I have just returned from Vietnam 23rd Sept 13 with a good friend & thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We purchased a Scoopon deal of 14 nights, (north, south Vietnam & Cambodia). We did however get off to a bit of a challenging start, we were met at the airport in Hanoi before we'd even collected our luggage or gone through customs, great service we thought and it was. He took care of our Visa's etc and directed us through to getting luggage to our driver. However the driver spoke little English and when we got to the hotel in Hanoi (1st stop) nobody from Hoi An Express was there to meet us - disappointing as we had the whole afternoon to do nothing and had no idea where to go, where to change money, where to get a massage or where to shop. The next morning we were to be picked up to go to HaLong Bay for an overnight cruise - we thought 'great' and were given by the Hoi An tour guide mobile phones with pre-programmed contact numbers etc. What they didn't tell us, was it was a 4 hour road trip to get there - we had little water, little money, had left our passports packed in luggage locked in hotel - our driver (no tour guide) didn't speak any English, we had to call a contact in the phone (to be told, it's too early, I'm asleep and can't help - it was 8.30am), so I called the office and in order for us to get a toilet stop, she had to speak to the driver as he knew no English at all. We stopped at a great shopping venue (but had little money, because we didn't know it was on the way), so a very boring 4 hour trip to the boat. We understood we'd have a guide the whole way through - wrong! We eventually (with sore bottoms, not a comfortable vehicle for such a trip) got to the cruise destination. The Emotion boat cruise, we hadn't eaten since a 6am breakfast (no snacks or stops on the way) and didn't get lunch till 1.30pm. Water on the boat was US$3.50 per 200ml bottle (we'd have bought some if we'd known), we 'thought' we were part of a group of 10 (alas, just the 2 of us was our guided tour group), not happy about that. The lunch on the Emotion was terrible and only 14 guests on board (2 other families), so no atmosphere at all. We were told to expect a 'romantic dinner', well as 2 (girl friends) not really our thing - but no such romance anyway. Dinner was over by 8.30 and the so called entertainment offered was "chatting at the bar, chess, watching the water from the top of the boat"...........???? No TV, we had no books to read as we'd thought this would be an entertainment in itself, very disappointing. The rest of the trip with Emotion was great.
On to Hoi An - and we were in the middle of Typhoon Mari - locked in the hotel for 2 days, but a stroke of luck our way when the owner of the hotel, also the owner of Hoi An Express provided a DVD player for our room, paid for our meals & organised a tour of the 'aftermath'. After hearing our gripes about the beginning of our tour, the tour guides in each city were informed of our dissatisfaction and were all great English speaking. The tour was fantastic, the transfers without any problems, but by the end of 14 days, it was full on each day - we had time for only 1 swim and stayed in some beautiful hotels but didn't get to use them, ate too much fabulous food (most provided within the tour), early morning starts (I'm not a morning person) but the biggest thing - we were 'templed' out, one can only absorb so much on dates, names etc and when you've seen one temple, you've kinda seen them all.
Sounds like it was all bad, but the tour was well-organised, great tour guides, Hoi An Express's handling of every email (within the hour every time from the beginning of our purchase) was outstanding - Victoria from the office was very professional in her service as was everyone else we were in contact with. Ann Nguyen our guide in Phonm Penh, (fantastic) Minh in Hoi An and Siem Reap guide as well. I would highly recommend this company if anyone is thinking of visiting these areas.