|
Tales and Reviews from Tell Tale Travellers
Jam packed, enlightening holiday full of highlights..It was better than expected, more personal..Accommodation was all lovely and homestay was really welcoming. Really loved our holiday to Sri Lanka and appreciated the amazing pack and the personal touches..definitely good value for money.
Once again, we had an absolutely brilliant holiday..Variety of activities was also much appreciated..Highlights were the ranch and being part of the family..We really feel that Tell Tale Travel provide an excellent personal service, and we feel that your company really care.
We thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip..We had a fantastic holiday in a truly wonderful country, 2 weeks of constant surprises. Samurai lesson, bento box and sweet making were great for the whole party, and provided an opportunity to meet locals passionate about their culture and traditions.
We had a wonderful time. We saw six different jaguars, hundreds of caiman and lots of birds. The guides were great, very friendly and helpful. Although it was quite hectic at times, it was not too stressful or too demanding physically. I enjoyed every aspect of this tour, but then again it is what I would expect from Tell Tale Travel. The team make sure every aspect of their tour is well thought through and they make sure you get the very best. We're just home from our fabulous Forts and Monkeys holiday in Sri Lanka – wow what a time we had – impossible to pick one piccie that summed it up as it was so varied and all so beautiful...this one was our view of the stilt fishermen from our lunch table one day [see sidebar] – turtles kept popping their heads out of the water! Thanks Tell Tale!
We were delighted to find your company, we feel like we are travelling rather than simply being tourists. Our hosts were delightful – so hospitable. The trip was a perfect combination of active and relaxing... Once I had honed in on the tour and you were able to adapt it so that we could do wildlife and cookery, I knew it would be just perfect for us...and the price quoted on your website was the price we paid. You are the only travel company that has done that – usually I end up paying far more than indicated when I make the initial enquiry!
Amazing holiday for all of us (middle-aged adults with 11, 5-6, and 3-year-olds) – perfect for our interests which are: walking, sightseeing, photography, trains, cycling, travel and adventure, cultural experiences, swimming/snorkelling, history, seeing how other people live, and trying different food and learning how to cook it. Perfect relaxing but adventurous and very varied holiday, excellent experience. We had previously been to Thailand with you last year where you seem to offer much greater variety and value than anyone else... Were struck by itinerary for Sri Lanka and didn't look elsewhere as previous experience so good... We'd very much recommend you to our friends, you have given us two terrific holidays.
We have just arrived home from the Elephant Smiles Trip run by Tell Tale Travel. It really was the most amazing holiday we have ever had! Friendly, faultless and fantastic from the very first enquiry I made to the Tell Tale office. Wonderful trip, Wonderful people, wonderful experiences. I cannot recommend Tell Tale Travel highly enough. Thank you all so very much. I just wish I could turn the clock back and live every single moment again!
Many thanks for an ADVENTURE... Any possible anxiety had been removed because of your planning and the local contacts throughout the trip... we would happily recommend Tell Tale Travel.
Definitely a different style of holiday... An action-packed cooking holiday which was so well organised and ran like clockwork... Great local insight particularly at the homestay, cooking with Eh and the jungle cooking...all accommodation as described... The last evening at Eh's house, cooking supper with his family, was a great end to the holiday. Good value for money (with single rooms at a reasonable cost), I'd go on another holiday with you and recommend you to friends.
Far beyond expectations. A magical experience. Everything fell in place perfectly, like a jigsaw puzzle. Everybody was super friendly and helpful... Boat trips to islands were fantastic, guides were able to avoid the crowds. Sometimes we were the only ones on the beach... Bangkok homestay was fantastic. She is an incredible host... By far one of the best experiences of our lives.
Thank you for arranging another great holiday...wonderful memories. Elephants were great. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Yes, we benefited from local insight, even in the National Park when Jay took us off the main trail which we wouldn't have done as a general tourist.
