Travelmarvel Tour & Cruise Reviews

I could not recommend this cruise enough. The staff were amazing with nothing we asked was too much for them to handle. they were professional, courteous and spoke excellent English meaning nothing got lost in translation. All guides and tours were professionally managed and went into details about the towns and site we passed by. This is definetly ...read more a trip I would do again.

An enjoyable river cruise with everything run well except for how the problems with the boat propella were mismanaged . This ongoing problem impacted on the mid cruise stops in particular we missed seeing Numerburg a high value tour and we sailed almost all the Rhine Valley in darkness.

This was a wonderful 12 night trip from Saigon along the Mekong and ending with the marvels of Siem Reap. Travelmarvel were highly organised and the tour leader and individual guides were exceptional. Accommodations and meals were of the highest standard. Highlights included the Cu Chi tunnels, village and market visits (especially the wet market in ...read more Sa Dec) and of cause the splendour of Angkor Wat. Highlights on every day. Good mix of fellow passengers from Australia, NZ and UK. Could not recommend Travelmarvel more highly.

The trip in total was 7 weeks, with the first 4 and the final week organised independently by my wife and myself. The 15 day Travelmarvel cruise was a great way to relax after 4 weeks of independent travel. We could unpack both suitcases and put everything away in drawers, and get our clothes laundered. I'll summarise my feedback for future travelers:

1. ...read more We travelled Amsterdam to Budapest and I would definitely recommend this direction rather than the reverse. The reasons include the first day or 2 are more grass bank views before the beautiful castles and towns appear, and you also get the mind-blowing view of Budapest at the end of the trip.
2. Take a few days in Amsterdam at the beginning and a few days at Budapest at the end as these are brilliant cities. Be sure to book Anne Frank House in Amsterdam 6 weeks before you arrive (as we did) as it will definitely sell out and every other passenger missed out.
3. Flights were included in the cost, but we paid for a Business class upgrade that was good value and worth every cent.
4. Travelmarvel caters for both independent travellers, and well as those who wish to pay for the extra day trips. We liked this option as well could often "do our own thing" on land and that suited us.
5. The meals on board were great.
6. Drinks at lunch and dinner are included, and we found that refills were regular and plentiful and more than enough for us. You could even get the glass filled before 9pm closure and take it upstairs to the lounge.
7. Rooms are great and second and third floor of the Polaris had large windows that could be lowered for a great view.

Global Journeys were very communicative and our agent Rachael McSorley was excellent in answering all questions and providing all information. Well done Rachael.

We had a great trip. The tour was very well organised. Great food, staff and tour guides were excellent. Cruising the Mekong was amazing would recommend to anyone. Stayed 3 nights in Hotel Ho Chi Minh city before cruise and 3 nights after in Siem reap. Both hotels were excellent and in great locations.

Very friendly thoughtful professional and welcoming crew from the tour director to the cabin staff. Our room was perfect. The food was amazing (the soup could be improved) and the dining room and bar excellent. All tour guides were very knowledgeable and helpful although the audio did not always work. An unforgettable experience. Loved it!

Just back from Travelmarvel Wonders of the Southwest. As always, Georgie and the Global Journeys team were a delight to work with and arranged everything flawlessly. The tour itself was fantastic with a huge variety of beautiful, fascinating and unique places to see. A beach made entirely of shells (no sand!), a hot pink lake, dugongs and a dolphin ...read more using a sponge as a tool (!), trees you could stand up inside and a riot of wildflowers with tiny delicate orchids hidden amongst them. There was a lot of driving, but the coach was modern, spacious and comfortable, the driver was excellent and the roads much better than you would expect in such remote places. The tour guide was top shelf as well. Loved it!

Thank you Hannah for being such a great agent from start to finish - nothing was too much trouble and we really appreciate our positive Global Journeys experience! We really enjoyed our Travel Marvel Eastern Europe extension and Budapest to Amsterdam cruise. Sadly the weather on the cruise was not great so never really got to experience fully the top ...read more deck! Our cruise director Hedleigh was great and an organisational wizard! Our only hesitation to do another was perhaps it was a bit too regimented for us - kind of a bit ground hog day with the food on board (which was great but not a lot of change from day to day) and similarity of the organised tours in each place with some tour guides excellent but others not great! Highlights for me - the concert in Vienna - don’t miss it - and I really enjoyed the various ‘bergs’ and the home visit in Miltenberg! Some of the German towns were lovely and we met some great people on the tour! Overall this was a great holiday - the river ships are really nicely done - French balcony cabin great and staff on board friendly!

Our river cruise was excellent and met our expectations. The ship was clean & well maintained and the staff were excellent. The food was of very good quality with quite a good choice on the menu, and we even had lamb shanks for dinner one night. Definitely not expected but thoroughly delicious. We have no hesitations in recommending Travel Marvel & ...read more Global Journeys.

