Indochina Odyssey Travel Consultant Yeliz's Homepage

Our guide was Dao,excellent guide and very knowledgeable,good fun as well.The Cu Chi tunnels are a must,so interesting.Lunch was in a lovely location and a birthday cake arranged for one of our group.We then visited the Presidential Palace,War remnants museum,Notre Dame Cathedral,Post Office and Opera House.On our Second day we drove to CanTho to see the floating markets,wish we could have had another day there.All I OT hotels,guides,transport and drivers are first class,cannot recommend highly enough.

This company really has fantastic service. Our flight into Ho Chi Minh was delayed but after contacting Odyssey, they rearranged everything for us. Our guide Mr Hoang Le & driver, Mr Quang were there to meet us at 2am. Mr Le was very helpful to us and went above & beyond the call of duty for us at all times. His English is excellent and his knowledge of Vietnamese history & politics is very comprehensive.

Driving in Ho Chi Minh is challenging! Mr Quang was very safe and friendly.

Odyssey checked on our well being whilst there to ensure that all was going smoothly.

They obviously hold customer service as a priority.

Cambodia 5 day Essentials

Day 1-3 Siam Reap

Our tour guide Mr Sothy was second to none. He was genuine, honest and friendly, great English, funny and humble. You could not want for a better guide and I strongly recommend that anyone looking to visit Siam Reap request to have Mr Sothy as the guide.

The programme was full yet flexible, we changed order of sights around to suit crowds ??beware, everywhere in and around Siam Reap is busy and being up and about early avoids crowds.

The Siam Reap portion of our tour left us longing for more and will have us visit Cambodia again.

Day 4-5 Phnom Penh

Siam Reap and Phnom Penh are chalk and cheese ??miles apart. Phnom Penh is a busy overcrowded city with traffic problems, it?? dirty and typical of an ??volving??city seen anywhere else in SE Asia.

Our guide ??Mr CS was let?? just say different than Mr Sothy in age (younger) and mannerism. To be honest, none in our group of 4 really cliqued with Mr CS and we found his ??chool teacher??style of question asking and pretty much random useless information such as depreciation on motor scooters in 12 months or how many people can be loaded into a car.

The tour options in Phnom Penh were limited (as there?? not that much to do anyway), but with the Mekong at the doorsteps of the city, I would have preferred a tour on the Mekong rather than a walk up a dirty filthy littered mountain track to see another statue of a Buddha or a visit to a tourist trap market.

All in all, our group thought that Indochina Tours were very professional and I would happily recommend to anyone to use them.

Some key points not mentioned in any literature provided by Indochina Tours:

1. Wear good stout footwear paying special attention to the type of grip if planning on climbing the historic sites.
2. Bring good quality sweat resistant sunblock ??the sun?? relentless in Cambodia
3. Ladies ??make sure you have a shawl or long sleeves as you could be denied entry to temples
4. Prepare yourself for the beggars & pick pockets
5. Pack Imodium
6. Pack strong Deet

Vietnam is a good destination and Hanoi has much to please a traveler. People are soberly nice, traffic is amusingly chaotic and gastronomy is excellent with significant differences from what one finds in neighboring countries. In town, stroll around the Cathedral and find a world of small shops offering beautiful handcrafted products, good and not so good lacquer, good paintings next to poor taste copies, good spas close to places you wonder whether appropriate. Restaurants like Lemon Grass or Kodo, in the mid range price; hotels like Rex or, embedded in the old town, Hanoi Essence are among many one can choose from. We recommend a visit to the Temple of Literature, perhaps HCM mausoleum surroundings and the Museum of the War Rememberance as I call it. Most of all, a 2 day visit of Halong Bay will remain in your memory.

My husband (75) and myself(71) have just returned from a Taste of Vietnam tour with our three grandchildren aged 15&1/2 , 13 and 12. Our private tour which included Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An and Hon Chi Min City was organised by Yeliz who really went out of her way to meet our requirements which included interconnecting hotel rooms and even called us halfway through to check all was going well. Interconnecting rooms did mean 5 star but the overalls price was such good value for money. Hotel Nikko Saigon was amazing!!! Activities to interest three teens were much appreciated and the included lunches were an experience in themselves. Our guides and drivers in the north and centre were fantastic - fun and could not have been more accommodating so a big 'thumbs up' to Quyen and Lien. We would certainly recommend IOT - a great company to work with and definitely value for money.

5 of my family members and I arranged for a two week tour of vietnam and cambodia with help from yeliz. Yeliz was very accommodating and offered many good suggestions and arranged everything perfectly. there were no unwanted surprises, some nice ones though. there were no hidden charges at all. everything was as planned and as explained to us.
the hotels were exactly as promised, there were no substitutions there were no issues checking in to the hotels and they were all 4 star. I can't say which hotel was the best, they were all so nice. perhaps my favourites were the Saigon Morin hotel In Hue and the Essence Hoi An hotel and Spa in Hoi An. my least favorite would be Grand Silverland Hotel and Spa in Ho Chi Minh.
we were picked up at the airports without waiting or any issues or waiting at all.
the vehicles that we used were clean, comfortable and just as promised.
the drivers were great, some of them didn't speak english, but it wasn't really necessary that they did, the guides spoke english very well. I cant remember the name of our driver in Hue and Hoi An, but his english was great, we got to meet one of his children in Hoi An.
what really made the trip was our guides, each one of them had a different quality. what they had in common was a love for their country and a willingness to make sure we had an enjoyable and safe trip. Our guides were Mr Thanh in Hanoi, Ms Nguyen in Hue and Hoian, Ms Han in Saigon, Mr Sophea and Mr Chong San in Siem Reap. If i had to pick the best it would be Mr Chong San, he was fantastic. As i said earlier each had their own strength.
dinners were not included in our itinerary but we were given great suggestions for dinner whenever we asked.
all the restaurants we went to were clean, comfortable and unique. we had quite a variety, and i dont think any disappointed.
the guides in cambodia were quite different than the guides in vietnam, but represented their countries very well and were reflective of the differences in the two countries.
tips:
I wish we had stayed another day in Hoi An and another night on the Halong Bay Cruise,
if you want clothes made we had a good experience In Hoi An at Rubin's. I would recommend taking a favourite shirt with you so you can get exactly what you want.
maybe a day or two more of downtime
THANK YOU YELIZ AND ALL OUR GUIDES AND DRIVERS