The main reasons I chose your company were that we could travel by ourselves, that we got to stay in small local accommodation, met and got to spend time with real Thai people, as well as the range of activities offered. I did not find any other tour operators offering these elements together... I particularly like the jungle walks, especially when Noi turned round and said: "Oops, taken the wrong track," scooted off to find his mate and between them macheted a shortcut round the mountain to enable us to get to our boat on time! Seeing pineapple, bananas, tea, coffee and papaya growing was educational for the kids and Noi kept us informed on the use of various plants, digging up wild ginger for us to try at one point.
We booked this trip to experience an incredible country and see amazing wildlife; we did just that... The Pantanal had a true feeling of being as yet unspoilt... Our experience was definitely made all the more special by the commitment of the local people... I feel that we have been given a glimpse into a part of the world that many people will never experience and for that we are very fortunate.
An adventure to a part of the world we had never visited before. Our hosts in Rio were very friendly, what a lovely place to stay, stunning views from the balcony. In the Pantanal, seeing river otters was magical and the snorkelling outside Bonito was very special. Iguaçu falls were spectacular. Special mention to all our guides. [As a personal bonus] we learnt a great deal about agriculture in Brazil...really interesting to us as ex-farmers.
We thought it a wonderful country; full of variety...we had great opportunities to see and experience the real Sri Lanka. The people were a delight, so friendly and so kind to our children. One of your hosts even had the tea factory where he had been planter specially opened for us to look round at New Year. We would like to make special mention of our driver, Lahiru. He was always punctual, polite, flexible and friendly. We're also very grateful to you for your flexibility in helping us to make changes to the itinerary 'on the hoof'; this made a real, positive difference to our family holiday. We look forward to our next Tell Tale adventure!
Amazing holiday experience of a lifetime. The whole organisation of the trip was fantastic, and we had one-to-one guided tours. I have been on many holidays around the world and I can honestly say this has been the most outstanding.
They say you should never go back. But having travelled to Sri Lanka ten years ago, we risked ruining fond memories and returned with Tell Tale Travel and found this wonderful island just as enchanting as last time. Sri Lankan hosts seem to have the trick of making you feel at home when you are away enjoying pleasures that are scarce in the UK...sunshine galore, varied stopover accommodation, lush and exotic plant life, exciting wildlife (Yala got a big "yes!" from us!), and food that made each meal an eating out experience. But it is the people we remember most vividly – kindly guides, considerate drivers, generous hosts (eg Loraine and her husband, in their tea country paradise) and welcoming faces at every turn.
It was an amazing holiday. Unique and special, much more than I'd hoped... Trouble is how to follow up this holiday with anything so good!
I'm very happy I chose this trip. A different style of holiday and experience.
Just the right amount of feeling on the go and visiting families and locations which had the personal touch... The mixture of [accommodation] styles and settings was 100% amazing. Each one fulfilling a different part of the Sri Lanka experience. Each one had novelty; each one was for me just right. I would love to be back there now.
We did have a wonderful time in Thailand and Cambodia... All the guides were brilliant and in many ways made the holiday. None of them seemed as though was just a job to them and their ability to share their knowledge certainly enhanced our experience. The accommodation and food in Chiang Mai were outstanding... Shinta Mani was excellent, in fact unique, and we really enjoyed the whole experience both there and Cambodia in general. It was great to see what they were doing in the community and very humbling to visit the villages and school... All-in-all, a truly memorable holiday.
After our previous trip, we felt that Tell Tale Travel have the balance between adventure and comfort just about right. The activity level was pitched at just about perfect and the overall balance of the itinerary was much better than with many other companies we have travelled with.
It was all wonderful and we were blown away at your organisation and attention to detail. Thank you so much to you all for an amazing and memorable experience... It was just perfect! We were a large family group (16)...everyone was engaged and involved from 7-years-old to 77! A really great trip for a family with mixed ages and stages. We will be back to you for our next family reunion!
This really was a fabulous experience...the boys were buzzing. They all said it was the best holiday they had been on...and the experience was stress free, educational and fun. I would absolutely recommend Tell Tale Travel to anyone and have already told lots of friends how great the company is. I don't quite know what we are doing next year, but I have my eye on a Sri Lanka trip!
