Delta Adventure Tours - beware
November 17, 2007
I would like to warn other travellers about Delta Adventure Tours so this company cannot continue to decieve unwary tourists. Myself and 2 friends booked the”Mostly by Boat - Express Way to Cambodia” trip from Saigon to Phnom Penh. We paid $40USD for the speed boat option.
In there advertising flyer this option was 2hr 45minutes by boat from Chau Doc arriving in Phnom Penh at 1pm. Our boat took 6hours and arrived at 4pm. We spoke to a tour guide from another company on the boat and he said there was not another boat and this was the time it always took to get to Phnom Penh. We could have paid about half the price and arrived at the same time!!
The flyer also says that we would visit a local orchard and village – this didn’t happen either. We were also told we would stop in Vinh Long City – yes 5 minutes for a restroom break.
The bus was overcrowded from Vinh Long City – the guide had to buy a stool for someone to sit on because there were not enough seats. When we told the guide that it was too crowded he laughed at us (very professional fellow - Mr Phuong.) On the boat to Chau Doc – the guide (Mr Phuong) sat downstairs with his mates and we all sat upstairs – he didn’t come near us other than to tell us we could buy soup on the boat if we wished. He gave us no information on what we were seeing and wasn’t available to answer any questions for us either.
When we arrived in Chau Doc no one seemed to know where we were going the next day. Overall it was a very disappointing finish to our trip to Vietnam as we were overcharged and badly deceived.
Don’t use Delta Adventure Tours - they are giving the legitimate companies a bad name.
Reported by Deb13 at Thorn Tree World
What was your experience, comment please.!
Spread the Word
I agree completely with the warning about Delta Adventure Tours. We detail our experience on our website. They told us they could book us a one-way trip to Can Tho, but we ended up joining other daytrippers on the way to a Mekong Delta tour! When they arrived at their first stop, we were told that we would have to wait three hours until they finished before we could proceed, and when we protested, they said we should go on a local bus instead when we’d clearly paid extra to go in an airconditioned, safe bus. We ended up arguing with the tour guide and, later down the line, arguing with three people at the Delta office before they finally relented and we got taken to our destination. Horrendous! We also had no choice but to use them to go to Cambodia on a slow boat to Phnom Penh. Ended up having to wait 2 hours on the boat, until the tour group we had to join had finished their little river tour. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
We did a good experience with Footprint Travel to Mekong, now also having a good time in the North.
You might like to check with them before you travel to Mekong
Happy travel!
John
Delta Adventure Tours is a nightmare: Violent and Dishonest!
We went on a tour of the Mekong and first, they left us in the middle of nowhere for an hour without telling us anything so they could go pick up more customers. I mean really THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE (they told us to get out to go to the bathroom and then they just drove off). But that was really the least worst thing that happened. The tour guide proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs at some Japanese girl because she asked to see her receipt. At first we were like, maybe the girl is being a jerk and the poor guy has had it up to here with annoying tourists. We were totally wrong. At the end of the tour, he took us to the side and demanded more money. We showed his our PAID receipt and he said that he wanted 16 more dollars. We refused mainly on principle, since he was now screaming at us. We kept showing him the stamp saying PAID on our receipt but he said that since it was Tet, we had to pay more. Then, he starts trying to hit my husband, grabbing him by the shirt and neck and swinging at him. I get in the way, saying “leave him alone!” and he starts to swing at me. Some people surround us and thankfully someone calls the police. The police arrive and first the tour guide tells them all these lies in Vietnamese. Finally an English speaker and we explain the situation and show him the receipt at which point the police tell us we can go.
I took a trip to Chau Doc and back with Delta Adventure tours, including a night stop in a village en-route. They also arranged a ’side trip’ for two days from Chau Doc.
I found the booking staff, guides and boat staff to be excellent, friendly and helpful. They were also by far the cheapest that I found. I suppose that as with any trip and any company, ‘your mileage may vary’.
I personally would (and have) happily recommend Delta to my friends.
UK based, no affiliation with Delta btw.
why the comment is totally different between steven & Jasoni…
l plan go to vietnam from phom pheh…
any recomendation for this delta trip???
i took a 3D2N trip to mekong on dec 08 delta tour package. i like the tour guide a lot. Although he said that he just joined delta adventure for a few months and he move from north to south vietnam, i was surprised that he’s very thorough and knowledgeable. He’s also very engaging and cool guy who know what are the places to eat, shop and stay around. I cant rem his name and i just know his age is about 26yo. Young but talent.
I will definately recommend this to everyone. If anyone know this tour guide name, let me know. So that next time when i return to vietnam or i will inform my friend to look for this tour guide. BRAVO!!!
My husband and I decided to take their one day Mekong trip. There were 2 options a $10- per person trip or the one we opted for, $14- per person. Their brochure described a tour of the floating market, exotic fruits, a quick bike tour. We ended up 5.5 hours on cramped buses. There was no market as it kicks in early in the morning. The bikes were practically unrideable from rust and the tour guide, although well intentioned, was fairly repetitive. When we returned, I explained my issues with the company manager directly and his response was essentially “we know it’s poor but what do you want for $14?”. Slightly dumbfounding. I explained that I was happy to pay more for a quality experience but there is a minimum expectation to be met. Most of all, I was trying to give them feedback because it is possible there is a communication breakdown from office to field. I’ve done large and small tours around the world and this bar none was the absolute worst and strangest. It is a potentially great tour that is horribly executed.
i have not been with delta but went on tour with buffalo tours and the guide Crista was any think but professional she sleep in the fount seat most of the time (hung over ) from out on the town the air port was rained out at nah Tran leg of trip but that can happen so she said well continue buy bus to hoi an 9 hrs i asked if we could go buy train as more room the answer the train tracks are all flooded out and not running so we (14 people on a small bus with bags 14 hrs latter we arrived and all the trains wear in service several mornings we wear given eggs and bread for breakfast all this coast me $1.300.00 dollars aus i now travel under my own steam and suggest to any one look for other tour groups to travel with.