Contact: what to send, and what comes back
Most first enquiries we receive are three lines long and take two rounds of questions before anything useful can be said. That is nobody’s fault — it is simply not obvious what a tour planner needs in order to answer. This page fixes that: the details below, and the list further down of what to put in the message, so the first reply you get is an actual answer rather than a request for more information.
Where to find us
Everything below is kept in one place and updated here first, so if you are looking at a number written on another page or in an old email, use this one instead.
Hanoi, Vietnam
08:30 - 18:00, Mon - Sat (GMT+7)
Office hours are Vietnam time, GMT+7. That is seven hours ahead of London in winter and twelve ahead of New York, which means an email sent from Europe in the afternoon is read the following morning here. Outside office hours the enquiry inbox is still monitored, and travellers who are already on a trip with us have a separate 24-hour number that is issued with the final documents.
What to put in a first enquiry so the reply is useful
Six things. With all six, the first reply can contain a real route, a real length and a real price band. With two of them, it will contain questions.
- Dates, or at least a month. "Second half of March" is enough. Vietnam has three separate climates and no single good season, so the month changes the route rather than just the packing — see when to go. If your dates are genuinely open, say so; that is useful information too.
- How many of you, and the ages of any children. Party size drives the per-person price more than anything else, because two travellers carry a whole vehicle and guide between them. Children’s ages matter for room configuration, for whether a boat transfer works, and for whether a three-hour drive is a good idea.
- How many days you have on the ground. Count from the morning after you land to the morning you fly out. If your flight home leaves at 08:00, that last day is a transfer and not a day — how many days you need explains the arithmetic.
- Which regions, or which two or three things you refuse to miss. Either form works. "The north and a beach" is enough to start. So is "the caves at Phong Nha and somewhere my mother can sit down". A list of forty sites copied from a guidebook is less useful than two firm priorities.
- A budget band, per person per day, land only. The form has bands rather than a box, because nobody wants to type a number. Land only means excluding international flights. This is the single most useful line in any enquiry and the one most often left out; without it, a quotation is a guess and you get three versions of the same trip.
- Anything non-negotiable. A wheelchair, a knee that will not do steps, a serious nut allergy, a religious observance, a fear of small boats, a dog at home that limits the trip to twelve days. These change the itinerary rather than being handled around it, and we would much rather know at the enquiry stage than on day three.
A finished itinerary. If you have already built a day-by-day plan, send it by all means and we will comment on it honestly, including the parts we think are wrong. But you do not need one to get a useful answer — the route is our job, and the six items above are all we need to do it.
What happens after you send it
A person reads it. There is no automated qualification step, no drip sequence and no call centre. The enquiry goes to one member of the team, who then handles your booking from that first message through to the day you fly home.
| Stage | Timing | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| First reply | Within 24 hours, usually inside 12 during office hours | A named person, an honest answer on whether the trip fits, and any questions |
| Outline route | Same reply where the enquiry has all six items | The shape of the trip, the number of nights in each place, a price band |
| Draft itinerary | 2 working days from agreeing the outline | Day by day, with drive times, meals, and named hotels for every night |
| Revisions | Same day for small changes; 1 working day for a rebuild | As many rounds as it takes; nothing is charged before you book |
| Confirmation | When you approve the itinerary and pay the deposit | Signed booking, hotels held in your names, and your final documents in due course |
If you have not heard from us inside 24 hours, something has gone wrong with the message rather than with your enquiry — spam filters catch travel correspondence constantly. Send it again from a different address, or use the phone number above. We would much rather have a duplicate than lose an enquiry.
Nothing in the planning stage is charged for and nothing commits you. The point at which a booking exists is the deposit, and the terms are set out on how to book and booking terms before you get anywhere near it.
What we will not quote for
Saying this here saves you the wait for a reply that turns out to be a no.
- Trips outside Vietnam. No Cambodia, Laos, Thailand or Myanmar, and no Vietnam trip with a neighbouring country bolted on. About us explains why.
- Parties above eight travellers — ten on the family and photography routes. Above that the whole structure changes and we would be selling you a group tour with a private label on it.
- Budgets under about USD 150 per person per day, land only. At that level you are better served travelling independently, and Vietnam is one of the easiest countries in Asia in which to do it.
- Flights on their own, hotels on their own, or a visa service. We book domestic flights and hotels as part of a trip we are running, at cost and with the property named. As standalone items there is nothing we add. The e-visa you apply for yourself at the official portal — see visas and entry.
- Self-drive itineraries, and anything on a motorbike. Not a pricing question — see getting around for the reasoning.
If your request is on that list, say so anyway and we will point you towards someone who does it properly rather than simply declining. That costs us nothing and occasionally saves somebody a bad trip.
If you would rather talk than type
Some trips are much faster to sort out in a conversation, particularly where a party has mixed mobility, complicated dates or an argument going on about the length. Tick the call-back box on the form and tell us your time zone and a window that suits you, and a call is arranged rather than attempted at random.
A note on the shape of that call: it is a planning conversation, not a sales one. Nobody will ask for a card number, nobody will offer a discount that expires on Friday, and if the honest answer is that another company suits your trip better, that is what you will hear. Twenty minutes on a call usually replaces four rounds of email.
For travellers already in Vietnam on one of our trips, do not use the enquiry form or the general number — you have a 24-hour number issued with your final documents and it reaches a person in Vietnam directly. That line exists for exactly the moments when a form is useless.
Questions travellers ask most
How quickly will you reply?
Within 24 hours of the enquiry arriving, and usually inside 12 if it lands during office hours in Vietnam, which are GMT+7. If your enquiry includes dates, party size, length, regions and a budget band, that first reply will contain an outline route and a price band rather than a list of questions.
A full day-by-day draft with named hotels follows within about two working days of agreeing the outline. If 24 hours pass with nothing, assume a spam filter ate it and send it again.
Do we have to know our exact dates before contacting you?
No. A month, or even a season, is enough to get a useful answer, because the month affects the route more than it affects anything else in Vietnam. "Some time next spring, probably two weeks" is a perfectly workable enquiry.
What does depend on firm dates is holding hotels, which we cannot do until they are fixed. In the high season and around Tet the better properties go early, so the gap between deciding and booking is worth keeping short.
Is there a charge for a quotation or for changes to it?
No. Planning, quoting and revising are free and carry no commitment. You can go through several rounds and then decide not to travel, and that is a normal outcome rather than an awkward one.
The first money is the deposit, which is what turns an itinerary into a booking. Before that point nothing is held in your name and nothing is owed.
Can we visit an office to talk in person?
If you are in Vietnam already, yes — the office details and hours are listed above, and it is worth telling us in advance so the person handling your enquiry is there rather than out with a client.
For everyone else a video or telephone call does the same job. Tick the call-back box on the form, tell us your time zone and a window that works, and we will arrange one rather than ring at an awkward hour.
Read next
Tell us about the trip you have in mind
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.