What are your travel goals? Do you want one company to plan your entire itinerary?

Feathers, yes one company. I would like to get an overview and then go back another time to fine tune.

I've only traveled with Tauck. But I've heard good things about Road Scholar. Not sure how plush they go with accommodations though.

DH wants to be with what he calls regular people. He is not interested in dressing up for dinners, gourmet cooking demos or wine tasting type of events.

Not concerned with plush hotels per se.

To be honest, with Tauck this trip would cost $40,000 for the two of us, which is why I’m looking for other tried and true.

I know many people here can figure out how to do a trip on their own, and I do when going to someplace easy like Costa Rica, but I don't feel comfortable doing that in this part of the world.

Well, when I travel, my idea of "roughing it" is when they don't turn down the bed and leave a chocolate on the pillow! Last trip we even had a butler! I could get used to that!

I believe Exodus Travel has a US office. We went to Vietnam with them . It was excellent but no use if you want luxury. We had a homestay. Bike tours. Nights on a boat. Overnight on a train. Definitely no turn down or chocolates. But fascinating.

Marie and Floral, yes this is the direction I want to go in.

Annie, as I mentioned in my post, looking for other ideas. Staying in a hotel is not roughing it.

Although I have not been to the locations you mention, I have traveled with both OAT and Road Scholar.Both offered small groups. Accommodations were variable but always acceptable with one exception.

I preferred RS ( only slightly) because they do not charge extra for some excursions and seemed to attract people who are interested in learning more than shopping, although we did that, too.

Both companies are worth considering. Id go with the one that has an itinerary you like.

Ive see other groups with tour companies that made me cringe.

We have made two trips, one at a US Natl park, with Nat Geo and really enjoyed ourselves. Wonderful guides and good accomodations and meals.

We've travelled twice through Viet Nam, both times for three weeks, all by planning ourselves. We stayed mostly in three star accommodations which were as good as any motel here at home and better in some respects. A homestay in the mountains in the north was a highlight. We got to interact with a lot of locals as many Vietnamese, especially those in the hospitality sector, speak English. This was back in the early 2010s and we always planned to go back but circumstances dictated otherwise, but now we're retired it's a possibility again.

Most of our travel was planned by reading guidebooks and tourism websites and asking a lot of questions on TripAdvisor. It worked out very affordable and we had a great time.