NLT-150625-YA58166
[Jan 23, 2019, from Australia]
NLT-150725-DK54915
[Jan 23, 2019, from Australia]
We have had 3 good days with Mr Young. Unfortunately I have gastroenteritis. I have suggested he takes guests to different restaurants. He is very attentive,knowledgeable and reliable. This is said as someone who has been on dozens of tours in 88 countries.rnrnThe DMZ tour is repetitive and eventually gets boring.rnrnGyeong Ju interesting. The guide did not know we were staying overnight. Then gave us tickets for the return journey for last month! NLT-150806-MK56942
[Jan 23, 2019, from France]
Thank you for your email. rnrnWe have had a lovely time in Korea, thank you.rnrnOur guide/driver Yong was really lovely and helpful. NLT-150829-QJ60751
[Jan 23, 2019]
NLT-151001-YK53427
[Jan 23, 2019, from America]
Greetings,rnrnrn As my wife and I prepare to fly back to the USA today, and the memories of our Tour are still fresh in our memory we want to thank you. The tour you set up for us was absolutely wonderful. The places we visited were beautiful and we were blessed with excellent weather. Our thanks go especially to the tour guides and drivers who met and exceeded all expectations. They were always on time and very helpful when we had questions or wanted to visit some place special. If ever asked, I will certainly recommend Novaland Tours for travel in South Korea.rnrnrn Thanks to Joanna who was instrumental in helping us decide on what tour to take, then kept us informed as any changes occurred. A really first class trip planner.rnrnrn Finally, a special thanks to the people of Korea for having built such a wonderful country. I was first stationed in Korea in 1959/60 at Camp Kaiser. My job was to patrol the DMZ. At that time, I must admit I never thought the country had a chance of becoming what it is today. The people of Korea, in my humble opinion have brought about a miracle. rnrnrnrnrn David and Mona Storey NLT-151002-YK58683
[Jan 23, 2019, from America]
JohannarnrnrnI have only been home for one day and had planned to send a note. It is a long trip home and my last flight was cancelled so yesterday was spent finding my luggage and just getting accustomed to the 14 hour time change.rnrnrnI was very happy with all of your arrangements and will be recommending your company to anyone planning to travel where Novaland Tours can help with a tour. Mr Young did an excellent job guiding us around the Seoul area and introduced my granddaughter and I to great food and experiences. He found special events for us such as a parade celebrating the harvest and the changing of the guard at the temple. He was very knowledgeable and good at explaining the sites.rnrnrnThe tours arranged in Jeju were good. I met others who were also traveling with Novaland Tours and we were all happy with your service. I was very happy with the hotels that you arranged, the locations and service were fine. All had English speaking workers who were so helpful. rnrnrnJohanna, I could not ask for more from a tour planner. You were so responsive to my wishes and arranged a tour that I will not forget. Because you were so thorough in your arrangements, I was able to enjoy your country without any problems.rnrnrnThank you.rnDoris Hertsgaard NLT-151014-TK35463
[Jan 23, 2019, from America]
Hi, Joanna,rn rnI would definitely recommend your company. The tour was fabulous, better that I could have imagined. Mr. Young is a perfect driver/guide. Works hard to made every day interesting, worthwhile and fun. He cared enough to take good care of me. The hotels were excellent. As it turned out, it was probably good that I stayed at two hotel in Jeju Island because of the location being near itinerary sites. Every day was a full day of sightseeing which I liked. I got more exercise on this tour thatnI probably did in 5 years which was an unexpected health benefit. Mr. Victor, the driver/guide for Jeju, followed the itinerary, as did Mr. Young, so that I did not miss out on the World Heritage Sites. Also both guides, especially Mr. Young, added additional sightseeing.rn rnI love to travel that's why I'm all booked up for 2016.rn rnI found your company to be reliable, honest and quick to respond. rnWith much appreciation,rnJoyce NLT-151016-TK54665
[Jan 23, 2019, from America]
Hi Tina,rnrnThank you again for arranging our tour itinerary. It was our first time visiting Seoul and Jeju Island for all seven of us and it will always be our fondest memory forever. We had such a wonderful time. The tour itself was quite at a fast pace, knowing we have only a limited time and cramming to see as many places as possible, we were tired but very happy to see so much of Seoul on our first visit.rnrnEnclosed here are three photos: when five of us arrived in Incheon Airport on the 1st day, a group photo of us all taken in Suwon Hwaseung Fortress and Hallim Garden, see how much fun we have! rnrnBelow are some of our thoughts and feedback:rnrnTour consultant –Since it was our first time to South Korea, we were relying on your expertise and guidance for the attraction places. You did a wonderful job in putting the itinerary together. We love Nami Island the place is beautiful, not because of the K-drama “Winter Sonata” being filmed there but because of the foliage. We took a number of beautiful pictures there. Due to the time constraint, I believe JSA tour was skipped