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Andrew & Jane PittFeedback
This is some feedback from our trip to Vietnam.
* Ms Luu Vo - excellent, very keen to help and accommodate us. * HCMC tour & Mekong Delta - excellent. Tam was a very good guide and is obviously proud of his country and its heritage. Our driver/s were also excellent. * Hue and Hoi An - our guide Lam, was a very nice person, but his pronounciaton of English was poor and he was difficult to understand. Content of the tour was good and driver was excellent. * Hanoi - Accommodation was the poorest of our tour, but it was only for one night and it was almost like living in a tube house. Our guide, Long, was excellent. * All transfers were very good and flights with Vietnam Air was excellent. * Lunches - they were very good. Two were much the same (Elephant ear fish) and they were both in the Mekong, but they were all of a high standard. * Cu Chi tour - for my wife, this was a highlight and it was everything she could have wished for because she teaches Vietnamese history. We were very happy with your service and would have no hesitation in recommending your services to other travellers. Sincerely Andy & Jane Pitt
Cameron WrayDear sir
I was recently a customer of yours while in Saigon, I would like to pass on my remarks on your tour guide,(mr Hai) he was excellant, My parents and I enjoyed his company and knowledge immensly, I have since recommended your company and mr Hai to a number of people and will continue to do so, Thanks again for a great holiday in your beautiful country. I look forward to a return there one day.
Cameron Wray
Rosa FontiGreetings and Thanksgivings
Dear Mrs. Luu Vo! first of all, my apologies for writing so late. I would like to thank you so much for the very nice present we got from Mr. JJ on you behalf! We appreciated it a lot and once again let me say we are very grateful for the very nice tour we are enjoying throughout Indochina. Our guides and drivers in Vietnam, Cambodia and now in Laos wereare very good, and the accomodations and restaurants always very nice. We will definitely recommend your travel agency and the tour to anyone we can. Again thanks a lot and our best regards, Rosa Fonti
Arnaldo Matutecomments 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
A BergmanCustomized tour
My wife and I had a wonderful 15 days tour in Vietnam. It was a private customized tour, just for the two of us. During the itinerary setup, Mr. Dzung Trinh was very helpful in meeting our specific requirements. All went very smoothly and according to the plan. Thanks a lot for the wonderful Vietnamese experience. A. Bergman (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Hagit & Yaacov StottlandThanks for the Trip
Dear Dung Trinh, Ruth, David, Hagit & myself (Yaacov), would like to thank you for arranging one of the most enjoyable trips for us in Vietnam and Cambodia. The guides were good and your efforts and dedication were highly appreciated. Promise you we will not forget Vietnam and Cambodia not only for the countries, but also due to the honest and fair treatment we got from you. We will forward your contact details to our friends who wish to travel to Vietnam & Cambodia and also put recommendation in the Israeli WEB site for travelers with high references for well appreciated travel agent. Thanks & Happy New Year, Ruth & David Raz Hagit & Yaacov Stottland
Stephan BatesA wonderful trip to Dac Danh Vietnam
Dear Mr Dac Danh We have recently arrived back home in England following our tour of Vietnam and Cambodia with your company and felt we must write to you to let you know what a fantastic time we had in your beautiful country. We were thoroughly impressed with all our guides and drivers with their knowledge, consideration and professionalism. Everyone we met in Vietnam was extremely friendly and welcoming. In particular we would like you to pass on our grateful thanks to Mr. Ky in Ho Chi Minh city who was extremely knowledgeable and a wonderful ambassador for your country. We will certainly be recommending his services to any friends of ours who may be visiting in the future. Please also pass on our good wishes to Cheng in Cambodia and Cam in Hue - both of whom made our visits to their areas extremely enjoyable. Finally may we also ask you to pay a particular thanks Hoa in Hanoi for making the last few days of our stay so memorable and also amusing. He was a great guide and good company, we hope one day to be able to return to Hanoi and hope that Hoa may be able to be our guide for a trip into Sapa. We shall certainly be recommending him to friends. Many, many thanks for all your assistance and looking forward to seeing you again some time in the future when we return to Vietnam again. Yours sincerely,
Penny and her GroupThank 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
Ms. Frances Ann ReidTrain Booking HCM - NT ( Oct ) / Ms. Frances Ann Reid
Thank you so much for your excellent service on my recent trip to Vietnam. I booked train tickets, an air ticket, a day tour and stays in 2 hotels with your company and everything went really well. The staff in the office in HCMC were really friendly and helpful and I will recommend TNK Travel to anyone heading to Vietnam, Warm regards, Frances Reid.
The Kane familyA 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)
Option 1: Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
Day 1: Leave your hotel at 7am. Car or Van ride to Khe Sanh. Sightseeing en route: the rock pile, Darkrong bridge and the Ho Chi Minh trail. Have lunch, then visit Khe Sanh combat base, Lang Vei special forces camp and Lao Bao international border. Then transfer to LangCat village, where you are free to wander around and see the daily life of VanKieu people. Dinner at 6pm with the VanKieu people in the village. Overnight at the Ethnic stilt house.
Day 2: Leave the village at 7am. Car ride to Truong Son National Cemetery, Vinh Moc tunnels, Doc Mieu Base and the Ben Hai river. Lunch in a restaurant and drive back to Hue. End of tour.
Tour price includes : Car, Ethnic stilt house, floor mat, mosquito net, meals, guide, permit, traditional wine, entrance fee.
Option 2: Minority Village Homestay & Hamburger Hill
Day 1: Leave your hotel at 7.30am. Motorbike ride to Khe Sanh for sightseeing en route: the rock pile, Darkrong bridge and the Ho Chi Minh trail. Have lunch, then visit Khe Sanh combat base, Lang Vei special forces camp and Lao Bao international border. Then transfer to LangCat village, where you are free to wander around and see the daily life of VanKieu people. Dinner at 6pm with the VanKieu people in the village. Overnight at the Ethnic stilt house.
Day 2: Leave the village at 6am. Transfer to Aluoi via the Ho Chi Minh trail, stopping off to visit PaCos, the Katus people and Hamburger Hill. Drive back to Hue at around 12pm. End of tour.
Tour price includes : A/c private car, English speaking guide, Ethnic stilt house homestay arrangements, (floor mat; mosquito net); travel permit; traditional wine, full board, entrance fee.
Tour price excludes : Domestic flights, travel insurance, personal expenses, tips.