demeanour was also unpleasent. When he sat with us for dinner he was often on his phone, rarely talking or interacting with us. It was very awkward! Outside of the overload of information that he would give us at the sites, he rarely spoke or interacted with the group. This is such an important part of being a guide. Interacting and joking with the members and being personable helps keep morale high and just makes the whole trip more enjoyable! The trip itself was fantastic, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, but I can only hope for new groups going forward that they have a much more plesant guide!

The itinerary was very well paced with good start times each morning that never felt too rushed. The accommodations were spacious, clean, and comfortable throughout the trip, which made the experience even more enjoyable. Having all the details organized made for a very relaxing and stress-free tour.

Contiki was a great introduction to Vietnam and getting to know the country, I could have been happy without Nah Trang and the moonview hotel was abit of a letdown but over all I loved the trip