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)

Garth
TNK
Tnk provided me with flawless service. As an American travelling alone in Viet Nam I was a little nervous before my departure, but the entire staff was very kind to me - always making sure that I was comfortable, informed and where I needed to be on time. Highly recommended both for price and quality of service. -G

Penny and her Group
Thank you Note

Dear Miss Nhu Y,

Thank you for arranging the Vietnam tour for us from the 17 Dec to 24 Dec.

We enjoyed ourselves tremendously and we truly appreciate your quick response to our feedback.
Thank you for the 3 star hotel you picked for us which far exceeded our expectation, and birthday party for our group.

We enjoyed the Chinese dinner, and the beautiful ancient style restaurants at Hue and Hoi Ann and our only regret is that we have not arranged for more shopping time.

I also wish to specially commend our tour guide in Hue and Hoi ann for his professionalism and also wish him happiness and success.


Thank You once again.


Cheers!

Penny and her Group

robert fitzpatrick
www.perfect4u.com

just wanted to say what a great website. we at perfect4u.com are looking for holidays to sell for our clients and Vietnam is such a wonderful place to visit, so perfect4u and the people are so friendly.

thanks

rob and team
perfect4u

Ron & Myra Such
Thanks

We had a lot of dealings with Miss Hang Vo (TNK Travel) at De Tham Street, HCM City.
We found Miss Vo to be the best Agent we have come across in Vietnam. She was very helpful in every way and helped us with any problems we had.
We have travelled in Vietnam on 6 different occasions, and never had better service.
We recommend Miss Vo to anyone worldwide for any dealings you have in South East Asia..
We met her personally in HCM and found her to be very charming,
she is now a friend for life.

kmroberts
Thanks

To the management, TNK travel. (HCMC and Ha Noi)

Recently, I was one of a party of 4 people to visit Vietnam. Our bookings with your company were under the name of Mrs. Jane Rosemary Fowler & party. The "party" consisting of my wife and myself and Jane's husband, Barry.

Jane Fowler belongs to a group of Australian nurses who exchange places with Vietnamese nurses, in order to have an understanding of nursing conditions existing in both countries.

This was Jane's 2nd visit to Vietnam and we were to arrive at the end of her attachment and then go touring together. Jane, being "on-the-spot," was able to arrange hotel bookings for us and told us not to try and book any tours from Australia, as the nurses always used "An excellent local travel agent!" This being TNK!

Having now experienced the services provided by TNK, I must congratulate you on your organisation and agree that it is "Excellent" in all respects.

We enjoyed our tour to the Mekong Delta immensely,- with courier Dong.

The tour to Cau Dai and Cu Chi was just as good,- with courier "Slim Jim!"

In both cases, we were impressed to note that one of the girls from the office came out and stuck signs on the various buses' side windows,- telling which tour each bus was going on. This small touch made things much easier for couriers and passengers to sort themselves out. It is small touches like this that make a big difference to customers!

Special mention must be made of the service provided by Ms Nhu Y at HCMC office.

We had made a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see once we left HCMC and handed this to one of the girls in the office, she and 2 others looked at it and decided it needed someone with more experience and so we met Ms Nhu. She knew exactly what was needed and discussed everything with us and then told us to come back at 2:30pm to see the results of her labours! This was a Sunday and when we returned at 3pm, she was still hard at it. We later discovered, while talking to the office girls, that Ms Nhu was supposed to finish at 1pm! She was doing our itinerary and bookings in her own time and it was getting on for 5pm when we finished!!

Her hard work paid off, because everything went exactly to plan. She explained that not all tickets were on hand, but that everything we would need for onward travel would be e-mailed to us at the hotels she had booked for us. This worried us a bit initially, but it worked perfectly!!

She also explained that TNK's Ha Noi representative would contact us with tickets etc for our tours from Ha Noi and to Laos.

