How to Book Local Optional Tours Cheaply During Your Vietnam Trip

Hello! I'm Yuki, a Japanese husband living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Gock, a Vietnamese wife. On this blog, we provide information about moving to Vietnam and living there, as well as travel information from all around the country. If you find an article that interests you, please follow us first! ♪ This time, for those considering a trip to Vietnam, we'll introduce you to "how to book local optional tours at a lower cost." Differences in quality and price of local tours that can be booked through major travel companies and tourism websites.

Anyone who's traveled abroad has probably wondered about this: is there really a difference between tours booked through major travel agencies versus local tours you can book directly from travel information websites? The tour itineraries might be the same, so what's the actual difference in the quality of guides and services? When you compare local tours organized by travel agencies to those you can book directly through tourism websites, even though the schedules are often identical, the prices through travel agencies tend to be noticeably higher.   Actually, if the tour content is the same, there isn't much of a difference in service, etc. (at least when it comes to Vietnam). Travel agencies have branch offices in Vietnam and employ Japanese staff or office staff who can speak Japanese, so the cost of maintaining the company is added on top of the tour price. On the other hand, since sightseeing websites don't incur labor costs or company maintenance costs, they almost never lose out in price competition. So then, why doesn't the content of the service or the guide change? Actually, the guides used by both travel agencies and tourism sites are the same freelance

Many people believe that "local tour guides from major travel agencies are of high quality." However, in reality, even on tours run by major travel agencies, it is not common for the accompanying guide to be an employee of that travel agency; typically, the tour is handled by a local freelance guide. For this reason, it is not uncommon for the same guide who accompanied you on a tour with a major travel agency to be the same guide for a different tour you book the next day through a budget travel booking website. Especially since the pandemic, there has been a shortage of Japanese-speaking guides, and multiple travel agencies and tourism websites are increasingly competing to hire freelance guides.      Cases where booking Vietnam's local optional tours through a travel agency is more affordable

So, when is it actually cheaper to book a local optional tour in Vietnam through a travel agency? That would be for "extremely popular tours that use large buses." Local optional tours booked through sightseeing websites are basically private tours (with a dedicated vehicle). On the other hand, for local tours where dozens of people apply all at once, travel agencies can arrange large buses and therefore reduce the tour cost per person. This is a unique advantage that only travel agencies can offer, as tourism websites cannot gather such large numbers of participants.   However, unfortunately, large-group bus tours aren't very common among Vietnam's local tour options, and from what I know, there's really only the "Mekong Tour departing from Ho Chi Minh City (Jungle Cruise Tour)." With this Mekong Tour, you'll often find nearly a 50% price difference between booking through travel agencies versus tourism websites. When it's recommended to book local optional tours directly through online tourism websites

On the other hand, applying for a local optional tour through a website you can complete entirely online is recommended in cases where you want to go by dedicated vehicle (a private car just for your group), or for things like city sightseeing where you don't particularly care about the vehicle used for transportation (meaning a taxi or ride-hailing service is fine too).   For example, in the case of a dinner cruise where you're only traveling between your hotel and the pier, technically you wouldn't need to arrange a car—a taxi would be just fine, right? However, travel agencies want to maintain their service quality for the sake of their brand, so they arrange a car even for such short distances, and naturally, that arrangement fee gets added to your tour price.   When traveling long distances, having some discretion over bathroom breaks along the way and the spots you'd like to visit increases your overall travel satisfaction. Tours from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne and from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay involve around 6 hours of travel each way, so we also recommend booking private tours through tourism websites for these trips.Choose your local optional tour providers wisely for your Vietnam trip. We've introduced ways to book local optional tours for your Vietnam travel at better prices. The quality of tour guides and services doesn't vary much whether you compare travel agencies or tourism websites.Just because a tour is organized by a major travel company doesn't mean you should trust it unconditionally. Doing so can lead to paying inflated prices. Please think carefully and choose your booking company wisely. Next time's preview... Which tourist destinations should you visit on a winter Vietnam trip? Next, we'll introduce which cities in Vietnam you should visit for those considering a Vietnam trip during Japan's winter season (roughly January to March), based on local information!