Agate Travel (and Emily in particular!) did an incredible job helping me and my family with the paperwork to travel to Turkmenistan, which is perhaps the most difficult country for a Westerner to travel to. We were always given clear and exact information about the whole complicated process. The itinerary was exactly what we wanted, but even if it hadn’t been, Agate Travel affords you great freedom to customize your trip.

This was proven when, in the last minute, I decided to slot in a trip to Armenia in between the Turkmenistan trip and a Türkiye trip with another company. Despite the lack of time before my vacation, Emily, my Agate Travel Travel Consultant, managed to book the trip and customize it according to my desires.

Both trips were sensational, and the only hiccups I came across were because of the companies hired on Agate Travel’s behalf (guides, drivers, cars etc were arranged by different, local companies, and Agate Travel served as an intermediary). As someone who’s been to 28 countries so far, I highly recommend both Armenia and Turkmenistan if you enjoy exotic trips where you get to know the countries thoroughly.

The tour was very well planned. For a first comer to India, I saw the main landmarks of Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, which were fantastic. My driver was very attentive and (huge bonus for me) three of my guides were female. This made the communication easier (being a woman) and very interesting. Thanks to the excellent service!

Agate Tours set up a private 19 day tour of Turkey. They included ruins of the ancients, underground cities, Roman castles, Fairy Chimneys, time to tour the inner Istanbul, and a balloon ride over Cappadocia. The guides made trip with their information and the small details and sites a large group doesn’t have time for. Drivers were safe and got us everywhere as scheduled by the guide. What a trip we had. Everyday was different and offered rest days. I highly recommend them. This is our 11th trip with them and planning more.

Great, informative tour with friendly, knowledgeable guides. Charming hotels, especially in Chiang Mai. Beautiful elephant visit.

This was once in a lifetime experience. We enjoyed our tour of China and Japan very much, visited fascinating and impressive places and took a lot of beautiful pictures. Our guides were patient and knowledgeable. We would like to thank you our guides, Colin in Beijing, Tracy in Xi'an, Johnny in Shanghai, Akie in Tokyo, Toshiba in Kyoto. And above all we would like to thank you and show our appreciation to Emily, who has done excellent work to organize and made all so easy and possible to it.

Make sure your WhatsApp is up and running (the main form of communication) and get ready for an unforgettable trip through ancient and modern Turkey. Each city was something new, guided by extremely knowledgeable guides and highly capable drivers. The hotel accommodations were always in the center of the historic district and always jewels. Okay, Kusadasi was not our best hotel experience as the whole town has a 24/7 party vibe but the view was fantastic and nearby Ephesus made up for lost sleep! The cave hotel in Cappadocia was epic. Thank you to Serkan and associates for a seamless and memorable journey.

Tour was very well organized. Drivers and guides were reliable and on time. I would have liked a higher grade hotels in some cities. Transportation between cities by private car was excellent.

Our tour in Egypt has been amazing!
Emily at Agate Travel helped us plan a 7 day tour including the famous sights, a cruise on the Nile and arranged accommodation for 3 extra nights in Luxor and an additional night in Cairo.

We were very impressed with our tour guides who made us feel like VIPs on arrival. They have been with us at every step of the way, helping us at the airports, transfers to hotels, check in and check out.

We have learnt so much about ancient Egypt from our knowledgeable guide. Ahmed has a PhD in Egyptology, building a picture of 5000 years of history, and patiently answered all our questions! He kept us safe, and we have learnt so much.

Our 5 star hotels were comfortable and a welcome oasis from the heat of the day. We did the shorter cruise downriver from Aswan to Luxor and it was lovely watching the banks of the Nile glide by.

We had the opportunity to learn about essential oils, papyrus art and rock carving and delighted with our purchases.

Our tour covered all the important ancient sites; pyramids, temples and museums. We bought an extension to see the Karnak sound and light show, Dendara temple (very quiet when we were there), and an unforgettable early morning hot air balloon ride with clear views of the Nile and Hapshepsut’s temple.

Altogether an amazing experience we will treasure always!

Amazing trip arranged by Amy at Agate, our driver Raj quickly became a friend, so professional and helpful, the trip was well planned and organised, allowed us to see a lot of India in a short space of time, and nothing was too much trouble for Raj, the car was spotless, hotels amazing and guides were interesting, thanks both for making us have our dream holiday!

