Customer reviews and what they say

We LOVED the vespa tours!

Vietnam is a food lover's paradise. The flavors and variety of food are amazing. The locals believe in using only the freshest of ingredients to put together the soups, salads and dishes they are rightly famous for. Taking a cooking class in Hoi An was not only fun, we learned to make some traditional favorites as well. In Ho Chi Minh City, take the Vespa foodie tour. Riding with thousands of other locals on their motorbikes is not only exhilarating you'll have the chance to try out some local dining hotspots. In Hue, seeing the Imperial City and emperor's tombs were very impressive. We also loved seeing the temples and pagodas across the country and learning about the Vietnamese way of honoring their ancestors and the Goddess of Mercy as well as Buddha. Cruising Lan Ha Bay was otherworldly. Thank goodness for digital photos - we took so many! The cruise in the Mekong Delta was also very enjoyable for different reasons. It was a chance to see how the rivers and waterways change the way people live and how the land and water provide so much food for the country. We also really enjoyed the Ecotour we took in Hoi An. It gave us the opportunity to interact with local farmers and fishermen and try our hand at organic farming and traditional fishing methods.

The consultant and local ground staff did an excellent job of ensuring I had vegetarian meals (delicious overall). I highly recommend the 2 elephant “sanctuaries”, one in Thailand and one in Laos. The 2 days on the slow boat might not be for everyone but I found it very relaxing as it was near the end of an almost month-long trip. It was nice to have some downtime and there was beautiful scenery to enjoy. I was supposed to do a hilltribe hike and rafting day but I injured my knee. My local guide, Frankie, sprang into action and quickly made arrangements to have the entire day changed to just rafting while still including our lunch stop at the hilltribe village.

Food was excellent,especially if you like fish.Only complaint was that we were always given far too much on the set lunches- usually there was enough for 6 to 8 people! All our river trips were brilliant,we absolutely loved Phu Luang and Luang Probang

We enjoyed all the experiences, particularly visiting the different Hill Tribe communities with guides that knew people in the communities personally and were clearly liked and respected. It created an environment were we didn't feel we were intrusive tourists but friends of friends just dropping in for a visit. We also loved the Weaving and Indigo dyeing workshops were we learnt some new skills , produced work that we were really proud of, in the most beautiful studio. We always love the Vespa street tours and this year was no different (absolutely great fun). The treks lead by local Karin guide and up into the National park ,the walk up to the Erewan waterfall were very special too.

Travelling by boat to Taman Negara was a highlight - a great way to travel and we really enjoyed our two days in the rain forest. We did another river trip and also a walk along the canopy walkway. Not recommended if you don’t like heights! The accommodation is quite basic but fine and the buffet meals we thought excellent. You’ll see monkeys outside your room and a range of birds and insects. Unfortunately no elephants though they’d been seen by the camp a few days previous. In Malacca our guide, Olive took us to a lovely restaurant ( siew tin’s by nyonya’s kitchen) for lunch and we has Chicken Redang and blue rice. Delicious. She also recommended foot reflexology (we were feeling tired) and gave us some tips. Each of our guides in Malacca, KL and Penang were excellent and had such a depth of knowledge about the city and country. It was a pleasure to have their company. Our final evening was in Penang and we had a private guide to show us round the Habitat on Penang Hill. He was brilliant and we saw an amazing range of birds and wildlife before watching the sunset from the elevated walkway. The tour was slightly different than expected as there was no glass of wine and canapés were served at the start of the trip not the end. However our overall experience and our amazing guide Daniel meant these minor points didn’t detract from a very special evening and end to our holiday.

We loved Laos, it was so relaxing with beautiful landscapes, the people were very friendly and the food was great. Particular highlights were visiting the Plain of Jars and going to Nong Khiaw, walking up to the view point, and the next day travelling by boat up the Nam Ou river to Muang Kua, stopping at A traditional weaving village on the way.

Being allergic to Gluten I found the food aspect quite challenging at times. Having our local guide helped to make sure restaurant's understood, however, it was still a challenge. Definitely do Jahoo and stay for a night, the island off Kratie was wonderful and a great change of pace. We also loved Siem Reap. Heading into the jungle on a moped and finding the temples was very interesting. We also enjoyed APOPO - the landmine organisation who are using rats to help clear areas. They were very professional and informative. All in all we learnt and experienced so much in 2 weeks but feel like we’ve had an amazing break and that it was much longer.