Eastravel Traveller Reviews

Just returned from the most amazing 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. We have travelled around using a driver/guide and stayed in 6 different hotels. We saw leopards and sloth bears in Wilpattu; walked through villages learning about food and agriculture in rural areas; climbed Sigiriya; explored Dambulla caves; walked through the unique Ironwood forest; climbed a rose quartz mountain; saw wild elephants causing a traffic jam; ate rambutan from a roadside stall; travelled by train into the tea country; plucked tea; swam in a waterfall; took a boat ride in Negombo lagoon and saw a swimming monkey. Such precious memories that we have and shared with our 10 year old son. All the hotels were of very good quality, each offering a different experience. We thoroughly enjoyed them all and wouldn't hesitate to go back.

We couldn't have asked for more from Dorothy at Eastravel. We started this process in 2019 and Dorothy has guided us along the way. She encouraged us to take our time considering all our options. Unfortunately with the Easter bombings and Covid we didn't make it to Sri Lanka until 2023. It was worth the wait! As a couple we had been in 2005 so we had ideas about what we did or didn't want to do. Dorothy was great at accommodating our wishes but also made suggestions that she felt would enhance our holiday, all whilst working within our budget. I wouldn't hesitate to book again with Eastravel and Dorothy.

3 week trip to Australia, covering Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Helpful suggestions in our planning. Great value for money.

We spent 15 amazing days touring South Korea, starting in Seoul for four days, self guided but getting around was easy and we enjoyed just soaking up the atmosphere. We joined an organised tour for the DMZ, the only way you can do it. We then got a train and headed south to Andong and spent two nights in a traditional Hanok, the highlight of our trip. We used this as a base to explore Hahoe village and the surrounds. Another train took us south to Gyeongju and a great guide took us out and about, super friendly, we ended up back at her sister's house for tea and a chance to see what life was really like in Korea. Another train took us south to Busan for two nights where another guide took us round the highlights. The last leg was a short flight to Jeju Island where we met the Haenyeo, women divers, many aged over 65 who free dive up to 10m to collect Abalone and other molluscs. Whilst in Gyeongju I had a night at a temple stay, which was interesting as well as fairly physically challenging, but you can opt out of the Sunmudo classes. It was a brilliant trip, we learned a lot from our guides and had done a fair bit of research before we went, absorbing K Culture, particularly film and drama, if not K Pop, which is everywhere. Vibrant, friendly and interesting, would really recommend it.

Dorothy Heng of Eastravel was brilliant. Although we were largely self guided Dorothy had arranged all the trains, tickets and instructions. It was all meticulous and all the arrangements went like clockwork. When we were met by guides at the station they knew what carriage and seats we were in so could greet us at the doors. Having private guides ensured we could tailor our days out as we liked and could be flexible if we were wanting to spend more, or less, time at any given site. Dorothy and her team have excellent knowledge and really took the time to understand what we wanted when planning the trip, we really couldn't fault it and would very happily use them again.

We were a family of 9, aged 8-80, who travelled to Costa Rica for 2.5 weeks. We saw wildlife, volcanoes; we white water rafted and zip lined through the jungle, and we surfed off a beautiful beach.

Eastravel has organised a number of adventurous but manageable trips for us over the years, in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Costa Rica. They are thoughtful, patient and knowledgeable.

