Tripadeal

We have just returned from Borneo after a 10 day Trip a Deal Sepilok Wildlife Adventure holiday.
There were 26 people in our group and we had a wonderful time. We had a great guide in Gerald M L - ELOD. He was informative, knowledgeable, always prompt and on time. He was such a caring person and we couldn't recommend this guide more highly.
We travelled Malaysian who were very good and saw amazing wildlife and places. We thought the accommodation was good and the food delicious.

My Trip to Borneo was absolutely fantastic!
Made fantastic by our guide Gerald M. L (ELOD)
I have travelled the world, had many guides but Elod was one out of the box!
He was very knowledgeable, reliable, good fun and always there to make it all happen and keep his clients happy. There were 26 in our group and all agree that Elod went well beyond the call of duty to make sure we were all happy and due to his lovely personality, we were all very sad to say good bye to such a great
guide. I wish him well for the future as he deserves to go far in this tourism business.

We climbed the Great Wall, indulged on dumplings and loved every minute of this tour! Hotels were clean, Guides very knowledgeable and easy booking process. Looking forward to our next TripADeal holiday!

Was very skeptical at first to book but we couldn't resist the price, upon returning from our trip of a lifetime we will be recommending TripADeal to everyone! The best value for money, great itinerary and professional, friendly guides. We won't be travelling with anyone else from now on. If you're looking for a sign to book with TripADeal then this is it!

Awesome trip. Great value for money!
Great Wall of china was nothing short of Amazing! The terracotta warriors must be seen to understand the incredible individual detail on each of them.
Thanks Trip A Deal!!

My husband and I are booked to go to Sri Lanka early in August but with all the travel warnings we do not wish to proceed. We’ve rung Tripadeal numerous times but when we finally got through we were told we have no option but to go or lose our $6000. We were promised that someone from the Sri Lanka travel team would call back within 24 hours but that was days ago. We don’t want a refund, just a credit for another holiday. Very disappointed that our dream holiday has become a nightmare. Wouldn’t recommend this company.

The original iNDIA offer was air travel by Qantas, Emirates, Singapore or Southern China. Surprise surprise - we got tickets on Southern China - the worst airline in the world. I feel hoodwinked into this airline because if you advertised Southern China nobody in their right minds would book with you. Seat did not go back, screen did not work, could not get a Gin &Tonic, two wines on offer red and white which tasted like battery acid, and was undrinkable. Food terrible. Hosties rude and abrupt, service terrible, long and tortuous transit in Guanzhou - had to go through x rays etc etc all over again. Internal flights on Indigo had 15kgms baggage limit not advertised by you - tickets supplied on arrival in India - whereas international flights allowance was 20 kgnms. Ended up having to pay A$88 overweight fee twice. One Indigo flight was delayed 6 hours (airline renamed Indi no go)which meant we arrived at into the Oberoi Dehli at 10pm - too late to enjoy the hotel as we had to check out at 8:30 the next morning.

We booked on the sri lanka trip and contacted tripadeal straight away to say we did not want to go after the recent terrible bombings. They took 10 days to get back to us and now say everything is ok and trip is proceeding regardless of the governments warning advisory. They would not provide a refund , any trip in lieu , no assistance at all despite them knowing we did not want to go before booking our airfares. TripADeal does not care about customer service - just take your money ! Do not use this company