I had a great experience setting up a custom tour for my family. We visited Thailand and Laos and had excellent tour guides in each country. Crossing the border from Thailand into Laos was easy and our private long boat down the Mekong was next level. Highly recommend

this was our third private tour with Agate, and another resounding success. Everything ran seamlessly once in South America. The internal flights and ransfers all ran to time, the guides were uniformally excellent and flexible. it was a very varied trip from the beach in Rio to glaciers in Patagonia, so factor in packing wisely and allow for the fact that internal flights have a 15kg weight limit unless you pay extra. We really appreciated the free days in both Rio and Buenos Aires, to fit in the sights and experiences not in the itinerary. The hotels were all fine and very well located. although only breakfast is included, that wasn't a problem at all as South America has plenty of places to eat well and cheaply, though this is slightly less the case in el Calafete which is, understandably, pricier and the hotel is located outside town though runs a free shuttle bus service into the town centre. In fact the worst bit of the holiday was waiting on the tarmac at at Heathrow once our return flight had landed and a arduous taxi journey home in the UK due to roadworks/closures. NOT Agate's fault at all! Thank you to Wendy for being an excellent travel consultant.

We had a wonderful 11 days trip in Tajikistan. Bobo, our tour guide was above and beyond, and the entire itinerary was very interesting. Really recommended tour.

The tour has been perfect: a beautiful experience to know the country, its natural beauty and its people. The national parks visited are wonderful.

Emily was amazing from start to finish. Very professional, punctual and created an amazing trip for us. Highly recommended

I was very pleased with the recent Madagascar tour organised by Agate travels. They were very helpful, transparent, accommodating and the itinerary was well planned. The local driver/guide Falantine was superb. I would happily recommend Agate travels and would without hesitation use their services for future trips.

we had a great time in Uzbekistan. although we did not have a guide with us all the time, the tour was perfectly organized, and every driver and/or guide we had were always on time. the guides were very knowledgeable and with a perfect English.

As a UK family of 4 wanting a wow factor holiday in Thailand, we approached Agate Travel (specifically Wendy Lee) who were wonderful from start to finish. They helped us to build a bespoke private tour covering Bangkok, Kanchanaburi, Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai. We had an incredible trip experiencing everything from amazing temples, food and waterfalls to jungle trekking, local markets and elephant sanctuaries. And so much more. Our two guides were passionate, friendly and knowledgable and spoke excellent English; drivers were kind and courteous; and transport was in very comfortable minibuses. All of the hotels were excellent 4* recommendations by Agate. Wendy even helped us with some advice on local flights in Thailand after our tour had finished and we were on Koh Samui. Amazing service. Furthermore, the cost of our trip with Agate was considerably cheaper than that quoted by a couple of UK luxury tour operators for the same trip (with a lower standard of hotel accommodation). Thank you Agate for arranging a brilliant holiday that we will never forget!

It was a perfect tiur for us. The structure, the amount of walking and attractions were exactly what we wanted, and the guide Ekaterina was amazing

We had a great experience with Travel China Guide/ Agate Travel. We traveled from the USA to Japan and Beijing. They booked our hotels and tours. Emily Xin was super responsive throughout the whole process and made the best itinerary for us possible. Emily kept adjusting the trip, so it would be aligned with our budget and days. The trip was well organized and everything went smoothly. Thank you for making this dream trip possible.

We spent a marvelous week in Cuba with Abel La Rosa Camero of Agate Travel. Abel had a wonderful presence, and guided us in Havana, Vinales and Santa Maria del Mar. He was both patient and knowledgeable about Cuban history and culture, fielding all of our curious questions. Abel advised us on the things not to miss, and also a few to avoid. The trip went off without a hitch, from airport pick-up to airport drop-off, including daily excursions. We highly recommend Abel and would certainly work with him again on a return trip.

Agate Travel planned an absolutely wonderful trip for us to Japan! It was a great experience working with Emily through the planning stages. She answered all my questions well within 1 business day and gave clear and helpful instructions and advice including everything from making payments to how to navigate travel within each city. I admired how organized she was through it all. For example, I found it useful that she would number the emails in the subject line each time a new topic was covered. It was really helpful when checking back on things.

As for the trip itself, the hotel accommodations they arranged for us were very good indeed and the tour guides were outstanding, especially Heidi in Tokyo and Minnie in Kyoto. Agate's approach to travel with tour guides the first 1-2 days in a city followed by a day on your own was fit well for our family and allowed us to get the lay of the land and then explore on our own (relying heavily on helpful great tips and helpful recommendations from the local tour guides). I knew very little about Japan before this trip and now I feel like I have a wonderful appreciation of and understanding of Japan and its wonderful history and culture thanks to Agate and their perfectly planned and executed itineraries.

Wendy Lee at Agate travel was wonderful to work with from start to finish. The tour was the most affordable than any other quote I received, and she worked with me to personalize a 10 day Japan trip to meet our family’s needs/requests. She handles all the big and small details that really takes the stress out of planning a trip to a foreign country, including suggestions for sights we didn’t know to include. I made many changes before finalizing our itinerary and she worked with me until all my questions were answered. She was also available to answer any questions I had during the trip. Tickets for bullet train reservations arrived at our hotel seamlessly and hotels she selected were all very close to local transportation. Our tour guides were also great (thanks Heidi and Haru!). We had a wonderful time, thanks Wendy!

