Travelmarvel Tour & Cruise Reviews

Firstly let me say this has been my second booking with Global Journeys and I cannot fault them. Every email enquiry was answered promptly and to my satisfaction, took some worry out of our journey before we left home. Thanks Georgie.

Our tour from coach to train to ship went smoothly, well organised and I never felt anxious about the next step. ...read more I have travelled with other companies including Scenic and Insight and would recommend Travelmarvel along with them. I was initially worried about the amount of free time but it really worked with this tour and was possibly needed especially as we were travelling with 2 other couples.

We booked the helicopter and dog sled via Juneau and the crab feast and lumberjack show via Ketchikan... both excellent. Highly recommend going Gold Leaf on the Rocky Mountaineer, the glass roof makes for excellent viewing, the fine dining experience is better than pulling a tray down in front of your seat. Excellent service but patience is required. I would also recommend that on day 1 from Banff you eat before you board or take a snack because breakfast was 10.30 for us and we were first seating.

Accommodation was great, and always well located. Funny enough the only night we went 'umph' was at Lake Louise a premier hotel, great location but the room was not as good as we had through the rest of the tour.
Would also advise if you do the same tour as we did to have alternate plans for the last day, disembarked at 9.30 to rain so really couldn’t do much more than coffee shop hop until coach trip to the airport at 7.30pm. Had it been fine we would have gone to Capillano or walked around Stanly Park, that last day was arduous.

This was an awesome trip. Would definitely book with Global Journeys & Travelmarvel again. Hard to pick a favourite but our helicopter trip in Juneau to the Glacier and dog sled ride would be close to be the best.

Quite an enjoyable tour, glad we took this. Well organised in Munich with meeting and transfer to the hotel. We met our tour guide and were surprised to meet additional people with him who had started from London. We were incorporated to form the tour group. The tour of Munich was good, however we had to buy a return train ticket to get back to the ...read more hotel. A change to the accommodation booking in Innsbruck to an alternate location (Kramsgach Weislng) meant we lost our sightseeing time in Innsbruck. Not good.

Arrived in St Moritz, it was really enjoyable. Loved the Bernina Line train to Tirano. Excellent, great day out. Loved the Glacier Express train, including lunch onboard. Unbelievable trip to Jungfrau, very nice and enjoyable. It was very good to have free time, especially without the expectation of added on excursions or group tours. Don't change this feature.

There was confusion at the end of the tour in Interlaken and with the trip to Zurich. Did not visit Zurich other than the airport. The tour guide was not aware that this Zurich trip was included in our arrangements and he was expected to help set it up. He did help us set things up, but left early with the England contingent leaving us to sort out the issues that arose with taxi bookings. Not good.

Note: Regarding the optional excursions star rating, gets 5 stars because there wasn't any, hence good.

A wonderfully organised and interesting tour run by Travelmarvel, the coach, accommodation, meals, included excursions and optional excursions were all terrific. The Tour Director, Simone, was very professional, had loads of knowledge to share, was witty and fun.

The tour group was a great bunch and we all had a wonderful time and made wonderful ...read more friendships. Had lots of wow moments throughout the entire tour. Couldn't fault anything, would go with Travelmarvel again.

Well, I can honestly say this was one of the best holidays I have ever had. Everything about the cruise just fell into place, due to the competence of Cherie Cooper, our cruise director! Cherie is a wealth of knowledge and has an awesome sense of humour and is really a wonderful person. I'm sure she is an asset to the company.

We were extremely ...read more lucky to have been blessed with excellent weather, and although nobody could control this, it worked well in our favour. Marko looked after us in the dining room, even though with open dining it could have been any one of the waiters, but we chose to remain on the same table and it certainly was worth it.

A lot of friendships were made but most of all were the wonderful memories we will all have forever. Thank you Travelmarvel. Hope to see you again sometime.

Accommodation was really great on this trip with Travelmarvel. Tour Director Mr Tu was first class, the tour guides he had were very informative and also caring.

