dheathco

I am developing an itinerary for a vacation to Vietnam and thought I might use Tonkin Travel as our travel company. Has anyone had first hand experience with this company and if so would you recommend them?

Smeagol

I have first hand experince (just got back from Vietnam)they were EXCELLENT. They didn't book all my accomodation as i could get the Park Hyatt cheaper on what a hotel.com but their service was very good,their rates for hotels etc were far cheaper than i could get in Hanoi and halong and my many mnay emails were answered (almost) promptly (sometimes there are emails issues with emails originating in VN)

dheathco

Thank you Smeagol. I have been communicating with Tonkin for a week now and they have been fantastic in answering my emails promptly. On one occasion a reply came back within 10 mins! I have researched their recommendations for hotels etc on trip adviser and everything they are suggesting is looking very positive. I am nearly at the stage of taking the mighty leap and saying "please book", but I am looking for some last minute reassurance that I have chosen the right company.

Did you do an overnight on a Halong Bay junk and if so, which one?

Smeagol

Ye we did we chose Valentine and we were very pleased with it. Only 5 cabins and docks at night with only 2 boats near it so you feel you are in a more secluded area.
Which hotel have you picked for Hanoi?

Craig

We used Tonkin last April and I can also highly recommend them. Click on my name to access my trip report.

dheathco

I'm thinking we will stay at the Hong Ngoc 1 Hotel in the Old Quarter. A friend stayed here earlier this year and recommended it, as did Tonkin. Tonkin have suggested Hai Long Suite 4* junk, but I am unable to find a great deal about this one on the web. Hotel Celadon in Hue and Ving Hung Resort in Hoi An. Duxton Hotel in Saigon. Almost forgot - Sunrise Hotel on Cat Ba Island for one night also. Decisions, decisions!!

mohan

Decisions decisions is right. The good news is Vietnam is still very affordable. I did all the booking on my own for my Vietnam trip and it was easy. Most hotels can be booked through Agoda or directly thru their websites. Once you book the hotel, email them and ask for a pick up from the airport. it's average US$15 per ride. When you are there, your hotel will help you with the tour guides, boats and day trips and what not. I think the hotel industry is competitive and they all try hard to please. I did the Ha long classic which was great. It's about $98 per person. It's a small boat with six or seven cabins and there were only six passengers including me and dh and excluding the crew members. The food was good too. I personally do not like crowds. There are very big boats with several stories parking next to us and people on those boats were doing karaoke in the middle of the beautiful serene peaceful setting of the ha long Bay. It's good to find out everything about the boat and the hotels (from trip advisor) before you book.

dheathco

Thank you 'Mohan'. Like you I definitly don't want to be doing the karaoke in Halong Bay - I will be asking lots of questions about the size of the Junk etc when I book it.

Smeagol

Valentine sounds like it would really fit your requirements.

You can still be an independant traveller and use Tonkin, they simply got rates i just couldn't get AND took some of the hassle out of booking transfer.
I also used Comeandgo.com for Cu Chi and Transfers from Saigon. They too were EXCELLENT (in fact the cars they used were the best)

G2T

Used Tonkin for 9 day trip for most arrangements. I think Tonkin is best if you have a good idea of what you want to do and where you want to stay. They also got better rates than I could on my own for most (but not all) hotels. Their guides and transfers were also mostly excellent.

travelsusan

DO NOT USE TONKIN UNLESS YOU WANT LOTS OF AGGRAVATION AND WASTED ENERGY ON YOUR PRECIOUS VACATION TIME. WE HAD VERY POOR GUIDES AND AN AWFUL DRIVER WHO REFUSED TO DO AS ASKED. FURTHER MARTIN YELLING AT THE CLIENT WHEN THEY HAVE GIVEN TOTALLY FRUSTRATING AND INADQUATE SERVICE.

scomars

'Martin yelling at the client'? Travelsusan - Sorry but can you please further clarify what happened actually?

Smeagol

Well Susan sorry about your exeprience with Tonkin, but now you are shouting at us with those capitals (LOL)

As i have previously stated we had very good service with Tonkin, however they did not book any guides for us as i prefere to do this idependantly (and it seems now this was a good call) however the rates they got for hotel i simply could not get elsewhere.

travelsusan

Tonkin provided very poor guides and kept promising to make it better. This led to many hours during the trip of having to speak with them and often find better guides ourselves. A driver provided spoke no English so I asked that if I made three simple requests he would accomodate for return trip. This did not happen and I felt like a prisoner in the vehicle. I finally spoke to Martin who was never a voice nor presence in any of the conversations and he yelled at me because we had made complaints about the poor service. I do not recommend this company to anyone, so much of our precious time was wasted in aggravation as they never followed thru with what was promised.

rhkkmk

i have begun working with tonkin and am very pleased with their promptness and offerings

Smeagol

Can i also mention that it is VERY unusual to get an English speaking driver in Vietnam. (we used comeandgovietnam in HCMC and Tim told me they are very hard to get). It wasn't a problem as they guy we had for the 3 time via them was on time, drove safetly and got us where we needed to go! I do understand the frustration of not being able to communicate but the times the driver stopped we always found someone who spoke Vietnamese/English so we could comminicate.

losaltos

We used Tonkin for our recent 17-day stay in VN. In general I was happy with their service. We did have one problem with an unprofessional driver (young kid who gave a ride to his buddy and they talked at tp of their voices all the way from airport to Hanoi + took us to the wrong hotel!) and on one occasion I had to check on flight departure time because we had gotten contradictory info. So I'd say good in general but do stay up on things just in case.

travelsusan

December 09 - January 10 my friend and I used Tonkin for guides, Jasmine boat on Halong Bay and the driver from Hanoi to Halong during our visit to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

I definitely do not recommend Tonkin. Our guides were not knowledgeable nor was their level of English acceptable. We spent much of our precious time speaking to Tonkin requesting better guides and making our own arrangements. The driver supplied to go to Halong Bay spoke no English and was completely unaccomodating.

I would not recommend that anyone use Tonkin as they did not provide any of the services promised.

rhkkmk

i have booked with tonkin and am pleased with what we will do....i do not have any of their guides however

dheathco

We arrived home from two weeks in Vietnam and had the most amazing holiday. Tonkin organised all our transport and accomodation, however I researched the hotels well before I gave them the go ahead to book them. Our guides were wonderful young men; all tourism graduates who spoke excellent English. Our drivers did not speak English, but were extremely competent and we felt very safe with them at all times. The cars were all very modern, air conditioned and extremely clean.
The language barrier on the days when we had a non Eng. speaking driver (no guide those days) who took us to Halong Bay and back again was not really a barrier at all.He was very conscious of our comfort at all times and we had many laughs as we established a relationship with him over the couple of days.
The junk on Halong Bay we had a night on was beautiful. Tonkin could not have chosen better for us.
Everything ran to plan beautifully. Our guides and drivers were punctual every day and never made us feel they were working to a timed schedule. We never really knew when the day would end sometimes as our guides just wanted to please us so much.

Again, I will say how impressed we were with Tonkin Travel. I am sure if you take the time to explain well how you like to 'holiday' and provide as much information about yourselves as possible they will tailor a fantastic holiday for you at very competitive rates.