Tim Baldwin
Vietnam Group Trip - Thanks Ms Nhy (Kathy)

Having just returned from our trip to Vietnam, we would like to thank TNK Travel and particularly Ms. Nhu who has done such a wonderful job of organizing our group of 10 Aussies on a fantastic trip around this beautiful country.
This is the second trip that Kathy has put together at my request and both times have been fautless. Nothing is too much for Kathy - changing arrangements on the go to suit our particular requirements and always in contact to ensure that we are having a great time.
Fantastic also were all the TNK guides that we had the pleasure to meet and travel with. They are so passionate about their country and so knowledgable as well that we couldn't help but be fasinated by the scenery, the people and the culture. Thanks so much to JJ in Ho Chi Minh City, Quyen in Hanoi and the ever smiling Zoom Zoom in Sapa. We will keep in touch. Thanks again TNK - Your services and people are a credit to Vietnam - Cam o'n!

Daniela Meirom
Meirom group -Vietnam trip

Hello

We are home now and I expected some kind of a feedback request from you but so far got nothing, and decided to send one anyway.

First of all I wanted to thank you in the name of the whole group for a very successful trip. Everything went smoothly and according to plan. The itinerary was well planned, the guides were knowledgeable and caring, the vans were in good condition and comfortable.

I would like to point out several things that were less than 100% - maybe it will be useful to you in the future:

a- the english accent of some of the guides was very bad and we could hardly understand them. Our best guide was Dara in Phnom Penh, unfortunately he was with us only for one day. Chum in Hanoi and Ky in HCM city were also good, The others were also good and warm and kind and we loved them all, but sometimes we had hard time to understand them, maybe because we are not native english speakers

b- most of the hotels were good. The worst was in Phnom Penh - small and smelly rooms and awful maitenance. The one in Siem Reap had nice rooms, but lots of maitenance problems. The same goes for the hotel in Sapa - they had serious problems with the hot water supply, which was extremely annoying.

c- the itinerary was almost perfect, but I think the time in Siem Reap was too long, 2 days would be quite enough, and it could be nice to spend one more day in Hoi An or Hue.

Thank you for everything. We had a very good and interesting experience and will certainly recommend your company to our friends

Daniela Meirom

 

Kurt Haering
Comment on 22 Day Tour

TNK has succeeded to present a superb tour covering the major ponts of interest in Vietnam and Cambodia. From planning to execution TNK provided excellent performance with the reliability of a Swiss clock. As we booked a private tour the organization was perfect and the guides met highest standards. We truly recommend TNK for exploring this beautiful country and its friendly people.

Penny and her Group
Thank you Note

Dear Miss Nhu Y,

Thank you for arranging the Vietnam tour for us from the 17 Dec to 24 Dec.

We enjoyed ourselves tremendously and we truly appreciate your quick response to our feedback.
Thank you for the 3 star hotel you picked for us which far exceeded our expectation, and birthday party for our group.

We enjoyed the Chinese dinner, and the beautiful ancient style restaurants at Hue and Hoi Ann and our only regret is that we have not arranged for more shopping time.

I also wish to specially commend our tour guide in Hue and Hoi ann for his professionalism and also wish him happiness and success.


Thank You once again.


Cheers!

Penny and her Group

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)

Troy Robinson
Feedback - Cambodia

Hello TNK Travel -

I was a little dubious about sending paymnet and booking over the internet, however, I can only say how impressed I was with the professionalism and service I received from TNK Travel.. I would thoroughly recommend this travel company to everyone - and although I only did Cambodia - I would encourage people to do Vietnam and Laos as well.. My experience with TNK was overwhelmingly impressed and the accom was fantastic.. If you are thinking of booking with this company - do not hesitate, the guides and drivers are informative, passionate, helpful and pleasant in every way..

Thanks Troy (Syd-Australia)

John Kellas
Mai Chau 4 day trek

We used TNK Travel for 16 day tour in 2008 and have now moved to Hanoi for a year and use their local affiliate, Dream Travel in Hanoi. We arranged to do the 4D/3N trek from Po Co/Hang Kia to Mai Chau over New Year. While the weather was cloudy and we missed the spectacular sights, we did enjoy the exercise. We had a local Guide/Cook, Miss Phuong, and a Hanoi guide, Quyen, with Mr Son doing the luggage transfers. We had 3 homestays and Phuong showed her culinary skills to perfection, different dishes each lunch and dinner, at each one.
We seemed to meet most of Phuong's family through the course of the 4 days, which we enjoyed. Homestays were satisfactory and trekkers will find them acceptable. Village life is simple and basic and one hears all the animals day and night, so expect the roosters to crow early and often.
We will suggest to our own future visitors that we do some more treks or stay at Mai Chau.

