Hi Siva
Iam busy after back from Korea trip. Just to give some feedback to you as below.I have to separate two different tour guides because our feedback is totallydifferent!
1=poor, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent
Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant (小金 in Jeju Island) | Overall 5 | ||
Tour Guides | Command of Chinese | 5 |
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Knowledge of Subjects | 5 |
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Ability of Explain | 5 |
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Attitude | 4 |
小金 is a great tour guide overall he is considerate and flexible as well. He can explain everything to us about Jeju and he knows a lot of the history of Korea although he is born Chinese. He prepared the umbrellas and drinks in the van for us. He will drop us in front of the nearest place at attractions so that my mom no need to walk so much. The small little thing he did impressed us. He also kept us occupied during our trip in the van because he can tell us a lot of history / story of Korea. | |
Flexibility | 4 | He waited for us until the dinner is finished and sent us home 10pm one night. Of course we are also willing to pay him more tips. He is very 圆滑 | |
Drivers and Cars |
| The Van provided is good as 小金 provided two infant seats we requested. He is also a good driver. | |
Hotels | Location |
| We booked ourselves so we shall not have comments here |
Comfort |
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Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 2 | Due to rainy season and foggy weather, we did not managed to see the most beautiful Jeju! |
Meet Your Interests? | 3 |
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Too Tight of Too Loose? | 3 |
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Meals | 4 | The recommended restaurants by 小金 is good. Love to go back again due to food! | |
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) | 3 | I have never seen such a busy airports (Gimpo and Jeju) in my life before!! It is difficult to communicate since hardly people speak English. | |
Any Other Aspect |
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Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant (朴先生 in Seoul) | Overall 2 | ||
Tour Guides | Command of Chinese | 3 | His Mandarin is considered great as a Korean. |
Knowledge of Subjects | 1 | 朴先生 totally different from 小金 he hardly want to speak/tell us anything we asked. | |
Ability of Explain | 1 | He is lack of interest in speaking with us. We just asked him a simple question such as are you from Seoul? He just ignored us. | |
Attitude | 2 |
He is not patience enough with old people and not considerate enough. On the first day due to rainy weather, he should prepare some umbrellas in the car or at least help to put on the umbrella for my old mom or drive us to the nearest destination and dropped us first then only he come over. However, what he did is he parked his car in the car park, and asked everyone including my mom to walk at least 1km to the attraction and yet he did not wait for us and go and grabbed the tickets first. I'm not sure if he is not happy that we asked him to pick us at 10am which is considered late so he need to work until 8pm? However, he have to understand that our flight the night before from Jeju was delayed and we only get to the apartment at 12 midnight. He is totally out of a normal tour guide standard! | |
Flexibility | 1 | He is not flexible at all! The first tour night in Seoul due to the bad traffic he did not want us to eat in the city but forced us to eat at the food street opposite our apartment because it almost reaches 8pm (his working hours). My sister was very angry as he did not even asked our opinion and sent us home and asked us to walk out again to the food street. He should at least asked us if he should stop us at the food street opposite because my mom is 76 years old and hardly walk 1km! My sister in the end teased him that he must have never serve any customers who have old folks or young children. Yes the food street opposite is just less than 10 minutes walk for a normal adult but not for old people. In the end he have to make a U-turn to leave us at the food street after my sister's complaint. After the first day we totally disrespect him as a tour guide. Second day he was very happy with our decision because we decided to go to Lotte World which is 10 minutes away from our apartment. He dropped my mom to apartment and dropped us at lotte world at 3pm and he left happily. Third day shopping day, my brother wanted to shop with us at dongdamuen until 6pm then he go back home to eat with my mom but 朴先生said traffic is very bad at 6pm and kind of show face to my brother to go back before 5pm. We only reached DDM at 4pm that day. My brother is kind enough to fulfill his requirement and did not step down to shop at DDM at all and left with him after dropping me and my family at 4pm. My family are kind people and we do not scold people directly but 朴先生 is more like us fulfilling his wish then he tried to accommodate our needs. | |
Drivers and Cars |
| The Van provided is fair as 朴先生 did not provided additional infant seat we requested. However he is considered a skillful driver. But again he can ONLY be a driver but NOT a tour guide!! | |
Hotels | Location |
| We booked ourselves so we shall not have comments here |
Comfort |
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Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 2 | Due to rainy season and heavy traffic in Seoul, we did not go to the itinerary as planned |
Meet Your Interests? | 2 | As 朴先生 kept saying due to rainy weather and heavy traffic we cannot go to the outdoor area, we only can go to the indoor attractions. | |
Too Tight of Too Loose? | 3 |
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Meals | 4 | The recommended restaurants by 朴先生 is good especially the 田园 restaurant near to the MBC drama showroom. However after the first day bad experience with him, we do not expect him to recommend us anything. | |
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) | 3 | We took taxi back on shopping day and actually it is relatively cheap. After the experience with this kind of tour guide we rather just hire a taxi driver. | |
Any Other Aspect |
| Actually my sister have friends planning to visit Seoul next week but with the bad experience with 朴先生 we will not recommend Novaland to anyone. Sorry to say that, one person can damage the image of the company. In this decade, young people who are educated will take public transport and go for Free & Easy. Old people will follow group tour. Less people wanted to have private tour, the reason why we take private tour is because my mom is old and hardly walk. 朴先生 should learn how to be more considerate with customers who have old people or maybe Novaland should think if 朴先生 can be your partnership or not?? Although his service as a tour guide is bad we still provide him a reasonable tips. | |
Bestregards,
FuiMinn
Hi, Emma,
Sorry for the delay. We came back from China last week. I had been really busy.
