Private tours, family tours

Private tours

If you’re considering a family tour or a private tour to Southeast Asia, then the first decision is whether to choose an off-the-shelf or a tailor-made itinerary. Any of our published small group tours are available as private options, while our family tours page features a selection of suggested itineraries. All of the latter are tried and trusted, so you can choose one with the assurance that they have a successful track record or alternatively, you can use them as a basis for tweaks, amendments and additions you think suit your own family.

If you have specific interests and/or destinations – or combinations of destinations – in mind, then we can chat about tailor-made (or tailor-made, bespoke, custom etc) tours. Send us a list of your preferences and we’ll work out a draught itinerary from there. Please bear in mind that, firstly, creating tailor-made tour programmes does require time and thought and secondly, please try and keep your requests realistic. Suggestions along the lines of, ‘we have 10 days and would like to visit Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam’ are just not feasible. While destinations may look reasonably close on your atlas or Google Maps at home, terrain and road conditions are not always ideal in Southeast Asia and – high costs aside – we’d be reluctant to tailor an itinerary which involved changing destinations every day and spending half the holiday in airport lounges.

Another frequent request, especially with family tours, is for lots of activities. Completely understandable; keep the kids occupied, make the most of the trip, see and do as much as possible, but it is easy to underestimate the energy-sapping heat and, especially during the first couple of days, the possible effects of jet lag. Sometimes less is more, so we’d suggest including some free time, which gives you the choice of adding extra visits or activities on spec or simply having some needed downtime by the pool.

Anyway, having devised a private tour itinerary that you, our guests, are enthusiastic about and that we’re happy to offer you, we then of course need to finalise an important detail – the price. (Without coming across as pompous – but we do have 25 years of experience – we’re not going to sell you a tour that we’re not confident you’re going to enjoy!) If the itinerary includes activities and/or accommodation not on our regular tours, then this will take time, plus we need to confirm availability at the various hotel and resort selections. Apologies if some patience is required at this stage but…we are working on it.

Note that all our family tours, whether ready-made or tailored, are private tours. Despite what our accountant might suggest, we don’t put different families together (unless, of course, you have friends who’d like to join you). Kids may be of differing ages and with differing likes and dislikes so, in our opinion, it doesn’t always make for a great trip. (Consequently, our family tour prices are generally based on a minimum of 4 persons and as such, we can’t usually offer kids’ discounts.)

Family tours aside, your private tour can equally be simply a private version of one of our classic tours or a tailored version to suit particular interests. The latter covers a wide range. We’re presently running a Thai tour for medical students (visiting local clinics, learning about Thai traditional medicine, massages, etc.) while in the past we’ve done Cambodia and Myanmar tours for the Royal Photographic Society, Charity Challenges and wildlife tours for example.

So, feel free to browse our regular itineraries and family suggestions and please don’t hesitate to call us for a chat. Enjoy your tour!