This tour lived up to expectations and more! A group of 27 plus our tour leader. The group mixed easily and was very well coordinated by our English tour leader, Ivan, who was a mine of information. As he said, 'he didn't do stress', so it was all quite relaxed. We really appreciated the itinerary had 2 and 3 night stays - more time to explore and great ...read more not to be packing up on a daily basis. Whilst it covered the 3 main rail journeys, Bernina Express, Glacier Express and up to the Jungfrau - there would have been about 12 train connections/trips in all - each a picturesque experience. There was enough time for own exploring as well the planned tour. Highlights - walking tours around towns we stayed in, visit to Neuschwanstein Castle, so many picture postcard scenes, a personal visit to the delightful village of Grindelwald near the Eiger on return from Jungfrau (via the cog railway), snowflakes falling at St Moritz!

It was a wonderful trip with friendly fun people. Tour guide and driver were top of the ladder. The only down side was having to sit on a bus for so long because the first part of the trip was so far from anywhere and each other. Motels were very good, food was excellent. Tracey Standing was very easy to work with.

What a fabulous trip with a great bunch of fellow travellers. The itinerary was packed but there is so much to see. I would definitely travel with Travelmarvel again and the booking through Global Journeys was so simple and easy and all done online. I will book again for another trip.

We enjoyed the cruise and the itinerary very much. The staff were very helpful, polite and attentive. The food was good. The boat was nice and modern and the cleaning was of a high standard. It is certainly a nice way to discover a little bit of Europe. The laundry service was reasonably priced, as no irons allowed in the rooms.

You could do as ...read more much or as little as you wanted in regards to tours and exploring on your own. We made some nice friends - tour was predominantly Australian, with a few Kiwis and Americans thrown in.

My only big disappointment was that we paid for a room with a french balcony, so that we could enjoy the views and fresh air. We spent the majority of the days, when the boat wasn't sailing (which was a lot), in darkness, because another boat was nearly always tethered to our side of the boat. And apart from a 1/2 day, it was always on our side of the boat. I don't recall this being mentioned when we booked. This got worse as the cruise went on, as many days were spent in port while the sailing was done later in the evening. Yes, you can go on deck, but we wanted to be able to chill out in our rooms by ourselves occasionally, and enjoy the view. I'm not sure that I would do another cruise because of this.

We also missed out on the Amsterdam canal cruise, due to Mardi Gras, which couldn't be helped, but still disappointing. A highlight was the boat sailing up and down the Danube River at night, so that we could see the very pretty lights of Budapest. Overall, we had a lovely time and experienced lots of lovely and interesting places! I also couldn't fault the staff - they all did a great job.

Seven nights of relaxed cruising. Great weather. Only 25 passengers. Good tour director and boat crew. Fabulous small towns to visit each day.

This cruise was extremely well organised with experienced and friendly guides. The zodiacs were a challenge at first but after a few days and gaining confidence in the driver it wasn’t as daunting. Some days it wasn’t possible to view the scenery behind you from the zodiac. Food, crew and fellow passengers were excellent.

An excellent way to see the wonders of the Kimberley and its remote extremes. The 'glamping' APT accommodation was excellent, as were the local staff and meals. Our driver/guide Gordon is a credit to APT and the 4WD truck was unstoppable but still very comfortable.

Much to my surprise, this "tour" by Travel Marvel was in fact 2 subcontracted tours to local African providers and appeared loosely "co-ordinated" by Travelmarvel. As such, it was more like 2 distinct tours, with 2 different companies, one for southern Africa, the other for Kenya and Tanzania. The latter part was wonderful - Albatross Tours in Kenya ...read more and Tanzania did a wonderful, fully professional job with an outstanding knowledgeable guide and drivers, well crafted plans, excellent communication and implementation. Accommodation was excellent and transport also great - although there were some VERY long days (8 hours+) in 4wd's on dreadfully rough tracks which were tough on all of us and saw many of the older, less fit members of the group having to miss sections of the trip due to fatigue. Albatross would easily gain a 5 Star revue for their share of the trip.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Giltedge Travel who were responsible for the first part of the trip from Capetown or Kruger to Chobe River. Our Giltedge tour leader was a poor communicator, disorganised and not a good ambassador for Africa. After introducing himself to we 3 who joined the trip in Kruger he said that everyone on the original trip was sick with vomiting and diarrhea and to stay away from them! What a welcome!! He constantly criticised everything about Africa and expressed his strong desire to leave. His true interest was in photography and he spent most of his time in game parks taking photos for his own photographic business. Itinerary plans were clumsy at best - with large amounts of time devoted to standing around and waiting, or travelling back across areas we had already travelled.

Starting the tour in Kruger was a particularly awkward (and expensive) starting point, and should have started in Johannesburg when the rest of the group flew via there to Kruger. On day 2, after joining the group in Kruger, 3 of us were told we could not travel with the group to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and would, instead travel on our own to Zambia - NOT Zimbabwe!! Our tour leader was unable to tell us the logistics of how we would be able to get from Zambia to Zimbabwe to meet up with the rest of the group and "assumed" it would all be OK. The 3 of us were extremely stressed and anxious by the whole concept of splitting the group and us having to make our own way.

