1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

Most memorable: the superb efficiency with which every little component of the tour was organized. Everything ran like clockwork. Most ‘exciting’: simply waking to such wonderful views over the rivers in Hue, Hoi An and Saigon.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Resist the locals’ wish always to show you the latest most up-to-date buildings and developments, and to persuade you to spend more time in the more modern towns. The beauty of Vietnam is where it’s more ‘unspoiled’.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Yes to the former, particularly since our guides were given the freedom to adapt the tour, which invariably meant more contact with (and benefit to) local people. I’m not sure about the impact on the environment of travelling around with two people in an air-conditioned car, but other than that we were aware of a number of measures to lessen the impact of mass tourism.

4. Any other comments?

Four. I have already recommended both yourselves and the local tour operator to friends. We are also quite likely to return. We will certainly follow your recommendations next time we look for a more ‘exotic’ holiday. Thank you for your help.

The organisation of the transport and the selection of the hotels according to the criteria we set out, was excellent. The cooperation and suggestions our planners provided were most helpful and contributed towards the success of our trip. We hope we made a contribution to the local economy in as many ways as possible and did so in a responsible manner. We had a wonderful holiday, we were able to gain a good sense of the country and some awareness of the lives of ordinary Vietnamese people.

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

There are a lot of memories that we will keep - Vietnam is an extremely welcoming country and the people are extremely friendly and hospitable. Children grin and say hello when you're walking in the street and everyone is quick to smile. The local food is superb, each region having its own classical dishes. Hoi An was one of the highlights - it is a place to explore on foot and at night the old town is the place to be - lots of good local restaurants - We can particularly recommend the Mango Rooms on Nguyen Thai Hoc.

We were very lucky as while we were there the 2005 Heritage Festival was being held which meant that various events were held in the evenings - one particularly nice one was the floating of candles down the river in memory of ancestors. My Son (old Cham towers) was beautiful but we were lucky enough to visit Angkor Wat last year and I suspect that most ancient sites will pale in comparison. Our guides made the sites we visited come alive. They explained the history but also told us a fair bit about how their lives have changed over the last 5 years. .

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Don't try and 'do' the whole of Vietnam in one go - we deliberately planned our trip so that we would see fewer places allowing us to spend a few days in each. This was definitely the right way to do it - even though we had several days in Hoi An we wished we could have stayed longer. Although we had 3 nights in Hanoi this only translated into 1 1/2 days and I wish we'd had more time to explore. We weren't overly worried about not seeing other major sites as we now plan to go back in a year or two.

The use of msg in cooking is quite common so if msg does not agree with you find someone to write 'no msg' in Vietnamese on a piece of paper (the phrase in the North is different from that in the South) so you can show it when you order food - all food is cooked to order so it won't cause a problem.

Even though it was the second half of March Hanoi and Hue were cold (16 C) and damp (drizzle and rain) so take a jumper. You don't need to worry about a waterproof coat as everyone sells see through plastic macs for less than $1 that are perfect.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Yes, there are far more opportunities to interact with local people when travelling as a couple rather than in a large group. The price of the tour was no more expensive than travelling using a major operator (and would have been cheaper if we had not wanted to stay at a luxury resort in Nha Trang) and I would willingly recommend them to other travellers as they will customise a tour as well as add suggestions of their own. I feel that by using an operator actually based in Hanoi the profits will have been retained in Vietnam rather than by a faceless third party tour operator.

We were encouraged to eat at local restaurants (not that we needed encouragement in that area) and the tours also included visits to high quality workshops of local craftsmen where you saw the people at work. Obviously we then had an opportunity to purchase afterwards. These visits did not feel 'hard sell' and the items on sale were beautiful and the funds were going direct to the workshops.