I joined an SA tour group for a 7 days central japan tour package two years ago and i can say that i am rather satisfied with what i got in the end as i still have fond memories of that trip. However, there were flaws which i would like to highlight.

1)My tour guide in Japan, William Ma, though humorous and experienced, smoked throughout the whole tour, even when he was leading us.

2)William even clashed with the bus driver when the bus driver refused to help to put the luggage inside the compartment in the bus.

Now, let me highlight some good points about my experience in Japan.

1) The tour leader from Singapore, Julia was really nice as she tried to communicate with us and showed us the places where we could get bargains. She also tries her best to know more about my family.

2)The hotels, in my opinion, were indeed up to my standard, especially Westin Nagoya, which offered us a magnificent view from the window.

3)The food was adequate, though some were not very nice.

SA is very very bad. Went on a taiwan tour some time ago, we paid quite a high price for the package bcuz we were told that the hotels are all very good. But in the end, our hotels are those very bad ones, not even 3 stars i think(AND i saw a cockroach in my bed!!). And the taiwan tour guide told us that they were the worst hotels she ever encounter in SA tours. Plus the food is bad too. Will nv go for SA tour again.

In Singapore, there are easily more than 500 travel agencies serving the entire population of 5 millions, honestly speaking I have been travelling with many agency eg: Universal Travel, CTC, Chan Brothers Travel etc, to me SA Tours is still an agent that I will go back to book my tour packages for myself and my family, my husband & me were totally impressed with one of their Europe tour leader-Jason, was told he been leading European tours for more than 15 years, very experience and speak fluent English and excellent Mandarin (Sound like a DJ), we have never come across a tour leader able to direct the coach driver to drive in the city of Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Frankfurt with all the ways and traffic look like a big mess, he is just like a "human GPS", best of all, he can even advise the tour member to look up for some special lakes/houses/building prior to the arrival, so that the tour member will not miss the chance in appreciating those beautiful scenery, he will conduct games, play beautiful music in the coach for some entertainment, during free day, to many tour leader it will be a "Off day" for them, but Jason will lead the entire team to go shopping, optional tours by taking public transport, clearly remember when we were in London, he volunteer to buy MRT ticket for the whole group of 33, saving us all the time without joining the long Q, he really go an extra mile to ensure their customer enjoy to the fullest for a well deserve holiday, We would strongly recommend SA Tours, if you do want to take up a hassle free holiday packages, to us for the past 6 years, they have never disappoint us, and we are confidence they will not disappoint many of you who are reading this thread. Thank you!

My favourite agent in Singapore is SA Tours, went on many of their to different part of the world, so far the best is the Europe tours, their T/Manager is ultimately the best in the market, where they organized picnic by the lake, champagne popping on Mount Titlis, Paris illumination tours by train, they really make me enjoy my honeymoon so much, Thank you SA Tours!

We're group 17 from Indonesia, just back from US west Coast tour. We're very satisfied for the profesional and very helpful of our tour leader Esther Lee. She is very experienced for all matters and always ready all the time to give hand at all our need. Always kept inform me if there's any tour for next trip to Japan...
Bravoo.. anthonybjm@yahoo.com

I am about to ask abt the Shanghai Tour for this coming mid-end Nov 09. I have 4 adults and 2 children. Any one interested to form group?

I have just booked my China package with SA tours to Shanghai. However so, that package was not a popular one and I had to change my destination to Beijing instead. Although my trip will be in early Nov 2009 and can't comment much about the trip, I would like to share my experience with all on the customer service of this agency. I'm not sure if i'm lucky after reading all the bad service reviews by many but my encounter with Chris (in charged of China tour) was a great one! Not only did she gave good advice, her attitude was extremely great. I did not experience much problem with the attitude from other customer service personnel as well. I hope that the trip will be a good one and if that's so, I will definitely be going back to SA Tours in future. Well done, Chris! Keep up with the great customer service! ;-)

I called for the past 2 days but no one picked up the phone. I gave up. I think i will go zuji.com and book my own holiday.

I don't understand why ALL the big travel agencies in Singapore don't bother to hire enough staff to pick up the phone calls?? Don't they know it's 1 business gone for every call lost?

I wish to sign up the Korea tour with SA, but they really take forever to answer the call :| If it is not introduced by my friend, I will already given up with them. Wanted to call them and pay the deposits.. but feel a bit dissapointed as calling for whole day but no one pick up the call..

