Testimonials

A selection of feedback from happy travellers

December 2011 – Patagonia

Hello Tucan Travel,

I recently returned from Patagonia where I began the Mara Tour in El Calafate! The instant I joined the tour I was welcomed by Marika our tour guide who over a fantastic dinner introduced me to the rest of the tour group.  I have travelled extensively and have never had a more wonderful experience on any tour. Within minutes of joining the tour, Mari added my email address to the list that has kept all of us in contact now that our journey is over. This lovely lady misses nothing!! She was born to do this job…

Mari and Ritchie will be the most difficult act to follow!! Mari was informative, knowledgably and very well prepared. She knew exactly what additional tours would be available in each town we visited and passed out information before we reached them. Our meals on the road were excellent and healthy and the group dinners she organized were the very best!! She knew the locals and we were always treated exceptionally well wherever we dined out. Our check in and checkout was all done by Mari so there was never a hassle for the people on tour. Mari told us about the history of the places we visited, shared stories and folklore and even read to us. She never failed to go the extra mile to make sure we were comfortable and happy. Her warm and friendly nature made the bond between all the tour members form immediately.

Ritchie our driver must certainly be the most competent man alive. His driving skills are phenomenal as is his mechanical know how. He was always cheerful and helpful and the teamwork between Mari and Ritchie was spectacular. Ritchie made sure Peggy was clean and comfortable and he puts any long distance trucker to shame!!

Everyone on my tour felt the same as we all talked about how great they were non-stop. Going thru customs was a breeze with their help as was any other excursions people signed up for.

I will certainly highly recommend Tucan tours and look forward to my next trip with you…

Well, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!  And it you are giving out Holiday bonuses I’ve got two of the most deserving individuals I would like to nominate.

Most Fondly,

Karen Vorn Kahl

November 2011 – Southeast Asia

I have recently been on the Adventurous Angkor trip, Hanoi to Bangkok, with a friend through Tucan Travel.

I thought the itinerary was great, with many optional excursions offered. There were many highlights which include Halong Bay overnight junk boat, Sunrise over Angkor Wat, Quad bike tour in Siem Reap and the Mekong Delta homestay.

The introductory sheets we received prior to arriving in new cities were extremely helpful and covered a wide variety of attractions, places and activities to appeal to everybodies interests.

The group consisted of a a well balanced mix of ages, singles,couples and everyone always looked out for each other.

Our tour leader Pedro Mejia, was very positive, professional and organised. He was full of advice, recommendations and extremely helpful with any enquiries or needs of the group. Having vegetarian requirements, I felt that Pedro did a great job of finding suitable restaurants for our group dinners.

I felt completely safe and would definantly go on another Tucan tour. It was, as specified, an adventure tour, so be prepared to carry your own backpack and experience an overnight train.

It has introduced me to a way of travelling that I can do by myself & meet a fantastic bunch of people. Highly recommended.

Renee

November 2011 – Southeast Asia

Good day,

I would like to take the opportunity to say that the tour leader, Brian MacDonald, was simply outstanding.

In addition to exhibiting great enthusiasm and insight, he has an extraordinary ability to manage the various personalities of the tour. Needless to say, when traveling abroad, with persons whose backgrounds and interests can diverge, this sort of social grace can prevent hard feelings and damaged expectations.

Mr MacDonald should be highly commended for his efforts here. I had a tremendous time and would not hesitate to join Tucan Travel on another adventure, particularly one in which Brian was the leader.

Best regards, Gerhardt.

October 2011 – Peru, South America

Hi,

I completed a tour of the Amazon jungle & Macchu Piccu in Peru in October of 2011. I know that I filled out the post tour feedback form, but I just thought that I needed to add to this.

My tour guide was Hernan. He was amazing. He had some difficult group situations & group dynamics, which he dealt with remarkably well. He was always in good form & ready for another great tour day. I have worked in the public sector for over 12 years & know the difficulties that this area can bring. Hernan was a model tour guide & great fun as well.

I hope that you can please pass on my highest compliments to him & his supervisor.

Many thanks

Roanna Byrnes

October 2011 – Southeast Asia

Dear Tucan Travel,

A review of one of your holidays has been submitted by Matt Williams regarding South East Asia tour, Hanoi to Singapore via responsibletravel.com online feedback submission form.