but it would be good to include it as part of the DMZ attraction in the future. DMZ was also a memorable tour for us. Now that we had finished the tour and knowing what the attractions are, there were a couple of places that we would probably skip if we were to go to Seoul again.rnrnTour guides – We enjoyed having Julie (Seoul) and Susie (Jeju Island) as our guides. They were very gracious, accommodating and patient. Thank you to Julie who arranged to have SunBee Hotel kept a few of our luggages in the hotel until our return from Jeju Island. One of us was flying to Malaysia before returning to US therefore she had additional luggage + we did so much shopping in Seoul that we had a couple more luggage that we did not want to haul to Jeju Island. rnrnDrivers – All the drivers were gracious but spoke little or no English. It would be nice for them to point out some areas or landmarks on the way to Seoul or on the way to the airport. Mr. Lee was punctual to pick us up to the Incheon airport for our departure flights. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to go through the check-ins, security and shopping at the duty free shops. There was an incident where we had some slight misunderstandings due to language issue with Mr. Baek who picked us up from the Gimpo Airport to the Doo Guesthouse. We thought he was supposed to drop us off in front of the guesthouse but later found out that he was not allowed to drive through the alley where the guesthouse was. Later Mr. Baek assisted us in pulling some of our luggages to the Doo Guesthouse from where he parked the van. Thank you Mr. Baek!rnrnHotels – We love the location of our hotels and guesthouse. The hotels were centrally located and convenient to the places where we can walk and experience the street food and shopping. We enjoyed our stay in SunBee Hotel very much. The room was large and clean. The front desk staff was friendly, helpful and they spoke English. We’ll definitely stay in SunBee Hotel again. rnrnHowever, we had a few issues with the Ever Hotel in Jeju Island. The room was clean but the wooden flooring was a little sticky, probably needs a good cleaning. There were no slippers in the room. We felt the soap in the bathroom had been used before. The hotel issued only one access card for each room which caused some inconvenience since there were two of us sharing the room. We were informed breakfast in the hotel was only from 7:00 am to 8:00 am but we noticed people were still allowed to come to the dining room after 8:00 am. rnrnEven though the rooms were small, we love Doo Guesthouse. It was such a nice traditional hanok. We truly had a good experience staying in the guesthouse. You are right in advising us to stay up to two nights. Thank you for the advice. Breakfast was simple but it brought up back to the basic living. rnrnFood – Thank you in arranging for us to experience the local delicacies for lunch as part of our tour. The braised chicken cooked in black sauce and seafood pancakes for our Day 2 tour lunch was simply delicious. We went back to the restaurant and had a 2nd round of the same food for dinner on the last night of our stay in SunBee Hotel. In Jeju Island, we thoroughly enjoyed the Wellbeing buffet, thank you for adding this buffet as part of the local delicacies. The locally grown vegetables were delicious. On the 2nd day, we had a choice of Jeju BBQ or bibimbap but since we had already tried the BBQ (after our Nami Island tour) and bibimbap (had it in the Korean Folk Village), we requested for abalone porridge instead. We heard that the abalone porridge was famous in Jeju Island and we wanted to try it so maybe Novaland should promote and include this delicacy for lunch. Anyway, Susie was gracious to accommodate our request for abalone porridge. Thank you Susie!rnrnAnother feedback is when lunch is not included in the tour, we suggest the tour guide discusses with the group the options of what to eat and then recommend where to eat. This situation came up when we were brought to a restaurant for lunch and some of us prefer to eat something else.rnrnTransportation – The bus/vans were clean and spacious for 7 of us. Thank you for providing comfortable transportation. rnrnService – the services from everyone who contributed to our trip was very good. We do not have any negative words to say.rnrnOverall Novaland Tours did a good job organizing our private tour. I’ll contact you/Novaland Tours again when we decide to plan another vacation, probably in 2017? NLT-151102-YK61781
[Jan 23, 2019]
NLT-151108-BK59239
[Jan 23, 2019]
NLT-151205-EK56346
[Jan 23, 2019]
