Travelmarvel Tour & Cruise Reviews

We thoroughly enjoyed this trip. Some of the hotels were magnificent especially the one at Yala National Park. Some of the hotels were dated and needed renovations, all were comfortable. I think this tour had been outsourced as usually with Travelmarvel most meals and accompanying drinks are included and some people were irritated by having to buy their meals. More emphasis needed to be placed on the fitness level required as some of our group were certainly not up to climbing the number of steps at some sights.

What a cruise - fantastic, a great experience. Let's start with Global Journeys - Yvonne was faultless, found us a great deal, organised our flights, looked after us really well - highly recommended. Travelmarvel - our cruise co-ordinator Jude went out of her way to ensure we had the best time and that we got the best out of our cruise, really looked after any little problem for everybody. The boat "Sapphire" was great - cabins quite comfortable and a good size. The on board entertainment was great, we were kept well fed, hydrated, entertained, informed and worry free.

This cruise travels through some very scenic and beautiful river valleys and towns, the onshore excursions ensure you experience another lifestyle in many different countries with castles, churches, buildings and unlimited history. Your cruise can be as relaxed or as busy as you wish, there are things to do everyday or you can choose to stay and relax, no pressure. Another great thing - the ship has a maximum of 150 passengers which means a great social atmosphere and the opportunity to make many new friends.

Had a wonderful time travelling from Capetown to Tanzania, via a number of fantastic highlight experiences. Some of the most memorable bucket-list animal encounters you could ever imagine. Seeing 4 cheetah brothers posing for a National Geographic photo on a termite mound, then picking their way past the safari vehicles (so close you could have reached out and touched them) and staging a military precision hunt taking down two gazelles will never leave us. That was just one of several things that we treasure forever.

The trains were great and everything (especially the scenery) was what was promised. The hotels in St Moritz and Zermatt were terrific - beautiful rooms and outlook. The provided meals were lovely (great buffet breakfasts) but often served too late in the evening to be really appreciated. It was the overall organisation of the tour that left us unimpressed. Our introduction was a hotel room in London that was so tiny we could not have two suitcases open at any one time if we wished to actually walk around the room. The meeting time with the Tour Director was changed from 6pm to 4:30pm and it was sheer luck we were there rather than out sightseeing. Instead of starting out in the morning, it was almost midday before we caught a train which meant that our overnight stop was in darkness when we arrived so there was no chance of even trying to have a quick look at the city. I could go on but I guess what I want to say is, we would not do such a tour again.

The tour went without a hitch with free time and trains to catch. Glad we went for portage, carrying bags would have been difficult. Rooms in general were on the small side. All transfers even to Zurich were confirmed well before time (thanks to tour leader Brian). Group size could have been smaller, I think 28 would have been a good size group. Over all a good trip. Special thanks to tour leader Brian.

My friend and I have just come back from an amazing tour of Canada and Alaska. Can highly recommend this tour and our Travelmarvel guide Jaqi was amazing and the most organised person I have ever met. Our driver Al was just as amazing manoeuvring the coach around tight areas with ease and always getting us to our destination. This tour will give you a taste of what there is in this part of Canada - with its beautiful scenery, wildlife and people. Would recommend arriving a day earlier as this tour is on the go for much of the time, but it's okay because you have the opportunity to rest up on the cruise if you wish. Thank you Georgie for organising us and answering all our questions. We had a wonderful time.

Myself and my travel buddy had the best time on our trip and even a couple of days bad weather couldn't put a dampener on the overall trip. So many highlights made all the better by Cheryl our land director and Bernie our coach driver. I highly recommend the Rocky Mountaineer (SliverLeaf) so many beautiful lakes, glaciers and wildlife just too many to list, every day was a highlight. Would happily revisit any of the hotels we stayed at but being able to fully unpack for a full 7 days was wonderful and after experiencing so many wonderful sights on the land leg was happily surprised that the cruise was full of just as many wonders.

