Kerry Mowett
TNK Travel

Thankyou to Luu Vo!

I recently arranged with TNK travel for a tour through Vietnam for a group of 59. Everything was organised on time and to a very high standard. You staff...drivers, bus assistants and most of all our guides were wonderful, friendly and helpful. This tour resulted because of a previous year 2010 group travel of 44 was just as amazing.
I am now planning the 2012 trip and have arranged for Luu through TNK to coordinate all of the arrangements for travel, accommodation, daytrips and meals.
If you want an unforgetable experience in Vietnam and no worries about arrangements........contact Luu Vo at TNK

The Kane family
A wonderful experience with TNK travel (January 2009)

Our family of 4 just came back from first ever trip to Vietnam (18 days). We chose TNK Travel and it was a great trip. I wanted to thank TNK and to share our experience with future prospective travelers.

We started the planning almost a year ago. I must say we were hesitant at first and concerned about choosing a reliable travel agency. I read a lot on the internet (e.g. tripadvisor .com) before identifying a few prospective travel agencies. I then asked for an initial quote from my top 3 choices. TNK was the middle quote but what I liked about them was the level of detail in their initial proposal. I then looked at their guestbook and selected 17 people worldwide who recently travelled with them and emailed each of them to ask about their experience. Every single one of them responded and all were very positive about TNK. This made me comfortable with the idea of having to send money upfront to book a trip in an unknown country where I would have no recourse if dealing with an unethical company. With TNK, everyone assured me that once an itinerary is finalized, the company will do whatever is needed to deliver on its promises and to make it a pleasant experience, and they sure did in our case.

Over the following month, I exchanged several emails with Mr. Dsung Trinh, the Managing Director, to modify the original proposal based on my research about the sites we wanted to see. For example, we removed Sapa from the itinerary because the Northwest is quite cold in January, but added Phu Quoc Island instead. In the end, we agreed on a price for the revised itinerary, and I paid the customary 30% deposit by credit card (with a 3% fee). From that point-on, I dealt with Mr. Dac Dahn in their operations department who always promptly answered my numerous enquiries via email, and sent me hotel vouchers and e-tickets confirmation from air travel within Vietnam, as well as the invitation letter for the Visa. Fast forwarding to the end of the year when our trip began:

We landed roughly on schedule in Hochiminh on Dec. 31st in the evening and had to wait an hour or so (not ideal after a long flight from the U.S.) to get our visa on arrival ($25 per person in cash). Once we exited immigration and customs, our guide (J.J.) and driver were there to greet us with a sign bearing our name. They took us to our hotel. Because of the traffic, we ended up being in the center of the city near the cathedral at midnight, surrounded by thousands of motorcycles ringing their horns when the near year arrived (quite a cultural experience). From there on, the entire trip was very pleasant (I will post details on the hotels on tripadvisor.com). We visited Saigon (and stopped by the TNK office to pay the balance of the trip), the Mekong Delta, Phu Quoc, PanThiet/Mui Ne, Da Lat and Nha Trang by private van and boats with J.J. (who was excellent, paying attention all the time to what we liked and making sure we would always have it). We almost missed the speedboat from Rach Gia to Phu Quoc, because the itinerary was 30 minutes off. As a result, we couldn’t have a scheduled lunch, but TNK compensated us with an excellent previously unplanned dinner in Hue. J.J. ordered a van with more legroom when we returned from Phu Quoc to HCMC (we flew back), arranged for a small canoe to pick-us up and take us to our hotel in Cantho where we were stuck in traffic on the way to the ferry, etc…Then we flew to Danang and were greeted by our new guide Tui (Mr. Dac Dahn had kindly arranged for French speaking guides at the other locations at our request), and from there visited Hoi An, My Son and Hue, Tui was excellent as well, very knowledgeable and helped us solve an issue we had with a tailor-made suit. In Hoi An, the reservation was not a river view room, but after contacting Mr. Dac Dahn generously agreed to pay the difference and we were upgraded accordingly (we had insisted on 2 deluxe rooms with sea/river/lake views everywhere) and I had not noticed it was not the case at that location. We then flew to Hanoi which we visited with our last guide (Mr. Lan, who was OK but not as good as the first 2), and went from there to Halong Bay for a memorable 2-day cruise, then flew back to HCMC, stayed overnight near the airport and had an early morning flight back to the U.S. On returning to HCMC, no driver was there to greet us, we were told after we called the agency that he was stuck in traffic due to an accident. We took a taxi to the nearby hotel, and the driver who picked-us up in the morning for our return flight to the US. reimbursed us more than we had actually paid for the taxi. We didn’t have to pay a departure tax, it was apparently already included in our plane tickets.

Overall, a great trip thanks to the logistics, efficiency and professionalism of the TNK staff and agents. Food was excellent (though too copious for us, we always have festive lunch menus booked by TNK with 6 or 7 courses in nice restaurants (included in the price), nice buffet breakfasts in most hotels. The only problem (which is beyond TNK’s control) was insufficient hot water in many hotels for two people to take showers one after the other), a really bad road with big holes when exiting MuiNe to go to Da Lat and a third guide in the north who took us to a number of expensive stores along the road when we saw much cheaper prices elsewhere (we suspect he had a kick-back from these stores (but to his credit, he advised us to see the anthropology museum in Hanoi instead of a couple of extra pagodas, which we really enjoyed). Other than these minor opportunities for improvement, we had great hotel rooms with very nice views (important to us), good weather, good food, good guides and drivers (who seemed satisfied with the tips we gave them), and we were taken to all the places agreed-to on the itinerary. For those who do not feel adventurous enough to be on their own in Vietnam, we do strongly recommend TNK travel as an ideal, reasonably-priced solution. You can count on them for a memorable and pleasant trip. One final comment, although you can pay everything in Vietnam in US dollars or Euros, prices are cheaper if you pay in Dongs (local currency, FX at 17.3 VND/USD on the average during our trip, calculated at 15 by the stores if you pay in USD). Also a word of caution, Vietnam Airlines only allows 20 kg for a checked suitcase and 7 kg for a carry-on so travel light……

If you are thinking of going and have any question about our experience, don’t hesitate to contact me at dkane@mmm.com.