Amazing independent tour in Switzerland!

My husband and I made a wonderfull trip to Switzerland in september 2023. It has been well organized by our travel agent Emily Xin. We visited Zermat, Interlaken, Jungfrauwtoch, Grindelwald, Luzerne and Zurich. The itinerary, accomodations, travel arrangements were excellent. She was very patient and had numerous suggestions and recommendations to meet our requierements. She addressed every question or concern inmediately. Even though we had an independent tour, the way she put everything on paper was more than a guide.
We are extremely happy with the whole trip.
Agate Travel and Emily thank yo uso much!
We highly recommend Emily and this agency. They are reliable, honest and we cannot wait to do another tour with them.
Ingrid & Lucas NG

I had an excellent 4 day visit to Vietnam expertly arranged by Emily of Agate Travel. I went to Hoi An and ended up with excellent shirts, leather purses and pouches made for me in my one day! I also did the enchanting night boat ride. Then it was on to Hanoi where I spent one night before I was driven to Halong Bay for a magical one night cruise. When my wonderful guide, Mr. Thahn, picked me up and then we toured some before my last day day of intensive touring. A highlight was the unique Train street and of course the lake. Be prepared for crazy motorcycle traffic, but everything was great and I hope to come to Vietnam again some day. If so I would love to plan it through Agate Travel with Emily and have Mr. Thahn guide us again!

Seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise was one of the travel highlights of my life orchestrated by my wonderful guide, Pasqual. He was a great guide. He was informative and had a great eye for photos always helping me find the right spot to capture the shot.

Every Temple was unique and I was enthralled every day I was exploring the temples. At times I was so busy looking at the next remarkable building or carving that I forgot that the stairs are without rails and not always even.

Angkor Wat and the other area Temples are amazing and Emily Xin of Agate Travel (Travel China Guide) made it even better with her seamless organization of all the details. It is so worth going!

Touring Madagascar with Agate Travel was an absolutely incredible adventure, especially as a big nature lover and lemur fan! Our guides were fantastic and greatly enriched our understanding of Madagascar’s beautiful environment, people, and culture in a way that greatly exceeded expectations. The flight, accommodation, and transport inclusions also made for a really seamless experience so we could just focus on having fun. We can’t wait to work with Agate again on our next Madagascar trip!

Mongolia is a lot different from what we have seen on the internet; its BETTER! There are beautiful national parks and landscapes that are surreal. Our guide, Miss Deema and our driver Eric took us to some the most breathtaking scenery one could imagine. Great photo opportunities abound! Both Hustai and Terelj national parks were different in their own way with unique geography and wildlife. Accommodation in the yurts (gers) was warm and comfortable and is highly recommended. As was the Bactrian camel ride! And the introduction to throat singing. Deema's knowledge of the country, its people, and its history was outstanding. As was Eric's driving skills. Both much appreciated. Overall this trip is a GREAT introduction to this great country and it's unique culture and people.

Generally in terms of what Cuba has to offer the tour was well structered and well organised. Our Driver/guide Juan Carlos was obliging and helpful and prepared to do pretty much all we asked. It was tiring from his percepective as driving and communicating in a foreign language is not easy. the only bad part of the trip is the long drives on not very good roads. I think Vinales is propbably only worthwhile for those interested in cigars due to the distance and the roads. Cuba is a test of patience as things that most tourists take for granted, like tissues, toilet seats, internet connection, power and water supply as well as access to fuel for the car can all provide challenges.

We have just returned from a 15 day tour of Bangladesh which we booked through Agate Travel. Our guide throughout was Mohan of Pathfriend tours who could not have done more to make our holiday a great experience.

For us the highlights were exploring Dhaka, seeing the critically endangered Hoolock gibbon at Lawachara National Park and the private three day boat tour of The Sunderbans ...where we saw a tiger, otters, freshwater dolphins, adjutant stork, numerous kingfishers and eagle species and herds of Chital deer.

We also flew to Chittagong to witness boat dismantling from the sea.

If we did this tour again we would elect not to take the ship between Dhaka and Barisal as the onboard accommodation was poor; travelling by car instead.

Thank you Wendy Lee at Agate for organising this trip at very short notice and once again a big thank you to Mohan. We would not hesitate to use Agate travel in the future.

Colombia is an amazing country and we booked this tour over the holidays last minute and Agate Travel did a great job getting us booked and guided! All our guides and drivers were great and only had one issue with a hotel because everything in the town was overbooked for New Years. Agate Travel stepped up and made it right for us. Great job team Agate Travel !