Custom tours
Vietnam Birding specialises in creating custom birding tours to Vietnam and beyond, tailor-made to suit your needs. Ideal for individuals, couples or groups of friends, custom tours allow total flexibility to travel when you like, at your own pace, visit specific sites and focus on finding your most wanted birds.
If you are not looking for a total birding holiday or are travelling with a non-birding spouse or friends we will design you a personalised tour combining the best of Vietnam’s birding with the best of its culture, beaches, diving, spa resorts, cuisine, in fact whatever you want.
We can also tailor-make birding and combination tours to neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Combine your Vietnam birding trip with an extension to the fabulous Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, the laidback mountain kingdom of Luang Prabang in northern Laos or a dive trip to the crystal clear seas of southern Thailand.
Visit our Birding Sites section for detailed information on Vietnam’s best birding areas then e-mail us at info@vietnambirding.com and we will do the rest.
Best of Vietnam Birding escorted small group tours
Our Best of Vietnam Birding escorted small group tour explores four of Vietnam’s top birding sites in an unhurried 16-day birding extravaganza. We limit our groups to a maximum of eight clients and allow plenty of time at each site to maximise our chances of finding those sought-after Vietnamese endemics and regional specialities.
The birding starts at Cat Tien National Park where we search the lowland forest for some spectacular regional endemics such as Siamese Fireback, Germain’s Peacock Pheasant and Bar-bellied Pitta. Continuing north we explore the montane forests of the Dalat Plateau where a unique collection of endemic birds includes four laughingthrushes, Grey-crowned Crocias and Vietnamese Greenfinch. After a short flight to Hanoi we head to the mountains of Tam Dao in pursuit of Short-tailed Parrotbill and Grey Laughingthrush amongst others. Our final destination is Cuc Phuong National Park where we will explore the limestone forest for such specialities as Pied Falconet, White-winged Magpie and Limestone Wren-Babbler.
Visit our News section for dates of our next Best of Vietnam Birding escorted small group tour and a detailed tour description or e-mail us at info@vietnambirding.com for more.
Accommodation
Accommodation in Vietnam’s national parks is simple but all the rooms we use have private bathroom facilities and either a fan or air-conditioning. At some national parks electricity is provided by a generator during the evening only. Birding sites away from the national parks, such as Dalat and Sapa, have a wide range of accommodation options from basic mini-hotels to deluxe 5-star hotels and resorts.
Transportation
Land transportation is by modern air-conditioned car or minibus. At some sites there are options for visiting birding areas by jeep, boat or bicycle. Sapa is best reached by air-conditioned overnight train from Hanoi. Flights within Vietnam are operated by the national carrier, Vietnam Airlines, on its fleet of modern Boeing, Airbus, ATR and Fokker aircraft.
Meals
On our custom tours meals other than breakfasts are not normally included in the tour price (unless mentioned in your day-to-day itinerary) as we like to give you the option to choose where and what you eat. Our Best of Vietnam Birding escorted small group tours however are fully-inclusive of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Expect generous portions of typical everyday Vietnamese dishes at national parks and a wide range of local and international dishes at other sites. In the major cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi you can find just about anything from falafel to fish and chips. Vietnamese cuisine however comes as a very pleasant surprise to most visitors and is definitely part of the Vietnam Birding experience not to be missed.
One of the characteristics of Vietnamese food is that it is always fresh being bought daily from the market. Food is usually prepared with a minimum of oil and served with the ubiquitous fish sauce called nuoc mam. Typical Vietnamese dishes you can expect to try include pho, a type of rice noodle soup eaten for breakfast, cha gio, deep-fried spring rolls and goi ngo sen, a delicious salad made with lotus stems, shrimps and peanuts. Due to the strong Buddhist influence in Vietnam, vegetarian food is widely available.