Zara Tour +84 766 283 988
Wooden boats and cruise ships dot the water beneath limestone karsts in Ha Long Bay.
Tailor-made and private travel

Private journeys in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos

We are a small Hanoi office that builds one trip at a time. Everything published on this site is a draft you are meant to change.

What we do, plainly

Zara Tour designs private, tailor-made journeys in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Each trip is written for one party and run for that party alone: your dates, your guide, your driver, nobody else's schedule. There is no coach to catch and no minimum number of strangers to wait for.

The itineraries published here are starting points rather than packaged products. Drop a day from the seven-day Vietnam route; move the night on Halong Bay to the front; change the hotels; add a week in Laos. We expect that, and it costs nothing. The routes exist so you have something concrete to argue with instead of a blank page. Send us rough dates and the number of travellers and you will have a day-by-day plan and a full price in writing within one working day.

Four countries we know well

Vietnam

A long, thin country of deltas, dunes and mountains, best travelled two or three regions at a time.

Thailand

Bangkok, the Lanna north, and two coasts whose good seasons fall at opposite ends of the year.

Cambodia

Angkor in its quietest hours, the capital's harder history, and the river towns in between.

Laos

The slowest of the four. Small towns, mountain roads, and the Mekong running through all of it.

Journeys to start from

Vietnam Highlights in 7 Days

Hanoi, the karst valley at Ninh Binh, a night afloat on Halong Bay, then a boat day in the delta.

Vietnam North to South in 14 Days

Two weeks the length of the country, from the terraces above Sapa to the creeks of the Mekong.

Vietnam Food Journey in 11 Days

Eleven days built around kitchens and markets, learning three regional styles by hand.

Northern Vietnam Adventure in 13 Days

The mountain loop: Bac Ha market, the Ma Pi Leng pass, a stilt house at Ba Be, then the bay.

Vietnam Luxury Journey in 11 Days

Comfortable city stays at either end, four days of caves and camps in Quang Binh in the middle.

Highlights of Thailand in 11 Days

Bangkok, the Lanna north around Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, then four nights on the Andaman coast.

Motorbikes pass narrow tube houses and shops along Hang Gai Street in Hanoi's Old Quarter.

How a trip comes together

1. You write to us

Use the form below, email info@zaratour.com, or message +84 766 283 988 on WhatsApp. Tell us roughly when you can travel, how many of you there are, and anything you already know you want. Rough is fine. Most of our first replies begin by asking three or four questions back.

2. We send a plan and a price

Within one working day you get a day-by-day outline and a full price in writing: hotels named, transport listed, guides counted, and a clear line between what is included and what is not. No deposit is needed to see it, and nothing follows from reading it.

3. You change what you want

Nearly everyone changes something. Longer in Hoi An, one temple morning fewer, a different class of hotel, a short flight instead of six hours of road. Tell us what is wrong and we redraw it. Revisions are free and we do not count them.

4. We run the trip

Once you are happy we book the hotels, guides, drivers, boats and internal flights, then send the final documents. While you travel, the Hanoi office stays reachable on +84 766 283 988, and the guide who meets you has both your itinerary and your notes in hand.

Travelling responsibly

We would rather not pretend this is simple. Tourism puts money into places that need it and wear into places that cannot take much of it. What we can control, we do. Guides and drivers are engaged and paid directly. Family-run kitchens and village homestays are used where they are genuinely good, not to decorate an itinerary. Groups stay the size of your own party. We do not build visits around photographing people who did not agree to be photographed. Where a site is suffering from the number of visitors, we will say so and suggest a different hour, a different day, or somewhere else entirely.

A farmer and a young girl harvest rice by hand beside wooden threshing boxes in Sapa's terraced fields.

Tell us what you have in mind

Send your dates, the number of travellers, and anything that matters: a birthday in the middle of it, a knee that dislikes stairs, a child who will not sit through temples, a firm opinion about beaches. Write to info@zaratour.com, call or message +84 766 283 988, or use the form. Someone in the Hanoi office reads it and answers within a working day, with the price in writing.

Frequently asked questions

What does tailor-made actually mean here?
It means the itinerary is written for your party and nobody else travels on it. You set the dates, the pace and the standard of hotel; we supply the route, the guides, the drivers and the bookings. The sample journeys on this site are drafts. Most of them are altered before anyone travels, and some are rebuilt from the ground up.
How quickly do we get a price?
One working day for a first plan and a written quote, counted from when we have your dates and the number of travellers. Trips crossing three countries occasionally need a day longer, because we wait on flight and boat availability before committing a figure. If we are going to be slow, we say so and explain why.
Do you only sell the journeys listed on this site?
No. The listed journeys cover the routes people ask for most often, which makes them a useful place to begin. Plenty of our trips start from a sentence instead: two weeks in September, one of them beside the sea, no early mornings. Describe the trip you want and we will build the route around it.
Can we visit more than one country in a single trip?
Yes, and many people do. Vietnam with Cambodia is the easiest pairing, since the flights are short and frequent. Laos suits travellers willing to slow down. Thailand sits comfortably at either end of a journey. The real limit is time rather than logistics: three countries in ten days mostly means seeing airports.
When is the best time of year to come?
It depends on which part of which country. Vietnam is long enough to hold three climates at once, so the north can be cold and grey in the same week the south is dry and hot. Cambodia and Laos are easiest between November and February. Thailand's two coasts have opposite good seasons. Give us your dates and we will route you around the weather.

See also

All journeysAbout Zara Tour