Vietnam & Laos holiday

We believe that travel should entail an exchange of knowledge and perspectives, a sharing of wealth, and a genuine appreciation of Vietnam and Laos’s beautiful natural environments. This philosophy underpins the heart and soul of our style of travel. We recognise that poorly planned itineraries or poorly informed tourists contribute less to cross-cultural understanding and less to the livelihoods of local people.

The Indochinese countries of Vietnam and Laos are captivatingly diverse. Commencing in Vietnam we experience the length of the country from industrial Saigon to beautiful Hanoi. At the latter there is the opportunity to visit Koto’s (know one, teach one) – a not-for-profit restaurant and vocational training centre staffed by disadvantaged young people – to try their infamous Koto smoothie. Our offices also finance the Loretto Foundation in Saigon (which assists disadvantaged, poor and disabled children through education), and The Fred Hollows Foundation (which provides ophthalmologic services to underprivileged Vietnamese).

Journeying onwards through Laos we travel to Kuang Si waterfalls, one of the many beautiful waterfalls near Luang Prabang. On the way to the falls we stop at a Hmong hill tribe village and gain an insight into the lifestyle of one of the most significant ethnic minorities in Indochina. Like most minority groups in Laos, the Hmong originally migrated from China. Known as ‘montagnards’ (highlanders) by the French, many Hmong in Indochina were recruited to south Vietnamese and Royal Lao forces in the 1970s, in the hope of being rewarded with an autonomous homeland.

On this journey our local guides are trained to share their knowledge of cultural and other local issues in a balanced, informative way; in this journey alone you are likely to meet several local guides from different provinces in Vietnam and in Laos. They share real experiences from their own lives and insights into their family life, influences and beliefs, thus providing our travellers with a deeper understanding of the places they visit. This is what motivates our guides, not shopping commissions.

Our offices in Vietnam (Saigon, Danang and Hanoi) are staffed with local people wherever possible and we have a long term aim of filling management roles with competent local staff. This presence in Vietnam means we are much better able to control the content, the actions of our suppliers, and the style of our small group journey.