Vietnam/Laos...

[zane_yau]

Hi guys

 

I will be going to Vietnam and maybe Laos with my wife in December for about 3

weeks. As time is limited I am not sure if I should travel with a group tour.

But as you know, travelling with a tour may not be always good for

photography. I am just wondering if anybody has any experience with a small

group dedicated for photography or we don't mind to pay a bit more for a

private tour led by a local photographer

 

Any input will be very much appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Zane

[claudio_coltro_coltro]

Zane,

 

If you have 3 weeks, I think the best is to do only one country, there is plenty to see in Vietnam or Laos to fill 20 days.

I have been to Vietnam and you do not need to go in an organised trip at all. I will actually be going to Laos this winter.

There is plenty to photograph, I would be surprised if you would need help from a photographer to find opportunities. It would be different if you would want to go with a photographer to learn about photography.

 

Regards

 

Claudio

[zane_yau]

Thanks a lot for your advice Claudio - we are just not very good at arranging transports and stuff. I went to Hanoi and Sapa Vietnam once, and found that it is difficult to deal with drivers

 

I thought everything organised will be good as we only have short time

[Spearhead]

I had no problems with drivers from Hanoi and north, or in the Hue/Danang area. Maybe you need to look at how you are approaching it.

 

Photography tours are very dependent on the personality(ies) of leader(s). You have to figure out if you will get along and enjoy the personality of the person leading the tour. My recommendation would be that, at this point, it would be better to go and figure out how to deal with the drivers. I say this as someone who was supposed to co-lead a photography tour in Vietnam (the other person was Vietnamese and had photographed there quite a bit) but the cost was too high to get enough people.

[rebecca_picard]

I just returned from traveling in Northern Vietnam in August and had a fantastic time.

 

Before I left, I contacted several tour companies in Hanoi, and explained to them that I was a photographer and I wanted to book a private tour with a guide who was flexible. I ended up going with Buffalo Tour company, and I was really happy with them. www.buffalotours.com

 

It's really inexpensive to hire a private guide, either in advance or when you get there. Even traveling as a single person, it was very inexpensive. There's no reason to have to be stuck with a group.

 

Feel free to e-mail me, and I can pass on the name of my guide. He was an amateur photographer himself, so he was really happy to have a photographer as a client (he can't usually bring his camera along on the job).