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.

Nasia Prepato
Travelling always
Just wanted to visit Vietnam but was unable due to work commitments!!The last trip i made was in Rhodes and really want to start my new adventure ..Nassia

Mr.Karen Isobel Podolsky
Thank you to Kim Cuong

Dear TNK Travel,

This note is to thank you for the wonderful services you provided on our recent visit to Vietnam.

We especially want to thank Ms. Kim Cuong. She was friendly, knowledgeable, and very helpful. We were very happy with the itinerary she prepared for us. She helped us get a flight back to the U.S., even though it was not part of her job, and we appreciate that. The other people in your office were very good, too.

Please let Ms. Kim Cuong know that we were happy that she could help us, and that we would recommend TNK Travel to anyone who will be coming to visit Vietnam.

Sincerely,
Karen Isobel Podolsky and Joan Renee Sinclair

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

John Chiles
Vietnam & Cambodian Tour II

Dear Mr. Dzung

We would like to express our appreciation for TNK's efforts to make our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia so enjoyable. Of our many trips since 2002, this one has been the best. Some of that is due to the attraction of the two countries. But a bigger reason is the treatment we received from your company.

All of our hotels were comfortable, and even somewhat luxurious for a couple that usually stays in bed and breakfast type accommodations. Very good meals in excellent dining establishments.

Our guides deserve most of the credit for the success of our trips. They looked after us from pick up to departure. They ensured that we visited sites at the right time to avoid most of the crowds and avoid the hottest time of the day. They varied the itinerary periodically, with our consent, to ensure that we saw the most desirable attractions, They were well informed about the history and stories of the attractions. They moved us along to cover the itinerary without us feeling that we were being rushed. We always felt that we had any time we wanted to wander through the sites according to our interest.

Although the guides were probably the strongest feature of a very well organized and professionally run tour, their one weakness was their English pronounciation. It was difficult at times to understand the message because some words were pronounced differently from what we are used to hearing. On the whole, however, that was a minimal limitation.

A special thank you for providing us with the document permitting us multiple visits to Vietnam. We had arranged for our visas to Vietnam, although you had offered to do so. However, enroute home, when we and presented our passports with single entry visas to the ticket agent at the Siem Reap airport in Cambodia, we were advised that we needed multiple visit visas in order to obtain a boarding pass for our flight to Hochiminh City, Even though we had advised you that we would be obtaining our visas on our own, your thoughtfulness and thoroughness in providing the multiple visit authorization saved us a lot of grief. This incident brought home to us more than anything else, TNK's level of professionalism and concern for its customers.
There are many other things that we could add to illustrate how well we were looked after by your company. When we first 'discovered' TNK while researching on the internet, our first thought was that this unknown tour company was probably a low budget, high risk venture. You get what you pay for, right? Well, in this case you get more than you would normally pay for - much more. We had been reassured somewhat by a prior TNK traveller who had posted a testimonial on the TNK site, as well as by the timeliness and quality of feedback we received from our e-mail enquires to TNK. However, we still remained slightly skeptical prior to arriving in Hanoi. Within hours of arriving, however, we were reassured that we were in good hands and that we were going to have a marvellous experience. The tour surpassed our expectations.

We wish TNK much success for the future. We expect that your company will eventually displace North American tour companies as the leading choce for tours to Indochina.

Sincerely,

Virjon
Ontario, Canada

Jeff Elliott
Feedback on Mekong Delta Tour

My daughter and I joined a tour of the Mekong delta aboard the Le Cochinchine during the early part of June.

We very much enjoyed the trip, the accomodation on board was very good (we appreaciated the air conditioning!)

The food was good and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

Overall, it was a fantastic expereince which was well organised and executed. I would not hesitate to use your services again.

Regards

Jeff Elliott

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.

Mr. Anne Porter
Thank you to everyone at TNK Travel

Good morning,

Yesterday we arrived back form our most enjoyable holiday in Vietnam and we would like to thank you for all your help and assistance in arranging this trip for us.

Some comments :

• We were very happy with the transfers provided – all good cars, with careful and polite, friendly drivers
• The Grand Hotel in Saigon was very nice and in an excellent location for both shopping and sightseeing
• The Quoc Hoa Hotel in Hanoi was also very pleasant and comfortable with very friendly staff and also in a first class location in the old quarter allowing us to easily walk around and enjoy this fascinating area.
• The Bai Tho Junk tour was absolutely first class – lovely accommodation, very friendly staff and excellent food
• We were very glad to helped us choose to stay at the Ana Mandara in Nha Trang – a superb hotel and we really enjoyed our rest and relaxation there
• Our tour to the tunnels at Cu Chi was memorable with an excellent tour guide and driver

I’d like to make special mention of two of your staff – Dac Danh who handled the final part of our booking was very thorough and helpful and Hian (Moon) who was our tour guide to Cu Chi was very interesting and knowledgeable with a great sense of humour. They both speak excellent English which made it much easier for us.

I note from some of the reviews on sites like Trip Advisor that some people have complained about your company and your service. I have posted a review to let people know how good we have found your services. The link is below. 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-Our_Excellent_Vietnam_Trip_with_TNK_Travel Vietnam.html

I would make only one suggestion – the payment procedure is quite complicated and I believe you would get more overseas customers if you were able to accept credit card payments online.

Thank you once again to you and your staff for a wonderful visit to Vietnam. We loved your country and would like to come back again and see more of it as well as Cambodia and if we do I will most certainly be in touch with you again. In the meantime I will be recommending you to any of our friends who want to visit Vietnam.

Kind Regards

Anne Porter

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)

Doreen Neo (from Singapore)
Thank you, TNK Travel

My friend, Poon Ee Ping and myself had signed up for a 10 days customised package with TNK Travel in May 2006. We had enjoyed ourselves a lot. TNK Travel had taken good care of us during our trip. The tour guides were very friendly and helpful. The accomodation we had during our stay throughout Vietnam was good. The lunch catered for us were great too.

I would recommend my friends to sign up with TNK Travel if they go to Vietnam. Thanks once again.