Considering the Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand trip
Hi all. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions/experiences. My husband and I took a completely different tour a few years ago that included 3 commercial flights. We felt a lot of time was wasted waiting around airports (including one 12 hour airport appreciation day !). On the Australia/New Zealand tour, they were all private charters, and were very efficient at getting us to our next destination.
Are these commercial flights on this tour ? Did they in general go well ?
Many thanks again !
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They were all commercial flights when we went. No unreasonable delays and security was not too difficult to get through.
But any commercial flight takes time. You have to get to the airport early, then there's flight time, and arrival and baggage at the end.
You can see my experience at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2024-1Vietnam-01.htm
The seats were standard economy seats.
Thanks Mike ! I thoroughly enjoy your trip reviews, always learn a lot, and get excited.
I did the trip about a year ago. The worst intra-tour flights I've ever been on were on this trip, flying Asiana, I believe (I"m about 90% sure on the airline name). It was a smallish plane (A310 or A320) and they shove 3 extra rows of seats on the plane as compared to other airlines. If you're 5'10 or taller, your knees will never be the same. The only good news is the flight was an hour or so.
I recently returned from this trip. The internal flights are a necessary evil for the itinerary. That being said, Tauck makes them as painless as possible. Our TD had our passports for most of the journey. For all but one flight, we showed up at the airport maybe an hour before the flight and were handed our passports with our boarding passes already inside. The local guides had checked us in and checked in our luggage. When we arrived, we headed off and they took care of collecting the bags. They were always waiting for us in our rooms when we arrived at the next hotel. For the flight from Siam Reap to Bangkok, we arrived to the airport to collect our bags, already on trolleys, and take them to a special checkin area set up for us. Our TD said the flight times and the airlines can change trip to trip. We had flights on Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines, Cambodia Angkor Air, Air Asia and Bangkok Airways. I think all the planes were Airbus. They all had the standard three and three configuration. All of the flights are right around an hour. There was more leg room than I’ve had on some domestic flights. I think everyone, except our one group member who was close to 6’2”, was comfortable enough for the quick flights. We did not have any significant delays or hiccups with any of our flights.
It's and Excellent trip, you will enjoy every min.
Hotels are great, itinerary incredible and food it's divine. I'm thinking on doing it again..
It is a winner!
mil. Join me...I'm scheduled for this tour December 2025
It will be a BLAST!
PureLuxury. Hi.
2025 it's already booked.- Nepal & Tibet also a month again in Türkiye and a week to Costa Rica.
You will love Nam and the others... The Four Seasons in Chiang Mai . is beautiful and the Spa mind-blowing.
Does Tauck take you to the floating market in Bangkok? If not, thoughts on whether it’s worth trying to do on our own.
Years ago (1971), I took a floating market tour. It was where farmers brought their goods to Bangkok and sold them to others on boats.
When I was in Bangkok recently I asked about the floating market and was told that the government banned it a few years ago.
There may be "Floating Market Tours" that are still available but are different from what I did.
On the VCT tour, Tauck takes you on a boat tour through the canals of Bangkok, but there was no floating market.
MIL - I just tried to send you a private message and got the response that your profile was private so I could not do it. Can you make your profile public? (I wanted to write about Turkey, from which I recently returned -- not on a Tauck trip, because Tauck no longer goes there.)
I felt Tauck handled the intra-tour flights incredibly well. Enough said!