On enquiry to Travelmarvel about what was happening we were told not enough seats had been booked on the flight for the whole group - despite the fact that we had booked more than 12 months in advance. Travelmarvel argued that the itinerary is a "guide" and that they reserve the right to alter it if necessary. We would never have believed that the small print meant being split away from the group and sent to another country - where we were not even covered by our travel insurance. Travelmarvel blamed Giltedge, Giltedge blamed Travelmarvel! In the end, we were met in Zambia and assisted by 4 different locals, across 3 different immigration borders and with 3 different means of transport in a long and arduous journey. When we finally got to meet up with the tour director, he told us to hurry and catch up with the group who had already started to walk around Victoria Falls. His instructions to us were to keep on the path and meet him at the coffee shop. The "path" turned out to be 4km long and an hour walk through some difficult terrain - guess he couldn't be bothered to walk - or tell us anything about the Falls. He'd already told the other group who travelled with him and couldn't be bothered to let the "stragglers" know.

The one highlight of the southern part of the trip was the 2-night stay on the Chobe Princess - an extra well worth the $$$. The time on the boat was wonderful, fabulous accommodation and food, an outstanding crew who listened to our interests and tailored the sightseeing to our wishes. They too had nothing to do with Travelmarvel but were operated by a separate company again, fortunately a FAR superior company to Giltedge - or Travelmarvel.

Our changeover from the southern part of the trip to the East African part was also a total mess. We were picked up from the Chobe Princess at 10.30 supposedly for our flight to Nairobi. We were taken to the lobby of a hotel in Chobe township, from where our tour leader left to fly back to South Africa, leaving us to wait .... A coach finally arrived for us at 4pm (5 hours after being dropped off in the lobby and after our tour leader had left!) We arrived into Nairobi, on time, as scheduled, at 10pm. A very slow transfer to the hotel, plus briefing and necessary re-packing of bags, saw us able to go to our rooms at 1.30am before an 8am departure for our Kenyan section of the trip.

It was a long, and expensive, tour to Africa. Africa never failed to disappoint, Wonderful, warm, helpful people, magnificent scenery, and amazing encounters with animals - especially in the East African section of the trip. Would I return to Africa - YES- definitely! Would I travel with Travelmarvel - NO - definitely not. Africa is a difficult area to travel in and the need for well planned, communicated and implemented plans is a must. Travelmarvel didn't demonstrate any of these qualities. Even their briefing notes attached to the final itinerary provided misleading, inaccurate and contradictory information - about luggage, currencies, health requirements, items to pack. Fortunately, there are many other companies that travel to Africa and they would certainly be where I would look again in the future. Many thanks to Georgie of Global Journeys who tried to help us with Travelmarvel. It was much appreciated - even though Travelmarvel's response was not!!

We went on the Travelmarvel 15 day tour - Cape Town to Chobe Adventure . The tour was well balanced, providing time in Cape Town, where we went up Table Mountain, drove around the coast road for some stunning scenery and saw penguins at Boulder Beach, then we went to Victoria Falls which were spectacular and had the opportunity of going on safaris ...read more in Kruger and Chobe. It was such a thrill to see elephants, lions, giraffes, buffaloes, hippos and numerous animals close up. Highlights were watching a pride of lions stalk a buffalo and seeing elephants rolling and frolicking in the mud. We also saw a cheetah just walking next to our vehicle. The accommodation was of high standard. Only thing I would recommend is not paying for additional tours through Travelmarvel as they were cheaper if you booked them yourself. I booked the tour using Global Journeys ( this was the second trip through the company). A big thank you to Georgie who saved us quite a bit of money by telling us to wait for The Black Friday sale. Nothing was too much trouble, all my questions were answered promptly and I would definitely recommend Global Journeys to other travellers.

As usual Global Journeys provided an efficient service and we would certainly use them again. However, although the tour had its high spots, we were generally underwhelmed by many days of unending travel leading to uninteresting destinations. In particular we were looking forward to Kalgoorlie but apart from driving to the Super Pit lookout and reservoir ...read more we didn’t see anything else despite there being numerous attractions available. We left the following morning for Esperance at 7.30am when we feel we could have had a visit to a museum in Kalgoorlie to learn more about the gold mining. The driver seemed to want to leave very early each morning to beat the crowds - there weren’t any crowds! Leaving Kalgoorlie at 7.30am, we had morning tea at 8.30am and lunch at 10.30am which didn’t seem very well planned. We arrived in Esperance at 3.30pm! However, overall the accommodation and food were excellent. Highlights of the trip were Wave Rock, wildflower walk and talk, Valley of the Giants and aerial walk, Cape Leeuwen Lighthouse and Margaret River wine tasting and farewell lunch. We don’t think we would choose to use Travelmarvel again and couldn’t recommend this tour to any of our friends. The Tour Leader was very pleasant but didn’t seem to add anything extra.

We had an amazing trip on Travelmarvel Vega from Amsterdam to Budapest. Such a relaxing holiday with first class service at all times from all the incredible staff on board and tour guides on land. Thank you all so much.