We have recently returned from a 15 day tour of Vietnam & Cambodia, organized by Yeliz at Indochina Odyssey Tours (IOT). Everything happened like clockwork! It was a bit frightening to work with a company we had contacted only through emails, but once we touched down in Hanoi we knew we'd have no worries. The guides and drivers were always on time, courteous, helpful and solicitous. Internal flights (4) all very smooth and on time. Accommodations (we chose 5 star, still very affordable) were uniformly awesome. We were so glad to have avoided being on a big bus tour!
Using IOT allows you to customize your tour, seeing exactly what you want without being forced to include places that don't interest you. And, knowing that the little details, like airport transfers, are handled is priceless when you're making a 30 hour journey just to get over there. I would certainly recommend them to anyone looking for an individualized, small group/private tour experience in that part of the world.

Yeliz at IOT planned the perfect VN 1st stop in Hanoi! Our guide, Mr. Henry, was waiting for us at the airport. He escorted us to the fabulous Gold Silk Boutique Hotel - with balcony overlooking the city streets - and made sure we were settled. He spent the next few days taking us to the Temple of Literature (Uncle Ho Mausoleum closed), traditional music and a great lunch. Also spent time at the Hanoi Hilton and Old Quarter. Attended the Water Puppet show, which was "meh", unfortunately b/c we had heard such good things. Took a cyclo tour around the city, which was great and immersive. On the 4th day we headed for Halong Bay on an overnight cruise - amazing. Mr. Henry made sure when it was all over to get us back to the airport in time for our flight to Pleiku. IOT you rock!

My husband and I found IOT online and then got reco from a friend who had used them. Outstanding service, itinerary, and guides. Best day, if I had to pick one, would be the 24 hours of nothing to do mid-trip but enjoy the sun and surf at Qui Nhon - total battery recharge. The other AMAZING day was in Pleiku, where my father was killed in 1967. Guide(s) there used to veterans and other family members and took us to the airfield where my dad had been and then because we weren't allowed at the crash site, helped us celebrate a traditional death ceremony at the Veteran Cemetery. Travel transitions within country and to Siem Reap were a breeze. Our IOT agent checked with us along the way to make sure we were okay. Would reco IOT and use them again!

My husband and I travelled to Vietnam in August with another couple. We chose IOT partly because Yeliz responded very quickly to my husbands initial contact (he also contacted two other companies) and she was fantastic with preparing an itinerary that showed she had taken note of what my husband asked for. She also was very efficient in adjusting the itinerary when requested to do so. We also loved the fact that we would be doing a small tour - just the four of us, the guide and the driver. The vehicles were big enough for 8 passengers so comfortably fitted the 4 of us and our luggage. The advantage of a tour just for us was the flexibility to change things - and we didn't have to wait for 30 other people to finish visiting an attraction/buying souvenirs/toilet stops before moving on.

South Vietnam - our guide was Mr Truc and the driver was Can. We stayed at the Grand Silverland in HCM City and then Nam Bo Boutique Hotel in Can Tho city in the delta.
Central Vietnam - our guide was Ms Lien and we had a couple of different drivers. We stayed at the Saigon Morin Hotel in Hue and the Essence Hoi An Hotel.
North Vietnam - our guide was Mr Hai and the driver was Tuan. We stayed at the Golden Silk Hotel in Hanoi and had a night on Bhaya 4 in Halong Bay.

The guides were all very professional with regards to the business end (picking up and delivering us to the airports, hotel check-in and check-out; organising the tickets for entry into attractions, etc) but they were also great fun. They had the ability to gauge just how much we wanted to do (or not to do) and were flexible. Ms Lien receives our vote for "guide of the tour" - she really clicked with our Aussie sense of humour and we had so many laughs together. We had a yummy lunch at a cafe in Hoi An and she was able to get me into a cooking class there that afternoon and organised that I would learn to cook the dishes we had eaten. We were also lucky enough to be in Hoi An on the night of a lantern festival so she gave up her free time to accompany us to that. Mr Truc loved to learn new facts about the country that his "guidees" are from, and also any new words to add to his vocabulary so we had some fun times comparing culture and language.
All the guides were happy to share stories of local life in Vietnam and they were all knowledgeable, not only about their own part of Vietnam but also on the differences between the regions.

We didn't speak much to the drivers as they had a lot to concentrate on but they got us safely from A to B so that was important and much appreciated.

The restaurants chosen for the included lunches exceeded our expectations as did the hotels for the overnight stays.

We loved the fact that IOT (to us, Yeliz was the initial face of IOT) was so flexible in the planning stages - the suggested itinerary and hotels was just a starting point. If you Google the area and want to include an attraction or stay at a different hotel, the response is quick and positive.

I'd suggest that anyone wanting to do a tour of Vietnam for the first time should get some brochures from some of the bigger companies, maybe borrow some travel books (like Lonely Planet, etc) from your local library, then contact IOT. Let them know the main things: what you really want to see or do; how energetic you are; any special interests (ie fishing, hiking, cycling, etc) or requirements... and start from there. From reading other reviews on this page, I know that the staff at IOT will all be willing to make your trip as memorable as ours was.