Choosing attractions and activities on your well-earned vacation can be a daunting task.
Sometimes the language or cultural barrier feels insurmountable. Perhaps it appears there’s not many options. Or even worse, there’s too many options.
This is precisely when a local friend’s advice is invaluable. Someone who knows the lay of the land and can help uncover the destination’s hidden treasures. Someone to help you get around or learn the ropes, or delve deep into the local culture. Someone to help you find the experience of a lifetime.
Voyagin is this friend.
What Is Voyagin?
Voyagin is an online discovery and booking platform for unique and popular experiences, specialising in destinations around Asia. The founders of Voyagin created this platform after facing the struggle of exploring Asia without local expertise. They realised that guide books can only take you so far, then you need a little local help.
Originally started in Japan, Voyagin offers excellent coverage in Asia and is now expanding into the Middle East, Europe and USA with more destinations and attractions coming online regularly.
Why Voyagin?
You have a lot of choices when it comes to booking tours, theme parks, restaurants and more. There are numerous operators and agencies chasing your hard-earned dollars. So why go with Voyagin?
- They are focused on uncovering experiences that you won’t find elsewhere plus generously discounted rates for popular events and attractions. If you’re returning to a destination you’ve been to before, chances are Voyagin can help you find something new to try.
- Experiences focus on greater interaction with locals so you can immerse yourself in Asia’s rich culture and natural beauty. Experiences are designed to be authentic and personal while showcasing the region. Some experiences also give back to the local community so you can do good while enjoying your break.
- The Voyagin customer support team is your personal concierge – available via live chat, email or phone anytime.
- Lots of choices - over 3,400 things to do in 50 destinations and growing every week.
- I walk the talk! For quite a while I’ve been recommending our readers use Voyagin to book their tickets for Waterbom Bali online to save money and avoid the queues.
Is Voyagin Safe?
Online and offline security is top of mind with Voyagin.
It starts with the hosts running each experience. While anyone can request to list an experience, Voyagin pre-screens every host and experience to ensure quality and security (either by meeting them in person or via Skype). Anything that doesn’t make the grade is not published on the website.
When considering a particular experience, take a look at the customer reviews to see what other travellers thought. This system adds transparency and accountability.
The online checkout is secure, using industry-standard encryption and payment can be securely submitted via credit card or Paypal. Voygain holds onto your payment until 12 hours after the experience start time so if anything goes wrong you can contact them.
Once the booking has been made and accepted, the host’s name, email and phone number is shared with customer.
If the experience is an "instant booking" (which is indicated with a yellow lightning bolt icon) then the e-ticket delivery is fully automated - there's no waiting.
For all other experiences, this takes a couple hours, although hosts have up to 3 days to accept before the request expires. If the host declines your booking, you’ll receive a full refund. You are free to contact the host anytime beforehand to ask questions or verify details.
Voyagin Tips
Here’s how to get the most out of Voyagin:
- Use the filter tool to locate just the right experience for you. If you want a more authentic experience select “Meet the Locals” or for a more meaningful experience select “Volunteering”. When travelling with kids just select “Things to do with kids” and your life instantly became easier!
- If you’re like me and sometimes leave things to the last minute you’re probably already at the destination and can’t decide what to do tomorrow. Never fear, select the “Available Tomorrow” filter option.
- Or if you’re on a tight budget, select the “Under US$50” filter.
- The top of every destination page contains several special offers so you can identify the discounted experiences quickly. But if you just want some expert advice, choose from the curated “Staff Recommendations” list.
- If English isn’t your primary language, no problems. On the left-hand filter click “see more…” to display a full list of available languages spoken by the hosts.
- Some experiences have multiple options or variations. Click the “Select option” drop-down list at the top-right corner of the experience page.
- Experiences are listed by default based on “recently reviewed”, but other sorting options are available: Most reviewed, Price – low to high, and Recently listed.
- In a new destination, sometimes you just want to hear the feedback of other travellers to see what they like. In this case click the “Traveler’s Voices” tab to display a list of recent reviews from other customers plus a handy link to the experience they tried.
- Make use of the live chat to ask the customer support team any questions you may have. They’re available 24/7.
- If you need to review, manage or even cancel your booking, it can be performed via “Your Bookings” in your dashboard (just login with the email address and password created during the checkout process).
- Each experience has its own cancellation policy, so read that. Before cancelling your booking, try contacting the host to see if your time/day can be changed to suit your schedule. If not, you can cancel the experience from your dashboard. The refund amount will depend on the individual experience’s refund policy.
Examples Of Experiences
So what kind of things can you book on Voyagin? To get your creative juices flowing, here’s a few examples…
Bali:
Camp overnight on top of Mt Batur
Tokyo:
Drive a video-game inspired go-kart around the city
Hong Kong:
Bangkok:
Cook a Thai meal from hand-picked ingredients
Want To Make Some Money?
If you share the vision and ethos of Voyagin and want to list your own experience by becoming a host, there’s no cost to join. Voyagin simply takes a small percentage of the income from each booking. Find out more…
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a unique experience on your next vacation in Asia, or just want to save a few dollars on an entry ticket to a major theme park or waterpark, check out Voyagin. They might just open a door that you would have never found by yourself. After all, that’s what friends are for.
Price: Varies by experience
Where to find: https://www.govoyagin.com
Reader Comments...
"I respond to every comment by direct private email. I look forward to your feedback" - Josh BenderThey messed up my first trip to Japan. Voyagin confirmed we had tickets for April 29, and they would be delivered on April 28th. I did not look to buy tickets elsewhere because of their confirmation. But they bought tickets for April 20th and are claiming we put in the wrong date. Why would we ask for tickets on the day we fly out? They take no responsibility for their mistakes. Do no trust them.
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