This tour is conducted in partnership with Great Rail Journeys (a British Company) and our smaller than usual group comprised 9 Brits, 6 Australians, a Scottish Tour Director and a Japanese local guide. We travelled by both rail (regional and bullet trains) and bus, giving us a pleasant variety. When we travelled by train, our luggage was transported ...read more separately by bus so that we didn’t need to struggle with large cases on those journeys.

The tour itinerary had a wonderful mix of culture and scenery, despite Mount Fuji being shrouded in cloud. A bad back dictated that we couldn’t choose a tour that used ryokans and the hotels we stayed in were excellent. While some rooms and bathrooms might be considered a little on the small side by Western standards, they were all a very generous size for Japan.

Electric pots or kettles were provided everywhere, though sometimes only with green tea and no milk. Breakfasts were all quite good, and the included dinners were excellent. They gave us a variety of culinary experiences that enabled us to understand which specific Japanese food we loved and which we might not bother with again. We found the more rustic food just delicious but the “haute cuisine”, though exquisitely presented, was less to our taste.

Our Tour Director was very well organised and everything went exactly to plan. Our local guide was a delightful man with exceptional local knowledge and gave us some wonderful insights and experiences. We would certainly travel with either company again.

The trip was well organised. All highlights were covered. We could have spent more time in some places, like Port Arthur and Anvers. It was a small group but we all enjoyed each others' company. We were well informed throughout the tour.

All staff on the boat were very friendly and cooperative. We enjoyed their company and service immensely. The guides were very friendly, helpful and personable throughout the trip. The Shinta Mani Shack in Siem Reap is a really nice hotel.

We were first placed on the lower deck at water level. This smelled so mouldy that we knew as soon as we opened ...read more the cabin that we could not stay there. The atmosphere was dank and frankly toxic. At the same moment, a cabin became available on deck 3 which was immediately taken up by another passenger. This left her cabin available which I immediately requested – at an upfront cost of another $1,000 for the upgrade.

We were lucky. Having spoken to some of the other passengers, I think that may well apply to the rest of the lower deck as well. On returning I put a request for a refund of that $1,000 to Travelmarvel, which they honoured immediately, I am happy to say. Overall, the trip had a good mix of activities both on-board and ashore.

We have just returned from the Xmas Markets river cruise on “the Jewel” with Travelmarvel. Travel was first class all the way. Plenty of included activities as well as several extra optionals. All the crew were fabulous and our cruise director “Emma” was very experienced and ever so helpful. This truly was a worry free 15 day river cruise. We made ...read more quite a few new friends that we plan on keeping in touch with. We plan on using Travelmarvel for our next river cruise in Russia. Booking ahead with the fly free offer made this great value for money.

Had a great time on the cruise, Xmas Markets were amazing. The organisation and information supplied by our guides was second to none.

We thoroughly enjoyed this trip. New Zealand is an amazing country and the scenery, especially within the mountainous and volcanic regions, is just mind-blowing. We were very fortunate with the weather, snow and ice in the South Island mountains and whilst we were on the North Island the rain seemed to be mostly a couple of days behind us, leaving us ...read more with mostly sunny skies and low 20s.

The description of the trip was misleading and we expected far more train and a lot less coach. On the positive side the coach driver (Trent) was exceptional and also kept us entertained with his commentary and jokes. We were however disappointed that on two occasions we were given a short train ride experience and then spent hours on the bus following the train line rather than riding the train. That said the TranzAlpine and other train experiences were in general exceptional.

On the negative side we felt somehow excluded from the rest of the group which significantly detracted from our holiday. On more than one occasion we did not receive the tour communication that all the others in the group did, and we even spoke to the Tour Director (Sharon) and suggested she should make certain that all the group paperwork was received by all the tour participants.

