Product Description
Song Xanh Sampan 1 Night Cruise is an inspirational package that we have designed in partnership with Victoria Cruises for travelers to experience the real life of the local Vietnamese people living along the Mekong River.
This 1 night cruise itinerary starts from either Ho Chi Minh City or Cai Be, offering the chance to experience the real life of local Vietnamese, to visit the house from the acclaimed novel “The Lover” in Sa Dec, and also to discover local handicraft village.
Itinerary
Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City – Cai Be – Sa Dec – Can Tho.
Be picked up at your hotel at 8:00 am and transfer to Cai Be by road. Begin cruising from Phu An Jetty at 10:00 am. From the sampan, observe life as it plays out on shore – people going about their daily activities against picturesque landscapes – while your attentive crew serves tea and seasonal fruit.
Before arriving at Sa Dec, stop at various points along the river for a look into some of the cottage industries of the region including a brick factory where everything is made by hand, pass monkey bridges and tiny villages to visit a Cao Dai temple.
Arrive in Sa Dec and stroll to the outdoor market. Visit one of the highlights of the charming town, the ancient house of Huynh Thuy Le, a real-life character in the celebrated novel and film “The Lover” by Marguerite Duras.
Lunch is served on board while cruising towards Can Tho along a narrow canal teeming with life. Explore the countryside surroundings by local rowboat.
After returning onboard, Song Xanh Sampan continues its cruise towards the Hau River. Dinner and overnight on board.
Day 2: Can Tho – Ho Chi Minh City.
Wake up early this morning at 6:00 am for a visit to the famous Cai Rang Floating Market which operates daily starting from 5:00 am. Breakfast is served on board while the Song Xanh Sampan navigates towards the market among local barges loaded down with fruits and vegetables from the Delta, making for some stunning photos.
Continue cruising towards Victoria Can Tho and disembark at 10am at the hotel’s private jetty. You will be picked up again by local team and brought back to Ho Chi Minh City. Trip ends.
Notes
Cruise itinerary and schedule are subject to change due to weather, tide levels and operating conditions. Swimming or kayaking excursions may be cancelled due to poor weather.
Meals on board are fusion. Vietnamese and international. Guest should advise of any special food reference, allergies or dietary requirement at least 1 week prior to the cruise date.
Mekong River cruises
Lotussia Travel is a Hanoi tour operator offering a wide selection of multi-activity holidays in Vietnam. Most of our trips are private customized, and specially designed for small group tours, family vacations. The itinerary above is only a sample that can be further customized to better fit your requirements. Just follow it or contact us for designing your perfect adventure.
Itinerary disclaimer
Occasionally our tour itineraries are updated during the year to incorporate improvements stemming from past travelers’ comments and our own research. The information given in this itinerary may be slightly different to that in the service proposal. It’s very important that you print and review a final copy of your itinerary a couple of days prior to travel, in case there have been changes that affect your plans. If you have any queries, please contact us. We are here to help you!
Please note that while we operate successful trips in Vietnam throughout the year, some changes may occur in our itineraries due to inclement weather and common seasonal changes to timetables and transport routes. This can happen with little notice so please be prepared for modifications to the route. The order and timing of included activities in each location may also vary from time to time.
Inclusions
Depending on the proposed option (semi-guide tour or all-inclusive package tour), the price may include the following services. Please bear in mind Lotussia Travel is specialized in tailor-made trips. Trip cost vary depending on group size and other details.
- Car transfers.
- Local tour guide. The English-Speaking guide is provided by default. Other language may be available upon request (with extra charge).
- Meals.
- Entrance fees.
Exclusions
Unless required most of the following services are usually not included in our tour price.
- Visa
- Flight/Train tickets.
- Accommodation.
- Tour leader.
- Local porter(s).
- International travel insurance.
- Drinks.
- Tips.
- Personal expenses.
Tour guide
Our tour guides speak English or French. They hold a university degree in tourism and national license as a guide. If you wish to send a tour leader along with any group, he or she can fully rely on the knowledge and experience of our local guides.
Remote treks are always accompanied by a local representative to deal with permits and authorities and manage the porter team. They speak the local dialects, know the cultural traditions and give tips on suggested behavior in fragile ecological areas and tribal communities. For some itineraries, the role of tour leader and representative is combined.
Driver
Our drivers don’t speak English. It’s possible that a few of them might know some basic words, such as telling time, stop, and lunch. If you’re looking for effective communication throughout the journey, we highly recommend booking a tour guide.
Trip routes
Principally, Lotussia Travel requires all the trip associates to know the destinations well by any means of traveling or enquiry to the local suppliers to figure out all the relative details of any trip. For adventure tours such as jungle trekking, mountain hiking, sea kayaking, river rafting or biking, cycling tours, Lotussia Travel will never add any new routes into available schedule until survey or pre-view it.
Accommodation
Lotussia Travel carefully choose all the hotels, guest-houses or home-stays based on service quality, location, and characteristics, doing best to make the accommodations in the remote small places as comfortable as possible. Please bear in mind that hotels in Vietnam might not be in the same standard in other country. Generally hotels in major cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city, Hoian, Hue…are much better than hotels and guest-houses in mountainous areas.
Meals
Lotussia Travel take dinning as an indispensable experience to clients since it is an important part in Vietnamese culture. Therefore, Lotussia Travel will not intend take clients to the most expensive restaurants but non-touristy local ones which offer delicious, local food, with nice or interesting atmosphere. The restaurants might be simple in the country but LOTUSSIA Travel guarantee is sanitary and cleanliness. Or even on our trek, we encourage our cook offer client food with new tastes from day to day. During adventure itineraries to mountainous or remote areas, there is sometimes no choice for hotel and restaurants. We will try our best to bring you the best taste of local food.
Drinks
As the tap water in Vietnam is undrinkable, Lotussia Travel recommend clients to drink bottled water throughout your trip, or boiled water on treks. Lotussia Travel offers bottle water all the day, and soft drinks like Cola, Sprite or Vietnamese Tea or if possible juice in restaurants (if mentionned in itinerary). This is not automatically included in the packages. In simple restaurant or on camping, Lotussia Travel offers boiled water, instant coffee or juice, wrapped milk (Details are confirmed in bottom of your itinerary).
Transportation
In most destinations of Vietnam, all the roads are well paved though the traffic is quite messed up like in Hanoi, Hai Phong… We use proper vehicles, car, minibus or coach in good condition based on the size of the groups. We use 4WD only on the rough road where the other vehicles could not pass through or based on clients requirement on overland journeys or treks. For cycling itineraries, we usually use our support minibus or minibus with support truck. For sea kayaking, river rafting trips, diving packages we use standard boat as support. Detailed information is provided on our service proposal.
We use drivers who are native or local of each travel destination and maintain good safety records for all trips. Most of our drivers can speak English but a little bit. This is just enough to understand basic words such as “time of departure”, “stop”, “restaurants”, “hotels”…If you want to learn more about Vietnamese culture and information about sightseeing sites, booking a tour guide is highly recommended.
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