Richard V. Swan from USA

I spent quite a bit of time working with Gia Linh tours in the design of our program. I selected Gia Linh because of your excellent responsiveness and good communications. I contacted several other agencies and found they wanted to give me their standard tours and often were not reading my correspondence (several offered tours starting in Saigon even though I clearly told them I was ending in Saigon!). The tour was well-managed and we visited everything we asked for, had plenty of time for our visits—no problem. We are very happy with what we got to see and how things were organized.

1. Guide (s):

Mr Tam: Tam was a satisfactory guide. His English was good and he was on time and organized. He was anxious to please and made an effort to do what we wanted.

In Vinh Long we had a guide from the local agency, Tony Hai, who was very energetic and active in offering information and really “guiding” us—he added a lot to our visit in the area.

2. Accommodation:

Trung Nguyen Hotel: Adequate hotel for the night. Good service from the hotel (as per our information researching the web). AC was weak and the room was small. No elevator. Fortunately the town goes to bed early because the location is noisy during the day

My Khanh Village: Very nice accommodations. We were sorry we couldn’t stay longer here!

Cuu Long Hotel: “Government-issue” hotel with not much character. Terrible shower that had to be used while sitting in the tub because there was so little pressure there was no water when we stood up!! Carpets dirty. Good location on the waterfront. Room had very little charm but was fairly clean and decent sized. Restaurant across the street was unsatisfactory with terrible service—we asked not to get deep fried food and they ignored us twice, serving the deep-fried food anyway.

Anan Hotel: Great hotel, fine location, great price, warm and friendly service. Only drawback is they have no restaurant so we had to go around the corner for breakfast

3. Transport (car, boat and plane):

The driver was good and the car was in good condition and clean. The boat transportation was fine—boats were safe and as comfortable as we could expect in the Delta and the operators were good. We were especially happy with the boat and operator in Vinh Long!

4. Restaurants:

The last restaurant (Mekong Restaurant, Chau Thanh, Tien Giang) on the way into Saigon was outstanding—a real treat as our last stop with Gia Linh. Restaurant at My Khanh Village was impressive. Cau Lac Bo Hoa Binh between Chau Doc and Can Tho was good.

5. Places you visited:

We were very happy with the places we visited

6. Design and management of your tour:

I spent quite a bit of time working with Gia Linh tours in the design of our program. I selected Gia Linh because of your excellent responsiveness and good communications. I contacted several other agencies and found they wanted to give me their standard tours and often were not reading my correspondence (several offered tours starting in Saigon even though I clearly told them I was ending in Saigon!). The tour was well-managed and we visited everything we asked for, had plenty of time for our visits—no problem. We are very happy with what we got to see and how things were organized.

7. Are there any recommendations or criticisms of services, restaurants, shops, visit sites and so on that you’ve visited on your own?

We realize that Vinh Long is very limited on good tourist facilities, both hotels and restaurants, but the area offers so much for tourists that it is too bad they don’t develop their facilities better. We enjoyed the sites we visited. We used Blue Cruiser to get from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc and they were great. We got to the border crossing and met a competitor’s boat—their customers got a cheaper price but they were not happy with the condition of the boat and how crowded it was. We made the right choice with the boat! We had dinner in Chau Doc at the Victoria and felt it was well worth the money...customers (and guides) should spend time in the hallway on the way to the restrooms examining the excellent presentation of the fish farming industry in the area

In Phnom Penh we stayed at The Pavilion Hotel—it was excellent—nice rooms, very good location and is located in an enclosed compound where it is quiet and safe: www.pavilion-cambodia.com. We also ate at the Malis Restaurant which was not cheap but a classy restaurant serving excellent food in a very nice atmosphere www.malisrastaurant.com