Mar 26, 2025
Very professionally well run tour - both with the travel consultant and on the day itself - Before booking our day tour to Tam Coc and Bich Dong, the travel consultant Ms. Rosie, answered all my email queries (there were over 10) regarding price, tailoring the itinerary, weather etc.
The most important thing, which I didn't realise until I started doing other day tours in Vietnam was that Ms Rosie arranged for our group of three (my parents and I) to have a 16-seat van. Initially, I thought it was too big given that we only had three people.
However, as she rightly pointed out, if we only had a standard 7-seat SUV, by the time you have the tour guide in the front passenger seat, one of the three of us would have to sit in the back row, which as we found out on other tours is very uncomfortable when on a long drive.
On the day prior to our tour, Ms Rosie email and WhatsApped me to make sure that everything was in order for the following day.
Our allocated tour guide was Mr Vu who was very knowledgeable, providing commentary as we made our way out of Hanoi to Ninh Binh. He explained the historical significance of the Hoa Lu Citadel, which we would not have learned if we had visited by ourselves. Next stop was the Bich Dong Pagoda which has a number of steps that my parents navigated with Mr Vu's guidance and care.
After lunch, we visited Tam Coc which was the highlight of the trip. Even though the weather was very overcast, thankfully the rain held off and we were able to still enjoy the 90-minute boat ride which was expertly paddled using the rowers feet (not hands), which I had never seen before.
I can only imagine how much more stunning it would look on a sunny day. Having said that, the overcast conditions meant that it was not hot and uncomfortable on the boat, but rather it was rather chilly (we visited on 6 March).
All in all, we were very happy with the service received and would recommend this tour and Custom Asia Travel to anyone visiting Vietnam.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feb 15, 2025
Tam Coc vs Trang An? Tam Coc hands down!!! - Went to both Tam Coc boat trip (including electric bus trip to Bich Dong pagoda) and the Trang A boat trip. In my opinion the Tam Coc trip was far superior and I’ll tell you why. We were able to buy tickets directly at the kiosk next to the lake quickly and efficiently with the option of having the bus trip added or not, and the little boats there were perfect for 2 people. You didn’t have to have life jackets if you didn’t want them although most people did. The whole experience was calm, relaxing and professional with no hard sales on embroidered pictures on the way. We were offered them halfway round but declined with no offence taken. It was shorter than the Trang An option (around an hour for the ride as opposed to 3 hours at Trang An) but I felt that was enough. Our lady rower did expect a tip and we gave her 100k Dong but we felt she deserved it as it’s hard work rowing with your feet!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aug 19, 2024
You are in excellent hands with Custom Asia Travel! - This is the first trip I ever used a travel agent company, and I can’t express how amazing it was to just show up, experience everything along the way along with my kids, have informative English-speaking guides, not have to think about logistics like meeting times and transportation, and even have someone to snap candid pics along the way—with me in them! It might be my first adult vacation that was actually a vacation. HIGHLY recommend Custom Asia Travel, particularly Sally, Vinh, and Callum. They helped make not just this excursion, but our whole trips (from Danang to Ba Na Hills to Hoi An to Hanoi to Ha Long Bay Bay). The price was very reasonable, too, and the food arrangements were above and beyond. My kids liked the guides so much that they named their souvenir stuffed animals after them, and Sally was incredibly attentive, even helping us in real time over the phone when we had issues with my son's evisa at the airport. Rest assured, you are in excellent hands with Custom Asia Travel!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jul 11, 2024
Exactly what I was looking for. Perfection! - I had the pleasure of working with Sally to craft a custom tour to Ninh Binh departing from Hanoi and ending in Halong. I don’t think I have ever experienced such smooth communication and coordination between her and her team. I could not have asked for more. My guide, Callum, and driver, Mr Thien, were fantastic and really made the Vietnam a highlight of my time in Southeast Asia.
Furthermore, when a different tour company cancelled my Halong Bay cruise at the last minute, I reached out to Sally again, and asked for her help to set something new up. She sprang into action and found exactly what I was looking for so that my visit to Halong would still be complete. This was all done in less than 24hrs notice.
I will certainly work with Sally again on my next visit to Vietnam, and highly recommend Custom Asia Travel.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 18, 2024
Beautiful trip, perfect organization and great guide - We were with a 6 group of colleagues out for business in Hanoi and wanted a private trip to Tam coc.
Communication with Custom Asia Travel was very smooth and easy, mainly by email and WhatsApp.
Our guide Đức was right on time with a very comfortable bus to bring us to Tam Coc.
He arranged that we would not join the main flow of tourists but we collected bikes and drove around to finally end up at a small village where we got on the boats.
Great experience, scenery is just stunning!
Lunch was also very well arranged and tasty.
We visited temples and a pagoda before we finally drove to Hoa Lu Ancient Capital.
Đức was a great host with a huge knowledge of the history of Vietnam.
That mixed with a great sense of humor made him the perfect guide for our group.
I highly recommend this organization and will definitely use them again on the next opportunity.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 9, 2023
Fab experience - Amazing tour, everything was made so simple and ideal for the 3 day time frame we had. Would recommend to anyone traveling for the first time in Vietnam.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Apr 8, 2023
Excellent tour in Ninh Binh - We had a great day in Ninh Binh! The customer service rep (Molly) was very helpful organising a custom tour so we could see the major sights. Our guide, Thu, was very friendly, knowledgeable, and accommodating. We saw Bai Dinh temple, Hoa Lu ancient city, Bich Dong pagoda, and Tam Coc boat tour. We would recommend this company to others!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feb 21, 2023
Profesional and trustfull travel agency - We did a trip in Vietnam and becouse we are over 60 yers old to be eficient we decided to organise the trips we had to do in Vietnam with a local agency from Vietnam. We visited Hanoi, Tam Coc, Ha Long Bay,Da Nang ( Hoi An, My Son Sanctuary… )
Custom Asia Travel is the perfect agency. The organisation and planing of the trips where perfect. The cars very clean and confortable, the drivers polite and friendly. We had very good guides ( Cường in Hanoi and Tam Coc and Tran Thanh Binh in Saigon,the guide in Da Nang) they where very good qualified for this activity.
The guides planned very good the details of the trips and they gave us very good informations about the visited places.
The selection of the hotels, the restaurants and for the boat in Ha Long bay ( Peony 1) was also perfect made by Custom Asia Travel. We recommend this agency and this guides.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 20, 2020
Great trip to Ninh Binh Area! - We are a family of five (children aged 15, 12 and 8) and did the two day / one night trip to Ninh Binh, including Tam Coc and the Bich Dong Pagoda on the first day and Cuc Phoung National Park on the second day. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip. It was very well organized and when booking and in the lead up the communication from the company (through Ms Minh Ninh) was excellent. Everything ran smoothly with a very nice hotel and comfortable van, but it was our guide (Mr Kim) who really made the trip so enjoyable. His English was perfect and he was very interesting to chat to, not just about the places we visited but Vietnam life and people more generally. He was great with the children and kept encouraging us to be adventurous on the bike ride and jungle walk. The highlight of the trip were the primate and turtle conservation centres, which the children loved. I would thoroughly recommend this trip and the company, but would also say visit Ninh Binh sooner rather than later as it is becoming very popular and there is lots of development happening.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mar 29, 2025
GREAT EXPERIENCE - Very nice boat ride and a small pagoda very old
On the other hand go early because it quickly becomes a motorway with boat and it is a bit unbearable
A beautiful walk to do
Review provided by Tripadvisor
