Testimonials from our FORMER CLIENTS
We are proud to be so highly recommended by our former clients. Arriving from locations around the world, our Tonkin-Travelers recognize the impact that decent advice, meticulous planning and punctuality really do make a difference to the end product (your trip!). This is a result of the hard work from our whole team. We invite you to get to know them! (Reviews from our customers on Tripadvisor) : https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d12132013-Reviews-Tonkin_Voyage_Travel-Hanoi.html
The itinerary was excellent and well paced
Dear Vy,
Yes ... we arrived home on Friday morning about 30 hours after our pickup from Palm Garden resort ... so we were very tired and it took a couple of days for our heads and bodies to be synchronised again!
All is well now and we have only great memories of our trip and I've already spent a few hours sorting out the hundreds of photos we took with camera and phones. Some of the very best of these were taken by our guides.
The itinerary was excellent and well paced and we got a brilliant reception at all the hotels and Halong Cruise, with our anniversary mentioned and gifts of fruit and wine. And superb upgrades on the Cruise and at Palm Garden Resort!
The only hotel that didn't mention it was the Villa Santi in Luang Prabang. But please don't take this as a criticism !.... it's just for completion of feedback, we had a really nice room there!
Saigon and Can Tho:
It was good to have the morning free after our arrival and we had a great tour in the afternoon with Tony as our guide. He was very good.
Tam was our guide and chef for Cu Chi and our cooking class. That was such a fun day and Tam was just amazing ... so enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The driver was excellent also.
The Silverland Sakyo is a lovely hotel in a great location.!
The West Hotel in Can Tho was beautiful and our bed was festooned with flowers and a towel sculpture. Special mention to Jeanne! But breakfast was disappointing.
Hue, our guide, was teriffic and we enjoyed our tours with him.
Siem Riep:
Probably the most memorable location of our trip. We were blown away by our visits to the various Temple groups.
Our guide here, Kom, was absolutely amazing. Definitely the best guide of the trip ... from his knowledge and his care for us .... also have to to mention the driver Smaja (I think)
Kom was so knowledgeable and passionate about the temples and their amazing history. We learned so much from him and he took such excellent pictures which we will treasure.
Hotel Saem Siem Riep was also excellent and we enjoyed the Apsara Dance Show too.
Luang Prabang:
It was nice and unexpected to be met at the airport by our guide KL and driver Song when we arrived.
The trek next day was a real challenge at 13km in the heat and humidiity but we were so pleased we accomplished it and it was great to see the Hmong and Khmu villages and the waterfalls at the end of the trip. Our guide here was KL and we would rate him only 7/10, mostly because he was constantly distracted and on his phone.
The following day's cruise "Nava Mekong Cruise" was really enjoyable and interesting.
Hanoi
Chien, our guide, was superb with a great sense of humour and anxious to inform us as much as possible. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with him! He went out of his way with little extras for us which we really appreciated and it was fun to be with him. We also very much enjoyed meeting with you in the Tonkin office! Also, a great driver with Chien.
As I told you, our one regret is not having allowed an extra night in Hanoi!
And by the way, lunch at Home Mộc restaurant was top class.
Halong Bay:
We were completely blown away by the reception on the boat. We were shown to the best cabin and another display of flowers and towel sculpture.
Philip, the Cruise Director, was so kind to us. Halong Bay was. of course, amazing..... and the surprise cake and fireworks at dinner really topped it all.
It was a great evening and thanks so much to you for your input!
The only negative was regarding the boat trip to the cave. We were brought by boat to a pier to be transferred to the bamboo boats to visit the cave. There was total chaos on the pier with hundreds of people pushing and jostling and we had to wait over 30 minutes to get onto the bamboo boat. Irene felt very uncomfortable during this time.
Hoi An:
The second negative we have to report for the whole trip: We were not at all happy with the driver of our transfer from the Da Nang airport to the Palm Garden Resort. Sorry we haven't got his name but his driving was (to us) erratic and aggressive and left us feeling nervous on the relatively short transfer!
Our guide next day took us on a very enjoyable walking tour of Hoi An. An excellent guide, and we really enjoyed trying to make lanterns and the lunch we had in the market. Sorry, but I've mislaid his name. We thought Hoi An was fascinating even though it was crowded with tourists (as you had told us!)
Palm Garden Resort:
We really enjoyed our six nights here ... especially as we were upgraded to a beautiful bungalow .... thanks again to you Vy! It was nice to get a few lazy days before going home.
In Summary:
We were totally satisfied with our trip and the communications and input from Tonkin and would absolutely have no hesitation in recommending Tonkin (and Vy!)
We're very happy to be used as a reference for prospective travellers. and for Tonkin to use this review if they wish..
Dear Vy, We will certainly recommend you and Tonkin to any of our friends who might be planning a trip to Indochina. and maybe we'll come again for the 50th!!
At the outset I said this was to be a very special anniversary trip for us and I'm delighted to say it far exceeded our expectations!
Thanks so much for all your help.
Regards and best wishes
John and Irene ☺
COLLINS group x2
Indochina Odyssey 20 Days
Overall, it was great
Jennifer,
Overall, it was great. Everything went very smoothly. Below are some specific comments.
Hanoi. The hotel in Hanoi was terrific. It was our favorite hotel of the trip. We liked our guide, who was a very nice person although he could’ve provided more information about the country and the sites we were visiting.
Halong (spelling?) harbor. This was another highlight of the trip. The ship was superb. The staff was great, the room was excellent and the food was very good. Needless to say the scenery was spectacular.