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
So many!  Snorkelling for the first time in Nha Trang (and second time in Ko Phi Phi!) was fantastic, jungle trekking in both Thailand and Malaysia was awesome and handling a tiger cub in Thailand was the cutest thing in the world.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Try new experiences!  Mine included motorbiking, tubing and chilli frog porridge.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes. All the local guides we used were awesome and deserved our money and tips. The one improvement I would suggest is a local tour leader.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Outstanding - varied, educational and stacks of fun. Some wonderful memories, I would not hesitate to recommend it to a friend

October 2011 – Southeast Asia

Hi there,

I've just returned from the Cambodia or Wat tour and just wanted to say thank you very much for the amazing trip. I've been on a few tours but by far this was the best and I will be definitely booking with Tucan for my next trip, Hopefully Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city.

The tour guide, Sarah Field, reassured us on every part of the trip and actually I fell ill prior to the tour starting. Sarah went out of her way to ensure that I was ok and was checking up on me regularly. I would not hesitate to travel with Sarah again. She is well organised and handled all the travel arrangements with ease. Definitely a credit to Tucan travel. On another note because of the professionalism shown I would like to find out more details about your tours in Amman, Petra, and know when will you be running them again. Thanks for your time.

March 2011 – Salta 1, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil

Dear Tucan Travel,

Hello, i was just on one of your discovery tours around South America. My name is Grant Campbell i was travelling on Frank. I'm writing this letter to express my feelings from which I had on the tour. In my opinion I would personally like to thank Enrico for guiding us through South America without major incident. There were times where if it was me I probably would of cracked, like the incident of the border crossing, but he kept his cool and got us to our destination without incident. He also had to deal with the accidents of 'Death Road' and put up with people like me getting a bit tipsy 'rat a**ed'. Considering this was his first tour I don't think there is anyone who could of handled it better, so here's a thank you to him from me and just saying thanks for an unforgettable journey, it was awesome. I would also like to thank Stu Eddie and even the trainee Dave together they do an amazing job, thank you Tucan for putting them on my tour, I won't forget it.

March 2011 – Istanbul To Cairo, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt

Thanks Tucan Travel, I had such an amazing time!  Nadia was the best tour leader I’ve had (and I have done quite a few different tours with other companies before). The places were fantastic, and we had great timing getting through Syria just before Tucan stopped the tours going there.

I’m very keen to do more tours with Tucan, am just deciding where to next :)

No doubt you’ll hear from me in the future!

Thanks for all your help

February 2011 – Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

Dear Tucan Travel,

A review of one of your holidays has been submitted by Bridie Brittain regarding South East Asia tour, Hanoi to Singapore via responsibletravel.com online feedback submission form.

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

There were so many highlights to this holiday which covered so many countries, there are a few of the memorable ones, overcoming culture shock in Hanoi, having a suit made in Hoi An home to 400 tailors, touring the Mekong river on a longboat, visiting the museum in Phnom Penh, seeing the sun rise over Angkor Wat. Visiting the floating villages on Tonle Sap asia's largest fresh water lake near Siam Reap. Staying in Luang Prabang the beautiful Lao city on the Mekong. Staying the night in a hilltribe village in northern Thailand, snorkling on the coral reefs around Ko Phi Phi, 4x4 driving, drinking tea in a tea plantation in the Cameron highlands. Exploring great cities like KL and Singapore

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Have a sense of adventure and realise that Asia is different in so many ways to our western way of life.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

I am not sure what you mean by minimized impacts on the environment, I hope that local people benefited from our tour but I cannot be sure!

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

Fantastic, but tough going at times! Some wonderful memories, I would not hesitate to recommend it to a friend

December 2010 – Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt

I would like to send this brief note of thank you & appreciation to Tucan Management & all Staff involved in the preparation & execution of my holiday.

Tour Code BXEIC4-23/10/10 to 30/11/10, Turkey, Syria, Jordan & Egypt .

Special thanks & gratitude to Tour Leader Carly Fillis.

