How to book "local optional tours" cheaply on a trip to Vietnam

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If you've traveled abroad before, you've probably wondered at least once: "Local tours booked through major travel agencies versus local tours you can book through travel information websites — the tour content is the same, but how different is the quality of the guides and service?" Local tours run by travel agencies are, after all, priced higher than local tours booked through tourism websites, even though the schedule is the same, aren't they?   Actually, as long as the tour content is the same, there's not much difference in service quality (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, sightseeing sites don't have to bear labor costs or company maintenance costs, so they almost never lose when it comes to price competition. So why don't the contents of the service or guide change? Actually, both the travel agency and tourist site guides are the same freelancers

Many people believe that "local tour guides working for major travel agencies are of high quality." In reality, however, even on tours run by major travel agencies, it's rare for the accompanying guide to actually be an employee of that travel agency — it's much more common for the tour to be handled by a freelance guide working locally. For this reason, it is not unusual for the guide who showed you around on a tour with a major travel company to turn out to be the same guide on a different tour you booked the next day through a discount sightseeing reservation site. Especially since the pandemic, there has been a shortage of Japanese-speaking guides, so multiple travel companies and tourism sites tend to be competing with each other for the same freelance guides.      There are cases where it's cheaper to book a local optional tour in Vietnam through a travel agency.

So, when exactly is it cheaper to book a local optional tour in Vietnam through a travel agency? It's for "extremely popular tours that go by large bus." 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 at once, travel agencies can arrange large buses, which allows them to lower the tour price per person. This is a strength unique to travel agencies (since tourism websites don't gather that many participants).   Unfortunately, though, there aren't many local tours in Vietnam that arrange large buses, and as far as I know, about the only one is the "Mekong Tour (Jungle Cruise Tour) departing from Ho Chi Minh City." For this Mekong tour, there are cases where the price can differ by nearly half between travel agencies and tourism websites. Cases where it's recommended to book a local optional tour through a tourism website that lets you complete everything online

On the other hand, booking a local optional tour through an online travel site tends to make sense in two cases: when you want to travel by private car (just for your own group), or when you're doing city sightseeing and don't mind what kind of vehicle you use (meaning a taxi or a ride-hailing car is fine too).   For example, in the case of a dinner cruise, the only travel needed is between the hotel and the pier, so there's no real need to arrange a car specially — a taxi would be just fine, right? However, travel agencies, in order to maintain service quality for the sake of their brand, arrange a car even for such a short distance, and naturally, the arrangement fee is added on top of the tour price.   Also, when the journey involves long-distance travel, having some discretion over things like restroom breaks along the way or spots you'd like to stop by really increases your overall satisfaction with the trip. Tours such as the Mui Ne tour departing from Ho Chi Minh City or the Ha Long Bay tour departing from Hanoi involve a round trip of about 6 hours, so in these cases too, we recommend booking a private tour through a sightseeing website. Summary and next time's preview…Choose wisely where you book your local optional tours for your trip to Vietnam. This time, we introduced ways to book "local optional tours" cheaply when traveling in Vietnam. The quality of tour guides and services doesn't change much whether you compare travel agencies or tourism websites.Just because a tour is operated by a major travel agency doesn't mean you should trust it unconditionally — that mindset can lead you to end up paying an overpriced fee, so please think carefully and choose where to apply wisely. Next time... Which sightseeing spots should you visit for a winter trip to Vietnam? Next, for those of you considering a trip to Vietnam during Japan's winter (roughly January to March), we'll introduce which cities in Vietnam you should visit, based on local information!