Without a doubt this would have been the most exciting and the best holiday my wife and I ever had. Our guides, who were just fantastic – Amm, Parr and Apple – were so informative without being boring, we had so many laughs and as we advised them WE WILL RETURN. The food was delicious and out of this world. The proprietors of the resorts and houses were all wonderful and all contributed to making our holiday a memorable trip. When we visited the Elephant Nature Park, my wife was overwhelmed by the elephants, then after feeding washing and playing with them I myself have become an elephant fan. They are such a huge and gentle creature no different to any other pet (except they eat a lot more) – all they want is to play get attention and be fed.
Thanks for another great family holiday and seeing a different part of Thailand. The boys are growing up and hungry for adventure so it was a lively mix of activities which kept them amused at just the right level.
For me, it was the holiday of a lifetime and it truly lived up to it. Never before have I travelled alone, walked over a rickety old rope bridge, floated down a river in a giant innertube, ridden an elephant or been up close to one of nature's most beautiful creatures. It really was an experience I will never forget. I have my memories, my photos and I met some lovely people – what more could I have wanted? Would I do it again – in a heartbeat!
From face painting with a native tribesman to fishing for piranha to white water rafting, we never stopped having fun and making memories! Our family (with 3 children aged 5-11) had a fantastic adventure. This was our second holiday with you and I would wholeheartedly recommend travelling with Tell Tale Travel.
We're VERY glad we took this trip. Everything was just great! Highlights were the safari and the fantastic people. For example, I adored Sujata and wished we could have spent more time together, hearing about their lives, exchanging experiences. My daughter says staying with them was the best part of the trip. Drivers were excellent! Friendly, flexible, nice to be with. Good comfortable cars. I chose Sri Lanka because of previously travelling with you to Thailand. Isn't it funny how I switched from planning a family trip to Vietnam to Sri Lanka in one day? That is the magic of Tell Tale!
It was a family holiday of a lifetime and we have so many good memories. So much was packed in. We didn't know how you could do it! Having Pepsi show us around Bangkok was brilliant. Also we learnt about Buddhism from Goi and her family and even attended an early morning Buddhist ceremony to save a cow from slaughter. Then in Krabi we learnt a little about Muslim life too. Meeting Eh's and Sun's families was lovely. There was so much [food]! Great variety and we are missing it already.
It was an amazing holiday which we will all remember for the rest of our lives. Very educational too – which was probably the best part about it all. Personal recommendation from friends. Pros – everything sorted; cons – none!
We only considered going to Sri Lanka as a result of our great trip to Thailand last year! We really like the way you organise the holidays. We would certainly like to go on another holiday.
Exceeded our expectations in richness of our experiences. Well done for taking a different path with holidays. We have scores of happy memories!
You did it again! The holiday was excellent and what we would expect from Tell Tale...an authentic, non-touristy holiday! We had a wonderful holiday in Sri Lanka (as we did in Thailand), from the moment we were met until the time we were dropped off at the airport we had a wonderful experience, one that we know we wouldn't have got if we had gone on a package holiday or travelling on our own. Hopefully would love to do Brazil!
We wanted our children to experience and to begin to understand a culture different from their own. We feel that this was achieved perfectly; they learnt about culture, religion, nature, how other people live and what they eat. It was an invaluable experience for them and us as a family... We've already recommended you to our friends who have booked to travel with you at Easter.
What a wonderful time we really did have in Sri Lanka... Our time in Yala was really good we even saw the leopards which was great as well as many other animals... Our time with [hosts in hill country] was also great going round the tea plantation was such a good idea as it gave us an insight in to the tea production and gave us chance to buy some direct from the plantation... Thanks for arranging the holiday for us and if I can come up with anywhere else out of the way I would like to go to I will be sure to ask you first.