Carly did an excellent job as my Tour Leader, she guided me through Turkey, Syria, Jordan & into Egypt & assisted me many times with my luggage, because I am Chinese, Carly exceeded my expecations by locating Chinese Restaurants in cities that we stayed in. Due to my need for full cream milk to go with my coffee & tea, she got me a tin of condensed milk. Her professional attitude & willingness to help me with my questions was greatly appreciated. Carly has helped to make my holiday enjoyable & memorable.

Next time I go on holidays Tucan Travel will be my first choice

Happy Traveller

Donald Ho

January 2010 – Chile & Argentina
Hi there, I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to provide further feedback following my recent BSU Discovery Tour in Patagonia with Niels Marais and Nikki Self, as I found the questionaire too short to provide a a full picture.

Having previously enjoyed Nikki as a tour leader earlier in the year on the Overland Quito to Rio tour, I was easily persuaded to spend xmas and new year in Patagonia. Despite the expense, this was the best decision I could have made, the tour was great in every way, great accomodation, great tours, escorted to local restaurants, lots of socialising and sight seeing.

Having spoken to guests on other tours it became obvious that the level of customer care exercised by Nikki and Niels is the exception rather than the rule and the 'N's' go way over and above the call of duty to give their guests the most amazing experience all round. On a practical level, allergic as I am to mosquito bites, Nikki got me sorted out (again) with the pharmacy as my lack of spanish is woeful and even punctured my blisters for me! I am not the fittest person in the world, but she kept me motivated to hike and see sights I otherwise would have missed.

Niels was just the easiest person to get to know quickly, he has an effortless charm albeit with a bizarre sense of humour, although he knows nothing about irish whiskey. He marries a laid back personality with a high level of professionalism when driving and caring for Peggy. Together they really are a 'dream team' and the perfect advertisement for Tucan Travel and are my new frame of reference for future escorted travel, unfortunately I know i'll always be disappointed! No doubt, I will keep in touch with Niels and am lucky to now call Nikki a friend, Tucan should be proud to have such a good partnership on the frontline. With much gratitude, Roisin.

October 2009 – South America
We began our 35 day tour in Lima and had Margot as our tour leader. She was fantastic in all ways. She was very organised and ensured all transport, accommodation and local guides were prepared. She was extremely obliging and helped people with any issues or concerns. She was extremely knowledgeable about Peru and all the places we visited and gave information about everything we visited, drove past or questions people asked. I was very impressed with the way she ran the tour and couldn’t recommend her more highly. (...)

I enjoyed the truck lunches and appreciated that these were necessary on drive days since you never knew what other food places would be available. There was always enough choice and they were healthy. (...) Overall I have really enjoyed myself and seen a lot of South America. I was recommended Tucan Travel by a friend who has used the company several times and I would in turn recommend this trip to others. Thankyou, Melinda.

August 2009 - Egypt
I just wanted to say how very much both Ben and I enjoyed our tour with you. Mostafa, with his deep knowledge and love of Egypt and that dry sense of humour, is an absolute gem, and put us total newcomers at this sort of holiday at ease as soon as we met. The group dynamic was very much set as there were 7 people who were continuing from another tour who had gelled so well they had solidified (nothing wrong with that, just an observation), so the 4 who were just starting could well have been at a disadvantage.

Of course it was present - it had to be - but Mostafa was miraculous at integrating each and every one of us, including old grumble guts here and his slightly autistic child. In fact - the group brought Ben out of himself wonderfully, and I saw things in him I had not seen before: quite incredible. Anyway - 125% satisfaction and enjoyment from us - and we are even thinking about doing another with you!

Very many thanks to both you and Laura for putting up with my silly questions pre-tour, and to you all for designing such a well run, flawless, tour. Special thanks to Mostafa for being, well, Mostafa, without whom it must surely have been somewhat different. Must go and unpack, but I wanted to give you my thoughts now! With very best wishes - till next time, Andrew.

August 2009 - Amazon, Brazil
The Amazon Cruise was amazing! The Tucano people were so well organized and you could tell they really knew their stuff and loved their jobs! The crew worked so hard to ensure our happiness and the guides were so knowledgeable. I know Tucan Travel has not been offering this trip for long so I wanted to give some feedback so that you could comment to future travellers.

