Journeys Within is a boutique Southeast Asia tour company dedicated to delivering its guests unforgettable, customized trips through Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. If you read through any of our sample itineraries, you’ll notice that when you travel with us, we will arrange for an English-speaking local guide to accompany you during much of your time exploring new destinations.
So why explore a new destination with a local guide?
Here at Journeys Within, we believe that while seeing a new destination is fantastic and enlightening, travelers who wish to truly experience that destination must get a deeper understanding of the history and culture of the area, and make personal connections with the people who live there.
That is where our local guides come in…
- As local residents who are eager to share their culture with visitors, they can answer questions you might have from a true local’s perspective.
- As translators, they will help you communicate with other residents who don’t speak English – allowing you to hear personal stories you otherwise would never hear, eat at restaurants or street food stalls you’d never know about, and shop in stores you’d otherwise never find.
- As navigators, they can get you to and from the destinations you most want to see in the most efficient or interesting way, whether that be public transportation, a tuk-tuk, hired car, bicycle, by boat, or on foot.
- As your personal photographer, they can make sure that nobody is left out of your trip family photos because someone had to hold the camera.
- And finally, as your personal guide (versus a group tour), they are flexible in terms of what you’d like to see and do on any given day. So if your itinerary says you’ll see a temple in the morning, followed by lunch at a local restaurant and then kayaking on the river, but you want to rearrange the order, it’s no problem – it’s your tour and your guide can help you adjust it as needed.
What a Journeys Within tour is not
Journeys Within doesn’t do guided group tours (unless we are approached by a group requesting this), so the itinerary we put together for you is truly customized around your interests and desires.
And on days when that includes a guide, your guide will be there for you and your party alone. You won’t be on a bus full of tourists with a “tour guide” reciting a script, getting dropped off at all the same sights at the same time.
Our tour planners know the region intimately, and are happy to suggest activities and destinations that we think will interest you. But we’re also happy to plan around exactly where you want to go and what you want to see – we might just be able to suggest the most efficient way to do it all.