Yvette Etcell review 23 Jan 2012
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The sampan ride through the jungle at Xe Quit and coffee in the floating market
in Vietnam.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Keep a journal! Be prepared for some gritty and moving history lessons! Remember the insect repellent.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, we ate in local restaurants, used sustainable travel methods (in the
main) and had the opportunity to buy souvenirs in the local markets.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Extraordinary and leaving me wanting to see more! The resort at Koh Mak was idyllic, the temples in Cambodia were a must see and the whole "vietnam" experience was very authentic.
Graham Dalby review 7 May 2008
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Angkor Wat and the other temples around Siem Reap. Home Stay near Vinh Long.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be aware that the hotels vary greatly in standard. Also, there are quite a few guides, drivers etc to tip - this adds a fair bit to the cost.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Pretty much - the visits to local 'cottage' industries were unobtrusive and were, presumably, welcomed. The home stay was great and would have directly benefited our hosts.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Very good - excellent guides and reasonably flexible as the group size was small.
My slight reservations were the standard of one hotel in particular was not up to scratch. Maybe the company would have been better to have booked a better one and upped the tour price by, say £30. One or two days involved a lot of travelling, leaving little or no time to explore the area we were staying in. Tipping guides and other locals providing a service is reasonable but in a couple of cases, where for example, the company had arranged travel from A to B, tipping the driver was expected. I think the company would do better to simply increase the amount they pay the driver to include what they would expect to get in a tip. The company were good and we would use them again but they were not so good that we would not consider other companies if their tour more closely matched what we wanted.
Read the operator's response here:
We thank Mr Dalby for his comments and can confirm that we have changed the hotel which he mentioned as not being up to scratch. In terms of tipping, we do pay our staff at least the regular rate for their job, and so our information on tipping in our new handouts to people travelling with us is as follows: "Tips are not compulsory but do show appreciation for services. Do tip guides, drivers, waiters/waitresses if you want and you think they provide good services. Do not tip them if you don’t want to or if you think their services is not worth it. Do not tip people small notes or coins as that may be seen as demeaning. Do ask your Tour Leader what is appropriate."