Thank you all so much for a truly memorable holiday...everyone involved with Tell Tale made our holiday just the best. Just one bad point really...how can we ever go on holiday again, nothing can better what you put together for us... Thank you so much for our holiday of a lifetime, the experience will remain with us for a very long time.
We were apprehensive about booking a big holiday over the internet especially with a small travel company we had never heard of. We were open-minded and hadn't a clue what to expect – would anyone meet us anywhere? The holiday proved to be absolutely fantastic, a trip of a lifetime, everything in the itinerary was exactly as it was described. The drivers were wonderful – Parr drove the children all around Chiang Mai looking for an ice cream. The homestays were very welcoming with the feeling you were staying with friends which made us question the emptiness of five star luxury.
Looking at photos tonight, I just can't believe the things we got up to and the experiences we had...they were fabulous. Thank you so much for the incredible lengths you went to. And your staff were all extraordinary people who went out of their way to just add so much to the holiday...the homemade rice from their wives; the flowers for mum etc etc. It was really a personalised trip deluxe.
We particularly liked the fact that it was not a group holiday but an individual holiday. The gardens were all lovely. Searching for wild orchids, visits to orchid farms, visits to hill tribes, watching the Chiang Mai flower festival (and visiting the flower market), visits to temples were all very enjoyable. It was also well organised, so that towards the end of the holiday we had quite a lot of leisure time, where we could make use of the pool and surroundings. So all-in-all, we thoroughly enjoyed the holiday.
We had a fab time...all-in-all the holiday was absolutely amazing, the country just gorgeous, and the guides were all really great, so thank you very much, the quality of the excursions were really good, and certainly 'action packed'.
Fun, educational,relaxing...not just a holiday but an experience of a lifetime.
We did not believe we could pack so much into 16 days and enjoy every minute of it. Great.
Incredible, even better than we expected. Everyone we met was very kind and generous. We enjoyed every activity, each one gave us an insight into the culture. The trip was also incredibly good value for money – looking back, we cannot imagine how Tell Tale included so much for that price. We would go on holiday with you again to any country.
A fabulous experience, every day dawned with my wondering how the day could excel on the day before, but it usually did! The interaction with local families and cultural & historical sites was incredible, never a dull moment. Thank you!
I thought this was a 'dream come true'...but I'm already scheming ways I can return! Thank you to everyone at Tell Tale for your help, advice and professional friendly approach.
It was spot on...the accommodation at our 'pampered places' was appreciated between elephant visits and the itinerary had a wonderful balance between active and laidback.
We had a fantastic time. The whole thing worked out really well with a good mix of contrasting activities, and FUN! The boys are full of stories about the clay house and paddy field fishing, not to mention playing in waterfalls with Yui, cruising in the back of his truck, and encountering those ELEPHANTS, WOW! Excellent itinerary!
What a great holiday! We had a wonderful time and met some lovely people...who were so warm and welcoming and who made us feel like family rather than guests. Tong was delightful, he really excelled himself translating a discussion with Prachim on the differences in farming between New Zealand and Thailand! Thank you for your wonderful organisation and your patience when we were trying to organise the family. So back to reality and the mundane and the planning of our next holiday – where else do you go?!
