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Plan Your Travel With The People Who Know!

Private Best Of Ho Chi Minh City

Day Trip, Private Tour
Offer Image
Enjoy the privilege of a private Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) tour, enjoying all the top attractions.

Private Best of Ho Chi Minh City

This exciting tour is perfect for visitors wanting an overview of Saigon's main areas of attraction. Naturally, you'll see the primary historical and cultural places, but Saigon (known as 'the Pearl of the Far East) is much more. It's the high pace of its people and cafes' thumping beats. It is shoppers haggling in colorful streets. Your professional guide will elaborate on whatever you see.

As an Asian country (Chinese are the largest ethnic bloc) with strong French and Soviet Union influences, Vietnam is a clash of cultures. To many foreigners, it's synonymous with war. In reality, Vietnam is a nation of kind, peaceful people. Saigon and its nine million residents are at the heart of it all.

The communist Vietnamese won independence after the "Fall of Saigon" in 1975. Many attractions echo that era. For instance, the Reunification Palace (formerly the Presidential Palace) was designed in the 1960s with the help of the Soviets. The tank that crashed through its gates on April 30, 1975, signifying "The Fall," still graces its front lawn.

Known as the "Paris of the East," you'll see the landmark twin towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral, made with bricks imported from Marseille, France. Postcards to mail? You'll visit the bustling 1880s General Post Office.

You'll then retire to a nice restaurant before returning to Ho Chi Minh City's peculiar sights. For instance, the War Remnant Museum features an exhibit of photos, planes, tanks, and weapons. Many are relics from the American phase of the Vietnam War and have been on display since the war's end in 1975.

Next, you'll partake in the hustle and bustle of shopping at the indoor Ben Thanh market. This popular marketplace for textiles and handcrafts is one of the earliest surviving structures in Saigon.

Your experienced guide will elaborate on the many places you see throughout this unique Saigon private tour.

Please Note: Western-style food is available upon request at the time of booking for an additional fee to be paid on the day of your tour (not included, approximately $10 US). Passengers will be granted a Vietnam visa by the cruise line. Some of the cruise lines include the visa within the cruise package. However, if a visa was not included in your cruise package, you pay may purchase one directly onboard. The cost can be up to $50 US per person, depending on the cruise line.

About Shore Excursions Group
Shore Excursions Group logo
ABOUT US
Shore Excursions Group was created with one goal in mind: to provide exceptional travel experiences to cruise passengers in the ports they visit around the world. To accomplish this, we have compiled an exceptional array of tours delivered by local experts with decades of experience serving travelers and delivering excellent tours. Our owners and management team are comprised of seasoned travel industry executives who leverage their considerable experience to deliver memories of a lifetime.

We are experts in providing exceptional shore excursions. We understand that in today's fast paced world, vacations have become an increasingly important way to relax, reconnect with family and friends, and experience new and interesting places. With this in mind, we provide the highest quality tours by performing extensive research, and detailed reviews. While other companies also offer excursions, we strongly believe our expertise and approach set us apart. The large cruise lines sell shore excursions - typically in very large groups visiting high traffic sites. We focus on smaller groups visiting more interesting and authentic locations using more personalized local operators. While the cruise lines are experts in delivering cruises, we are experts in delivering shore excursions.

Our Approach
We believe quality service is not only highly valued by customers, but ultimately leads to better experiences and higher satisfaction. Unlike the cruise lines and other tour companies that rely almost entirely on websites, we encourage customers to call us. We want to invest our time answering your questions, providing input, and selecting the excursions that best meet your needs.

Our Tours
Our goal is to provide customers a wide array of exciting, appealing, and enriching tours. For those customers who prefer to travel in smaller groups with more personalized service, we offer a wide variety of small group tours around the world. These tours generally range in size from 2-12 people compared to larger tours which can number up to 50 people. While exploring the destinations and ports on this website, feel free to search for these "Small Group Tours". For those customers interested in private tours, we offer many outstanding excursions that allow you to travel with your party alone and, in many cases, to fully customize your tour. Search for "Private Tours" if you are interested in this experience. Our "Scenic" tours provide up close and personal access to some of the most spectacular natural environments on Earth from majestic glaciers in Alaska to spectacular reefs in the Caribbean. Our "Cultural" tours allow customers to experience local customs, entertainment and culinary delights ranging from tribal dances in Alaska to an outstanding local meal in Santorini, Greece. Our "Active" tours offer a multitude of exciting and adventurous ways to experience our destinations. Our customers can kayak the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, hike to a spectacular waterfall in Hawaii, or bicycle through quaint villages in France. Our "City" tours allow travelers to see the highlights of great cities around the world with unique insights provided by our expert tour guides.

Our People
In our experience, exceptional travel experiences are almost always delivered by exceptional people. With that in mind, we utilize a comprehensive approach to select and employ the leading tour guides and tour providers around the globe. We hold our people to very high standards which we measure by our comprehensive Quality Control process and, most importantly, by our customer feedback, which we will actively seek from each of our customers.

Our Owners
Shore Excursions Group is owned by seasoned travel executives possessing extensive experience across many sectors within the travel industry.

Bradford J. Miller
Mr. Miller is the former Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer for Abercrombie & Kent, the World's leading luxury travel company. In that role, Mr. Miller was responsible for contributing to Abercrombie & Kent's international growth through the development and acquisition of tour products and travel experiences around the world with a specific focus on cruising and land based experiences. Prior to joining Abercrombie & Kent, Mr. Miller held a variety of executive positions with Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises for more than a decade. These positions included Vice President of Guest Sales & Service, Vice President of Brand Development, and Vice President of Onboard Revenue (which included shore excursions). Mr. Miller also led Celebrity Expeditions, a collection of outstanding and unique tours around the World.

Michael Bonner
Mr. Bonner has over a decade of experience working in the cruise industry in a variety of roles for both Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Viking River Cruises. Most recently, Mr. Bonner was the Chief Operating Officer for The Scholar Ship, a Royal Caribbean program aimed at providing college students onboard educational programs in conjunction with enriching shore excursions around the world. Mr. Bonner also helped co-manage Viking River Cruises U.S. Operations, and he ran the corporate, strategic, and deployment planning functions at Royal Caribbean. While at Royal Caribbean, Mr. Bonner was responsible for forming Royal Celebrity Tours, Royal Caribbean's land-based tour operation in Alaska, which takes cruise passengers on multiple day tours through the interior of Alaska either before or after their cruises. Prior to working at Royal Caribbean, Mr. Bonner was a consultant for Booz Allen & Hamilton.
Starting At
$74.00 USD
Per Person
 
Tour Type
Private
 
Group Size
Private
 
Activity Type(s)
Cultural, Scenic, Shopping, Walking
 
Tour Duration
8 Hours
 
Activity Level
Easy
 
Tour Leaves From
The Cruise Ship Pier.
 
Food/Beverage Provided
A Vietnamese lunch with beverages is included. Western-style food is available upon request at the time of booking for an additional fee to be paid on the day of your tour (not included, approximately $10 US).
 
Special Instructions
We recommend wearing comfortable seasonal clothing, closed toe walking or hiking shoes, sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat. As you will be visiting a religious or memorial site, shoulders and knees must be covered.
 
Restrictions
This tour is not recommended for passengers above 90 years of age, more than 2.2 meters (7 feet) tall, or weighing more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds). Participants must be able to get in and out of the vehicle.

Location