Vidotour

Highlights: We loved the food and meeting super friendly people. Staying in lovely hotels.
Accomodation: We loved the hotels. The Siesta in Hanoi, Boutique resort in Hoi An and Hotel Des Arts in Saigon were exceptional.
Guide: All the guides provided a good service. They got us to the right places and provided useful information. However, at least two of the guides kept recycling the same information over and over again. Perhaps it was because they didn't think we had understood them. However, it became tedious. They tended to recycle key facts. Where they became better was when they talked about their personal experiences. Our sense is that some of the guides have been doing this too long. Listening to younger guides on tours that we had arranged ourselves was much more rewarding. The guides are contracted by your agents in Vietnam and there were discrepancies between what they thought we were getting and what we had been told. Your agents were very responsive and keen to resolve issues.
Tour Programe:  We were delighted to have gone to Lan Ha Bay rather than Halong. The food tours were really enjoyable. We supplemented these with two cookery courses that we arranged ourselves. Both were excellent and should be part of your offer. The vespa tour was great fun and really well delivered. The Bassac tour was great. Not least because we were the only passengers!

Highlights: We all very much enjoyed the Vespa tour, though there was probably too much food that night. Other highlights were the Kayaking, visiting the lady making silk, we really enjoy Mai Chu. Good balance of history, nature, culture
Accomodation: We liked the Ecolodge, (though the swimming pool water was almost too hot) Appreciated that almost always we had adjacent rooms. The Hoi An hotel was lovely and the housekeeping very helpful when a coke bottle exploded in our room. Good that the third bed was always a "proper" bed. Best bed was in the Hanoi hotel.
Guides: We had three Guides, everyone in the party agreed that the last one was the best, more information, we liked his use of an ipad with pictures and short films to supplement his information when we were travelling. Also his recommendations for books/films (though maybe it would be nice to get such recommendations before we travelled) The other Guides were ok, the one for the middle of Vietnam didn't help our confidence to greet/ thank in Vietnamese as he was very particular about inclination in speech. but he was pleasant and helpful. The first one was very friendly and helpful eg sorting out SIM cards for us.
Itinerary: All liked having a break mid holiday at the beach. Liked the variety of places; city, country, boat, train. The return drive from Halong bay to Hanoi was much longer than the drive out as we didn't return on the fast road, Would have preferred the choice to return the same route and didn't need to stop at the large commercial tourist coach store stop part way back.

Highlights: Impossible to say! We have asked each other this question repeatedly since we’ve been back, and we just can’t narrow it down. The Vietnamese people and their welcome, their beautiful country, their gorgeous food… The variety of the trip meant that we loved each part of it anew, and as much as the previous part, but for different reasons…
Accomodation: Excellent. We loved them all. We asked for an ‘international’ style hotel in Hanoi (with pool) because of the kids, and were glad we did. The Opera’s location was fab, as above. Mai Chau was wonderful, huge amounts of delicious food and gorgeous rooms. Took me back to being in the Amazon so I was always going to love it. Le Clos du Fil in NB was beautiful and we loved it - I know we’d had to upgrade rooms due to availability so we were definitely spoiled. The Orchid Trendy cruise boat was great (the neon disco bar with pumping tunes and insistence on happy hour may not work for all clients but we were very happy!) and was half empty so even more luxurious. Staff were delightful and food excellent. The Anantara in Hoi A was blissful, of course. Staff incredibly friendly and attentive, and we loved being able to explore Hoi An and then retreat back to the oasis.
Itinerary: We loved it! We are so glad that we included Mai Chau as that was a real highlight for us. In fact we preferred it to Ninh Binh which we did find quite commercial and unappealing in contrast. You do warn of this in your itinerary so that’s absolutely fine. Logistically I’m sure it doesn’t make sense to go to NB first and then MC, but that would have been ‘better’ in our opinion, from an experience point of view. Being in Hanoi - especially in the area that our hotel was in - over the weekend was really lovely because all the streets around the lake were pedestrianised and we enjoyed two evenings wandering among families and happy crowds in such a relaxed atmosphere.