I recently spent time in HCMC and surrounding areas on a school history trip which had 10 travellers on board. We searched the web and found AnAn2 hotel, (whom we booked a few days) they forwarded our itinerary ideas to TNK Travel. Within a short time and some emails between TNK & us, we had our itinerary set with a budget direct from Vietnam which could not be beaten in NZ. Arriving at the airport we met our fabulous tour guide. He had so much information and answered all of our questions in English. He was never late and offered us a few extra stops and changed a few things as we wished. Vietnam is a most extroadinary place to visit the people have big hearts, and nothing is too much trouble as we dsicovered at the hotels and restaurants we visited which had been booked by TNK. The food was delicious whereever we were. TNK's driver got us from A-Z without a hitch in a country where driving would be a challenge for most visitors. When outside HCMC TNK had other tour guides to meet us, equally with plenty of information on the area we were visiting, I would recommend both TNK Travel and AnAn2 hotel (which is right next door) to anyone visiting Vietnam. They are situated in the heart of District 1 HCMC where there is an array of street life 24/7. We had a great trip and I would like to return.

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

Recently we completed a customized trip to Vietnam which you planned . My wife and I were very pleased with the entire trip, and the guides who escorted us. I can highly recommend TNK Travel, and have done so to all who ask. Please feel free to use us as a reference.

Thanks for a memorable trip!

Quinn Waterloo

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.

Dear Luu Vo!

At the end of our Vietnam travel I would like to thank you very much for the organisation of our Mekong Delta tour, which was really a great pleasure for our family. It was also a pleasure to meet your local guide and to see so many interesting spots of your beautiful country.

Best regards, Marianne Kant

Hi,
My wife and i have just completed a trip of Vietnam and the Saigon part of our tour was run by TNK.i am full of praise for our guide and driver, Mr Loc and Mr Tung? and the way things were run by your company. Please feel free to use my name and e/mail as a reference. Many thanks and hope we can return in the future.
Paul

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)

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.

Hello!!! I had great time visiting Chau Doc. Great people specially loved the food like the time i was in Rhodes.....!!!!

Kisses laoura

Hi Dzung Trinh,

As a photographer, I have been travelling South East Asia for 17 years. I have been to vietnam many many times. However this was the highest rating I can ever give to a Vietnam tour operator. I would give a Double A for satifaction index. Worth mentioning is Luc, the tour guide with us to Sapa. Although new in the guide tour business, he really take time to see that we are taken cared of. He eat only when he sees we are well seated. Prompt and courteous, he is always there when needed. The hotel staff in Hanoi are also great. Very courteous and accommodating.

I would like to say that the pinnacle of our journey is the surprise New Year's dinner in a cave in Halong bay. We were all taken aback with the setting, live musician, candle light dinner. It is simply magica. The 7 piece acoustic band played really well ( I was a sound engineer in London )

I am glad the tour turned out extremely well because I have hesitant in the beginning as I don't know your company. Definitely I will recommend your company to our friends.

Once again, thank you for a wonderful experince with my family.

Regards,

Kete Go Cedenio