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

Thom Stephens
Thank you! (from Thom Stephens)

Hello,

I arrived back in the U.S. last night and wanted to send you a quick email.

Our trip to Vietnam was fantastic. Thank you very much! Everything was perfect-even the weather was beautiful while we were there.

The hotel was great, the tours were very good and Mr. Ha and Mr. Kong (driver) were very polite, punctual and informative.

Everything you arranged was perfect and I will be recommending TNK Travel to anyone traveling to Vietnam in the future.

Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Thom Stephens

Max & Lorraine Brown
Vietnam Trip

Dear Dzung Trinh,
Now that we are home in New Zealand my wife and I wish to thank you and your staff for making our stay in Vietnam such a wonderful experience.
We enjoyed every moment of our stay and all our travel and transfers went completely smoothly for which we have to thank TNK Travel.
Your country and people have left a lasting impression on us. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. We would love to return and will recommend to any of our friends, thinking of travelling, that they visit Vietnam, particularly Ho Chi Minh city, and that they contact TNK Travel.

Thanks again for your assistance.
Best regards to you all.
Max & Lorraine Brown.

Mr. Chris Kostrzak
Packaged tour (Sep 24 - Oct 5)

Hello Ms Hang
 
It was my pleasure to see you again
I'd call you from Hanoi but unfortunately it was your day off work .
I would like to thank you for excellent holiday , all hotels , points of interest and tours are very well organise . I will recommend you to all my friend  as the best travel office in Vietnam and Asia area.
 
Thanks again
With best regard
Chris Kostrzak

Karon Grimmer
Fabulous TNK Travel Guides

I have just returned from my first experience in Vietnam. The week that I spent with a large group from Wagga Wagga in Ho Chi Minh City was absolutely fabulous. Our guides Gaing and Bing were incredibly knowledgable about the culture and experiences that we had in HCMC, Cu Chi, Meekong and Long Tan. Thier communication skills and sense of humour was enjoyed by everyone in our group. A huge thanks to TNK and our guides Gaing and Bing! I can't wait to visit again someday!

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)

Daina Valanciene
The tour was above our expectations

We, the group of 6, started our tour in Hanoi on January 3, 2008. We had chosen the authentic Vietnam tour -16 days/15 nights, however, excluded Lao Cai and Sapa because of cold weather there. Instead we prolonged our stay in Nha Trang where the weather forecast promised sunshine and heat. We stayed in 4* hotels and were pleasantly surprised by much higher quality of services in comparison to European 4* hotels. Asia Paradise hotel in Nha Trang, where we had been offered senior deluxe rooms because our 4* hotel was fully booked for those days, was the greatest discovery as we had not seen such excellent 3* accomodation anywhere else.

The tour guides -we had 4 guides in different cities - spoke good English, were always punctual and efficient and provided us with much valuable new information on Vietnamese culture and history. We were fascinated by Halong bay trip - the nature was amazing, the rooms were convenient and the food was varied and delicious. If we had been sure about the weather in Halong bay, we would have stayed on boat 2 nights instead of the one. We found the floating market in Mekong delta- a must to see-very impressive. The war museum made a shocking impression on us. Our flight from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh city was delayed because of the weather so the travel agency took the decision to get us there by coach saving us half of the next tour day in Ho Chi Minh city.

We have not seen the tribes in the North, have not been to Dalat and stayed too few days in Ho Chi Minh city this time. We hope to return to Vietnam next year to see these sites. We have previously been to Thailand, south of China, Cambodia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia and we make comparisons but the tour to Vietnam has exceeded all the expectations.

In the name of the whole group I would like to thank Mr. Dzung Trinh and Ms Nhu Y for their efforts to organise the best available vacation and we would undoubtedly recommend this travel agency to friends.

Daina Valanciene
Lithuania

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

Andrew & Jane Pitt
Feedback

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