We have just returned from a 12 day two for one Tripadeal to China. I am not one to write reviews but feel compelled to for this one.
$3000 for two people for a 10 day trip to China (the other two days were flying days) is very cheap when it includes Qantas return flights and all accommodation.
The fine print in terms and conditions states that Tripadeal is not responsible for any seating allocations. We were not booked to sit together on the flight over or any of the train journeys. There is no way you can change this. They simply book a block of 30 tickets and allow them to be allocated randomly.
The extras : - $150 for the second person, $12 per day per person compulsory tipping fee.
- " Optional Experiences " on most days add up to $550 per person over the trip.
Your experience on this trip is so dependent on the guide. Two of our guides, [names removed] were fantastic. If we decided not to do the " optional tours" they would offer a suggestion and arrange transport or refund our cab fares back to the hotel. However our guide for the last 3 days was Summer. She would often take off without doing a head count and leave the older, less able people behind. When we were the only couple who decided not to take the optional tour on one occasion her advice to us, when asked what we could do instead, was " you can just walk around the car park area for the two hours" One hundred metres away was the most significant cultural site in the region and she would not share any information about it. We enjoyed it immensely by ourselves and I am not sure why it wasn't included in the tour.
In Shanghai we decided not to do any of the "optional tours " and instead went to the Shanghai Museum which was supposed to be included in the tour. Tripadeal would have known 12 months before that no museums are open on a Monday so it was never going to be on.
On our last day in Shanghai our guide, Summer decided to change the time the bus would leave for the airport and leave earlier. She could have left a note in our room but instead just asked other people to tell us if they saw us. We decided to go back to the hotel earlier than the 3.00pm departure just in time to see Summer walking towards a full bus. She would have left without us. They obviously get kick backs from the optional tours.
Your cheap Tripadeal holiday in China is sponsored by the Chinese government and there are a few compulsory shopping experiences to allow them to recoup some money. We did have a great time but you have to either go with the flow and sign up for everything or take some control and make the experience your own. Also hotel quality was variable and all our rooms stunk of cigarettes.
My advice is to do some research and look carefully at all travel agents deals to see what is and isn't included.

My wife and I recently returned from a 2 for 1 trip to China. We had 3 guides over the course of the tour, the first two guides were very good. The third guide who accompanied the group to Shanghai pretty much spoilt that part of the tour for us. When we returned to Australia and contacted Trip a Deal to raise our issues, customer service gave us some pathetic excuse to try to justify our disappointing experience in Shanghai. Customer Service - FAIL!
This was our first Trip A Deal tour and it will be our last.

We were scheduled to go to Sri Lanka however with the recent attacks there, we wanted to cancel our tour. TripADeal communicated with our tour group and worked hard to offer us either an alternate itinerary or a generous offer of a credit note. We happily accepted the credit note and were grateful for their goodwill gesture and look forward to spending our credit on another TripADeal adventure.

This company has been shocking, once they have your money they don't return calls. With the recent bombings in Sri Lanka who in there right mind would want to take their children there !!
Had nothing but excuses and one girl said oh and by the way the travel insurance we sold you won't cover a terrorist attack so sorry but you have to go because we don't give refunds. I asked would you take your children ? answer no. I have rung them 8 times wanting to speck with the manager, but they say no, everyone else is happy to go so you should just go !! I see on the website that is not true.
This company puts your safety before them making money. I hope Shelly Craft who endorses this company reads this.. You have been warned ... do not book !!!!

From the moment the doors on the plane closed and we started to taxi down the runway, I had a bad feeling about this trip. I couldn't explain it then and I can't explain it now but I do wish I had trusted my gut.

In Beijing, third day out from home, we got wet, very wet when visiting the Forbidden City. People were asking the tour guide to just end the tour and let us get to somewhere dry where we could change clothes before we moved on to the next part of our trip. That request was denied and we ended up sitting in wet clothes for the rest of the day/night. The end result was that a lot of people on the bus got sick, very sick but there was no compassion or empathy by the tour guides and the time table did not have the flexibility to accommodate us. By the time we go to Shenzhou and our first day off, we were both exhausted, sick and took ourselves to hospital where we were treated well and given antibiotics and Chinese herbal drugs.

No rest for the wicked though, and the next day we had to keep going. At no time was there any compassion shown and never once were we asked how we were doing, did we need anything, was there anything that could be done to help. The whole experience was very unsettling.

We didn't get better and three doctors visits later, we made a decision to come home early. We ended up doing the 4 night Yangtze cruise and from Chongquing bought tickets to go straight home to Australia. It took 3 flights and almost 24 hours before we finally got home.

