recommendation for a tour operator for travel in asia

[jc2000m]

Hi, does anyone have recommendation for a tour operator for travel in asia, want to avoid those that take you shopping everywhere.

Thanks
Jen

[Strong Eagle]

Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? Unless you want the company of a bunch of others on a bus, you can create and execute a great itinerary yourself. Many people on this board have traveled extensively and can give you the low down from 5 star to camping.

[jc2000m]

tour bus with others is what's on my mind, but don't mind creating iterary myself, just that's too time consuming and unlike europe or US, transport around asia are probably difficult to arrage, so prefer a tour company to drive around.

[x9200]

tour bus with others is what's on my mind, but don't mind creating iterary myself, just that's too time consuming and unlike europe or US, transport around asia are probably difficult to arrage, so prefer a tour company to drive around.

Not at all. Yes, you need to spend some time to plan and arrange it but this is true for most of the locations not the Asian only. On the other hand if you simply prefer to be toured around there is nothing wrong with this. Just a different style. Unfortunately I can not recommend any tour operator because we never used anyone but I in case you would like to do it by yourself this is what we typically follow:
- plan your trip
- decide on hotels/guesthouses (we mostly rely on tripadviser)
- decide on point to point transportation (plain, train, hired car)
- decide how to go around: for us typically self-driving or a car with a driver dependant on the destination.
- google to check and arrange.

[revhappy]

If there is a budget flight to your destination then its best to DIY. We are off to Langkawi today Woo hoo! and I have done all the planning myself!


There are couple of tour operators that I know
1. Chan Brothers
2. FiveStar
3. Konsortium

Cheers,
Revhappy

[amiee40]

I have used both Chan Brothers and Five Stars. Tours are cheap if you travel with another person (twin share), usually min of 10 people in order for the group to depart. Single supplement is usually between $300-500SGD. You can ask for an English speaking tour guide (extra $$). So far, i've used Five Stars for Seoul, Cambodia, China and Taiwan and Chan Brothers for Vietnam. No complaints so far. They usually have briefing sessions before you go so you get a chance to meet the others in your group.

Mind you, you do have to stop at those 'shopping' destinations but you don't have to buy anything if you don't want.