Travelmarvel Tour & Cruise Reviews

We enjoyed our holiday immensely - it was beautifully balanced (not too much packing and unpacking). Ha Long Bay was magnificent as was the Mekong River journey. The weather was superb - a bit hot now and then but definitely quite bearable. All the accommodation was excellent as was the food. Our guides were excellent (especially Tung Do and Lilly ...read more (Hanoi) and we gained a marvellous insight into the lives of the Vietnamese. The local guides were equally impressive and all possessed a terrific sense of humour. Both Daphne and I now have a far better sense of the history and geography of both Cambodia and Vietnam. Our fellow travellers were also great, together with our guides they helped both Daphne and myself when our footsteps faltered - one of the guides even honoured me with the title 'father' and our group gave us a cheer as the oldest couple on the tour! Finally, Singapore Airlines were superb as was the organisation of the tour, everything worked to schedule and we couldn't be happier with a most outstanding holiday. Thank you, too, for the assistance in organising our stay in Singapore.

We could not fault anything on this Travelmarvel trip. We arrived in Saigon earlier than the other travellers on our tour, but the guide was waiting at the airport to transfer us to hotel - no dramas. Hotel accommodation in both cities - Saigon and Siem Reap was excellent. Every day our Tour Manager gave an informative and sometime humorous talk about ...read more the following days activities. Information given covered all scenarios and took into account the physical and emotional capabilities of all travellers of all ages. The La Marguerite was sensational. It was luxurious and the customer service was second to none. The staff became our friends by the end of the trip. Every time we left our room, housekeeping staff would come in a tidy up, though this was slightly uncomfortable at first - we grew to love this. Many of the other guests on the tour were 10-15 years older than us - some were older. We wondered, at the beginning if we would find anything in common with these people - however, we absolutely loved everyone's company and have made some lovely friends as well. All of the 'day-trips' were well organised, informative and interesting. Absolutely loved everything about this trip. Would book with Travelmarvel again in a heartbeat!

We cannot fault this holiday. From the booking to the receipt of our pre-holiday pack, all was handled professionally. From the moment we disembarked overseas to the time we were dropped back at the airport for our return journey all details were handled exceptionally well. Very professional, slick operation. We felt very safe, very looked after and ...read more enjoyed our time immensely. Well done to all!

Accommodation in Launceston and Port Arthur not very good but on the whole a good holiday. Accommodation in Bicheno and Hobart excellent, breakfast very good and dinners not bad. Make sure you take a jacket when travelling to Tasmania.

Overall, the trip was great, a bit of an eye opener, the crew's on both the Junk and the Marguerite were excellent, exceptionally helpful with the older & disabled guest's but extremely helpful with everyone, always a smiling face, particularly when getting on and off ships onto small boats, which was often, the welcome cold cloth & drink were always ...read more very welcome! The Hanoi Pullman was first class hotel, beautiful spacious room, well positioned, food average, service average, lack of English spoken in key areas, reception, bars and restaurants. I completed Pullman's survey and had a reply from the GM, Pieter De Weerd within a day to apologise about lack of English and stating it was difficult to get good bilingual staff, but paying guests don't really need to know his problems, particularly when our guides emphasised how much importance is paid in schools to learn English.

The Shinta Mani in Siem Reap, was excellent, well located, staff were exceptional, beautiful room, the breakfast buffet was outstanding, there were small quantities on display, many on ice and as soon as displays needed replenishment, it was done, the staff were helping before you even knew you needed help, always smiling, the Cambodian people are truly a wonderful people, we ate in the hotel because of dietary considerations, the food was exceptional and hot, the wine cold, English widely spoken or understood, the Pullman and Grand could learn a lot from this Hotel, I will recommend it to anyone travelling to Cambodia. The Grand in Saigon was first class hotel, well located, spacious room, lovely bars and restaurants but like the Pullman, even less English spoken or understood, even finalising bills in bars and restaurants was a major task and took many attempts with sign language to get it right, similar problems to Pullman with staff, the food was average and cold, Patricia's soup had "a piece of metal" in it and was sent back, wine not cold. Overall a great holiday, some highlights were Ha Long bay, the Sampan, the Rickshaw ride was wild, the Guides were all excellent, their local knowledge was exceptional, down to names and dates, years, etc. Well done Global Journeys & Travelmarvel. Thank you again!