Mr Chung, at Ha Noi, came to our hotel. He went through our itinerary with us and made some excellent suggestions which we adopted with thanks. He said that we didn't want to be wandering around trying to get transport from the railway station at Lao Cai up to Sa Pa and he'd organise that and for the same taxy to collect us for the return trip later on. In due course, he escorted us to the station, led us to the train and our carriage and to our sleeping compartment. He would meet us at Ha Noi station on our return, take us back to our hotel for breakfast and make sure that our transport down to Ha Long arrived on time. When, a few days later, we arrived back from Ha Long, he came to our hotel and gave us our airline tickets for Laos and our vouchers for our hotels.

Both Ms Nhu and Mr Chung went above and beyond the normal course of duty to make our travels a smooth and hassle-free experience and we thank them for their efforts on our behalf.

You must be congratulated on your organisation as a whole. We hope that TNK remains a very successful business and does indeed look Towards the Next Millenium!!

Our regards. Mike and Kathleen Roberts. Corowa. Australia

Stephan Bates
A wonderful trip to Dac Danh Vietnam

Dear Mr Dac Danh

We have recently arrived back home in England following our tour of Vietnam and Cambodia with your company and felt we must write to you to let you know what a fantastic time we had in your beautiful country. We were thoroughly impressed with all our guides and drivers with their knowledge, consideration and professionalism. Everyone we met in Vietnam was extremely friendly and welcoming.

In particular we would like you to pass on our grateful thanks to Mr. Ky in Ho Chi Minh city who was extremely knowledgeable and a wonderful ambassador for your country. We will certainly be recommending his services to any friends of ours who may be visiting in the future.

Please also pass on our good wishes to Cheng in Cambodia and Cam in Hue - both of whom made our visits to their areas extremely enjoyable.

Finally may we also ask you to pay a particular thanks Hoa in Hanoi for making the last few days of our stay so memorable and also amusing. He was a great guide and good company, we hope one day to be able to return to Hanoi and hope that Hoa may be able to be our guide for a trip into Sapa. We shall certainly be recommending him to friends.

Many, many thanks for all your assistance and looking forward to seeing you again some time in the future when we return to Vietnam again.

Yours sincerely,

Ho Dac Nguyen
thank you !

I knew TNK since 3 years.Just one word for those who read this message :You can really trust them !!!!
Special thanks to Mrs Pham Nhu,Miss Thao,M.Duy !!!
Rendez-vous to the next year !

Ho Dac Nguyen

Janis Lindblom
Indochina Tour

My husband & I have just arrived home to Australia after a sensational three week private/tailored tour to Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos. Our holiday was arranged by TNK Travel & they have been absolutely fantastic! From my first email inquiry to the tour operator staff & the immediate response from Luu Vo with a prosposed itinery. The second contact person was Dac Danh in sales & the bookings of all our hotels, flights, tours & lunches were exceptional. Finally our guides & drivers in all three countries were all excellent (especially "JJ" in HCM and Hui from Hue). They were very professional, knowledgeable & ensured our comfort & safety at all times. It was a stress & hassle free experience from beginning to end which becomes important as we get older. We now have every intention of returning to spend more time in HCM and Hanoi & to visit other towns & villages that we did not get to this time.

We will definitely use TNK Travel again next time as we believe it would be impossible to get better value and service by any other means. We highly recommend!
Thank you all for making this our best holiday ever!

mp
Thanks

Dear Dzung,
 
I just had an e-mail from my friend Martin Purvis about his trip to Vietnam. He is absolutely delighted with all the work you did. Thanks for taking such good care of him. I'm not surprised. As I tell everyone, TNK is the best outfit in Vietnam! Martin says he is hoping to go to Cambodia on his next trip. Can you help in Cambodia?
Here is what Martin wrote about you:

"Our visit to Viet Nam was fantastically good, and I very much appreciate for your advice and assistance.  I never met Djung in person, but we spoke on the phone a few times, and his arrangements were all superb.  Even though we arrived two days late because of a travel snafu, he managed to rearrange all of our excursions.  He also arranged for us to have vegetarian food throughout our trip.  I would heartily recommend his organisation to anyone else."
 
Great work! Maybe you should put his comments on your website.

Please send us pictures of your new baby! Can you sleep through the night yet?
 
Thanks again for all you did for my friend.
 
All the best,
mp