Everything went well. We love the tours. I've also completed an evaluation form and provided it to the tour guide Tenzin (the small Tenzin). Please also see my responses below.
1=poor, 2=fair,3=good, 4=very good5=excellent
Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant | 5 | You did a great job! I like the fact that I always get timely responses from you. | |
Tour Guides | Command of English | 5 |
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Knowledge of Subjects | 5 |
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Ability of Explain | 5 |
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Attitude | 5 |
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Flexibility | 5 |
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Drivers and Cars | 5 | The bus is spacious for the size of the group. This is good. I do not like to be in a big bus that every single seat is taken. | |
Hotels | Location | 3.5 | The hotel in Lhasa is a little remote, about 10 minutes from everything else. We cannot even get a taxi outside of the hotel. The hotel is Shigetzi is in a very nice location. |
Comfort | 4.5 |
The hotel in both Lhasa and Shigetzi are certainly comfortable and had nice breakfast. I've seen the other hotel you first recommended in the city center of Lhasa. I would not like that one at all. The guest house in Namuso is really hard for me. Although you've warned me, I don't think I was prepared for that kind of "guest house". We had no access to any water other than drinking water, no heating or cooling. The only toilet access is a pit (not even a toilet) outside. I understand that's already the best. | |
Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 4.5 | Everything except for Namuso. It takes too long to get there. It is a scenic ride but has a lot of overlap for us as we took the same route via the train from Xining. The guest house is tough. I also got really sick due to the high altitude, so maybe bias about how beautiful the lake is. |
Meet Your Interests? | 4.5 | We were very excited about the "famous" Hot Springs mentioned in the itinerary (you can imagine after a long night without water). However, we were told it is just a small swimming pool. We didn't even make a stop. | |
Too Tight or Too Loose? | 5 | I think it is about right. I do not like to pack too many things in one day. Some free time is good. | |
Meals | 5 |
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Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) | 4.5 | The train makes too many stops. The cabin is not cleaned and it is difficult to get food on the train. However, it is a scenic ride. Thanks for booking the lower sleepers for us. | |
Any Other Aspect |
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Overall Score of the Whole Package | 5 | The small size of the group tours continue to be my favorite which is the reason I came back to Novaland. We would love to come back for the silk road of China tour in a couple of years. | |
Hi Emma,
The tour has been good. I think the tour guide has been switched. The person's name is Steve Mizuma and not Jay. I believe Steve will also accompany us today to Disney Sea. I was confused at first when we met Steve last week. As you know there was a little confusion as to the transfer back to the hotel from the Tokyo train station yesterday since we didn't see the driver and waited for a while before catching a taxi back. Other than that things have been smooth.
Hi Emma,
We're having a great time and Young has been very accommodating. Thanks so much for arranging our trip with him in Korea!
Nathalie
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1=poor, 2=fair,3=good, 4=very good5=excellent
Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant | |||
Tour Guides | Command of English | 3 (Steve), 4 (Hiro), 5 (Young) | Both Steve and Hiro were very nice and accommodating. The biggest barrier was perhaps the language barrier. |
Knowledge of Subjects | 5 (all guides) | ||
Ability of Explain | 5 (all guides) | ||
Attitude | 5 (all guides) | ||
Flexibility | 5 (all guides) | ||
Drivers and Cars | 4 | ||
Hotels | Location | ||
Comfort | |||
Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 4 | |
Meet Your Interests? | 5 | ||
Too Tight or Too Loose? | Adequate | ||
Meals | |||
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) | 5 | ||
Any Other Aspect | |||
Overall Score of the Whole Package | 4.5 | ||
Dear Siva
Thankyou for your help,we enjoyed nami tour n cookin nanta. :) see you next year.
Oeland
Thanks so much dear Zoe for remembering.
Just reached Fukuoka hotel. Everything went perfectly fine. Your guidance worked at every stage.
When I reached Narita Tokyo. Yuri welcomed us at airport. Our name card was displayed. She stayed with us till the last when we boarded the bus. Helped us in getting the JR Pass and currency change plus getting the shuttle. All went very fine. I am so happy. Thanks so much.
Will be contacting you soon.
Stayin touch.
Bestregards.
Shafi
Hello Emma!!
