What Zara Tour is
Zara Tour is a tailor-made travel company working out of Hanoi. We plan private journeys in four countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Everything we sell is built for the party that asked for it. No fixed departure dates, no minimum group, no coach filled with people you have never met.
The itineraries published on this site are drafts rather than products. They exist so that you have something specific to argue with. Most travellers keep three or four days of one, move a night from one town to another, drop a temple they do not care about and add two days on a beach. That is the intended use.
We are an operator, not a middleman. The guide who meets you, the driver, the hotel reservation, the boat on the bay and the permits for a restricted road are arranged by us, with people we deal with directly. It matters most on the afternoon something goes wrong in Hue or Pakse: the person sorting it out works for the company you booked with, and can decide without asking a third party for permission.
Send us your dates and a rough idea of who is travelling. You will have a written reply within one working day: a route laid out day by day, and a price in writing once we know your dates and party size.
How we work
- One planner stays with your trip from the first email to the day you fly home, so you are never re-explaining your family to a new name halfway through.
- We answer enquiries within one working day, and a full costing follows in writing once we know the dates and how many of you there are.
- We ask about pace before we ask about sights. How early you are willing to start shapes a route more than any list of temples.
- Guides and drivers are local to the region you are standing in, and they are briefed on your party before you land.
- We tell you when an idea does not work: a drive four hours longer than the map suggests, a coast that is unswimmable in the month you have free.
- Revisions during planning are free and expected. Three or four versions of an itinerary is normal.
- While you are travelling you have a phone number that a person answers, including evenings and weekends.
What we do not do
- We do not buy packaged tours from another company and resell them under our own name.
- We do not build shopping stops into a day. Guides and drivers are paid a day rate by us and earn nothing from a lacquer factory or a silk workshop.
- We do not put a number in front of you before we know your dates and party size. A price given earlier is a guess dressed up as a quote.
- We do not include elephant riding or orphanage visits in any itinerary, and we will explain our reasoning if you ask for one.
- We do not take a deposit to hold a conversation.
Where we are
Our office is at 23 Ma May, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam, in the old quarter, a few streets back from the lake. Planning, costing and the calls that happen while you are on the road all come from that one room. If you are in Hanoi and would rather go through a route on paper than by email, say so. Otherwise reach us on +84 766 283 988 by phone or WhatsApp, or at info@zaratour.com.
Write to us
Tell us the dates you have, how many of you are travelling, and one thing you would be sorry to miss. That is enough to begin. A draft route and a written price will come back to you within one working day.