...
So with an approximate itinerary in hand, off we set to Travelbag’s Piccadilly office, where we were appointed to one of their Far East/Australasia experts.
Having our own rough plans obviously helped, but the degree of interest and background knowledge coming from our expert was ... Read review
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Advantages: Probably quicker than the internet if your plans are complicated. Good service Disadvantages: Not many branches
THE UPDATE – AUGUST 2001
What better way to judge a travel agent than by what they got right and what they got wrong.
THINGS THEY GOT RIGHT
a) London to Singapore with Quantas
b) Airport transfer in Singapore
c) Hotel in Singapore
d) Orientation tour in Singapore
e) Flight to Melbourne with Quantas
f) Hotel in Melbourne
g) Coach Tour to Phillip Island ...Alice Springs
j) Hotel in Alice
k) Tour Of Desert Garden Nature Park
l) Hot Air Balloon Ride
m) Flight to Uluru (Ayers Rock)
n) Hotel at Ayers Rock resort
o) “Sound Of Silence Dinner” – Uluru
p) Sunrise at Uluru
q) Flight to Cairns
r) Hotel transfer in Cairns
s) Hotel in Cairns
t) 4-wd trip to rain forest, crocodiles on Daintree River etc
u) Catamaran ... more
THE UPDATE – AUGUST 2001
What better way to judge a travel agent than by what they got right and what they got wrong.
THINGS THEY GOT RIGHT
a) London to Singapore with Quantas b) Airport transfer in Singapore c) Hotel in Singapore d) Orientation tour in Singapore e) Flight to Melbourne with Quantas f) Hotel in Melbourne g) Coach Tour to Phillip Island h) Coach Tour Of Melbourne i) Ghan train ride to Alice Springs j) Hotel in Alice k) Tour Of Desert Garden Nature Park l) Hot Air Balloon Ride m) Flight to Uluru (Ayers Rock) n) Hotel at Ayers Rock resort o) “Sound Of Silence Dinner” – Uluru p) Sunrise at Uluru q) Flight to Cairns r) Hotel transfer in Cairns s) Hotel in Cairns t) 4-wd trip to rain forest, crocodiles on Daintree River etc u) Catamaran to barrier reef v) Flight to Sydney with Quantas w) “Bridge Climb” over Harbour Bridge x) Blue Mountains 4-wd trip y) Flight to Bangkok with Quantas z) Transfer to hotel aa) Hotel in Bankok bb) Rice Barge tour of “Klongs” cc) Thai Banquet and Cultural Evening
And ….Flight to Heathrow with Quantas
THINGS THEY GOT WRONG
ER, UM…………………………I rest my case!
And now back to the plot………..THE ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE
My wife and I had been planning to go to Australia for some time, always being put off by two things. The cost of going for any decent length of time (e.g. a month) and the unlikelihood of my being able to get four weeks off work at one time.
Then two things happened – I took early retirement, which gets over the length of holiday problem. My wife is a teacher, so she has some quite wide “windows of opportunity” to work with, although not as wide as outsiders would have you believe.
Then we realised that a 10-year endowment policy was about to mature, which took care of the money side.
So with an approximate itinerary in hand, off we set to Travelbag’s Piccadilly office, where we were appointed to one of their Far East/Australasia experts.
Having our own rough plans obviously helped, but the degree of interest and background knowledge coming from our expert was excellent.
We have come away in high spirits, with a detailed itinerary that leaves us plenty of time to do our own thing, like visit friends whilst packing in all we wanted to see on our first trip – I am particularly pleased to be going on the “Ghan” 1st class train ride from Melbourne to Alice Springs, from where we will travel on to Ayer’s Rock, and then Cairns.
Maybe we just got lucky that everything we wanted was available, but I get a reassuring feeling about Travelbag, especially after reading one or two other opinions on them.
We have since had to make a couple of minor adjustments, which have been dealt with promptly, and backed up in writing by first post.
I will update this when we finally get back, just to see how much of this came true!
Advantages: friendly, helpful staff, good value Disadvantages: none in my experience
I contacted Travelbag in 1999 when I was planning a trip overseas and wanted a flexible ticket. I had heard about these round the world tickets you can get, with open dates, and saw an advert for Travelbag in a newspaper, so thought I’d give them a ring. The service I received was second to none. They really are very informative and helpful, and will arrange everything for you, including insurance and any necessary visas. They also have details ... ...Travelbag entirely over the phone, and by post. I had plenty of time before my planned departure date, but the turnaround of documentation and tickets was very quick. I had specific destinations I wished to include in my travels, I wanted to visit a friend in Africa, on the way to Australia and then on to New Zealand and the girl at Travelbag went out of her way to find me the best deal to accommodate these needs.
I would (and have) recommend Travelbag ...
q_su 10.04.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Travelbag
Advantages: Unique family holidays Disadvantages: more expensive than the beach!
...no experience of travelling with Travelbag - although I know they have a very good reputation - but the logo on these reports is for Travelbag Adventures and I know they are a very good company who do cater well for children - however they provide a very different type of holiday.... Travelbag Adventures provide package holidays (although you can buy them without flights) for 'Adventerous travellers' - so it tends to be holidays like trekking, white ... ...their parent company, do.
Travelbag Adventures have an entire familiy section so you can take the kids (recommended age 5 and up) and do everything from dugout canoes in Nepal to wildlife safaris to something more mundane like biking in France. They put you together with other family groups for a total of about 18 people - so the kids have new friends to relate to and you have some adult company - it all works brilliantly and the kids have a great ...
Gurtie 12.09.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Travelbag
Advantages: Reputable, Good service, Excellent hotel and transfer Disadvantages: Booked wrong hotel
We travelled to Australia with TravelBag a few years ago. They were very efficient with tickets, booking, sorting out stop over hotel and transfer.
Unfortunately when we got to our stopover destination of Malaysia. It turned out that our hotel was a 5 hour taxi drive away in the rainforest, instead of in the city of Kuala Lumper as I thought I'd booked!
Never the less, despite the long journey, the hotel was great, and we got to see a bit of Malaysia ... ...the UK, I wrote to TravelBag telling them of our experience. They immediately sent me a full refund for the stop over hotel costs and transfer. I was really impressed with that.
We're going to Australia again this year, and will be booking again with TravelBag. OK they booked the wrong hotel for us, but it's really reassuring to know that if there is a quibble, they're really reasonable and helpful ...
RhiannonofWoolamai 18.09.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Travelbag
Advantages: Online booking, you can email itineraries and get quotes Disadvantages: Unreliable and not very efficient
...to send a message to Travelbag for trips such as these where an adviser will look at what you want in person then email you back a quote and any other information and advise they have for your trip.... Excellent. The website says that they will reply within 24hrs. The response actually took 3 days, this was not a problem since we were not in a rush. However they had lost our original request and asked us to send it them again so they could get us ...
Will77 19.07.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Travelbag
Advantages: very well organised Disadvantages: beware of hidden costs
the tour guide was very friendly and helpful. the tour itself contained a good mixture of activities,
and the accommodation varied from extremely basic to much more comfortable. we were given a good experience of Chinese culture, especially when the tour guide took us to places which weren't mentioned in any tour guides,places to which only locals usually go. we had an attrctive balance of organised tours vs being left to our own devices, so we ... ...being the youngest member of the group did not matter- i was 18. the only bad part of our trip was that we spent fewer than 24 hours in Hong Kong- this was not really long enough, especially as we were all jet-lagged from the flight! ...
amcdonald 30.11.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Travelbag
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