We flew from London Heathrow on a sunny February morning up to Helsinki to connect with our onward Finnair flight to Toyko Haneda. We had a couple of hours at the airport and the Finnair lounge had thoughtfully got Asahi beer on draft. Our Finnair flight took off and did not make any turns and it quickly became clear from the inflight maps that we were going to be heading to Tokyo via the polar routing which was a first for us and cabin staff duly handed out certificates. We landed at Haneda to pouring rain but the arrival process was smooth despite the lingering COVID controls and we had soon retrieved our luggage, checked it in for the next flight to Sapporo and transferred to Terminal 1 for the short hop up to Hokkaido. As we came into land at Chitose you could see the snowy landscape and wandering down into the airport train station got our first real blast of the chilly weather we were expecting. Our hotel was a few hundred metres from Sapporo station and it was snowing steadily as we made our way there, quickly leaving our bags and heading out to find something to eat. We found a lively little local restaurant where they set up a BBQ at your table and despite having to order from an ipad in Japanese the accompanying photos made it a fun exercise and excellent Sapporo beer was delivered quickly. We visited the Sapporo Ice Festival the next morning and it was busy, sunny and cold. Even busier when we returned after dark to witness some amazing light shows on the sculptures and some welcome Mulled Wine in the little market underneath nearby Sapporo Tower. We activated our Rail Passes the next day and booked reservations on a raft of planned journeys ahead before getting our Bento boxes for the 5 hour train journey to Wakkanai the next day. The train to Wakkanai left Sapporo station as scheduled at 07:30 sharp and very quickly was travelling through an amazing landscape of deep snow with mountains on the left and side. We occasionally had to stop to allow deer to clear the tracks and the weather changed in an instant from clear and sunny to blizzard. We pulled into Wakkanai about 10 minutes late - not bad for a 5 hour journey in those conditions - and wandered over the road to the Surfeel Hotel through huge snowdrifts. Our room had a big picture window looking out to sea and it was amazing watching the weather systems move in so rapidly. In the evening we wandered up through the great little town that is Wakkanai to find a Nepalese restaurant where we enjoyed an amazing curry supper. We liked how locals just left their cars running when they went in shops so that the interiors of the vehicles sensibly stayed warm. The next day we wandered around the town and visited its excellent museum. Almost everything was in Japanese of course but it draws heavily on the relationship of Wakkani with Sakhalin 40km away to the north and now part of Russia. The museum staff were somewhat surprised but delighted to see us in the museum and we were very pleased to be there. In the afternoon we caught the bus to Cape Soya about 35 minutes away. It is the northern most point in Japan and across the ice floes in the sea we could see Sakhalin in the distance. The windchill was taking the temperature down to -20 despite the sun being out and our iphone and digital camera batteries just gave up the ghost after about 10 minutes. After 45 minutes the bus came back on its journey to the relative warmth of Wakkanai. We were so lucky to visit it in such perfect, if extreme, conditions. That evening we visited a famous steak restaurant in Wakkani called Vin - it was tres bon. We returned by train to Sapporo and stayed overnight before catching a regional train to Hakodate to connect with the Shinkansen/Bullet Train to Sendai. We stopped overnight in Sendai and then took delivery of our little hire car as we were doing a 3 day road trip into the Tohoku region. This was, perhaps, my favourite part of the trip as I had read a book called Ghosts of the Tsunami and the terrible consequences of the waves that struck the region following the Great Eastern Earthquake in 2011. Everywhere we travelled in stunningly beautiful scenery on those clear, sunny days you were never far from a brutal reminder of the destruction and loss that had occurred. The Japanese government is building sea walls across almost every bay and some of the towns wiped out are being rebuilt over 10m higher than they were - by moving housing into the hills but most amazingly by building on vast elevated platforms of soil. If concrete and cement is in short supply you know why if you visit this coastline. We visited Onagawa, the Okawa Elementary School Memorial and Minimisanriku before staying at the first of two lovely Ryokans where we enjoyed their Onsen baths and Kaiseki dinners. The second day we carried on through Tohoku visiting Kesennuma, Rikuzentakata and Kamaishi staying at the wonderful Houraikan overnight before winding our way back through Tohoku to Sendai for an overnight stop back at the Metropolitan East hotel. We caught the Shinkansen to Toyko but had decided to travel on to Osaka rather than stop in the capital city this time. Osaka was incredibly busy demonstrating that Japan is most definitely open again for tourists although it largely seems to be Japanese and Koreans that were visiting the city. Dotonbori was heaving and the queues at its street-food counters and restaurants had to be seen to be believed. In Osaka Castle Park the Sakura (cherry blossom) was just starting to appear leading to great interest by many an amateur cameraman. We escaped the crowds by visiting the area around the wonderful Tokhoji temple before heading back into Dotonbori in the evening for some food and beer. We caught the underground train down to Osaka Port the next day to catch the 5pm overnight ferry to Fukuoka. This just seemed a good way to travel there and a little more interesting than hopping on a flight or even catching a train. The ferry travels through the inland sea and goes under three huge bridges connecting the mainland to outlying islands. Two of these bridges appeared before midnight and were certainly worth being up on the deck to witness. The third one was at about 3am and we were asleep in our comfortable cabin by then. We arrived in port on time at 5am and caught the complimentary bus to the Shinkansen station and a train arrived after a minute or two for the twenty minute journey to Fukuoka. We left our bags at our hotel at 7:30am and headed back to Hakata station and caught a train to Takeo Onsen where you now connect with the new Shinkansen to Nagasaki. Everybody seems very excited by this new train and rightly so as it is typically spotless, reliable and very fast. We were in Nagasaki by 9:30am and caught a tram down to the Peace Park where we found there were services being held to commemorate the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We wandered around the park and then the museum before walking back towards the station and stopping for some ramen on the way. Fukuoka is a great place and we enjoyed wandering about old Hakata and Gion where the traditional homes and temples are preserved just a few yards from the modernity of the city. We had travelled through Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu by plane, train, automobile, ferry and foot and seen and experienced so many wonderful things about this truly beguiling and fascinating country and its people. We did feel we needed a rest so we flew down to Phuket to spend a few weeks in the warm to rest and recharge.