We can't believe what a wonderful time we had. A very different experience, we can't thank you enough! I usually travel with the well-known adventure travel companies and not only were the Tell Tale experiences much much better, the quality of accommodation was better too. We did have a lovely time and we did feel special...a never to be forgotten experience, a once-in-a-life time holiday, made special by the excellent service provided by Tell Tale and all the personnel involved... I certainly wouldn't hesitate to recommend you to anyone! An absolutely fabulous holiday...everything went like clockwork from start to finish and our whole experience exceeded our expectations beyond all hope! The only downfall is, how on earth are we going to go anywhere on a normal holiday ever again?! We do hope that Tell Tale Travel will be branching out to more destinations, as we will certainly be excited to see more of the world with you! What a great holiday...lots to learn and see, you have some splendid people and some great places to stay...brilliant cooking experiences! A very good balance of activities with local people and time on our own. The food was excellent throughout with lots of options for vegetarians. A definite plus was the set departure trip I took was designed for mostly single people. Thank you all at Tell Tale for making going on holiday so pleasurable and easy and for finding such lovely people to holiday with! This holiday totally changed my perspective on how I can holiday, enjoy myself and yet provide genuine, positive, tangible support on the ground. It felt very personal and I feel I have made some new friends as a consequence. WOW, a totally different holiday experience. We saw things we would never have seen if we'd arranged it ourselves. The hosts and guides were great company, the transport and drivers excellent. Would we do it again – absolutely, and would we recommend Tell Tale Travel – we already have. Where else do you organise trips to?! I just want to thank you for putting together an excellent itinerary. We had a wonderful holiday. We will certainly mention your firm when talking to our friends. I could go on and on – the trip was everything we wished for... I cannot sing your praises enough. We had a fantastic time, better than either of us expected. We had a ball. What we expected was the opportunity to learn more about Thailand, the people and the culture with the chance to get close to nature, relax for a while on a nice beach, eat some great food and have some quality family time while we did it all. You can consider those boxes fully ticked. We did consider many places and companies but overall it was important to us to have an ethical holiday which was as close to the country as possible. What we weren't expecting was such a high level of personal service and this is a clear benefit of your close understanding of the country and the people you have chosen. Well what can I say, what a wonderful beautiful holiday we have just had, absolutely perfect. As for the experience with the elephants, again perfect, we were impressed with the accommodation only because I didn't even know if we had a shower, but an ensuite hut on stilts was so beautiful and with elephants sleeping all around, can you believe we were so close we could hear them snoring! A brilliant adventure with a wide variety of faces of Thailand: city, national park, rainforest, mangroves, islands, beaches, all very smooth connections. We were made to feel so welcome by all who we met. I tried to book a Vietnamese trip, but it was short notice and the company did not have the same 'can-do' approach of Tell Tale Travel (experienced on a previous holiday). I also looked at package tours, but couldn't find any with dates that fitted. I knew what I would get with Tell-Tale – no unwelcome surprises and an alternative local itinerary.
Most of the holiday was a totally new experience. We took over 400 photos and struggled to get those down to a hard core of 160. Every day was something totally new and each day enjoyable for different reasons.
Thank you for arranging such a good holiday. It exceeded our expectations in terms of the scenery, the excitement and the warmth of people. The trouble with internet/telephone as opposed to face-to-face communication is having no idea about trusting people. For example, when our travel consultant rang to suggest a change to a sailing schooner, even though it was complimentary, we thought she must have messed up on the bookings or the prices. Shame on us for the suspicion! We're glad that we put our holiday into your hands.
The holiday gave us a chance to learn more about Thailand and its people in two weeks than we could have learnt our own. We usually travel independently and initially had concerns about being 'organised' by someone else, however, it worked out really well. We found this and were determined to try it. We liked the flexibility and there were not too many stops. We are definitely glad we chose this holiday.
Overall, it exceeded our expectations. We had enough information on what to take and where we were going. But there was still the joy each day of seeing something new and discovering about it without having too much preconception of what we would encounter. Without fail, everyone we met was friendly and helpful.
It was much, much more than what we expected. For me, the best part was meeting amazing, open people who shared their lives with us. We are extremely grateful for the experience we had in Thailand thanks to Tell Tale. It was more than a holiday – it was an educational, cultural, spiritual experience. We returned rested, refreshed and inspired. We had a FAB time... We have already recommended you to some friends, so you will no doubt hear from them shortly. This was the experience of a lifetime! You really do care about everyone involved in their operation – customers, staff and the locals who leave such indelible memories with the whole family. And it shows! It was the most memorable holiday I have been on – it felt like a decent long break, like we'd got to know a microcosm of authentic Thailand, its people, food and culture, and perhaps that some of our 'tourist dollars' had gone to the people on the ground. We saw more on a two-week holiday than our daughter did in nine months of backpacking.
|
|
