Vietnam and Cambodia highlights trip
Met my BFF’s daughter in Ho Chi Minh at the end of her global med program to explore Vietnam. I knew nothing about Asia Highlights but the reviews were good and, after talking to Albee, I felt more comfortable about the decision. It took a while to settle on a itinerary and she was great with all of my modifications. The arrangements she made were great and the representatives met us at each of the location right on time!! What a relief that was! We spend 14 days covering the highlights of Vietnam and a few days in Cambodia to fulfill my dream to go the Angkor Wat. We started with the first day in Ho Chi Minh then traveled to the Mekong Delta. Our tour guide was Tran who met at the hotel to begin our adventure. Tran was knowledgeable of the region and very enthusiastic!! Her English was very good! Definitely the best of all our guides. She was very helpful and attentive to all our questions. If we had certain requests, she tired to make it happen. For example, she found Mangosteen and we all tried Durian..(it was awful, for the record 🫢) We next flew to Siem Reap and Narun was there to meet us. Our time at Angkor Wat and the other temples was magical. Narun’s knowledge of the area and personal experience, helped make it a unique adventure. We had an oxen ride that was a lot of fun!! We flew back to Ha Noi to continue our exploration of Vietnam. Lily was our guide and we spent alot of time at the Ho Chi Minh complex. That was a little much and it would have been good to explore other sites. There’s a UNESCO site that would have been interesting to see. The water puppet show was our last event in Ha Noi. That was nice. We had never seen anything like that before! We traveled to Ha Long bay for a 1-day cruise. It was OK but too many boats and there was a good amount of trash in the bay…sad. Next, we flew to DaNang to get to Hoi An. Hoi An old town was very busy and lively with great shops to visit. The lanterns and boats on the river at night were special. I really enjoy going out on the fishing boat and the cooking class. Our guide, Nam, was good. He didn’t spend a great deal of time with us. We had two afternoons with nothing to do. It would have been good to see more or explore Da Nang. Our last stop was Da Lat. What an incredibly beautiful place, if you like mountains, lush green gardens and flowers. The temperature was refreshing!! Much cooling and less humidity!! Hanh was our guide. He is a Da Lat native and was very knowledgeable. His love of the city was very apparent. Some of the tours here could have been better and more in-depth. For example, the tea tour could have involved a tour of the plants and tea production but it was simply a tea buying excursion. All in all, it was a great trip and I would highly recommend Asia Highlights to friends and family. Having a personal guide was priceless. You didn’t feel like you were cattle on a big bus. It was reassuring to see the sign with your name at every stop!! I will definitely use them again!! One thing I would do different is make the group larger. There was just 2 of us and I think it would be better if there had been 4. I kinda felt like I had to do all the events. With more, you don’t have that pressure.