This Travelmarvel tour started in beautiful Prague, visiting Dresden, Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow and Budapest. The itinerary was especially good for anyone interested in history, especially of World War 2. Although familiar with the story, it’s not until you visit Berlin and more tragically, Auschwitz, does the real horror of WW2 and its aftermath, emerge. On a brighter note, the Wieliczka Salt Mines, in Poland, would have to be the highlight of the trip. Everything - walls, floor and chandeliers made from salt. Overall, the scenery was beautiful; the itinerary was well organised, varied and smooth running. This was the 7th trip organised for us by Georgie and again, her organisation was efficient and reliable. Top marks!

My sister ,Marianne, and I had an unbelievable holiday. The weather was good, the whole experience was wonderful. Being in "cheap" below cabins was still very good because we still had two rather large portholes. So I was happy. I can't tell you how much I loved this holiday. Everything was wonderful.

There is a down side though. In all of our communications to each other there was one thing that has to be addressed. When we got to Budapest we had a night in a hotel and from there we made our own way to where we had to board the Travelmarvel Diamond. It was a very hot day and no one knew where the ship was docked. There are three no. 8 docks in Budapest and we went to all three.

By the time we found the right one my sister and I had spent 3 hours walking in the hot sun dragging heavy suitcases. No water to drink and my sister started vomiting because she was dehydrated and I nearly fainted from the heat. Please, next time include on your information where the ship docks. All you to say was "the glass building that looks like a whale" everybody knows where that is. Also you should have included a phone number for the ship so that in case of trouble I could have rang the ship and said 'where are you?'.

I will definitely be holidaying again with you and your cruise ships. Maybe next time I'll go to France, down the waterways through the wineries. I just want to say thank you to you and all your staff for helping me make this holiday so special. Thanks again.

What a great 28 day holiday we had travelling around Canada, from the east to the west of Canada and a great three day Via Canada rail journey from Toronto to Jasper. The Rocky Mountaineer for two days gave us breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains and the beautiful lakes. We had perfect weather and of course the 7 day Alaska Cruise. Travelmarvel were fantastic - everything was well organised and we did not have to worry about anything but enjoying ourselves which we did. Thank you Travelmarvel.

From the moment we booked through Jemma at Global Journeys, everything went smoothly and to plan. Any pre tour questions were answered promptly and we booked at a great price. We upgraded to GoldLeaf on Rocky Mountaineer which was well worth the experience. Travelmarvel provided excellent service via experienced tour guides (Natalie and Greg), great accommodations close to towns and unique extras. The Alaskan cruise on Holland America Lines was a highlight and seeing the Northern Lights an added bonus! I would highly recommend using all of the above operators.

We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, it was relaxing taking in the scenery as we cruised to our next village. The boat doesn’t sail at night therefore you get to sit on the deck and take it all in. You are not on the go all the time like some other tours, the fact that you are on board for a week means that you unpack and that’s it until you disembark for your next destination. The people on the boat were all very friendly. Our cabin was very noisy which was disappointing as we were on level three, we also experienced a smell from the drain.

What an amazing trip! We ticked so many things off our bucket list. Every day was a jam packed adventure! We got to see Mother Nature at its best. Bears, elks, eagles, salmon, long horned sheep, and this list goes on. We got to visit so many wild and wonderful towns all so different to one another. Our tour guide Ben Direen was fantastic as was our driver Big Mike. The 7 day cruise to Alaska was a nice way to finish the trip with some time to chill out as well as options for adventure on shore. First time with Travelmarvel and I’ll definitely be travelling with them again. I was very impressed with their service.

Travelmarvel tour Voyage Through Africa (from Capetown to Nairobi) was amazing because it offers probably the greatest wildlife experience in the world. From the relative safety of a large 4 wheel drive Land Cruiser vehicle or a large boat on the river, you can view, within a few metres on many game drives within various National Parks in multiple countries, animals such as Lions, Elephants, Zebras, Wilderbeast, Antelopes, Giraffes, Hippos, Buffalo, Wart Hogs, Crocodiles and a variety of birds.

