Home / A natural selection: How to choose the best Indochina tour for your next travel adventure
It can be confusing to make a choice about the best Indochina tour when there are so many options available.
Researching online, scrolling through countless companies, deals, and tour reviews, it’s any wonder tours get booked at all.
The truth is, most people trying to decide on the best tour for their needs, base their decision on a little research and gut feel. And while things probably turn out okay in the end, wouldn’t it be good to feel confident about your decision right from the start?
Taking an Indochina tour is a little different to traveling elsewhere. With much of the region still developing economically, it’s not where you’ll find luxury on every corner - and this provides much of its appeal to western travelers.
With countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam very much retaining their natural appeal in a more relaxed pace, enduring culture and traditions, and unaffected people, the curiosity of western travelers is more easily satisfied.
So, if you definitely know an Indochina tour is on the cards, take the time to investigate the options, regardless of whether you choose to spend five days or 15. That way, you’ll be prepared for your Indochina tour in a way that lays the foundation for beautiful travel memories.
An ideal place to start is considering the type of tour that will work for you. Many tour companies offer small group tours, private tours, and customized or tailor made tours. With that in mind, let’s look at each of the options in more detail.
For a traveler who’s always made their own travel arrangements, taking a small group might seem like giving into convention, but it doesn’t need to be that way.
Small group tours, especially to countries in Indochina like Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, can be a real bonus.
For a start, unless you’re fluent in the local language, communication can be a real challenge to getting around. Yes, English is becoming more prevalent in places, but for travel to more remote or rural areas, it’s not so easy.
Traveling with a small group, under the lead of a bilingual guide, makes things far simpler, and in many ways, more enjoyable. Local guides share their knowledge and experience of their country’s culture, history, and cuisine in ways you just don’t have when you travel on your own. In fact, read any Indochina tour reviews and you’ll find countless examples of praise for the guides. Without question, they can make or break your travel experience.
A small group tour is a great way to meet other like-minded travel buffs. While you might have reservations about who you share a tour with, you may find yourself surprised too. Traveling with others creates connection, provides opportunities for lively conversation, and people to share meals and travel memory moments with. In fact, at the end of your tour, you might even feel you’ve known your tour travel buddies forever!
Other benefits of a small group tour are:
Of course, there’s a downside to small group tours too. You do need to be considerate of others’ needs and interests, so compromise is part of package. But if you don’t mind sharing, a small group tour, especially in a place like Indochina, makes for interesting and enriching travel.
Private Indochina tours offer a little extra something to your travel experience. Often following the same itinerary as small group tours, the key distinction is you have your own private tour. That’s right, no sharing required!
Whether you’re traveling solo, or with your own group of family, friends or colleagues, taking a private tour makes for a more personal experience. With your days spent listening and chatting to your guide, you'll feel like you’re friends when it comes time to move on to your next destination.
Flexibility is a feature of private tours that can’t be overlooked, as they allow you to choose your own travel dates and customize your tour and choose the number of travelers you’ll explore with.
Possibly the perfect combination of all tour types, if you’re choosing an Indochina tour, be sure to check out the comparative pricing before you rule it out as an option.
Looking for something special on your Indochina tour? Well a custom or tailor made tour is worth exploring. Offering maximum flexibility and exclusivity, think of it as the hâute couture of tours. All tour details - including itinerary, hotels, travel dates, and any other specific tour details - are customized just for you. You’re limited only by your travel imagination.
Regardless of whether you opt for a small group, private or custom tour, as a destination rich in sights, culture, history, and wonderful people, Indochina promises so much. Before booking your tour, give a little thought to the way you’d like to travel and why, and then talk to people who know the country and listen to your needs. That way, you’ll find yourself well along the pathway to creating the beautiful travel memories you imagined.
Looking for an Indochina tour company that listens and cares about your travel experience? IndochinaEscapes.com - owned by Asia tour specialist ChinaTours.com - can help. Our small group, private and custom or tailor made Indochina tours are designed especially for western travelers seeking an authentic travel experience. Our small group Indochina tours include no more than 12 travelers, while our private and custom tours offer maximum flexibility. Single country exploration or multi-country tours are available all year round. We believe travel is an enriching experience and that’s what we aim to deliver, each and every tour. For more information about how we can serve you, connect with us via our contact form. We’d love to take you on your next travel adventure.IndochinaEscapes.com
The IndochinaEscapes.com blogger team brings you the best and most interesting information and Indochina tour news gathered by our travel consultants, local travel guides, and partner providers. With our mission to create beautiful travel memories on your Indochina tour, our travel guide provides ideas, tips, and insights to help bring your holiday alive.
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Betty C
IndochinaEscapes, sister company of ChinaTours, was extremely helpful in putting together my trip to Vietnam with a stop in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Candy, my travel consultant, was always quick to respond and accommodate my requests. I had a very nice time, and everything went well. All the hotels were terrific; I especially love the first hotel in Hanoi. The location and staff are perfect. All the guides were very informative and were a great help in making the trip a good one.
thank Betty C
Pat and Ann
What a wonderful trip to Vietnam and Cambodia! Your tour guides and drivers were great and the hotels were wonderful. The whole vacation was planned perfectly for us and we really enjoyed flexibility and convenience of a private tour. Thanks to all of you who put this vacation together for us, we will definitely use Chinatours.com the next time we vacation in Asia.
thank Pat and Ann
Gareth & Lynda
Firstly a big big thank you to you and your colleagues we had an amazing time and journey through Vietnam. We have returned with unforgettable experiences and memories hopefully
when our photos are developed they will do justice to our trip.
The hotels and itineraries were perfect and the tour guides and drivers, with the exception of our guide in Hanoi, excellent.
Again many thanks to you and your team for an amazing fortnight touring Vietnam.
thank Gareth & Lynda
Black
This is not the first time I visited China with Chinatours.com, I booked an indochina tour with them this time. I was travelling with my family with an 11 year old and as usual they just offered wonderful service. Our group had fun in the ancient capital city Beijing, panda-home Chengdu, Kunming and then extened to Thailand. All guides were wonderful, caring and knownageable. And our favorate part in Thailand is Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai. The elephants were quite talented and well trained. At the camp the program covers elephant show and riding, oxcart riding and bamboo rafting. All of these activities were fun and great experience for our 11 yearold. We also loved Thai food with all different kinds of curry tastes. And we are so lucky to meet the Thai's Watering Festival. Aha! come here at 13th April every year in Thailand and ready to get wet and have fun!
thank Black
Christiane
Firstly thank IndochinaEscapes for organizing it so well, it was exactly as we had arranged it.
Having done the tour I can give you some feed back.
HOTELS: They were all excellent with special comments for two hotels
La Siesta Hanoi: great location, many amenities including private cinema room,
extremely welcoming and helpful staff.
Essence hotel in Hoi An: offering free shuttle service to the beach.
GUIDES: All very professionals and punctual. I would like to single out your guide in Hoi An
thank Christiane
Lisa Jane Bird
I think the itinerary was really fabulous. Everything was already included so spent much less than other tours. Everything was well planned that you had enough free time and were still able to see all the sights at each place. It is also good that the tour guides tell you where to take the best photos. One guide gave me a beautiful lotus flower and one brought me a coconut to drink
thank Lisa Jane Bird