Beryl and I have just returned to Rockhampton after a fabulous 13 day tour, preceded by two days with friends in Perth and two days again after the tour finished. I just wanted to thank Georgie and Global Journeys for your assistance to us as we prepared for the trip and made our bookings. We enjoyed the comprehensive variety of the wonderful places ...read more we saw including the wildflowers. Travel Marvel and APT are to be congratulated on their attention to detail and the information they supplied to us before we departed. We recommend the tour to anyone who is interested. Our Tour Director, Jeff Armstrong, was incredible in sharing his vast knowledge of each area that we visited and our driver, Jeff Osborne, made us all feel extremely safe as we travelled the various roads along the way. Nothing was ever a trouble to either of them.

The following were the downsides: I didn't enjoy waking up at 6.30am to do the tours. Not when I am on holidays! There wasn't enough free time to do shopping etc. We found that we had to watch the clock constantly and that was a bit stressful. There wasn't enough time to relax. I did enjoy the cruise and tours (even though I was very tired). All the ...read more tour guides were very good. The best tour guide was Marta in Prague. She was very helpful, thoughtful and nothing was too much for her.

I totally enjoyed myself. Steve, the coach driver and Margie, our tour director were excellent and made everyone feel at home. They looked after me with my arthritis and made sure I was comfortable and included in everything. I would recommend this trip and tour company to anyone. 10 out of 10!

The tour was very well organised and operated. The tour director, Nick Tozer, made it even better with his full attention but no fuss style. The standard of accommodation was very good throughout the tour and the included meals were all 3 courses and very good quality. The local tour guides really knew their subject matter well and were happy to answer ...read more questions and assist with the general operation of the tour. I would have no hesitation in recommending this tour, TravelMarvel and Global Journeys to anyone wanting to holiday in South America.

The team of Laurie and Dave made the trip that much more memorable. New Zealand is a beautiful country and I would love to return and see more of it.

We had a wonderful trip and thoroughly enjoyed the experience in Vietnam and Cambodia. Everything was so well organised. Thank you Yvonne for your time and patience with us in our booking. The tour guides were all first class and nothing was missed. The accommodation at the Grand in Saigon and the Cambodian Hotel were just fabulous. The Marguret was ...read more a beautiful boat to travel up the Mekong. Meals were beautiful. Maria, our table waitress was so lovely. She was very attentive and we wanted to bring her home! We will look at another trip in next couple of years. Thank you once again for a wonderful trip.

This holiday was an amazing journey of knowledge, history, fun people (the crew were outstanding) and some confronting issues (the Killing Fields). Angkor Wat was truly mind blowing in all its splendour. The boat was lovely, the food yummy (more Vietnamese please). We met some really great people, whom we hope will remain long term friends. This trip ...read more was recommended to us by friends and we would certainly do the same to anyone who asks.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and all the guides, bar one, were informative, enthusiastic and made us really feel a part of the culture in each place we visited. Should we be in the position to make another trip of this nature we would not hesitate in using Travel Marvel and will be recommending the company to any of our friends who may be considering ...read more travel.

