Griswald's Vietnamese Vacations ™ ...... now if that sounds familiar ..... well it should to many & YES, we’re named after the wonderful Chevy Chase family in those Vacations movies & our name kind of sets the stage for who we are, what we do & how we do it too.
When I say that we’re Aussie run I mean that we’re, in many ways, a very old school, Aussie, family run, mob.
We pride ourselves on being honest with everyone, not just our customers but our staff, suppliers, hotels & in many cases we’ve become real friends too which certainly doesn’t hurt our customers while they’re with us.
We’re both an Aussie & a Vietnam based, travel and tour operator & since 1994 we've specialised in tailor made tours to Viet Nam for singles, couples, families and small groups.
We’ve been very proud of the way we do things since we opened & our approach to your holiday really is different & in more than just a few ways too.
About our Tours & the way we operate them.
Our tours are not just very reasonably priced but we offer some very interesting packages & our hands on, small business style approach has always been very popular with our guests.
Being a Western run company certainly has its advantages & another of our strengths is our Vietnamese staff headed up by the almost legendary Comrade (Miss) Thuy.
With some 16 odd years running tours (and lots of other stuff too) with us Thuy certainly deserves her place at the top of our little company.
Thuy earned her place as the boss here & like Max, started at the bottom so she really does have that foundation level understanding of what we do.
We don’t really work in that Manager & staff way & it’s much more that we work together & not for one another.
One of the things we’ve never gone in for is the way nearly everyone in the travel caper flogs the customer off to someone else & often even someone else after that as well !!!
On a Griswald’s tour you’ll be with us from start to finish & be able to contact us at any time of the day or night if you need to & to be perfectly honest, sometimes people do need to.
Another very important thing we don’t do is the standard “group” thing of sticking people who’ve never met before together for between 1 & 3 weeks & hoping they’ll all get along just fine, just tickety boo & hunky dory .....
Of course it sometimes works out OK, BUT ....... sometimes it really doesn’t & it’s not because anyone in particular is a big pain & it can turn out to be because of many different reasons.
One likes to sleep in, another likes to drink a bit more than others, that couple are very outgoing & the other couple really like to be more on their own.
We’ve done lots of groups actually but they’ve been groups that the Customers have organised like school groups, Rotarians, Company end of year tours & the like.
There’s plenty of time to socialise while you’re here & there’s not only other Griswald’s customers of ours, our Kangaroo Cafe guests &/or people you meet along the way (and you will for sure meet more than a few foreign & Vietnamese) but in a nutshell our tours are usually for couples, a couple of mates, families or small groups of friends & it makes a world of difference all along the way.
These fixed departure dates are another thing we never do & with us, your tour leaves whenever you want as it should be, anything else is only to benefit the tour mob & quite unfair in our view for a number of reasons.
Getting your itinerary worked out.
Any itinerary you see on any of our web sites or here on FB are really just a starting point & whilst we try to offer some good & time tested ideas, mostly people like to change things a bit & we’re happy to do that so that your tour with us, really is your tour.
Griswald’s have been in Viet Nam long before nearly all of our competitors & we don’t go in for any high pressure sales stuff but instead take our time with you to make sure we really do understand what you want from your time with us.
A Skype or Facebook Video chat with us (they’re free too) is a great idea & as Maxie always says, a 10 minute chat is worth at least a dozen emails.
As we go through your itinerary from day to day we’ll be able to tell you & from personal experience too, just what that day will be like.
Your accommodation & it’s definitely one of the most important parts of your holiday.
One of our biggest strengths is that we never book hotels unless we’ve actually stayed in the particular hotel ourselves or at least had a very comprehensive look through out every part of it.
This is something we can only offer because we really are based in Viet Nam & have been for nearly 25 years !!!
With the internet being so full of grossly exaggerated, Photo Shopped (as some call them) or Faked (as we call them) pictures lurking about the place you really do need to check & double check every place you plan to stay in.
Some of the expressions most tour mobs use to describe the accommodation they use is a bit cryptic too.
They try the old ...... charming family run, home stays or what about the tourist &/or budget class or worse, hostel style ...... the list goes on & on but they’re all a worry as far as we’re concerned.
As well as our websites & pages, we’ve got 3 you tube channels with some real but home made videos of not just many of the hotels we use but lots of other interesting stuff too.
As we move along with you getting your itinerary together & the way you want it too, we won’t just mention the style & quality of the properties we offer, we’ll show them to you & you’ll see why we’re really proud to be associated with these hotels as well.
Location, location, location is always a major consideration & you really don’t want to be in the noisiest & most crowded areas where you can’t get a taxi to or from your hotel !!!
NOTE: When we say that our Standard class hotels are what our Competitors call their Superior class, we’re not joking & it’s no laughing matter either.
The main difference between our Standard & Superior Package is of course nicer & larger rooms with better facilities overall BUT as well as that you’ll usually have a swimming pool too which in the hotter months you’ll really appreciate.
Our Standard hotel package starts with a decent sized room & by that we mean, not one that you have to go outside to change your mind from either.
The Breakfast area has to be good & have a real English or Asian style brekkie with lots of tea, coffee & fruit juices.
Next is a good sized private bathroom & a working, reverse cycle Air Conditioner too & you’ll enjoy Free Wifi & IDD phones too just in case you need them.
Speaking of phones, we ask all our guests to bring an UNLOCKED Smart phone & we’ll get you set up with a local Sim card, either 3 or 4G & the 1 account can be used to hotspot 2, 3 or 4 other phones quite happily too.
Lastly ....
One of things about you being able to talk to the actual tour operator is that no matter what the question is, we’re happy to answer it for you & with, as mentioned, Skype of Face Book Chat we can talk all you want while we put together a really wonderful intitnerary & one that you are happy with.