Thanks to Danh (TNK) and Ngoc Anh and Trang (Dream Travel).
JDK
PS Ask for Phuong and Quyen as guides

Hermann Frey
Cao Dai and Cu Chi Tunnel Day Tour

We were booking the Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnel tour for 26th of December 2011 on the Internet.
I had some correspondence with the sales executive (Ms. Hang Vo) before to get the booking right.
So we were eventually picked up at our hotel a bit outside but on the way. The pick up was sharp on time and the bus with reasonable comfort, although full.
Our friendly guide (unfortunately I'm not so sure about the name any more) could speak quite good English. He did a lot of efforts to explain backgrounds and history during the day.
Lunch was in a simple countryside restaurant but with good Vietnamese food.
The temple is a bit far but getting known to this tradition and attending lunchtime prayers gives the right contrast to the martial afternoon visit of Cu Chi.
At Cu Chi it is very interesting to learn what smart ideas the Vietcong implemented in order to cope with a technological superpower.
Of course, the Americans have done a lot of wrong things and therefore are still being perceived as the bad guys but in my opinion Vietnamese should learn more to differentiate the facts of the cold war.

Overall an enjoyable and good organized tour!

Waltraud Pokorny
Dear Ms Nhu, Operation Department

My best greetings to you. In May 2007 I came with my husband to visit your lovely country. We very much enjoyed staying at Sasco Blue Lagoon Resort/Phu Quoc and Windsor Plaza Hotel/HCM-City, where we met your nice Tour Operator, Miss Dinh Thi Ngoc Phung. Here we spent a very interesting time while visiting a part of the beautiful Vietnam and also Blue Lagoon was excellent for relaxing. Thank you very much for everything it was perfect.

Annikki and Pierre
Indochina Customized Tour ( Nov 11th 06 ) /Mr. Pierre Herbert / Tour Report from Pierre

Hello Mr Dac Danh,

Annikki and I hope you are very well and we wish you, according to our western calendar, a very Happy New Year for 2007 and a lot of success for TNK Travel.

We came well home thru Malaysia and have been very busy since. But we promissed you a short report and comments on our beautiful trip thru your country and the two neighboring ones. Here it is:

First we must thank you again for a well organized tour, showing many highlights. Also, we have to confirm that the tour guides you selected for us have been very punctual, very friendly and had sufficient knowledge of the place and customs to make us enjoy every day.

Nhi for the Mekong Delta, Heng for Phnom Penh, Phin Borey for Siem Reap, "Jack"for Houen Xai to Loang Prabang, Khamtam in Vientiane, Tranh in Hanoi, Thinh in Lao Cai, Huy in Hue and Tong in Ho Chi Minh City, all have been doing an excellent job.Some were very knowledgeable in history like Phin Borey and Huy, which is always very appreciated by us.

The hotels were confortable enough. Luxury is not what we wanted but being in a genuine local environment. But in Chau Doc, the Ben Da Nui Sam Resort was situated in front of the loudspeaker broadcasting political news at night and early in the morning, which made resting impossible. In the early morning, at breakfast, the staff was bringing a very frugal breakfast and refused to bring a second cup of coffee...That hotel we cannot recommend. In Vientiane, the Lane Xang hotel is old and we got a small, rundown room. We called the agent Max and he rectified for a Superior room. In Ha Noi, the Army Hotel was OK but a bit "cold"! All hotel were situated at convenient distance from points of interest, so that was a plus.
We can especially recommend the Asia Hotel in Hue for its friendly atmosphere, its situation on the Perfume river, its comfort and breakfast.
Pakbeng Lodge on the Mekong is also to be recommended for the same reasons.

Meals were mostly adequate, some excellent like the ones on the Huong Hai junk on the Ha Long Bay.

Otherwise, we have the following recommendations:

1. In the Mekong Delta, a visit on one of the Cai Rang Market boats would be very interesting to speak with the boat people and see how they organize their living onboard.

2. In Ankor, before entering the temple area, we had to wait on line 1 1/2 hour (taking a pass photo and making the day pass). If the visitor was told in advance to bring one pass photo, it would speed up the entry.
Also in Ankor, you may forget the sunset at Phnom Bakheng because the crowds are too big now and the lookout totally disorganized.

3. In Ha Long, the crowds are also big now and...nearly 200 junks departing at about the same time...!!!
Unless the captain of your junk is given instructions to avoid the crowd, your visitors will be soon on line or in a pack to visit anything. We interviewed several locals and captains. Alltogether, there are nearly 600 junks now!

In a summary, we really enjoyed both the way Mr Dzung Trinh, yourself and your staff organized and followed up our tour, how you friendly treated us as customers, we met many other friendly persons along the trip, we discovered the sceneries and features of cultures that made our tour a permanent emotion that we still enjoy.

We wish you much success for this year!

Kind regards to you, to Mr Dzung Trinh and your staff.

Pierre and Annikki