Reviews

A fantastic time....

This is a late review but I wanted to add the avalanche of positive reviews for this trip.

Vietnam is not one of the ‘main’ tourist destinations, but it should be. Its a lovely country with a rich history and a friendly people.

Suzy Hargreavez

To travel from north to south seeing the total diversity of Vietnam was amazing and breathvtaking.

Vietnam Adventure Sept 2014

This trip was much better than the brochure describes. It was a real adventure from start to finish. The guide was very knowledgable and helped make this trip memorable.

Vietnam Adventure

What a brilliant trip. As a single woman joining this trip I was a bit anxious about going, but as it turned out, I felt totally secure throughout, met a great group of people and had an amazing experience. The trip was well organised and full of interest, giving a taste of city life as well as the country side and Vietnamese values and culture.

Everything about this tour as advertised - apart from a terrible guide

I travelled on this trip to celebrate a milestone birthday, the group comprised husband and wife with daughter in 20’s, young couple, 25 yr old Canadian backpacker and a solo male and female in their 50-60’s. Vietnam is a friendly and welcoming destination and the trip, transfer and accommodation were exactly as described. The whole experience was spoilt by our guide ‘Ha’. Who after the first couple of days became moody and disengaged, at times even bored with the group. He actively split the group at mealtimes insisting on sitting with the younger members of the group, using the excuse that four of us were vegetarian. The highlight of the trip for me was the visit to the Meekong delta and home stay, cooking over a wood fire with the family and watching the children catch fish. Our local guide was full of enthusiasm and information – excellent!! Unfortunately our own guide seemed rather jealous of the reception and warm thanks our group showed her. On day 8 as we walked through the case at the Marble mountains Ha took it Upon himself to physically mimic one of the ladies in the group who was walking a little slower that the rest of us and as we descended some steep stone steps appeared to find it amusing that we were having to take care negotiating the descent. I have a knee injury and was walking with the aid of a trekking stick. Neither of us delayed things unduly. On the journey to Danang he decided that we would stop at a local bakery for lunch. There was something of a language barrier and limited choice of choice for the non meat eaters in the group. Nobody made a fuss when he helped himself to a dumpling and left to eat it and left ignoring mine and two others request for help, meaning our half of the group was trying to explain their needs to bewildered staff. I am a seasoned traveller and traveled solo internationally on many occasions, less frequently in organised tour groups. On occasions that I have travelled with Exodus before including most recently I have had nothing but praise for staff support and trips themselves. Finally after the experience in the caves I contacted customer support from my hotel via email and was told to provide feedback after I had returned. We were only half way through the tour. In the light of this unpleasant experience it is highly unlikely that I will be travelling with Exodus again.

Most Inspirational Moment

Meekong homestay

Thoughts on Group Leader

Terrible, moody and petulant. Certainly demonstrating no empathy for members of the groups with slight mobility issues.

Advice for Potential Travellers

See my comment in the 1st section of my feedback

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank Heather for her review, although we are very sorry that she was so disappointed with her tour leader. As we normally receive very positive feedback about our leaders in Vietnam, further to receiving Heather’s feedback our local operations manager met with the tour leader to discuss the comments raised; we are confident that further to this meeting future clients will not be equally disappointed, but we regret that Heather’s experience was not so positive.

Megan Devenish – Trip Manager for Vietnam

Fabulous Experience

An fascinating, varied and rewarding tour which was great value and included with one exception (the Golf Hoi An hotel) great accommodation.

Most Inspirational Moment

I know many people nominate Hoi An as the place they liked most in Vietnam but for me the homestay with the family in the Mekong Delta was by far a more rich and rewarding experience of the whole trip. Having said that it was a close call between that and the overnight trip on the Reunification Express from Hanoi to Hue or the night on a boat in Halong Bay.

Thoughts on Group Leader

This is the reason why I've only given the trip four stars and not five stars. Our group leader Dat was no better than OK on a generous assessment. His punctuality was variable to say the least, getting relevant information out of him at times was a challenge and he too often relied on his cheeky chappy persona to cover up his obvious shortcomings. More seriously his proactive endorsement of the use of rhino horn and bear bile as effective medicines , on a couple of occasions, upset some of the group. This along with a major issue that he failed to resolve regarding my accommodation on the Halong Bay boat trip is the basis for my assessment.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't change too much of your currency in to Vietnamese Dong as the cost of meals, drinks etc is very cheap. The difference between temperatures in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh is marked. The former can be cool and wet whilst the latter can be very warm and sunny. Come prepared for all eventualities. If you are on the direct Vietnam Airlines flight from Gatwick it is worth trying for the standby upgrade from economy to business. This works out at about £280 per person each way. We got it going out from Gatwick but not coming back. The trip in economy is pretty dire so , whilst it is nowhere near as good a business class as the other flights I've been on, it is well worth the investment.

Reply from Exodus

We are very glad that Martyn had such a great trip, but we were very disappointed to read about the comments made by his tour leader. Exodus does not endorse such practices and it goes entirely against our Responsible Travel policies. Martyn’s feedback and the serious nature of the comments have been brought up with his leader.

Megan Devenish – Product Manager for Vietnam

Vietnam Adventure

A complete tour of Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, including Halong Bay , Hue, Hoian and a homestead stay in the Mekong Delta.

Vietnam adventure, what an experience

My ever first experience as a solo traveller excelled my expectations. The organisation was just excellent and the attention given to the traveller beyond belief. Vietnam Adventure is a great experience all in all, boats, bikes, trains, local transport take you to a different dimension. This was my first experience with Exodus and will not be the last, now the difficulty is what country to choose from…

Vietnam in 16 days

I’ve never travelled with Exodus before,but what I liked straightaway was not only the structure,but the freedom permitted on the trip. On other group trips with different companies this hasn’t always been the case. This trip was run by Bien, who made sure we were fully catered for and had an experience of a life time. We went from Hanoi to Saigon,by bus,train,boat and plane. We had two fantastic cycling trips of about 18 miles mingling with the locals, visiting the local markets. We kayaked in Halong Bay and were greeted by a group of monkeys! We were able to wander the cities on the odd afternoons off, catching in the sites and getting in the required amount of shopping! The weather was misty and grey for the first part of the trip which was a shame as Halong Bay was shrouded in cloud,but the weather bucked up as we travelled south. One thing I would say about this trip is how much I learnt about Vietnam. I thought I knew quite a bit but was totally overwhelmed and at times moved to tears by the plight of the Vietnamese people. We could have spent more time in the Remnants Museum it was so full of interesting artefacts and so very moving you needed time to take it all in.
This trip is full on and my only criticism is we could have done with an afternoon on a beach somewhere. The trip visits lots of busy cities that are full of traffic and it would have been good to just chill on a beach for an afternoon,apart from that it was amazing.

VIETNAM ADVENTURE

The trip was just perfect – an ideal combination of just enough cycling and just enough sight-seeing. I’m hooked.