Sharon should really have been more communicative with her commentary also, frequently advising the coach of objects and places well before they were visible and also talking far too much about herself and her own circumstances rather than the more generic explanation. She also abandoned the standard coach seat rotation after the first 2 days leading to the same people seated in the front part of the coach and others in the rear part. Not important except that photo opportunities are much better through the front than the side windows. We also felt that on two occasions Sharon changed the tour itinerary largely to suit her own purposes, resulting in an afternoon free in Dunedin, and much reduced time at Mt. Cook exchanged for over 3 hours walking around Christchurch waiting for our hotel to be ready. These changes were made without consultation and, we suspect, so that Sharon could meet with her contractors and other friends.

Described as 4 star accommodation most of the hotels were of a reasonable to good standard with the notable exception of two. The Rydges Rotorua was abysmal. Our room was really dirty and with furniture that simply did not work. Filthy carpets and broken fittings were also a feature. Old, we can live with, but there is no excuse for dirty! The food was not good either and far from the standard expected. We experienced similar, although not so obvious at Te Anau where the hotel room had cobwebs in the corners and the bed sheets were not clean (hairs in bed- yuk!). Again the breakfast was very poor and the dinner the previous evening was also a big disappointment. We were asked to stagger our mealtimes to allow the chef to better cater so we chose to go a little later, however the food was the same as at the start of service, just now congealed and cold.

I have already conveyed these comments to APT/Travelmarvel and I believe they will take them on board, however it is clear that if you advertise a rail tour it should not be 80% by coach! To leave the entire group to fend for itself in Christchurch on the last afternoon for 2-3 hours is not acceptable. Fortunately it was not raining but there were less able individuals in the group who were less than impressed. Finally to ask for a donation to the coach driver's expenses was not in my view acceptable. We had already decided to have a whip-round for a tip for both of them anyway without a subtly disguised hint!

We will likely tour again with APT/Travelmarvel as they did a good job generally, next time we will be more world wise and careful however.

The whole trip was spectacular and the Travelmarvel guides were terrific, knowledgeable and always helpful. If you have ever considered going to Burma as it was known it is still a beautiful country and well worth the visit. The negative press that it receives is seriously impacting the tourism and as usual the press has put their spin on the situation. ...read more We felt completely safe where we travelled to and have wonderful memories of the friendly happy people. If you do go make sure you add the Inle Lake extension it is really worth it.

This was a wonderful cruise and both the crew and staff were wonderful, the boat was luxurious and very comfortable. It was extremely relaxing, most of the excursions were very informative, and overall the trip was great value for money. I would truly recommend using Travelmarvel and visiting Myanmar anytime, don't believe the bad press about the country, ...read more the people are very warm and friendly.

But there were a couple of downsides to this trip along with criticisms, if I had been informed;
In Mandalay I would not be visiting the Royal Palace and the Mandalay Hill Su Taung Pyae Pagoda, I would have arranged to visit there off my own back on the Saturday. Also it would have been worth Travelmarvel actually offering this excursion to the early arrivals on the Saturday joining the boat rather than waste all afternoon doing nothing.

The teams of Blue, Orange and Yellow should have been split up into peoples physical ability, you ended up with people who were reasonably fit being slowed down and missing out out on things because of this issue.
And further a trip to the Mandalay Jade market early on the Sunday morning would have been better than visiting the workshops we visited on the Sunday, as most travellers we have seen loads of silver, gold and silk workshops previously.

Sometimes the lack of information and different versions of the same story didn't help e.g. In AVA/Amarapura we did a horse cart ride, there was still visible the old brick castle wall and moat to be seen as we drove past it for some distance, our guides didn't even think to point out that we could see it as we passed through the old gates.

In Bagan we should have visited the world famous five sided Dhammayazika Pagoda in the afternoon excursion, rather than the ones on offer. When questioned about this we were told it's too far to travel and having flown over the pagoda on the morning balloon ride it was clearly not more than 30 minutes from where the boat was moored. Additionally in Bagan we visited a brick pagoda whose mural was stolen in the 19th century by a German explorer, I noticed there was still an early depiction of Buddha shown in an early Egyptian style, sadly our guide didn't even think it was worth pointing out.