Eastravel are our go-to travel agent and consultant and have been for over 30 years. This trip was about a year in the making as Japan was still firmly closed to tourists when it was in the early planning stages. It set Eastravel a number of difficult challenges which they overcame in typical fashion to deliver a truly remarkable and memorable adventure that passed without a hitch, again.

We are a family of nine (5 adults and 4 children aged 8-12) living in different parts of the world and this was our first holiday together after 5 years. We all had a wonderful, eventful and memorable time in Costa Rica. We enjoyed the areas we visited and the order we did the organised activities in and Monteverde was definitely the place to do zip lines. And the river rafting on the Sarapiqui River was amazing. We ended the holiday with 4 days at Tamarindo sunbathing and surfing. A lovely way to finish off a very active holiday. Costa Rica is a vibrant, stunning, diverse country full of amazing and varied wildlife and natural beauty. A must for a visit in my opinion. The accommodation was suitable to our family's requirements - swimming pools, hot springs, the odd pool table and pleasant and helpful staff. The drivers and tour guides were excellent especially the ones attached to Aninga Lodge in Tortuguero, and in Arenal and Monteverde. And so passionate about their country. We all had a wonderful, eventful and memorable time.

I have used Eastravel in the past for trips to Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Vietnam and as always, they did a marvellous job of organising our trip - flights, accommodation, activities, transport etc. Nothing ever seems to much for them to organise. Travel agent extraordinaire!

A fabulous 16 day private tour of Vietnam and Cambodia, finishing with a 5 day beach resort holiday in Thailand.

Dorothy planned and put together our whole tour, making recommendations of places we should visit, along with all the hotels. She also recommended Thailand for our beach resort destination. Everything went exactly to plan, the tour guides were always waiting for us and were so knowledgeable and friendly, the length of time in each city was perfect, and all the hotels were fantastic. It was also my husbands 60th birthday while we were away, and Dorothy even informed the hotel, and arranged a gift for him. I cannot recommend Dorothy highly enough - she is so experienced, knowledgeable and helpful. In conclusion, she made our dream holiday perfect.

We had an excellent holiday put together by Dorothy at Eastravel. We had a 4x4 hire car and drove around exploring the wide variety of scenery that Oman has to offer. I was surprised by how easy the driving was and the local driving style was so much better than I expected. I would totally recommend self drive as a way to explore Oman, it gave us such freedom. The local people are so friendly and made us feel very welcome and the food was excellent and varied. A trip to the Wahiba Sands and dune bashing is a must!

Dorothy at Eastravel was very helpful and competent throughout out the booking process. While we were away the airline cancelled one of our flights home but it was all dealt with very effectively by Dorothy while we enjoyed our holiday. We were very impressed by how smoothly everything went.

What a beautiful island Koh Chang is, we went as a group of eight, one of whom had wanted to visit the island for a while, I don’t think he was disappointed. We stayed at the Gajapuri Resort on Kai Bae beach. It was lovely, the staff, bungalows and all the facilities were excellent . A beautiful pool right outside our bungalows, the beach just a few metres away. Although the bustling town was only a five minute walk away the resort remained peaceful. Restaurants and shops right on your doorstep. Don’t let the long journey put you off, it’s well worth it when you arrive.

Once again Dorothy and the Eastravel team have excelled and organised a fantastic trip for us. Not easy I would imagine when dealing with eight travellers! Nothing is too much trouble for them. Every question or request is dealt with immediately and kindly whatever time of day we contact them. We never have any doubt that our journey will be anything other than well organised and smooth and the holiday just perfect. Thank you all at Eastravel.

Wonderful Holiday

Hello Dorothy and team. Thank you all so very much for looking after our booking arrangements for Koh Chang Gajapuri Resort. We absolutely loved Gajapuri Resort. a perfect holiday for us. The accommodation 10/10, their staff could not have been more friendly and welcoming and helpful, nothing was too much trouble. we simply loved the peaceful location of our cabins keeping the group located near to the beach, pool and beach bar where we spent most of the time just chilling out.. So thank you for guiding us to this idyllic place. kind regards Linda and Bob Jewell.