The accommodation was always first rate even in some remote places within National Parks. Visits to a Masai Village was a wonderful highlight with their singing and dancing including the children and discussions with young Masai men about their education and future. An optional visit in Soweto including an after school care centre was enjoyable to see the beautiful children.

Only negative in the main program was a long exhausting drive in Kenya between Lake Nakuru and the Masai Mara though this did enable us to see along the way some real communities of local people. Travel Marvel should consider replacing that long drive with another included flight. Optional Excursions in Cape Town South Africa, namely Botanical Gardens and Heritage (incl Langa) tours were not value for money.

The Tour Leaders in both Southern Africa (Christel) and East Africa (Blassy) were superb, particularly Christel who was simply wonderful in all respects, as were the Drivers / Guides particularly Raphael in East Africa. Raphael was an excellent safe driver with a superhuman eye for sighting animals, a true believer in animal and environmental protection and was knowledgeable, caring and humorous.

Booking online with Global Journeys was smooth, responsive and efficient as always using Hannah who is extremely easy to do business with. That said, a recommended improvement would be for Global Journeys, in conjunction with Travelmarvel, to automatically provide greater direction, clear advice and removal of uncertainty re any need to secure a Visa in advance of travel for certain countries. For example on this tour, Australian travellers must secure before they travel, a Kenyan E-Visa online directly from the Kenyan Government website whereas whilst Visas for Zimbabwe and Zambia are required, these are organised at the border by the Southern Africa Tour Leader for everyone in the travel group which thus avoids significant hassles for individual travellers either pre-travel or at the border.

Everything about this trip was really wonderful and so very smooth. Top of the list of course was the scenery and the countries. Our tour director, Linda, was fantastic. She became a real friend to us, went the extra mile for us and was professional and informative every day of the trip. The cruise to Alaska was fantastic. The onboard activities kept us busy when we were not in port and the onshore excursions were great value, too. Never a dull moment. The biggest highlight was our tour group of really lovely people and a tour director who just seemed to enjoy our company as much as we did hers. An amazing trip all-round!

We thoroughly enjoyed our adventure. Our Tour Director was brilliant and very informative. Our only negative was that we had medication which needed to be kept cool, most of accommodation did not have a fridge with small freezer to freeze our freezer pack overnight.

The European Gems River Cruise, Amsterdam to Budapest was wonderful, accommodation, food, entertainment and fellow travellers exceeded my expectations. There were many highlights, Amsterdam was so special cruising through their canal systems, the Rhine Gorge was amazing, drifting past the vine-covered slopes, saw so many castles, Rudesheim the visit to Siegfried's Mechanical Instrument Museum was certainly a highlight as was every place the ship stopped at.

My highlight was cruising the Danube into Budapest at 7.30 am, on the top deck with commentary about the amazing buildings unfolding before us..SO Special. We needed to swap ships, due to water levels, this was very well organised and certainly not a problem. I would certainly travel with Travelmarvel again, will recommend Yvonne Brooks, our Travel Agent as she was very efficient and accommodating.

Our Douro River Cruise was amazing. Cruise director Isobel couldn’t have been better, from the time we boarded our cruise until we disembarked. Food and service was superb.

The holiday went very well due to the assistance of Global Journeys and the arrangements put in place prior to leaving Australia. Travelmarvel's organisation was, as one would expect, tip top. The weather was great and there were no hiccups. Very happy with Global Journeys and Travelmarvel. Should I travel again I would gladly involve both organisations.

We have just returned from the Travelmarvel 15 day Cape Town to Chobe Adventure & would highly recommend this trip which gave us an insight into the 4 countries visited. Kruger was excellent & game drives were very exciting seeing many animals. Chobe gave us an opportunity to do land & water for game viewing so the best of both of worlds.

Our experience with Hannah from Global Journeys was great, she was prompt with communication & very helpful & I would not hesitate to use her again.