Halong Bay Holidays

An absolutely amazing adventure with a great group of people and an amazing guide in Vietnam - Kim !
This was my first solo holiday and I would not hesitate to go on another Wendy Wu tour but this will take some beating !
We saw Vietnam essentially from top to bottom . From the bustle of Hanoi to the peace of the Panhou retreat just 30km from the Chinese border to the majesty of Halong Bay . Then onto Hoi An and Hue both so different but both equally memorable . Then Saigon - a Vespa tour is an essential for everyone - and the time to reflect on what we saw in the Cu chi tunnels and the war remnants museum . And then onto the Mekong delta for an overnight stop in Ben tre
The walking in Hoang Su Phi was not as challenging as the itinerary might have suggested and I chickened out of the cycling ! The hotels were all well situated and all of a more than acceptable standard - the most important part was the beds as certainly needed good nights sleep to keep up with the adventure .
The group was sad to leave Vietnam and Kim who as I have already said was amazing at looking after us and was full of amazing stories and shared his experiences with us .
However we still had Cambodia to visit and I guess my only criticism of the whole trip was it should have been slightly longer to give us a bit more time in Cambodia . The Angkor Wat complex was amazing as was the visit the following day to the village on stilts . Our guide Chet obviously had a hard act to follow but again he was great !
My highlights - the retreat , walking in the mountains , Halong bay , the bamboo circus in Hoi An and the mad ride on coracle boats , the Vespa tour ,eating and drinking fresh coconut in the Mekong the Angkor complex and the Phare Circus !
A truly amazing adventure

Service rating : This was a great tour, the guide in Cambodia was fantastic!
The sites were amazing and Halong Bay and Angkor Wat were the highlights for me.
The only thing i would change would be the amount of food at meals, in that heat you do not need to eat 6 courses for lunch...
Product : Excellent tour, sites were fantastic especially Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.
The cruise on Halong Bay was amazing and unforgettable.

Service rating : The service on this tour was amazing. The national guides sort everything and want to ensure you have a great holiday in their countries. I found the Cambodian people to be extremely friendly. If you suffer from any allergies then the guides ensured you were given food that you could eat safely and tried to offer variety. The hotel rooms were all of excellent standard and most hotels had a swimming pool.
Product : The trip from Angkor to the Bay was amazing. Both of our national guides were outstanding. We had Sok in Cambodia and Zhou in Vietnam. They were both very knowledgeable and were good at telling the history of their countries in an interesting way and were fun to be around. Our favourite parts were Angkor Wat and Halong Bay. The boat trip on Halong Bay was a relaxing part of the trip and the scenery was stunning. The boat was positioned perfectly to enjoy the sunrise. In Hoi An we stayed at the silk resort which is a beautiful hotel. Most people's favourite. This is our second Wendy Wu tour and it was amazing and we would happily go with them again. The holiday includes everything so you don't need to worry about where to eat or how to travel around. The roads in Vietnam and Cambodia are chaos but all of our drivers made you feel safe and were very friendly.

Service rating : Superb service by our guide Mai Nguyen. She was amazing, anticipating all our needs while acting as a friend and always caring about how much we were enjoying the incredible experiences. She is a shining star.
Product : A fabulous tour, mixing ancient sites, old and new culture, historical events, cities and rural surroundings, and fun activities which gave us an insight into the way Vietnam works. We did an extension of 3 days to Cambodia before the tour started, which we would thoroughly recommend - you should not miss Ankor Wat, Ankor Thom and Ta Prohm. The group was quite big - 28, half British and half Australian/New Zealanders but the tour guide skilfully managed it, making us feel like a family throughout the visit. Excellent food and people everywhere were charming. Hotels were top rate and the junk in Halong Bay was very high quality. A great trip which we'll never forget.

Service rating : The guide was great, really knowledgeable and looked after us very well. Even in his free time when the day was finished he was willing to take us to places and constantly making sure we was ok and felt safe at any time.
Service in all the restaurants were great minus one in Saigon the rooftop restaurant near diamond plaza service was extremely slow and took so long for us to get a drink.
Product : Amazing, got to see so much a true once in a lifetime trip. Loved the cruise boat for halong bay so modern and luxury to a surprise when we researched junk boats. All hotels were spot on and the trips were out of this world. Early early starts around 5.30am was a bit of a off put as its such a long day but you understand why to try beat all the other tour groups.
Would recommend this trip so highly, gutted its all over.

Service rating : The organisation was excellent. Both of the national guides (Ra in Cambodia and Kim in Vietnam) were very good, particularly Kim who was outstanding because of his knowledge of the history of the country.
Product : Angkor Wat and Halong Bay were the highlights, an extra night on the Halong Bay cruise would have been an added bonus.