I could bang on about the constant putting our hands in our pockets to pay tour guides, and two lots of $150 (all cash of course) and the blatant upselling of goods and services but these are things that we were aware of and chose to accept. What we didn't accept was the lack of assistance for the number of people who were sick and the inflexibility of the timetable that didn't accommodate sickness. We also have issues with the access to some of the places. Buses can't just drop you at the gate of a venue or pick you up from the entrance/exit of a railway station, there is always several minutes walk at least lugging heavy suitcases up and down stairs or undulating surfaces. All very nice if you are physically capable but if you are sick or infirm, this is just wrong and definitely not written in the fine print. Just by example, getting off the boat in Chongquing, we were faced with 120 steps to get to ground level and another 900 metre walk all carrying our bags. Local Chinese labour was available for our use at a cost of 20Yuen per bag. TripaDeal apparently covered 1 bag per person but only to the top of the stairs. Beyond that was our problem. So, it cost us 100yuen to get our 2 bags each to the bus. There were three attempts by the labour to get more money out of us as well - be aware of this behaviour, the locals see us as cash cows.

China might be one of the fastest moving economies in the world and its youth are highly educated and competitive but it is still very much government controlled and you only see what the Chinese government wants you to see and allows you access to.

All in all, we weren't overly impressed with this so called holiday and we are now trying to recover from pneumonia and other associated infections. My husband came very close to being admitted to hospital. Think very carefully about this trip before you hit that buy now button and make sure you read ALL the fine print.

This is a wonderful way to see the highlights of Japan.
Not having dealt with TripADeal before, we were unsure of how comfortable and secure we would be.
All fears were removed when we met our fantastic guide Cindy Furukawa whom made us feel part of her family. Cindy explained every part of the tour in detail from the accommodation of that night to sights and history of each place the tour visited.
Japan' beautiful people are respectful, patient and courteous. The country we saw was clean, splendid scenery, amazing historic buildings mixed with new high rise infrastructure and so different from Australia.
Street food, small cafe stalls and restaurants all dished up wonderful tasting food.
Something to be careful if booking a Japan trip is "Golden Week". This is a public holiday period from 29th April ending 5th May in Japan. Each highlight will have a lot of Japanese visiting during "Golden Week" Roads are congested and crowds make it difficult to navigate around popular tourist areas.
TripADeal should be advising clients that "Golden Week" is a very difficult week to see all sights with ease. TripADeal told us, when we rang the Australian office, that there would be no problems as they have done this tour during "Golden Week" before. Obviously no one from the Australian office has toured Japan during "Golden Week" with a bus full of older people.

Great deal and perfect tour guide Cindy Furukawa and driver Miasakisan Bus 117 ,very informative and helpful, tour was from 29 April to 7 May.Optional tours good value. Overall a great experience.

Have just returned from a 9 day trip to Japan. It was unfortunate that the weather conspired against us at Mt Fuji but the rest of our time was in bright sunshine. We happened to be there during a national holiday which made getting around a bit of a trial due to the crowds but our guide Cindy and our driver Miyazaki San made sure we always got to our planned destination. I cannot express adequately how much trouble they went to to make sure our tour bus was the happy group it was. I had a fabulous time and can’t believe how much we saw in such a short time. Would recommend this trip highly with the caution for people considering it to check dates for national holidays if you want to avoid huge crowds and the possibility of not getting into some shrines and museums because of the long queues.