They take forever to answer the phone calls. I don't bothered to call after 15 times.

I came across a pretty rude agent in SA Tours. When I enquire about a free and easy trip to hongkong. I asked for hotel A. The agent asked about my budget, when i told her, she shook her head, and gave my cheaper hotels instead. Its as if she feels that I don\'t have the money to pay. I\'m asking for SQ for sake!
After this incident, I will never go back to SA Tours anymore, and I will tell my friends not to as well.

I came across a pretty rude agent in SA Tours. When I enquire about a free and easy trip to hongkong. I asked for hotel A. The agent asked about my budget, when i told her, she shook her head, and gave my cheaper hotels instead. Its as if she feels that I don\'t have the money to pay. I\'m asking for SQ for sake!
After this incident, I will never go back to SA Tours anymore, and I will tell my friends not to as well.

My family and I had previously joined SA Tours to Yunan and the trip was good. We then signed up again with confidence for a trip to Shanghai. However, we were horrified to be treated like refugees. The daily breakfast at the hotels was a mad rush for food, not hot/nice food but cold badly done foods with no place to sit and eat properly. Dirty tables not cleared and utensils insufficient expecting us to use our hands to eat. Crowded with plenty of people squeezing each other out to snatch the food, can you imagine that kind of service?? It was definitely worse than the refugee camps. No point selling cheap tours to customers and making them so unhappy. I am sure customers would rather pay more to have a good and comfortable tour.
We were also being brought to shops selling Fengshui items (pishiu) and of course these items were a ripped off (tai lang diam in Hokkien). Also the Tongren Tang Medical shop which masqueraded as the famous Beijing Tongren Tang and ripped off your money by high pressure selling skills telling you that you need these medicines and selling in big quantities to you but just quoting you only the unit price so that you will not be aware that you are actually signing visa payment for the unit price x 10 bottles of the tonic/medicine. In Singapore, we do not really check the amounts before signing visa slips becos we never encounter unscrupulous salesman who quoted one price but put in another price, we trusted people easily. Hence everybody must be careful of such shops, do not get conned. The tonic/medication may not be genuine or checked by our AVA authority so could include certain chemicals which are harmful to our health. On the safe side, best is not to buy oral dosage overseas. Finally, after this nightmare tour with SA, we will be very scared to patronise them again.

My experience with SA tours is consider somehow good when i book my tour to Hong Kong. So i'm booking another tour to Hong Kong with them again and hoping i won't be getting the bad experiences that other people faced as until now i have yet any compliants about SA tours.

I always enjoyed trips with SA tours. The guides both spore and the overseas guide are very knowledgeable and lively. i am not sure about you, but other SA tour participants are usually also very fun.

Particularly memorable were 2 seperate trips to Central Japan and Hokkaido. The guides were excellent! very entertaining and experienced. In Hokkaido, some days were slower but the guide made up for it by sharing lots of history and stories. The SA reps from Spore are also friendly.

their Tel. service is not good though so its better to go down in person.

The service has worsen from the last time i booked with them since Y2003...am trying another agent cos customer service is bad !

My 1st trip to Macau on 11-14th June 2009 was booked through SA Tours.
We was told to pay for Transit to Hotel and tip of S$10 per person x 4.
Upon our arrival at Macau Airport, no one pick us up and calling Hotel; Hotel said no pick up/transit arrangement by Hotel. We took a taxi to Hotel ourself and same for coming back to Singapore.
Back to Singapore, call to SA Tours to request for refund of S$40 (tip) & Taxi ($32)=$72. Was told need 1 month to refund to my Credit card account today. I will wait for refund and no refund I will no choice need to report to Singapore Tourist Promotion Board.

i agree... bad customer service, bad call support, lousy and hack-care attitute staff... and to think that they are in the service line... i experienced their horrible customer service when i was at the agency and try enquiring on-phone... only positive was their webpage was informative.. but again.. its a people business

korea & vietnam

Interested in Europe tour for the coming May thus checked out the SA at People's Park on 20 Mar around 10.44 am.
Was really amazed at the Customer service officer's ignorance of their products.
Upon realizing that the package which I was asking was not suitable in departure date, I asked for additional recommendations and she immediately snapped across the table, 'I only give you information on the date you requested.' Then silence. Till then all I had heard is only flight detail, price quote plus headcount. Does it mean she has not even the basic knowledge of the products or she's just too lazy to explain?
Her job should data entry clerk instead of basic Customer service!
Anyway she's did became more enthusiastic after learning I have 11 confirmed adults, but I figured if a company fail to have a suitable staff locally, what's the chance of them providing a trustworthy and reliable guide in foreign land?

