I recently took a 4-day private tour with this company. We interacted with 2 guides (Nam and Le Sinh), both of whom were absolutely amazing and added to the enjoyment of our vacation.
Bravo Indochina tours was responsive over email when I sent them a note about our arrival logistics, to pick us up from the airport. I booked the tour through Viator, who only gave us a phone number. Nobody ever answered that number at Bravo Indochina tours. But when I Googled them, I found an email address, and they did respond in a timely manner.
There are a number of opportunities for improvement in the planning for our private tour. When I brought these issues up to Bravo Indochina, they didn't respond. I wrote Viator and received a $50 refund, which is at least something. It very much seemed like this specific tour had never been executed before, or we were the first to buy it.
Our initial guide, Nam, was only scheduled to be with us on the first day. I can understand the need to change guides. However, all guides need to be fully informed of our planned itinerary, and need to hand off information to the next guide. That didn't happen, which means I couldn't deal with departure flight arrangements on day 1 of our 4 day tour. This stressed me out.
That's because our first guide's itinerary overlapped with our second guide's itinerary meaning we wasted some time, didn't get the full experience we could have, and ended up compromising our experience.
To be specific, our JetStar flight to DaNang changed a number of times causing us to arrive much later than planned. So our Day 1 guide who had to at least get us to Hoi An, as that's where our hotel was, rushed us through all the Hoi An sites before they closed at 5:30. On Day 2, all those same sites were part of guide #2's itinerary. So it was a repeat for us. I'd have rather not rushed the sites and seen something else... but I certainly wasn't doing them a second time.
With Nam, we went to a museum in DaNang, Marble Mountain, and Hoi An. We had to rush through Marble Mountain, which means we didn't go up it, so that we could get to Hoi An and see all the sites before 5:30. Which we did, hurriedly. Granted, you don't need much time at each place, but, as I said, we ended up compromising the experience to fit it all in -- having no idea that the screwed up itinerary was going to afford us more time the next day.
Had Day 2 been a private tour -- which is what we booked -- that scheduling of Hoi An could have been mitigated by adding a different activity there, or at least tapered to accommodate for our experience the day prior. Instead, we were greeted by a different guide and a group tour with 2 other couples in a large van versus our expected private car. The group tour was scheduled for My Son, Hoi An and lunch.
This was a problem for me. I booked a private tour and paid a premium because I wanted the individual experience, on our own timeline, and in the comfort of our own vehicle. Those vans are just not comfortable when forced to sit in the way back. The guide gave me his phone in the hotel parking lot in front of these other, waiting tourists in the van to talk to operations. That was more than awkward. Operations said they would reimburse me for the inconvenience and we would have our private tour the next day. So with no other option, we joined the group tour. So -- this is day 2 of a 4 day tour with no continuity. We ended up going to My Son, then skipping the repeat tour of Hoi An. This gave us a long time to explore/shop/relax in Hoi An -- which was a nice opportunity, just not what we paid for.
The next day, the same guide we had for the group tour picked us up. Finally, some continuity! He was wonderful, and tapered our experience to us by adding a few photo opportunities to see some of the places the American Military served, which I had been interested in. Our guide had been an interpreter during the Vietnam War, so we had the commonality of the USMC that added to the experience.
However, he didn't know what our itinerary was. I had to give him my phone so he could read the Viator write up for what we bought. His operations folks should have provided him with our itinerary in advance.
Our itinerary was supposed to include water and 3 lunches. Since we arrived so late on Day 1, we had eaten at the airport before flying. It should have been easy to just buy us lunch on Day 4, but the operations folks explicitly told our guide that Day 4 didn't include lunch. We could have stopped anywhere! instead, we were dropped off at the airport 4 hours before our domestic flight. That was ridiculous. The should have altered the tour.
Especially since our guide thought we were flying out of Hue! We had to be driven back to DaNang. He should have realized the timing and allowed us to sleep in -- or altered the day's itinerary to make use of the time better. I never had a way to communicate to the guide after being dropped off. Had we had the same guide from day 1, we probably would have thought to exchange numbers. So my only way to communicate to him was through the tour operations. I relayed flight changes (that JetStar made, not us), who said would relay to the guide. They didn't. So we got up at the crack of dawn, went to 2 tourist things, then drove to DaNang and sat at the airport for 4 hours. Just really poor planning on the operational staff's part.
Bottom line: don't book this tour. Book yourself transfers from the airport to Hoi An and Hue. You don't need a guide at either, just a map. If you want the guided experience, book a guide through your hotel directly through a company. Not so sure I'd use this one though.