We have just completed our first trip ever with a tour group. This trip exceeded our expectations and our other 24 travel companions agreed. We booked through Tripadeal and the tour is run by Sepilok Tours. We were very happy with the itinerary, accomodation and food. Our flights were with Malaysian Airlines and the flight schedules were good, travel hours good and no long layover. Our tour guide Halim was very professional and informative
His attention to detail and friendly humour made our trip special. Halim made sure we had access to banks and shopping as needed. Our driver Asiri was careful and a good driver. There was no pressure to provide tips or any additional expenses we were not aware of. We did tip because we were so happy with our trip. We saw wild orangutans three days in a row which was exceptional and lucky - remember you do not always see the wildlife you booked a trip for! Our accomodation was always nice and clean, some jungle quarters are basic as you would expect, but our city hotels were excellent. We were so glad we booked and went. Others in our group have completed other tripadeal tours and have been happy. Read the fine print, read reviews on the trip you are interested in. It is clearly stated that there are no refunds- cancellation- or changes. You cannot book without travel insurance so make sure your coverage has adequate cover for trip cancellation etc. These value trips do not come without a downside - just realize that, and in our case there were absolutely no negative aspects to our journey from booking to delivery.

We booked the 2 for 1 trip to china for 12 days, we were sceptical about how it would be given the price but it turned out to be one of the best holidays we have had and you will not get better bang for your buck anywhere else.

Throughout the trip we were provided with great transportation, very informative and funny guides with mountains of experience.

The itinerary is well planned and you will be blown away by china.. Completely different to what we expected.. The trip has quite a few optional tours, my recommendation is to do them all!!

They are all special and you will regret not doing them later and they are so good value too..

Best parts

Guides
Maglev train
Very fast train
Great wall
Kungfoo school
Beijing show
Asian food
Shanghai river cruise

Worst parts

Toilets are stinky in some places

Have booked and paid for a trip to Sri Lanka/Maldives in July. Obviously it is far to dangerous to even consider going. Almost impossible to get a reply to emails and get through on the phone. Finally spoke to someone today and Tripadeal refuses to refund our money even though the Australian Government says to "reconsider your need to travel". Even the Sri Lankan Government thinks there will be further terroist activity. Also told that Tripadeal had sent us an email 7 days ago to say the trip is going ahead! Never received an email from them. We are now contacting the ACCC/Fair Trading to see where we stand.
To anyone considering booking through Tripadeal, our advice is NOT to.

Was booking a deal for the '12 days China' for $1999 two for one deal and had thought we had researched the deal enough to go ahead with the booking. This included online chat with the company and also calling and speaking to them on the phone. So, deciding that it all looked to be like a good and fair deal, I tried to pay for the trip through the web site, but after putting my credit card details in, the page errored when I hit the 'pay now' button and it just would not work.
So, I had to ring to find out if the payment went through or not, and while I was on the phone to them again with a new staffer than the last one I had spoken to, she asked if I had read ALL the fine print down the bottom of the deals page, and informed me that it was MANDATORY to pay tips to the tour gides when we are in China of $12 per person per day. This immediately added on an extra $288 to the CHEAP deal. (I have since read another review of a traveller who has used this company for a Chine trip and they said because they had two guides they had to pay 4 X $12 each day!! WTH!) Then she informed me that we would ALSO have to pay another $150 each person, to our guides for some ITOF fee, which adds on ANOTHER $300. WTH?? We havent even added any of the optional extras yet, but if we do add any, with all the unexpected fees (Which SHOULD have all been included in the advertised price and NOT in small print down the very bottom of the page) we are already going to be up for $3000 before we even hop off the plane and this CHEAP deal getaway is NOT so cheap anymore.
I quick smart told them that I will NOT be planning my holiday with them and started looking elsewhere.
If that payment page had NOT errored and my payment had gone through, My husband and I would have been absolutely livid, but through a simple twist of fate, we were saved from being scammed out of a lot of extra money.
I then found Webjet, who have NO hidden fees AT ALL and the advertised price is the price you pay.
And that is all we wanted, the full price up front, with NO sneaky tricks.
I assumed this would be a trustworthy company because they are endorsed by Shelley Craft, but they are just another sneaky company trying to reap as much underhanded dollars from you as they possibly can.
So the moral to the story is, if you are considering using this company, read the fine print and ring them and drill them, to declare every single cent they will be milking you for, and find out what the REAL cost is, BEFORE you go ahead with the booking.