The prices, and where the money goes

Every price, side by side

Per person, land only, in US dollars. We invoice in dong at the interbank rate on the day if you prefer.

The food walk, the cooking day and the motorbike day cap at six people for reasons of kitchen space, gas rings and rider safety respectively, which is why the last column is empty for those three.

Where a USD 55 farm day goes

This is the pepper and fish sauce day at six people, which is our most typical booking. Six people at USD 55 is USD 330 of revenue for one day.

Fifty-eight per cent of that day is paid to people on this island within a week of you travelling. The thirteen per cent left is what the business runs on, and in the low season it is smaller than that because the vehicle and the guide cost the same whether four people book or eight.

What moves the price, in order of size

1. Group size. This is by far the biggest lever. A guide and a vehicle cost the same for two people as for eight, so two people pay roughly 40 per cent more per head than six. Nothing else on this list comes close.
2. Private or shared. A private departure costs the whole group price rather than a seat price. Below four people that is a luxury; at five or more it is often within a few dollars of the shared rate.
3. Where you are staying. An Thoi, Sunset Town, Ganh Dau and Bai Thom add USD 8 per person because they add 40 to 70 minutes of driving each way.
4. Season. We do not surcharge in high season. What changes is availability - the cooking family takes one group a day and the homestay has four rooms.
5. Length. Multi-day trips carry a sequencing cost of roughly USD 15 per person per day over the sum of the component days, for continuity of guide and bag handling.

How a cheaper quote is usually built

You will find island day tours at USD 20 to USD 30. They are not lying about the price. Here is what is normally inside one, in the order we see it most often.

• Commission stops. The route is chosen by which pearl showroom, sim wine shed, honey stall and fish sauce showroom pays the driver a cut, usually 15 to 30 per cent of what the group spends. This is the single biggest source of cheap tours here and it is why a USD 25 day has five shopping stops.
• Group size. Twenty-five to forty-five people on a coach. Everything else follows from that: you do not talk to a farmer, you watch a demonstration.
• A driver instead of a guide. The person with you drives and points. The commentary is a recording or nothing, and there is no interpretation at all, which is the difference between visiting a farm and understanding one.
• Lunch as a contract. A set meal at a restaurant that pays for the group, usually seated 80 at a time, priced at about 45,000 dong a head.
• Entrance fees excluded. Collected at each gate on the day, so the advertised price is not the price you pay.
• Freelance guides paid per trip. Nothing wrong with this in itself, but it means the guide has no reason to refuse a shopping stop and every reason to accept.

If any of that is acceptable to you, take the cheaper tour with our blessing - it is a legitimate product and some people genuinely enjoy it. What we object to is a cheap tour describing itself as authentic while paying a driver a percentage on pearls.

What we do not charge for

• Fuel surcharges, port fees or entrance fees. Every fee on a route is inside the price.
• Card fees on the deposit. If you pay the balance by card we show the processor charge at cost rather than rounding it up.
• Single supplements on day trips. A solo traveller pays the one-person rate, which is higher for real reasons, and nothing on top of it.
• Rescheduling more than seven days out, which is free and unlimited.
• Answering questions from people who never book anything. It costs us very little and the goodwill has been worth more than the time.

Questions travellers ask most

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