The clock tower of Binh Tay Market rises above tiled rooftops in Ho Chi Minh City's Cho Lon district.

Ho Chi Minh City · Mekong Delta · the length of Vietnam

Tours that start where we live

We are a small agency in Ho Chi Minh City. We run the days out of Saigon ourselves, and we plan the longer routes — Mekong to Ha Giang, and on into Cambodia and Laos — with the same people answering the phone at nine at night.

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33 places we plan in detail80 routes to start from1 planner, first email to last transfer24/7 line while you travel

Who we are

We are a Saigon agency, and that shapes what we are good at.

Most Vietnam operators are run out of Hanoi, and it shows in their itineraries: the north gets four days and the south gets a boat trip and an airport. We work the other way round. Our drivers know which Mekong branch is worth two hours in the dry season and which one is a tourist stage set, and we know the difference between a delta day that ends at four in the afternoon and one that ends at eight in the evening with everybody exhausted.

That does not mean we only sell the south. Roughly half the trips we plan are the full length of the country, and a fifth carry on into Cambodia or Laos. It means the southern half is the part we check ourselves rather than take on trust from a supplier.

A busy street corner in Ho Chi Minh City lined with shops, signage, and antenna-topped buildings under a partly cloudy sky.

A woman in a conical hat paddles a small wooden boat along a narrow canal lined with nipa palms in the Mekong Delta.

Ho Chi Minh City · Mekong Delta

Destinations

Where we travel

Cargo barges moored along a muddy river lined with palms, viewed from a wooden boat deck in the Mekong Delta.

Saigon · Mekong · Phu Quoc · Con Dao

Southern Vietnam

Saigon, the delta, the coast at Mui Ne and the islands off Phu Quoc and Con Dao.

Explore Southern Vietnam

The tiled roof and pink gate of the Japanese Covered Bridge welcome visitors in Hoi An's old town.

Hue · Hoi An · Da Nang · Phong Nha

Central Vietnam

Hue, Hoi An, the Hai Van pass and the caves at Phong Nha.

Explore Central Vietnam

Limestone karsts rise from emerald water as a small cruise boat sails through Ha Long Bay.

Hanoi · Ha Long · Sapa · Ha Giang

Northern Vietnam

Hanoi, the bay, and the mountain loops at Ha Giang and Cao Bang.

Explore Northern Vietnam

The towers of Angkor Wat rise across a moat in hazy morning light near Siem Reap.

Siem Reap · Phnom Penh

Cambodia

Angkor and Phnom Penh, reached overland from the delta or by a one-hour flight.

Explore Cambodia

How it works

Three ways people book with us

A day out of Saigon: You are here for three nights on business or at the end of a longer trip. Pick a day, we pick you up, you are back by the time you said. Sixteen of them on this site, each with the real finish time on it.
A private route: Two weeks, three weeks, the length of the country or one region in depth. We write the day-by-day, you tell us what to move, nothing is booked until you say it is right.
A route we already run: Eighty itineraries on this site with the driving times, the hotel standard and the price already worked out. Take one as it stands or use it as a first draft.

Hoi An

Timing

The part most sites leave out

Vietnam is 1,650 kilometres long and the weather at the two ends is rarely doing the same thing. A fortnight in November is a fine trip in Saigon and the delta, a wet one in Hoi An, and cold and grey in Hanoi. A fortnight in June is the reverse. Nobody can fix that, but an itinerary can be built around it — which is why every destination page here has a month-by-month panel rather than a line saying the best time to visit is October to April.

July to September: the delta is green and the water is high, central Vietnam is hot and the sea is good, the north is at its wettest.
October to December: the south is dry and pleasant, central Vietnam has its storm season and can flood, Hanoi cools down.
January to March: the best all-round window for a full-length trip, and the busiest — Tet closes family businesses for about a week.
April to June: hot everywhere, empty at Angkor, and the best months for the northern mountains.

One thing we will say plainly

If your dates and your list of places do not fit together, we will tell you before you book rather than sell you the trip and let the weather explain it.

Straight answers

What a day with us actually costs you in hours

Every day tour on this site carries a pick-up time and a realistic finish time, and the finish time is the one we are judged on. Cu Chi and a delta boat in one day is sold everywhere in Pham Ngu Lao as a comfortable outing; it is eleven hours with four of them in a vehicle, and we would rather you knew that and chose the two-day version, or chose one of them and had an afternoon in the city.

Group sizes are on every page too. Our set-departure days cap at twelve; private days are whoever you bring. If a tour says maximum twelve and you arrive to find twenty-eight people and two guides, that is a different product being sold under the same words, and it is worth checking with anyone you book with, us included.

Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Do you run the tours yourselves or resell them?

The days out of Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta are ours: our vehicles, our guides, our boats. Outside the south we work with the same partner operators in Hue, Hanoi and Ha Giang that we have used for years, and we say so on the page rather than implying we have offices everywhere.

Can I book a single day rather than a whole itinerary?

Yes. Sixteen day tours on this site can be booked on their own, with a hotel pick-up anywhere in District 1, 3 or Binh Thanh. There is no minimum spend and no obligation to book anything else.

How far ahead should I book?

Day tours: a few days, or the night before if there is space. Private routes in high season (January to March, and July): two to three months, mainly because the hotels worth staying in on the coast fill first. Tet is the exception — book that months ahead or travel elsewhere in the country that week.

Are your prices per person or per group?

Day tours are per person. Private routes are quoted per group with the per-person figure shown at your party size, because a private car for two costs almost the same as a private car for four and you should be able to see that.