Last week, Vietnam News asked its readers about their experiences with Vietnam travel firms The Government is planning to conduct regular checks on Vietnam tour operators to ensure they are registered and meet acceptable standards. Will this move improve the situation? We asked tourists visiting the country just that question.
Howard Smith, New Zealander, Hanoi
Vietnam tour companies are like those of many other third world countries or even developed countries. They get discount tours and commissions from destinations along the way and the tours themselves vary in quality. Usually you get what you pay for.
Also, things don’t always go according to plan on any tour.
But they are a cheap and quick way for a tourist with limited time to see the beautiful landscape and experience the wonderful Vietnamese people.
Nevertheless, you have to be positive, as the Vietnamese themselves are. Remember, the country was devastated by occupations and the American War. People were left to their own devices after the war, with few rules and laws, to pull life together as best they could.
In just 30 years the Vietnamese have put the devastating past behind them. They don’t hold a grudge and they are optimistic about the future.
And keep in mind that most of what a tourist sees in Viet Nam is made more interesting by the fact that it was set back 50 years by the war. Not everything works like clockwork. That’s what makes the place so fascinating.
Time will probably show that you were privileged to be here in the early stages of renewal.
A friend of mine once said “You should have been in Hong Kong in the 1960s.” I believe the backpackers who are lucky enough to visit Viet Nam today will tell their children in 2050: “You should have been in Viet Nam in 2010.”
When you go on tour, keep that in mind. If you aren’t happy with the cafe you are taken to or you don’t want to visit a commission craft shop, smile about it, slip away and look for something of interest nearby.
Michael Ball, British, Hanoi
I will never go on another organised tour after my experience with Saigontour’s one-day trip to Ben Tre in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta. The tour had promised an authentic experience with visits to local coconut sweet makers, honey-makers and craft workers. However, instead we were railroaded into parting with as much money as possible. Nothing went to the local people we met en route.
Our first stop was at a coconut sweet “factory,” which turned out to be a small compound operated by the Ben Tre Tourism Board and staffed by employees of the tour company. It was not in any way authentic. Next we were offered the opportunity to buy some craft products, which were made from coconuts. Quite frankly the products were poorly designed and lacking in taste.
Next was a stop-off at a “farmer’s garden,” which had promised to introduce the tour group to a real working fruit farm. Instead it turned out to be another annex of the Ben Tre tourism authority. This time, ironically, former farmers were pretending to be real farmers! This was accompanied by an obviously staged “impromptu” folk song.
With patience wearing thin, I wandered outside and discovered that we were on the outskirts of a local village. I and some of the other tour members decided to ignore the tour lunch and instead spent the midday break spending our money where we knew it would go directly into the hands of the local community.
The tour continued in the same vein, with ersatz visits to rural Ben Tre that were equally uninspiring. At every place we stopped, we were offered cheap shoddy goods.
Emeric Studer, French, Laussane, Swizerland
I was in Viet Nam for six months and once took a very cheap one-day tour to Ninh Binh and Tam Coc. I bought the tour from Sinh Cafe.
A minibus was supposed to come at 8:20am but I waited for 90 minutes with no info. When it arrived, the bus was over-crowded and had no air-conditioning. We arrived at a place famed for its temples, but the guide was terrible. He gave us almost no information. At the end of the day, I promised myself that I would never go on another tour.
When I travelled by myself, however, I often got ripped off. I don’t mind paying a bit more than local people but in Hue the bus conductor asked me for VND100,000, while local people were paying VND10,000.
I think regular Government inspections of tour companies would help improve the situation.
It is better to just buy a plane ticket and visit places by yourself.
Hoang Thuy Duong, Vietnamese, Hanoi
I don’t think Vietnam tour companies are generally that bad. There might be a few unqualified tour operators but I’ve never had a bad experience myself, despite my frequent travels across the country.
I usually go for well-known travel companies such as Saigon tourist, Hanoi tourists, Footprint travel…. These firms offer very well-organised tours at reasonable prices. Last winter my friends and I bought a three-day tour in Sapa that included a climb up Fansipan - the highest peak in Indochina. The small tour company - Sapa Village Travel - is newly established.
Our multinationality group was delighted with the service provided. Our tour guide and porters were friendly and helpful, and the price of the climb was unbelievably cheap. I would thoroughly recommend the company to anyone visiting Sapa.
Peyton Standefer, American, Ho Chi Minh City
I have gone on two trips in Viet Nam with a tour company as part of a company package. The first trip was to Nha Trang and the second to Phan Thiet. Each trip was three days long. Generally speaking, there was nothing wrong with the Nha Trang trip. There were problems however with the Phan Thiet tour.
On the second day of our trip in Phan Thiet, we stopped at an area that had sand dunes (bai cat). We spent an hour there before eating lunch. It could have potentially been a fun place to visit and do a short dune buggy tour, but there was no service like that. There was only a group of children who were renting mats to slide down the dunes. The members of our group made the most of the time we had there by racing each other down the dunes and taking pictures. However, international tourists (I can’t speak for domestic ones) do not want to buy plane tickets to Viet Nam, pay for hotels, and book tour packages just to make the most of a bad situation. They come to have fun and to relax.
My advice in this situation would be for the Government to inspect the areas tour companies are planning to take visitors to in order to ensure they are worth seeing and that they have proper facilities for tourists.
Secondly, there was the issue of the children selling mats. Child labour in Viet Nam is not uncommon and not necessarily bad, but there should be limits and checks made.
Patrick Moran, British, Ho CHi Minh City
I have been on Vietnamese package tours to Thailand and China. I thought they were an absolute nightmare. The Vietnamese thought they were wonderful. The customer is always right. The trouble arises when the Vietnamese organise things for foreigners. They assume that what we want somehow bears some resemblance to what the Vietnamese want.
I have been a tour guide for my family on many travels. Our day starts at about 9am after a leisurely breakfast. We go on holiday to escape from the stresses of our working lives. The Vietnamese usually start at 5am, ostensibly to escape the traffic, which is what everyone else does. With me, you wouldn’t miss the Taj Mahal, the Cairo museum, the Temple of Karnak, the Chartres cathedral or the Tower of London.
In Thailand and China I found myself in the middle of nowhere. In Bangkok the only thing we saw was the “Golden Temple.” Managing to escape one evening from a cultural festival, I took my family to the Oriental Hotel on the river bank, which has been voted many times the best hotel in the world. The old section is extremely attractive but unaffordable. The riverside snack bar is also extremely attractive, popular with tourists and locals, with perfectly reasonable prices.
My family think I am a great tour guide. The reason is that I take them to places I have visited before, many times.
(Source: VNS)