If you have never been to Canada or Alaska.... Go! You won't be disappointed! I didn't realise Canada has 'semi arid' grasslands in amongst its mountains, rain forests, snowy peaks and glaciers! The scenery and countryside changes by the hour as you travel through it. In Banff the temps were in the summery 20's the day we arrived - the day we departed ...read more it was snowing! The snow continued to fall as we arrived in Lake Louise making our stay there even more memorable. We saw bears, elk, otters and seals but what I absolutely loved was watching the little chipmunks and squirrels that didn't give a hoot if you were watching them as they went about their activities collecting for the coming winter. The Rocky Mountaineer capped of our couch tour perfectly. If you have travelled 'The Great Ocean Road' and thought it was great, then the scenery you will see from the train will knock your socks off. Travelling in Goldleaf for us made it so much more memorable. Do it, you won't be disappointed! The only disappointing thing about this holiday (for us) was that the cruise portion of the trip wasn't long enough. We would have liked to go all the way to Wittier rather than return back to Vancouver from Glacier Bay... but that's only a personal preference. If anyone is considering a holiday to Canada and/or Alaska, this product is a great starting point. Do it, you won't be disappointed!

This was a wonderful trip. Accommodations were on the most part excellent, Kelowna let the side down a bit. Both Tour directors, Christine and Simone were well informed and presented all information in a humorous and interesting manner. Coach drivers Byron and Len were most professional and at the same time friendly and fun to be with. Most of the ...read more included activities were excellent with the exception of the First National experience in Ottawa. Although the people were enthusiastic and interesting the quality and quantity of food provided left a little to be desired. Some people missed out on their meal as the food had run out. The Rocky Mountaineer train was amazing and the staff on board very friendly and efficient. Amazing food and service in the Gold Leaf Class. Passing through US border control to get onto the cruise ship was a long nightmare. Not enough border control staff to handle the two ships trying to embark their passengers. Realise this is no fault of Holland America Line but still was very frustrating. Disembarking was much easier! In my opinion having a balcony on this cruise is a must! Cabin crew and all the ship board staff friendly and very helpful. You could be assured of a smile any time of the day. Would certainly recommend this tour to anyone.

Paul & I thoroughly enjoyed our Canada experience! Our tour guide especially on the east (Will Pringle) was excellent, and our coach driver on the west (Charlotte) was an excellent, safe driver. Regarding optional excursions, I did not look further on the Holland America site when printing off our boarding passes. When we did receive an excursions booklet ...read more on board, we were surprised at some of the prices of the excursions. Paul did suggest that maybe a copy of the excursions booklet could be given to us before the trip from Travel Marvel. I know our itinerary booklet did mention optional excursions on certain days but a hard copy would be good. We, however, did find the itinerary booklet printed for us very helpful. We will now go through our photos and re-live our experiences while in Canada. Thank you, Hannah, for replying so promptly to my requests before the trip! We have some great memories and our fellow passengers were just like a family and it was sad to say goodbye at Vancouver after spending 31 days with some of them.

Booking our trip with Yvonne Brooks could not have been bettered, she was excellent, thank you Yvonne you made everything easy for us. We enjoyed our trip very much. Our Cruise Director was also excellent, she was very professional and helpful to each and everyone. We could not fault ship staff and tour directors, they all did an excellent job. Thank ...read more you for a wonderful trip.

Thank you Hannah and Travelmarvel. What an amazing journey. A very well organised and run tour with very professional and knowledgeable guides. Would highly recommend this tour and Global Journeys to anyone thinking about doing this trip.

I wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed our river cruise with Travelmarvel. The cruise could not be faulted in anyway. Our cabin and the rest of the ship were both well designed and spotlessly clean. All the staff were very friendly and went out of their way to ensure everyone had a good time. The activities were varied and the tour director Petra, ...read more kept us entertained and looked after us exceedingly well, even to the extent of supervising the loading of luggage into the bus, in the pouring rain in Amsterdam.

Sandra and I had a lovely time on our European River cruise. It certainly lived up to our expectations. We were well looked after by all the crew on the Travelmarvel Jewel. All tours were good with guides being very informative. Food on board was amazing and we were well tended with lovely wines with our meals. To be honest, we could not find any negatives ...read more with the whole trip except the sun could have shined a bit warmer sometimes!!! We have recommended Travelmarvel to our friends and will continue to do so. Thanks for your help with our booking.