7D6N Itinerary in Vietnam [Ho Chi Minh, Da Lat & Mui Ne]

For this trip, my friends and I opted for a ground tour where my friend, Kiki emailed one of the Vietnam travel agency and asked them to prepare the travel itineraries for us. Mr. Law (the travel agent) replied my friend's email and was very helpful (from answering our questions, changing the itineraries and gave us suggestions based on his experiences). We were very thankful that his side was very cooperative with our last minute changes and gave us a new itineraries- in which we were supposed to stay one night in Da Lat instead of two nights but just because we love the weather in Da Lat so much and we all agreed to stay and cancelled our trip to Vung Tau beach. Here are the details regarding the travel agent, the services provided as well as our trip itineraries.

Viet Vacation Travel Co. Ltd

Website: http://www.vietvacationtravel.com
Email: superlawer@yahoo.com/ lien.vietnhat@gmail.com
Skype: tranlaw82
Contact: 
1. Mr. Law (+84) 946 757 392; (+84) 915 636 661
2. Miss Lien (+84) 903 182 148

Services

1. Provided trip itineraries (places that we will visit), accommodations (hotel/ guesthouse) and breakfast (hotel/ guesthouse) and entrance fees for certain places

2. Provided a private driver. Mr. Tom (our companion throughout our trip) fetched us in the airport upon our arrival and departure. He was also in charged to fetch us to all the sightseeing locations and drove hours on the road (5 hours for HCM-Mui Ne, 3 hours Mui Ne-Da Lat, 7 hours Da Lat-HCM). He is very friendly and his self introduction was "do you know Tom and Jerry?? I am Tom."

US with Mr. Tom (wearing white shirt)

3. Miss Lien: She met us on the first day we reached HCM at the hotel (to collect the deposit money for our tour) and the very last night during our stay (to collect the remaining tour money) as well as keep updated with our trip and frequently ask about our comments regarding our trip/ stay that the company provided.

4. Provided a private tour guide. We have a tour guide during our stay in Da Lat and our visit in Ho Chi Minh (Day 6).

Our tour guide: Left (during our trip in Da Lat) and Right (during our Day 6 tour)

5. The common thing that every hotel/ guesthouse that we stayed will choose to keep our passport at the counter. They will give excuses that: (1) they need time to key in our information- which you can tell them to key in on the spot or give the some time to key in all the information; and (2) there is no personal safe box in the room-which you can tell them you want to carry it along.

6. Total charges: USD260/ pax + VND1,019,250 (for 7 pax as we last minute cancelled the hotel in Ho Chi Minh)

Accommodation

Ho Chi Minh: Seventy Hotel (www.seventyhotel.com)
Mui Ne: Ocean Valley Hotel (www.oceanvalleyhotel.com)
Da Lat: Best Western Dalat Plaza Hotel (www.dalatplazahotel.com.vn)

Itineraries

Day 1: KL-Ho Chi Minh

• Flying off and check in
• Water Puppet Show
• Ben Thanh Night Market

Day 2: Ho Chi Minh & Mui Ne

• Notre Dame Cathedral
• Post Office
• Cafe Hopping
• Check out and road trip to Mui Ne

Day 3: Mui Ne-Da Lat

• White Sand Dunes
• Red Sand Dunes
• Fishing Village
• Fairy Stream
• Pho Shanu Cham Tower
• Check out and road trip to Da Lat
• Check in and stroll around Da Lat Night Market

Day 4: Da Lat

• Cable Car- Robin Hill
• Truc Lam Zen Meditation Monastery
• Tuyen Lam Lake
• Datanla Falls
• Domain de Marie Church
• Bao Dai's Summer Place
• Crazy House
• Valley of Love
• Drip coffee testing
• Da Lat Train Station

Day 5: Da Lat-Ho Chi Minh

• Da Lat Garden (near our hotel)
• Golden Valley
• Traditional embroidery village
• Check out and road trip to Ho Chi Minh
• Check in and stroll around Ben Thanh Night Market 

Day 6: Ho Chi Minh

• Chu Chi Tunnels
• The War Remnant Museum
• Reunification Palace
• Cafe hunting and shopping
• Ben Thanh Night Market

Day 7: Ho Chi Minh-KL

• Check out and flying off

Travel Tips when you travel as A GROUP

Often, we hear that the more the merrier BUT this will create a higher chances of disagreement and lead to argument. As the idiom "one rotten apple spoils the barrel', whenever one travel mate feeling unhappy, the whole group will be influenced (you know la.... everyone has their own mood swing). Here are some tips for a stress-free trip with a bunch of humans.

1. Choose your travel mates. 

Yeap.... No typo or whatsoever. Travel with the humans that know your needs well because they are understanding-type of humans. Those who are "whatever" type especially guys, yeap.... I greatly recommend to travel with this kind of humans. Often we need to change our travel plan due to unbearable circumstances and so do not ever try to invite those human that is die-die/ blindly must stick to the plan. It's totally hell.

2. Create a communication media. 

Facebook group, whatsapp group chat or emails..... you name it. Not everyone stay in the same town/ city/ states/ country when we choose to travel as a group. We cant even meet up to have a simple discussion on the exciting future trip. The only time that we meet up as group is merely the time before we fly off in the same plane. 

3. Choose a leader. 

He/ She have to conclude everyone's intentions and preferences. He/ She is the one who contact the travel agent (if you choose for tour). He/ She is the one who initiates to connect everyone and keeps everyone updated with current discussion. He/ She is the one who finalize the whole trip SO RESPECT YOUR LEADER.

4. Travel itineraries.

There are several ways to plan for your awesome trip. You can either opt for own planning OR ground tour (the travel agent of the country that you wish to travel) OR your own country travel agent. 

5. Don't be MUTE. 

Your hear me guys. Do not be ignorance during group discussion. Do voice out your preferences especially when a decision is needed. Do not act like "I'm busy" OR "cin-cai-larrrr" OR "I don't know". Do not give a hard time to your team leader. He/ She is desperate too in making the final decision. You know you can't get the money back if you really really really super duper don't like the accommodation (if self planning) OR the makan place OR regarding the pricing that quote by your travel agent. If you feel NO-NO for everything, dude/ ladies: you go backpacking lar you.....

6. Traveler's responsibility.

Play your role in a group well. Either you are a loan shark, navigator, food hunter, campers, memories capture or sheep, do remember your own role to reduce misunderstanding.
Loan shark: a person that is in charge to calculate the expenses and collect the money from everyone
Navigator: a person that is good in Geography and navigate the route without relying on the GPS apps  
Food Hunter: a person that LOVE food so much that he/she will not skip a single meal and will search the BEST food in town
Camper: a person that decide your sleeping place; either on the concrete floor or the 5-star hotel bad. Not mentioning choosing the facilities that provided at the place that you are going to stay
Memories capture: a person that in charge to take videos/ pictures during the trip. Everyone can take turns to play this role so that everyone will be in the picture.
Sheep: a merely a follower that agree and cool on everything that go on during the trip. 

7. Time concern.  

Time wait for no men. Do not try to be a superstar when everyone is waiting for you on the agreed meet up time (unless you want to walk on your own or dating with your new scandal bf/gf in town). Do remember to give everyone some space (especially women that like to shop). Set a time and do let others know if you wish to spend your personal time longer.

8. GROUP, not individual.

You never live twice and you know that. Challenge yourself or your friends. Do crazy things with your friends. Do not leave them alone.

and last but not least,

SMILE, BE CRAZY and ENJOY