Our sincere thanks to MM. Trinh, Danh and the entire TNK staff for a wonderful trip. The Kane family (Austin, TX, USA)

Shaun McCree
Cambodia Exclusive 5-day tour

Dear Nhu Y,

After our initial misunderstanding over payment (my fault entirely), I would like you to know that the tour went excellently. A friendly & helpful guide in Phnom Penh made our day both pleasant & informative, even if we were rather devastated by the Killing Fields & S21. Although they are hard to take, we think everyone should see them to understand what happened in Kampuchea. Our guide in Siem Reap, Marouan, & his driver were if anything even better and our trips around the Angkor complex were absolutely unforgettable. The Hotel Salina in Siem Reap was good value for money, despite being the cheapest available but we were a little disappointed with the Princess in Phnom Penh where we found the food rather poor & the staff rather disinterested. We recognise this is also the cheapest option but clearly does not match up to the budget hotels we stayed in throughout our 4 weeks in Vietnam. Our only small problem was that the advertisement on your website suggests lunch is provided everyday although, on checking your acknowledgement, it was not listed. Perhaps someone could correct the website.

Janis Lindblom
Return trip to HCMC

We have just returned from our second trip to Vietnam. This trip we only had 5 nights in HCMC and surrounding areas. We took two of our friends with us and again used the excellent services of TNK Travel and their fantastic team. Our tours were wonderful, our days flew by filled with great information, delightful eating experiences, wonderful sights and a truly amazing time was had by each one of us! Thank you TNK and we can't wait to return once again.

Candice Loh
Special Thanks

We would like to special thanks to all the arrangement to VNB Travel Vietnam on our 2 days tour in Mekong Delta River and Ho Chi Minh City (16 and 17Nov). The assigned tour guide - Mr Huy is so professional and all my family members were so pleased with his companion, pleasant attitude. He is fun, friendly, caring (especially to elderly and kids), knowledgable and patient.

We would highly recommend Mr Huy services if you are in Vietnam....and we will definitely return to Vietnam again sometimes and engaging VNB n Mr Huy.

thanks again for excellent services....

Rgds,
cL

George Kowalski
Flight information to Vietnam (Sep)

Dear Hang!
Our Vietnam adventure is coming to an end. We are very happy with our holiday, how beautiful Vietnam is and the itinery you prepared and service we got from your company and your guides. We will strongly recommend your company to our friends in both Australia and Poland. Myself an my brother want to revisit Vietnam in
Last thing we would like to confirm is the late checking out in our last hotel Silk Path in Hanoi, which you mentioned in one of your emails. I will appreciate if you will confirm that with the hotel.

Gaby
THANK YOU!

THANK YOU ! 

I have now completed my vacation to Vietnam and Cambodia with “TNK Travel”, and I cannot fully express

my gratitude for all you've done to make our vacation so very memorable!

From the first time I sent you an e- mail to organize my trip, to the follow-up between booking and travel

all of my questions were answered very quickly.

It was so great to have people like you Ms. Luu Vo ,and Mr. Dac Danh to work with.

Thanks to travel professionals like you, who are honest and dependable I spent a perfect vacation.

You did everything for us. We got a good value for our money also.

I will definitely be recommending ‘’TNK Travel’’, I have given your e-mail adders and website to several people who have expressed an interest in visiting Vietnam.

Thanks again,

Best wishes to both of you, Gaby.

Carolyn Lewis
Dear Mr Dzung Trinh

I am writing to thank you for organizing our wonderful Mekong Delta tour to Phnom Penh.
(Lewis group..Sept 29th/30th/1st Oct.)

We very much appreciated our tour guide Mr Pham Van Hai and our driver Duc.
Hai's English was very good and we enjoyed all the informative snippets of information he had to share.
His knowledge of the areas that we travelled through was extensive and we enjoyed finding out many things about Vietnam
We came away with a better understanding of life in Vietnam and life on the Mekong.
Hai answered many of our questions and we thoroughly enjoyed his sense of humour.

We would all happily recommend Hai as a guide.

I wonder if you could let Hai know that we have written to thank him.

Kind regards

Sascha
trip to Vietnam with TNK

Me and my wife were looking for accomodation and some trips around Ho Chi Min, Mui Ne and Me Kon River.

We are currently in China and it was quite dificult to arrange everything from Shanghai. So I searched the web and found TNK. Those guys replied inmediately with detailed plan for Vietnam round trip and very good prices.

You always have doubts when you contact people you don't know. You never know if they are going to give you what they promise or not. But with TNK it went all good from the begining. They answerd all my emails with questions about the country and the trip. And once we arrived there they delivered an outstanding service. We got everything we asked for.

We were picked up, and were driven everywhere in a personal car with A/C which was very pleaseing in a hot place like Vietnam.

I will hardly recomend TNK to travel around Vietnam. You will be in good hands! It certainly takes all troubles involving the trip away.

robert fitzpatrick
www.perfect4u.com

just wanted to say what a great website. we at perfect4u.com are looking for holidays to sell for our clients and Vietnam is such a wonderful place to visit, so perfect4u and the people are so friendly.

thanks

rob and team
perfect4u