There were wonderful little touches like a cushion for the wooden launches, gaiters to put around our pant legs for more safety during the jungle walks, cold herbal facecloths to wipe down with after a sweaty jungle trek. And the food was very delicious! The cruise met all of our expectations which is saying a lot in the middle of the jungle. We saw lots of sloths, squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, a boa, tarantulas, butterflies, caimen, etc. Thanks again for all you help with a wonderful holiday and we hope to travel again with Tucan soon. Kind regards, Charlane.

August 2009 - Mongolia
Just back from the Trans Mongolian trip and wanted to give you some feedback. It was a fantastic trip. The schedule and itinerary are perfectly planned and were perfectly executed. The choice of accommodation was above what I expected and ticketing, transfers and excursions all went without a hitch. A very professionally run holiday.

Of course the main factor in the success of the holiday are the local guides. I cannot speak highly enough of Galina our Russian guide. She does her job brilliantly, has perfect English, boundless patience and a personality really suited to the job. The group consensus is that she made a great trip really excellent. She is one seriously hard working lady. (Give her a big pay rise !!).

We didn't spend as much time with our Chinese guide David, but he went way beyond the call of duty to ensure we saw as much of Beijing as possible in the short time we had. He put in 200% effort and maintained a great rapport with the group. Also thank you Amy for your help prior to departure with documentation and bookings. You made it all go so smoothly. So, its back to the grindstone for me for now......but I'll hopefully travel with Tucan again. Thanks again, David

June 2009 – South America
I'm currently on tour from Quito to Rio, and i'm just writing to let you know how fantastic the Tucan representatives, Heinz and Bela, have been. Their competence, professionalism and enthusiasm has been exemplary throughout. The tour has not been plain sailing: as we've come up against obstacles, (literally!) in the form of road blocks and various problems with the truck.

However, Heinz and Bela have both gone into overdrive to ensure that these have caused minimum disruption to the tour. So in short, Bela and Heinz have been great; your choice of employees is exemplary; thanks! Yours sincerely, Rosy

March 2009 – South East Asia
I just wanted to say a big thank you for everything! I have just returned from my 3 week trip (Bangkok to Hanoi) to Cambodia and Vietnam and had the most amazing time! I really had no idea what to expect and was leaping way out of my comfort zone. Everything went so smoothly and I had the most fantastic group and tour leader (Oli).

This was my 1st time travelling with a tour and couldn't believe what a difference it made. Oli did everything for us and there was absolutely no stress. He was full of fantastic suggestions of things to do and places to eat. I loved the opportunity to eat at restaurants that benefited the local community as well as the suggestion to give blood at the Children's Hospital in Siem Reap.

It was my birthday during the trip and the group was aware that I didnt want a fuss. I really appreciated the effort Oli and the group still went to ensuring that I had a great day. It was so sad when it was all over - but now I have a bunch of great new friends and the most amazing memories. I wont hesitate to book another tour with Tucan. Thanks again, Victoria

April 2008 – Central America
I recently travelled with Tucan travel from Cancun to San Jose, on an adventure tour (Code I think is 'YAS'). I would just like to bring to your attention the high quality of my tour guide Steve (Esteban), who I felt was absolutely perfect for the job. I must admit to feeling a little apprehensive prior to the trip, as I have travelled solo many places but never with a group.

Steve was great from day one, informative (clearly very knowledgeable about Latin America), reliable, trustworthy, organised and also great fun to be around (even on those 9hr coach trips). I found Steve to be the perfect blend between responsible and relaxed, never at any time did I feel that everything wasn’t in his complete control (which says a lot for Latin America, and its notorious ‘time-keeping’), but I also enjoyed his company so much that I have asked him to keep me informed on his whereabouts for potential future trips I may be interested in.

I really enjoyed my trip as a whole and shall be recommending Tucan to friends and family, but it simply wouldn’t have been the same without a leader like Esteban, a true asset to the company. Regards Andy

January 2008 - Peru
Hi Tucan Travel, Just wanted to let you know that my family had a fantastic trip through Peru and on the Inca Trail. We appreciate you letting us take our girls ages 10 and 11. It all worked out as well as we hoped and we have come away with some unforgetble experiences. If its worth anything if you have to consider other families travelling, from our end the girls fitted in to "tour" life and had no probs at all with altitude. Cheers and thanks again Tim and Suzanne