Fantastic Day Tour

I thoroughly enjoyed the Apricot tour - the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Upper Mekong River. I was able to arrange this very last minute; after reading reviews the night before, I emailed the company directly and received a response from Mr. Phung within 20 minutes. It was very smooth and quick.

Andy (Mr Binh) was our tour guide, and he is great. Very friendly and enthusiastic, and really great about explaining things. He and the driver also arrived at the hotels for pickup a few minutes early, so there was no waiting at all.

The tour itinerary itself was great and an efficient way to see both the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Mekong River in a day. We were on the road around 7:30 am and arrived back at the hotel about 12 hours later. We were delayed about an hour between the two destinations due to road work induced traffic snarls, but that may have actually benefited us, as when we got on the River, there were very few other tour boats out and about.

The Cu Chi Tunnels were fascinating, and Andy did a great job of guiding us around to minimize the amount of waiting (it is a very popular destination, so getting an early start from Ho Chi Minh City was great). Tourists are allowed to climb down into a small segment of the tunnel system that has been enlarged and reinforced. Even so, the tunnel still felt very cramped, it's hard to even imagine how oppressive the tunnels must have felt.

Having read various reviews about Mekong River boat tours in general, i was prepared to be disappointed. Instead, I really enjoyed the Mekong River portion of the tour as well! Because we got to the boat in the middle of the afternoon, it seemed like we missed the high traffic times. The highlight of the trip was the sampan ride through the nipa (mangrove) palm groves and the coconut picking. The elderly man who owned the coconut trees was so sweet and lovely, and it was just relaxing to sit for an it and drink from a freshly picked coconut!

All in all, a great day trip and a big thank you to Andy!

Ellen wrote a review

New York City, New York

Date of experience: September 2017

Trip type: Traveled solo