I’ve been traveling with Smiling Albino and their amazing team for the past 15 years through most of Asia and even into Nepal.

This trip was another that left me smiling :) After an amazing stay in southern Thailand, we headed to Vietnam for a week of relaxation and adventures. Seamless transfers and expedited airport and immigration are always a welcome treat and a signature of the Smiling Albino brand. Our guide Duc was friendly and accommodating and very knowledgeable. The hotel in Hanoi was outstanding as was the service.

We then headed south for some Nha Trang beach heaven! Even having to accommodate our pained schedules, the Smiling team met us at 3:30am for early transfers with a smile!

After a week of beach we headed back to Bangkok for two amazing nights of food and adventure. Dan and his team have an incredible ability to keep a finger on the pulse of a constantly changing and dynamic city. 80/20 was one of the best meals I have ever had - Michel starred or not. The layered and colorful evening showed the best and hidden and evolving spots in Bangkok - a treat when you want to avoid the zombied travel blog masses.

Overall another perfect trip!

Really disappointing experience for both of our tours. I'm a food reporter in Chicago, so the Bangkok experience had been recommended by others. Tour guide was great, and some of the stops were o.k. (satay skewers, pad thai, congee and noodle soup in Chinatown), but we spent too much time in the van, and $170 per person for four of us was just obscene. Also, having to wire the money ahead of time via bank transfer was a pain. Also, they don't take pics of the experience like every other tour company.

The Chiang Mai experience was worse. Told that the cave visit was cancelled due to low oxygen there, we drove 90 min. to see a very touristy (and sad) elephant camp where we spent 30 minutes. Great tour guide had the sense to stop on the way to show us a local market that was super cool. Then they drove us another hour to a touristy orchid farm, where we spent 20 min. Had a leisurely raft ride, but nothing special. Spent 4 hours in car for a 6.5 hour tour day. Have asked about partial refund, but company dragging its feet. Again, extremely expensive for the experience you get. Would seek out other tour companies.

We did two Smiling Albino Tours on our trip - one night food tour in Bangkok and one day trip in Chiang Mai. Our guide on the food tour was great but it was a lot of stops so beware. The food was incredible and she found some of the most unique and interesting places. One of the best soups I've ever had was on this night street food tour of Bangkok.

The day trip in Chiang Mai was disappointing. We were picked up in a very nice van with a great driver and tour guide but were told we could not do the cave part of the tour we had booked. Instead we would be visiting an orchid farm. He did make a quick stop on the way out of town so we could see a local market. That addition was the highlight of the trip as it was the most local and least touristy aspect.

After that we drove 90 minutes to an elephant ride that was very disappointing and rather upsetting. The elephants are forced to take tourists on a ride and for a 90 min drive we had a 20 minute ride. I also felt terrible for the elephants as I suspect they are beaten with the hooks the riders have in their hand. I should have researched more before the trip and asked that we go to a sanctuary instead of doing a ride. We then drove another 45 minutes to a touristy orchid farm where we only spent 20 minutes there. So it was a lot of driving for not a lot of sightseeing. Lastly we did a raft ride which was nice but not that special. If you are booking a day trip make sure you know what you are getting and if all of the driving will be worth it.