ASA Holidays - good or bad?

[Human A]

guys, any of you here been on tour with ASA Holidays? esp their tour to korea. good or bad, please tell me more!

 

[Busker777]

guys, any of you here been on tour with ASA Holidays? esp their tour to korea. good or bad, please tell me more!

Booked with ASA for my family trip to Spain in Dec...1st time travelling with ASA..hope to have good review to add when i m back end Dec....

Any fellow forumers can give some review on ASA ? TIA

 

[kennylow1976]

hmm i am not sure..

i only been to tour with new shan travel if not i will usually go for free and easy de..

http://tour.newshan.com/PackageList.aspx?Country=KR&City=ALL

i usually check wego.com to compare the tour packages n airfares

if not you can check out the www.travelagents.com.sg/

 

[snowbun]

hi pple

wad attracts me to asa is becos they usually include an "exclusive" in their tours. they acually include someting tat other agencies dun include, thus giving them an edge over competitors. Eg: 3 yrs back when i joined their korea package, they had a submarine ride. Their three gorges package include nite's stay at chongqing's hongyadong hotel (a unique hotel structure). their usa & canada package includes a gondola ride to mont tremblant.

experience wif them is "so far" quite pleasant - experienced tour leads.

 

[darklighter]

snowbun why bother replying a thread from 2010..?

BTW i just came back from korea with ASA last month, the submarine tour made every one seasick and there wasn't much marine life to see. the commentator was showing us volcanic rocks...

ASA has good coverage of korea is all i can say. whether it's the standard of korea itself or our tour guide brought us to the lousier places, ultimately korea is not as glamourous as the media presents

 

[snowbun]

i may not b in time to provide any info to busker777... but can at least provide some insights to futurev readers rite...

u c... even u contributed sumting....

 

[snowbun]

abt e submarine... hrmm., i muz say i was abit disappointed too... cos e water wasn't tat clear... hardly any fishes ard... it was more of an experience thou...

tats e adventure of travelling - venturing new grounds, hike mountains, shopping trips, trying out new tings. althou new tings may not neccessarily be good...

for the korea tour, the tour guide brot us to a pharmacy to buy sea-sick plasters. These dot plasters can be stuck behind e ears of sumone prone to sea-sickness or altitude-sickness, even motion sickness. I tink it werks, non of our tour mbrs felt unwell after e submarine ride.

 

[iminalost]

i went with ASA to korea in mid april. service was gd. food and accomodation met my expectations. it's a quality trip. but the submarine tour was crap. well it's nt bcoz there's sth wrong with the itinenary or what. idk is it bcoz of japan's tsunami.but all i saw was cloudy water n lol a few fishes n some crappy corals tt are quite plain. i cant be bothered to take any pictures(while idk y other ppl r clicking away). it's totally diff from the pictures i saw at the submarine ticketing station. i went to search on youtube,the submarine tour videos posted were beautiful! clear blue waters with schools of fishes and colourful corals. n.... it was exactly the same yellow submarine. irony huh? perhaps ASA could hv done better by checking the sea conditions first before bringing the tour grp over. n i tink it's quite hard to get seasick bcoz it only submerge into the sea n the ferry we took to the submarine location was like those penguin ferrys to batam. oh ya n jeju wasn't as beautiful as the jeju i saw on tv. mayb coz we didn't go to the beautiful places in jeju. the sunrise peak was zzz. nt as beautiful as shown in pictures. the sakura was also zzz. dk y diff from those places in korean dramas. nt much scenery involved in the itinenary.scenery in Taiwan multiple times better.

 

[snowbun]

i tink it could be becos e submarine didnt go into deeper waters... i mean deeper waters = less ventured = more corals rite

mb tats e agreement asa had wif the company... cheaper tat way... touch & go... they do not bother whether u have quality time or experience there anot.. as consumers, we can oni console ourselves tat "its an experience"

my experience 3 decembers ago, the waters were unclear n rather chalky too... mb tats e quality of the water there...

seriously, korea has been overly rated by some die-hard korean fans & drama serials... scenery, cuisine, spa, shopping, activities etc - noting to shout about. in fact, i won't consider goin there a second time

 

[iminalost]

wah rly like tt ah. then i rather they spend the timing going to tt crappy submarine tour on shopping or free time instead. yea shopping wise= lots of fashionable clothes. but prices are like our bugis street or more exp. quality wise better. hmm i will consider going korea 2nd time. but most prob for its winter and free n easy instead. though language is a huge barrier. hahaha cuisine wise not bad. i love their bbq pork n steamboat. yummy =O

 

[snowbun]

yalor, sumtimes agencies cramp more activities in hope tat it looks more attractive to consumers. but in fact, by choosing it, we r depriving ourselves more time at each activity..

food wise is good - but perhaps i'm not really a meat eater... so after so many days of bbq pork.. bbq chicken... i'm really quite sick of it...

jus to share an experience, i joined tradewinds for their central japan tour a couple of years back... the tour lead (a freelancer) told us that she like to lead tours for tradewinds as their itinerary is not too packed - tat means she doesnt have to alwaz rush customers & customers have more time at each place (be it shopping or eating). it so happened tat e sakuras were beginning to bloom at ueno park, so she gave us some time to walk thru e park n admire e flowers - dis was not part of e itinerary.

 

[darklighter]

seriously, korea has been overly rated by some die-hard korean fans & drama serials... scenery, cuisine, spa, shopping, activities etc - noting to shout about. in fact, i won't consider goin there a second time

QFT. cannot believe they eat the same stuff 24/7 365 days. we singaporeans are truly blessed with so many varieties

the city was so dull and the people are not friendly either

thanks for the tradewinds recommendation snow

 

[iminalost]

food wise is good - but perhaps i'm not really a meat eater... so after so many days of bbq pork.. bbq chicken... i'm really quite sick of it...

haha coz u're a herbivore eat bamboos only right? yea true im sick of the kimchis n seaweed soup zzz. singapore has more nice food.

 

[snowbun]

iminalost.... u make fun of me huh...

perhaps we r quite spoilt cos we r exposed to so many varieties of food in sin... so day in, day out eat bbq meat wif kimchis can really bore me...

on e other hand, cos we r on a travel package... e kind food served can be really limited.... ve seen korean tv programmes, where they serve so many types of shellfish (bbq style, sashimi style)etc

 

[iminalost]

lol coz ur display pic has pandas. agree with what u've said!

 

[hypertrophy]

Thought I was the only one who don't really like korea. I've been to Japan and Australia and its unforgettable..

Korea was so-so, I went to jeju as well but nothing too memorable except that the sweet potato was selling for 5bucks each. I love their sweet potato ice cream though

 

[snowbun]

yah.. tot i was e oni one who didnt find korea trip "memorable"...

not tat e trip is extremely bad, juz tat i wun consider goin there again lor.. (unless there's really no where else to go)

 

[Busker777]

Forgotten about this thread...saw it today when planning for my next trip...

Here's my experience with ASA - LOusy guide - Alan (can't remember surname). Accommodation and food sucks ! (i am comparing with CTC). ASA is off my list of Travel Agency.

 

[Richard Yeo]

Fully agreed . ASA tours are lousy. A lot of hidden costs. Bad tour guides. Shady hotels. Etc.

 

[luckygal]

I have travelled a few times with ASA. All experiences were good.