Hi Emma,rnSorry for the late reply, been bombarded with lot of work after returning from the long leave. It is indeed a while since we last emailed! Somehow, I missed replying emails to you and also planning a holiday! Rest assured, my family totally enjoyed the Korea trip as a whole and had a good time. Please refer to my answers to your questions below.rn1. How is our service throughout your tour from any aspects you feel? Such as our travel consultant, tour guide’s, drivers or others’ attitude; hotels, transportations, scenic spots’ arrangement; and any other words you would like to say to me.rn- Travel consultant: Emma have been very flexible and very helpful with arranging the whole itinerary. We started contacting all the way in March and have changed itinerary multiple times especially after I found myself pregnant. Thank you so much for being so accommodating and never fails to change the itineraries as what I have expected it to be. Emma emails was also quick almost within 24 hours of reply which is always appreciated.rn- Tour guides: We had 2 separate tour guides for Jeju trip and for Seoul trip. Both of them had very good English and are also Koreans therefore it was easy to communicate with them which is so important as we could not speak Korean at all;rn a) Jeju Tour guide: Mr Victor guided us for our Jeju trip. He was a little strict with timing but I appreciate that otherwise we would have missed a lot of spots to go since it gets dark pretty early in Jeju! Mr Victor also followed the itinerary closely so each day we knew what was going to happen. We totally love the seafood place that Mr Victor recommended us. It was affordable, clean and most important, the most delicious meal we ever had throughout the whole trip! Jeju was indeed a pleasant eye opening place to be.rn b) Seoul Tour guide: Mr Young guided us for our Seoul trip. When we reached Seoul after Jeju flight, we were totally famished. Mr Young asked if we would like to have dinner first before he sends us back to hotel. It was such a pleasant surprise! We didn’t expect that from him especially when the itineraries that we have planned did not include any plans for dinner. He was a very very flexible man. We totally appreciated every of his recommendations especially food wise. It was a waste that we did not get to see the palace in Korea as the palace was closed on Monday. However, Mr Young recommended lots of other places in Seoul to have a spectacular view of Seoul. Mr Young was always accommodating to our requests especially food wise. He would search for the best place to eat each and every time. Mr Young was also very active that sometimes he would have totally forgotten that I was pregnant and that I could not walk/climb too much of stairs.rn- Hotels: The hotel that was recommended by Emma was all within our expectations. Every room was spacious enough that we kept on remembering our other families back home. Rooms were clean and I especially like their toilet bidet functions. So convenient. The hotel is Seoul was perfect as it was near the shopping area and because of that we are able to do last minute shopping before getting on the return flight to Seoul!rn- Transportations: The car that was provided is also big and spacious for the 4 of us. We totally love that the cars are new and clean. Both tour guides drive safely and at the speed that are acceptable to us. The car boot was also spacious enough to fit all of our bags. Since it is winter, we packed quite a few bags even the tour guide was surprised with the amount of bags we brought each.rn2. Where can we improve to be better and stronger?rnI am not too sure if it was communicated to the tour guides that I was pregnant. I think it was communicated but because I was just about 4 months into the pregnancy my belly doesn’t show that much so I guess the tour guides would have forgotten that I was indeed pregnant. The tour guides do walk fast! Sometimes I could not catch up with the tour guides especially if they are walking up the slope as I was trying to catch my breath.rnOtherwise, I guess Nova Land have done a good job.rn3. Any other valuable comments, travel experience and happy moments you may have.rn- Travel experience: It was an experience that I can never forget and a little frustrating at the customs when we first reached Korea. I can’t really blame the customs because after getting pregnant, I do put on a couple of weight and my face looked swollen upon touching down especially my nose. So I was pulled aside into a room and was interviewed. The custom officer keeps on taking my photo. The worst thing is the officers could not speak good English and so could not tell me what their concern was. Thankfully, I understand their Korean, and I just pointed on my tummy trying to explain that I am currently pregnant. After that, they then let me go.rnI hope my comments are not too long winded for you to read. I am looking forward to planning the next trip with nova land again in near future. My husband would like to visit Japan someday and we may just take nova land service again.rn rnCheers,rnLiana ^^Y NLT-151206-DK61734
[Jan 23, 2019, from Australia]
NLT-151209-XJ61402
[Jan 23, 2019]
NLT-151215-CJ63962
[Jan 23, 2019]
Hi Cindy,rnrnSorry for super late reply. Been quite caught up after the trip. Overall, it was a good trip and satisfying service from your tour guide. I've also been referring your service to several friends and relatives who inquire about Japan private tour. Hope you will enlarge your service to other developed Asian countries, such as South Korea. Lastly, thanks for your satisfactorily service and hope we can be in contact again in our next trip.rn rnRegards,rn rnCAROLINE ANTHONIO NLT-151218-BJ64858
[Jan 23, 2019, from Argentina]
Hello Bruce, as I told you before, I am not in Japan . The passengers are my sons and grandson. Through the photos I think that everything was very good and the view, I think, could n´t be better. The only complain was lunch, they could n´t choose what to eat and not very good.rnrnThank you very much, best regardsrnrnSusana
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