I really disagreed with the school visit, I don't mind supporting or visiting the school but disagree with the children been disrupted often regularly by travel excursions (and to be taught the birdy song, really). If I had this happening in my child's school in Australia regularly by a busload of Myanmar visitors I would be making huge complaints.

The visit to the burial site of General Mahaa Bandula was sadly lacking in detail about one of Myanmar's great Generals, apart from there he is by our guide, when his life story was fascinating. The evening entertainment l felt let the boat down, the putting on of any movies from documentary and historical was pointless after 9pm, most passengers went to bed after the evening meal at 8.30pm. They would have been better shown in the afternoon on days with one excursion in the morning when we were sailing for 5-6 hours in the afternoon. More people would have watched and then they could have offered something else in the evening with passenger participation.

Additionally as a solo traveller to find out that some passengers had been given generous discounts and also the two for one deals with couples paying half of what I paid for myself really left me feeling ripped off, especially considering what I got hit in a single supplement. I feel Travelmarvel should have offered a free laundry and local drinks package as compensation to solo travellers or better still scrapped the solo supplement, please pass my feedback to Travelmarvel.

Lastly Global Journeys were wonderful from the day I contacted them to when I returned, nothing was too much trouble and I am very happy with the service Jemma gave me and would use you again.

This was a fantastic tour with a very friendly and informative tour director and knowledgeable local guides. All the included meals were excellent as was the accommodation.

I found the Ha Long Bay cruise the best part of our 11 day Vietnam holiday. The guides were excellent, very informative and Son, the head guide, was wonderful. As I had my birthday while away they went all out to give me a wonderful day. They were very attentive and I have no hesitation in recommending Travelmarvel.

Overall a good trip. My biggest complaint was the last two days free time - we would rather have been dropped off at a location & then picked up after certain amount of time. Also on the last day, dinner wasn't an included so there was no chance to say farewell to fellow passengers.

Really enjoyed our trip with Travelmarvel. Accommodation and food were excellent. Our coach driver Andrew was a wealth of information and Louise our tour director was always helpful. We saw lots of interesting things. Our last day in Freemantle could have been organised a little better. An optional extra could have been added to our itinerary to visit ...read more Rottnest Island if it was organised earlier. Was also disappointed that there wasn't a departure last night dinner to say goodbye to other fellow passengers. Would travel with Travelmarvel again as the trip was well organised otherwise.

This was an exceptional cruise in the very literal sense. I have fortunately had the luck to experience quite a diverse & varied presentation of holidays by various cruise/holiday organisations - this would have to have been THE BEST!

Now, granted, not everything went according to plan, but I hasten to add that in my experience, Travelmarvel made ...read more exceptional effort to minimise inconveniences & maximise experience. I pay ultimate respect to Cruise Director - Sue Obermoser, she did an outstanding job to ensure everyone’s situation was the best, under some pretty adverse situations, namely prevailing river conditions. Very well done to her and the entire crew.

We set off for a 15 Day European River Cruise aboard the Travelmarvel Diamond with great expectations. What we actually got was a 15 Day European Tour on the Travelmarvel Jewel, Sapphire & the Diamond, plus 2 luxury hotels in Budapest & Regensberg & many entertaining kilometers aboard comfortable coaches. Due to the unprecedented lack of water, a once ...read more in one hundred year event, we were able to do what no Travelmarvel group has yet to do, i.e. travel on each one of its fabulous fleet.

We saw much of the countryside as well as the rivers, so it was all an added bonus! Extra tours were added for us & the care & consideration shown to all by our tireless Cruise Director Hedleigh Emberson was excellent. Many thanks go to the crews of all the vessels in a very trying situation for all, & our local tour guides aboard our coaches were so knowledgeable & entertaining. Our first Travelmarvel adventure, but certainly not our last.