Yes, my son and I are back from our travels. It took us a couple of days to get adjusted to the jet lag, but we are doing better.
I want to thank you for a very well organized trip. EVERYTHING went very smoothly. One thing I didn’t realize was that Novaland basically acted as a “broker” for us and made the connections with different tour companies and booked out tours, hotels, drivers. Novaland basically did all the work for me and I really appreciate how everything was well planned and organized.
I plan on writing awesome reviews on Facebook and Trip Advisor, especially to new customers who are unsure about the whole process, like I was. Again, nothing but a positive experience, so I really appreciate all that you did for me and my son because we had an amazing trip.
No worries on the flashdrive, I think I’ll be able to put together something on my own. I appreciate the offer. Please see my comments below and again, I will write some awesome reviews about Novaland on social media.
Thanks again for everything and I’ll be sure to use you guys in the future and refer Novaland to my friends and family.
Take care.
__________________________________________________________________
Hi Emma: This is long overdue. I have been so busy playing catch-up at work since I got back from vacation that I have not been able to complete this review and also do my excellent review on Trip Advisor, but I will do that this week. In the meantime, please see my responses below. J
1=poor, 2=fair,3=good, 4=very good5=excellent
Aspect | Mark(1-5) | Advice or Remark | |
Travel Consultant | 5 | Emma was awesome. Always quick with responses and very understanding and explained everything in detail when I was not sure about things. She really put my mind at ease. | |
Tour Guides | Command of English | 5 | Very good. |
Knowledge of Subjects | 5 | Very good. | |
Ability of Explain | 5 | Very good. | |
Attitude | 5 | Every tour guide was very nice ad positive. | |
Flexibility | 5 | I enjoyed Busan tour as they were really flexible, but also a smaller group so maybe that is why they could be flexible. | |
Drivers and Cars | 5 | Drivers were always waiting for us and made themselves known. Really made us feel comfortable and very courteous and helpful. | |
Hotels | Location | 5 for Shilla Stay and Lotte 3 for Crown Harbor | Shilla Stay and Lotte Hotel were AWESOME! We were disappointed with the Crown Harbor Hotel. It did not meet our expectations and the breakfast buffet was not to the standards of the Shilla Stay hotel, although both were 4 star hotels. Lotte Hotel was exceptional as it was 5 stars. |
Comfort | 5 for Shilla Stay and Lotte 3 for Crown Harbor | Shilla Stay and Lotte Hotel were great. Disappointed with the Crown Harbor Hotel. | |
Sights or Activities | Worthiness of Visit | 4 | Enjoyed the tours, however, there were parts of the Busan tour that were not necessary, even the Seoul tour. |
Meet Your Interests? | 4 | Sure. We were disappointed we could not do the DMZ tour but that was not the tour company’s fault. We were very pleased that we were promptly given a refund the day of the tour. Thank you. | |
Too Tight or Too Loose? | 5 | I felt like the tour guides (in the smaller group) really worked with us and found out what we wanted to do. It was nice to have that flexibility. | |
Meals | 4 | Meals were fine. Maybe more of a mixture of different types of foods other than “mixed” rice and Bulgogi. | |
Public Transportation (train, flight, cruise, etc.) |
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Any Other Aspect |
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Overall Score of the Whole Package | 5 | Overall, a wonderful experience. I really appreciated how Emma/Novaland organized the entire trip for me and my son and made the whole process very smooth. | |
Hi Siva,
Greetings!
It was a greatexperinced. Extend our regards to Mr. Young, who imparted to us not only hisknowledge but also how hospitable Korean people is. Tell him to get marriedsoon, for us to go back in Korea.
Thank you!
Sincerelyyours,
Jermaine
Hi Lynee
The tours are good.
I like the first day tour guide , Michelle, as she projects a warmwelcome, and willing to provide information of the place without beingprompted.
The day tour guide, Ms Lee, gave a good suggestion to avoid the Wetland asthis is not the season. However, we would have hoped that the point of booking,we have been told of this so that we make changes rather than have to make adecision on the morning of th tour.
Thank you.
BR
Mrs. Chan
Hi sara,
Thank you verymuch from me and My aunties.
We had a greattime.
No worries weare ok with compiling on our own.
Thank you again
6.17 早上
Hi Bruce,
I was so tired last night because we woke up early and went touring afterwards that's why I wasn't able to reply. Yesterday was so fun. Mr Young is very helpful. We are enjoying everything so far! The hotel is perfect and beautiful. Excited for our tour today. I will update you again later. :)
6.17 晚上
Hi Bruce,
Just ended the day. We are back at the hotel! Yes, Mr. Young is awesome-- he is funny too. Haha! Very pleased with our tour so far. Many thanks for the help! We love Korea already.
7.1
Hello Bruce,
Sorry I took long to reply. Yes we would love that. You may also post the pictures on your Facebook page. :)
Please wait for our photos. I will compile them and send the link to you so you can download them.
Thanks very much!
Best,
Zazza