Arnaldo Matute
comments about our tailor made trip to Vietnam by tnk travel

Hi all

I write you just to comment our recent trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

On Vietnam´s two legs of the trip, we asked tnk travel to organize for us some smaller trips : Mekong delta 2 days, out to Cambodia, Sapa 2 days, halong bay, and also little things like "we need a Hanoi - Hue train ticket".

We combined all of this with our self-made own itinerary, and all worked fine, except halong bay (but for bad weather), and even then, they promtply called us and they looked for alternatives for us.

Even saying we normally prefer to travel by ourselves, we found Tnk travel very helpfull and usefull for us

Thanks a lot

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.

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

 

Ron & Myra Such
Thanks

We had a lot of dealings with Miss Hang Vo (TNK Travel) at De Tham Street, HCM City.
We found Miss Vo to be the best Agent we have come across in Vietnam. She was very helpful in every way and helped us with any problems we had.
We have travelled in Vietnam on 6 different occasions, and never had better service.
We recommend Miss Vo to anyone worldwide for any dealings you have in South East Asia..
We met her personally in HCM and found her to be very charming,
she is now a friend for life.

Janis LIndblom
Exciting Vietnam

We have recently returned from our third trip to Vietnam arranged once again by TNK Travel's staff, Luu Vo, Dac Danh and hosted by our wonderful guide "JJ" and excellent driver in HCMC and our great guide Quyen and terrific driver Thanh in Hanoi. All your staff are so reliable, helpful, courteous and informative. We always enjoy their company so much and really miss them when we have to part. Thank you so very much for another excellent holiday, great hotels and a wonderful tour. Each time we visit we include new locations and we will return again and will certainly use the services of TNK. Thank you also for the souvenir gift it is very thoughtful.

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

Susan Cook
Thank you from Canada

Hello Ms. Luu Vo,

Our holiday would not have been possible without all your help in organizing our customized tour and by staying in touch via email with myself and my Australian friend with all your prompt details and assistance prior to our trip. Also, for personal and telephone contact during our holiday in Vietnam. You and your co-workers showed us that you are more than qualified to handle any situation that would arise for an international traveller.

Thank you Ms. Luu Vo, Ms. Kim Cuong, Mr. Quach Trong Thang, tour guides and drivers for opening the doors to the wonderful people in your beautiful country. I arrived home two days ago with fond memories, lots of photos and a life-changing experience.

We would like to acknowledge Mr. Quach Trong Thang as our number one tour guide in Vietnam. His command of the english language together with his thoughtful, personal and insightful little extras made our visit to Saigon, HCMC, Mekong Delta, DaLat and NTrang so pleasurable. He educated us, chased butterflies with our digital camera, treated us to coconut milk, coffee, persimmons, took photos, chose special menus, walked with us into a coffee plantation, showed us where to buy pumpkin seeds, took us to historical and religious sites, introduced us to the culture of the people through the markets and home based businesses, advised where to get a wonderful foot massage, while all the time paying attention to all our needs, including follow-up with long distance calls. I would recommend him without hesitation.

At the time of the flood in the central highlands we were so impressed with Ms. Kim Cuong s efficient and expedient assistance in changing flights and hotels. We would not have had this prompt service had we booked our tour from our home countries. Our hats off to you for providing this type of customer service to international travellers. The welcome signs and transfers to and from airports made our travel so much easier.

I would like to make mention of two other tour guides that stood above the rest. Mr. Co in Danang, was so patient and understanding and had a wonderful sense of humour. His personality shone. In spite of the flood and the re-arrangements he was totally available and supportive to us and put us at ease. Another guide, Mr. Do Xuan Hoa in Hanoi was also well spoken and an experienced tour guide. He took us to Halong Bay and tried to find a shower for us in the wee hours of the morning, bought us some fresh bread, took us kayaking and introduced us to many aspects of northern Vietnam with ease, grace and understanding. He is certainly the one to lead anyone on a trek or camping trip into Sapa with his years of experience with the northern tribes in the mountains.

The driver from Dalat to NTrang was very skilled and adept at handling the mountainous, muddy route with ease and professionalism. His name escapes me. The other drivers are to be credited for handling the many weather changes and surrounding bikes.

The three-star hotels you booked throughout the country were all better than expected except for the one in Sapa which I would suggest you remove from your list. It would hardly measure a zero star. You may wish to check out a new one named Chapas which we viewed. We understood the need for the hotel in Danang with the floods. The staff at that hotel were exceptional with their help. However, their hotel would not be in the same three-star category as all of the others. Most of the staff at all of the hotels were welcoming, helpful and accommodating.

To all of you, I would like to thank you for the wonderful customer service which you provided on our first visit to Vietnam. It is the biggest asset to your company.

I will happily recommend you and your staff and the above mentioned tour guides to any Canadian who plans to visit your country.

Kind regards and hugs,

Susan Cook
Box 127
Wynndel, British Columbia
Canada
V0B 2N0

B. de Vet
Dear Mr Dzung Trinh,

First of all we want to thank TNK travel very much for the great Tour we have had.

Everything was perfectly arranged and the Hotels, drivers and guides were great.

You are a very serious and reliable organisation and we will certainly recommend you to our friends and relatives.

We have now a very good impression of your country thanks to all the places you made us visit with all the information given by the guides.

One little notice: your man in Hanoi (or is that you??) told us that he did not have the information about our arrival flight and that he had asked us by mail and phone. But as you can see I had already given that information in my mail from April 15 (see under). But.... no problem our guide was waiting for us at the airport.

Thanks again we had lovely and interesting holidays and all the included meals were delicious.

Best regards

Bas and Martina de Vet (- van Deurzen)
Bachrode 3
2717AL Zoetermeer
The Netherlands

Teresa Harding
Dear Dzung,

My husband and I are now at Phnom Penh airport awaiting our flight to BKK and wanted to take the opportunity to thank-you for all of the organisation to make our short trip so enjoyable.

Absolutely everything was as arranged and even the 3 hour delay of the first flight did not cause a problem. We wanted to compliment you on the team you have there as all were wonderful, capable people. Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful throughout and the tour guide & driver for the Mekong trip were fantastic.

Thanks again. We will certainly recommend you to our friends and be in contact again for our next trips.

Kind regards,

Teresa & Ron Harding

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)