like most of the unhappy customers, my experience is as unpleasant ... especially when the travel had not even commence.The staffs were very rude when answering the phone calls especially when you are calling 65358911.I had recently booked a tour to Korea and before my departures I had made several phone calls to try to find out on the flight time. i left my contact numbers and waited for the whole day and nobody calls back. When I call back again and a female staff answered the phone and just replied with " we are all very busy" and hang up the phone without waiting for me to speak up!
Busy??!! Does she mean that she doesn't need more business???
Even if she had a bad day doesn't mean she can do that.I was wondering if SA management is only looking into this but defintely  the staff attitude and telephone technics needs to be improved otherwise the company's image will be ruined.

As interested in nepal tour, searched the SA tour website and saw they have a Nepal tour. I called 6535 8911 (Group Tours) and was told to call 6532 411 (China tours). Told the guy consultant that Nepal not china but he insisted I called the china tour line. Okay, I called the china tour line but was told I should call the group tour line and I told him that i have called the group tour line and was told to call the china line. His reponse was sold rude, saying "We do China tour only, no nepal tour" and hang up the phone. Just doing an enquiry gave such bad experiences, can imagine if I booked the tour with them, will be more problematic. Good thing that Chan Brother is offering the similiar package, contacted Chan Brothers and was easily transferred to the consultant handing nepal tour and could get the information I want. Seems that chan brother consultants are more service-oriented and helpful.

As interested in nepal tour, searched the SA tour website and saw they have a Nepal tour. I called 6535 8911 (Group Tours) and was told to call 6532 411 (China tours). Told the guy consultant that Nepal not china but he insisted I called the china tour line. Okay, I called the china tour line but was told I should call the group tour line and I told him that i have called the group tour line and was told to call the china line. His reponse was sold rude, saying "We do China tour only, no nepal tour" and hang up the phone. Just doing an enquiry gave such bad experiences, can imagine if I booked the tour with them, will be more problematic. Good thing that Chan Brother is offering the similiar package, contacted Chan Brothers and was easily transferred to the consultant handing nepal tour and could get the information I want. Seems that chan brother consultants are more service-oriented and helpful.

Our trip to Taiwan during the Nov/Dec school holiday was great!friendly & really nice tour guide(local & Taiwan)but our package was a bit expensive.....hopefully can meet a good tour guide during next trip !

Had a very bad experience calling their travel agent consultant! Very rude, I do not recommend ANYONE to go with SA Tours.

SA ... i will said that the service is very bad! Still remember long time ago i booked a Taiwan tour at NATAS fair. Prior departure ... abt 14 days b/4 departure, they sent me letter, requested me to make full payment. Somehow, later the SA customer service called me & said that my tour is being cancelled due to fully booked...They claimed that fully booked during NATAS fair. Fully booked? If then, why till last minutes ... inform the customer? Furthermore they've sent out the letter, asked me to make full payment! This is their mistake !They refused given any compensation & asked me to join other tour. I called & complained their mistake. Surprisely, the customer service ppl... even called & scolded rude at me. What's the poor service i'd ever met. I will never go to SA again!

Asked for 11D European Special Tour (18/05/08, 1.30pm).. bad customer service, i really had enough of their RUDE attitude.

The poor customer service at SA tours when I booked my Sri Lanka tour. The customer service officer does not even know what is he selling and got the cheek to argue.

We had a good time with SA to Taiwan last year. Good food, good lodging, good overseas guide (not the local one). Very expensive tips though when it comes to the end of the trip. Almost SGD$700!! But I recommend SA for their effort put into making it such an enjoyable trip.

Sa tour sucks!!
i really dont know how they going stay in the business long!
PLease read from my blog!

http://wenniee.blogspot.com/2007/08/sa-tours-sucks.html

i always follow SA TOURS when i travel..though a bit more ex...but good hotels(5-6*) good food good guide,also must see e itinery some pa~lia agency cheap cheap price but when on tour they bring u to ulu ulu places ...cheap but stay pa~lia hotel/food... if on tour to europe,us,australia,korea,japan...i recommend SA TOURS.

I enjoyed my SA tour very much. Food is great. Lodging is great (~5 stars). But our package was expensive.