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!

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

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.

Corrado Ariaudo & Carla Vidra
Dear Mr. Dzung Trinh

Dear Mr. Dzung Trinh and Mr Danh,

For the time been everything was absolutely fine and the assistance from your organization has been very professional. We will certanly advise our friends in Italy to address to TNK Travel for their holidays in VietNam.

Corrado Ariaudo & Carla Vidra

Jim & Bev Fisher
Thank you

My wife and I have visited Vietnam twice now 1st time in 2007 then again in 2008. We have nothing but praise for tnk travel. They sorted out our itenerary and booked the hotels for us. It was an excellent experience.So much so that we are returning in 2009. You can be sure that we will be using tnk travel again, keep up the good work and see you again soon.

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)

Gerry Breislin
Vietnam packaged tour

Dear Ms Hang Vo,

Apologies for not writing sooner. We've been back in Sydney now for almost a month but our holiday in Vietnam seems ages ago now.

We would like thank you for all you help in organising our itinerary on our recent trip to Vietnam . The hotels were excellent with very comfortable accommodation and great service. Breakfasts were excellent although we thought the Hilton in Hanoi had the best croissants!

We had a good balance of organised tours and free time and we particularly enjoyed the cooking class in Hoi An. The tours of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Chu Chi tunnels were fascinating. The trip to Ha Lung Bay was quite long, but the cruise at the end of it was worthwhile.

They tour guides and drivers you organised were punctual and attentive and it was a great relief to meet them when we arrived at the various airports. Their stories and descriptions and the information they provided was very interesting and helped paint a fuller picture of Vietnam for us. They were able to answer most of our questions and through our conversations with them, we were able to learn something about their own lives in Vietnam.

We did have a little difficulty understanding our first guide in Hanoi, but he made up for it with his enthusiasm. The other three guides all had very good English.
Please pass on our thanks to each of them.

I have already passed on your details to a friend and would have no hesitation about using you again or recommending your company to others wishing to visit your beautiful country.

Kind regards

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.

Sascha
trip to Vietnam with TNK

Me and my wife were looking for accomodation and some trips around Ho Chi Min, Mui Ne and Me Kon River.

We are currently in China and it was quite dificult to arrange everything from Shanghai. So I searched the web and found TNK. Those guys replied inmediately with detailed plan for Vietnam round trip and very good prices.

You always have doubts when you contact people you don't know. You never know if they are going to give you what they promise or not. But with TNK it went all good from the begining. They answerd all my emails with questions about the country and the trip. And once we arrived there they delivered an outstanding service. We got everything we asked for.

We were picked up, and were driven everywhere in a personal car with A/C which was very pleaseing in a hot place like Vietnam.

I will hardly recomend TNK to travel around Vietnam. You will be in good hands! It certainly takes all troubles involving the trip away.

Sarah Milsome
Flight booking ( 5/15/2007 )/ Ms. Milsome

I would just like to say thank you for organising our travel arrangements.

We had a wonderful time in Viet Nam and the accommodation was fabulous! Now it’s back to work to pay for the shopping we did!

Thanks very much

sarah