Hue/Hoi An. The guide we had here was fine, but not as good as the other two guides we had. The hotels were fine, although we were somewhat disappointed in our room in Hoi An, which was far from the beach and the pool.
One of the highlights of this part of the trip was the basket boats. Our guide on the boat was terrific — charming and a lot of fun. I’d recommend you use him as much as possible.
Ho Chi Minh City. Our guide in the city was terrific. We were with her for two days, and enjoyed every minute of it. She was clearly the best of the three guides we had and we strongly recommend you use her whenever possible.
As for the sites, we very much enjoyed the Mekong Delta. Our hotel was very nice, and well located, though we would have preferred a room that looked out onto the street.
As I said, overall the trip was great. All of our drivers were very good, and you were very responsive throughout the trip. (Among other things, we appreciated the gifts and the cake.) We would definitely recommend Tonkin Travel to others.
Best,
Jay
JAY group x2
Spirit Of Vietnam South Bound 13 Days
We had a very enjoyable trip in Vietnam and Cambodia
Dear Jennifer,
Firstly let me thank you for the excellent support provided by yourself all through the trip both in Vietnam and Cambodia.
We had a very enjoyable trip, where our time was very well organized so that we had could do the most in the limited time we had.
The hotels were very good with good services .
The restaurants organized by you were good and we enjoyed all the local cuisine very much.
The guides who were assigned to us were very knowledgeable and they took every effort to give all the historical perspectives and give us all help and guidance during the trip.
Overall, all the sites , cruises, travels organized were excellent and thank you once again for excellent Service given..
Thanking You,
Kind regards
V P Manohar
Nalini Manohar
MANOHAR group x2
Essence Of Vietnam & Cambodia 15 Days
So all in all a wonderful, wonderful trip
Hello Vy
Many thanks for your letter received just now. I was meaning to write to you this week!! We travelled on to Singapore from Siem Reap and returned home last Weds. The overnight flight from Singapore was 13 Hours and I must admit we were very tired for the next few days. We feel better this week and have more energy to get on with our lives back here.
Vy, we do thank you and Tonkin Voyage Travel for the all the work you did to make our trip so enjoyable and so well organised. All the hotels were of a very good standard but I would particularly single out The Dragon Boat cabin, the Hotel Romance at Hue for amazing spacious suite and bathroom, Cozy Villas where the staff were so lovely and caring and always smiling and the Niche d'Ankor in Siem Reap where we had a lovely poolside room. We always looked forward to coming back after our temple explorations and our guide Bok was very flexible so that we started early at 7:30 or 8am to avoid crowds and intense heat. In fact the whole trip was a delight - we enjoyed the overnight trains to and from Sapa enormously. Vietnam Airlines was wonderfully organised and comfortable.
We have your lovely gift of red laquered plates put to good use in our house and they remind us already of our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia!! We achieved and learned so much about Vietnam and were amazed at how well the country is developing.
All the guides were very courteous, professional and hard working and we particularly enjoyed our time with Chien in Hanoi, Van and Linh were very knowledgeable in Hue and Hoi An which are both beautiful cities. Bella was very caring in Saigon and even got some medicine for Nigel who suffered with a cough and a cold at the time. Bok in Siem Reap was very knowledgable on all the temples He took us on a bike ride one afternoon, where we ended up chatting to locals and tasting palm oil wine off the beaten track, in the shade of some trees....
The drivers were wonderful. Always had a good clean comfortable car with stocks of cold water and cold wipes for us.
So all in all a wonderful, wonderful trip.
We will pass on our recommendations to our friends if they are thinking about a trip to your area and you never know, we might come back too!!
Thank you again
Best wishes Mary and Nigel XX
MARY group x2
Highlights of Vietnam & Cambodia 20 Days
Your organisation of the trip was wonderful
Hi Thao,
We arrived home safely and had a great time in Indochina. Your organisation of the trip was wonderful and we enjoyed the whole experience. We have already recommended your company to our friends.
My comments about our experience:
The hotels were all good. We particularly enjoyed the boutique hotels. Our favourite was the Silverland Yen Hotel in Saigon closely followed by the Nam Bo Boutique hotel in Can Tho. The least favourite was the Okay Boutique hotel in Phnom Penh, it was away from the centre of the city. Our room in the Hanoi Allure hotel in Hanoi was noisy as it fronted on to the street. Most of the hotels were well located making exploring the areas easy.
The guides were all good and knowledgeable and most spoke English quite well. Terry who guided us in Hanoi was hardest to understand as he spoke quickly. He also walked fast which rushed us a bit.
We enjoyed our time in Laos. The 9 kilometre walk through the jungle to the waterfall was enjoyed by me, but Pene found it too long and if we had realised it was 9 kilometres she would not have done it. We did not realise it at the time but we missed out on visiting the cave and the Khmu village of Ban Thapene.
The 7.30 am start in Phnom Pehn was too early as the hotel breakfast did not start until 6.45 and then we had to wait for the palace to open as it was only a few minutes away and did not open until 8 am.
We found the pace of the tour good (being a private tour we were not held up by the slowest person on the bus) as it gave us time to ourselves to relax etc after each days experiences.
Our favourite parts of the tour were:
- The visit to the La Chu village,
- The time in the Mekong delta,
- The Vespa scooter evening in Hanoi,
- The elephant ride in Laos.
Because it took us over 2 hours to obtain our visa on arrival in Vietnam, I would recommend that visas be obtained before entering the country. Visa’s on arrival were no problem in Laos and Cambodia.
Thank you for all your help, the trip exceeded our expectations.
All the best,
Norm Day
Norman group x2
Inside Indochina 18 days