Family Vacation Travel Guide

This summer, I traveled to Europe for the time with my Husband. This travel agent planned a wonderful trip for us and I must say that I am still in my vacation hangover! :) We visited Italy, Switzerland, and Paris.

Italy: I had THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE in Italy. We visited Venice, Florence, and Rome. Venice was indescribably romantic. Our hotel was hotel was located in the heart of the city so we covered the entire city by foot. We had a private tour guide and she was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. 

After two days of stay in Venice, we next traveled by train to Florence, the fashion capital of Italy. On the first day, our agent had planned a private city tour for us. Our private tour guide was amazing! She told us about the city, best places to buy leather and best gelato place in Florence. Our hotel was strategically located. It was just 0.3 miles from the train station so we literally reached in 5 mins to our hotel. The next day was group tour to Ufizzi gallery and that's where we did not have a good time. The tour company was nice but the tour guide was not all that great. We received differential treatment there. I was not feeling well that day so instead of asking how I am doing, the guide asked my husband if we are done with our tour. WOW! I don't know if it was because of our color, race, or nationality. 

The next day we went to explore the wilderness, the cypress-lined vineyards of Tuscany. We visited a small medieval town and then headed to wine tasting. There, we spent hours in lingering over a meal in the open air, had one of the best meals of our lives as the fresh ingredients were picked up from the market that day and the hosts were as gracious as your own grandmother. We truly enjoyed the glace of Italian culture there. The trip to Chianti was the best part of our entire journey.

The next day we traveled to the sun-washed city of Rome. We had a beautiful time there too. 

Then We flew to Zurich. Our room was amazing and had a breathtaking view of the lake Lucerne with the city line of Lucerne. After two nights in Lucene, we then traveled to Lauterbrunnen. As they say, Switzerland is "Heaven on Earth" we actually did witness that heaven in Lauterbrunnen. The view of the valley of 72 waterfalls was incredible. Our hotel was located near the train station and the had a spectacular view from our room. Unfortunately, the hotel did not have any help available. Even for a glass of hot water, we had to climb up and down 3 floors, which was disappointing. Plus restaurants were super expensive and the food was terrible. 

Then we went to Paris. Paris was again unforgettable. Because of our travel agent, we got to see the Batille's day parade and the gorgeous view of Eiffel tower in fireworks! That experience was unforgettable.

Overall, the trip was amazing. Our agent did put together an amazing itinerary for us and we had a time of our life there.  Highly recommended!

My wife and I contacted Zicasso in June 2018 about our interest in traveling to Morocco and Spain for the Summer 2019.  Zicasso recommended two top travel specialist partners as the best fit for my group of four people traveling together.  After inquiring further my group selected this travel company & travel planner, CEO.  Our travel planner was helpful in meeting our needs, answered all of our questions, and fine-tuned our travel itinerary based on our interest and travel style (Historical sites, Culture, Food, Romance) before we placed our deposits.  Before travelling, we informed the planner that our group is Deaf and do not need the service of a sign language interpreter.  Written documents given to us about the historical sites and our Boogie Board (electronic devise for notes) for communicating with the guides would be sufficient.  Just a few days before the trip, he informed us he found American/Spanish/International sign language (ASL/SSL/ISL) interpreters in Spain would accompany my group to make the travel experience more meaningful with no extra charge.  We were so impressed with his kind offer. 

Communication: We were very impressed with the detail provided with each request - also very prompt. The level of service is rare and appreciated.  Our travel planner kept us in touch with text throughout the tours to make sure we were fine and if there’s anything we needed, to contact him. 

Guides:  10/10 for our drivers/tour guides!  All of our guides (Morocco and Spain) have a wealth of knowledge - great personality - very vibrant, full of educational information, and very competent.  Our guides have great attention to details and made sure there was anything we needed as well as made sure safety was high on the list. All of our guides kept us entertained with fascinating facts on each sites.

Tour:  We had an excellent sampling of different historical sites and the tours were delightfully educational.  For us, there was just the right balance of physical activity (walking), driving, high-speed train, and flying.  There was always something interesting to do and learn.

Accommodations: All of the accommodations were clean and comfortable. Each had its own charm and the staff was friendly and accommodating. 

Transport:  We like to make special mention of our drivers who not only delivered us safely over difficult mountain road to the winery, to the highway or narrow roads in the cities but all were fantastic competent drivers.  Despite the language barrier, we were able to communicate easily in gesture, added greatly to the camaraderie of the group.

Meals:  In all cases the meals were very good and tasty.  We appreciated the variety and immersed into the food culture.  All of the breakfast at the hotels where we stayed were excellent and enjoyed the meals at restaurants along the way.

I would highly recommend booking your Costa Rica vacation with this travel company for a stress-free holiday.  We used Zicasso before for a Peruvian trip last year and we were very pleased with the US agent (we are Canadian) who linked us up with the Peru tour company for our trip.  This time, this company and one other Costa Rican agent quickly got back to us with great itineraries.  In the end, we ended up going with this company, eventhough they were slightly more expensive (might not have been an apples to apples comparison- it was difficult to assess) because we were impressed that they called us in Canada very soon after writing us back.  We also noticed other traveller good reviews and we would agree!   One of the owners, President and CEO, met us at the airport at 1:30am when we arrived, along with the driver and another lady from the agency.  That was reassuring in a new country!  We had also accidentally overpaid our trip and the owner had our money in cash, as they had promised!  They presented us with a day-by-day itinerary, which they had also sent us by email a few days prior.  Everything was very organized and they gave us a nice little welcome gift!

We were travelling with our 14 year old daughter and we all really enjoyed the trip.  Each day of our 10 day trip we did one activity, which typically lasted 1 1/2hours to half a day- which was perfect!  We did quite a few hike/walking tours, sea kayaking, catamaran, zip lining, and a coffee/sugar cane/chocolate tour.  We travelled the 3 main areas, spending a few days at each, Arenal (the volcano), Monteverde (cloud forest) and Manuel Antonio park area (Pacific ocean and beach).  I would recommend all three areas if you can fit them in.  Our best experience of the trip was a night walk in Monteverde, where we saw 3 moving sloths (we were quite lucky with this many sightings!), viper snake, sleeping parrots, leaf cutter ants, scorpion and other local creatures.  So great and exciting- would highly recommend!  The hotel we stayed at in Manuel Antonio was fantastic - high-end but totally worth it with gorgeous pools, monkey trial on premises, monkeys and a sloth (some people we ran into on excursions hadn't see ANY sloths whereas we had our own at the hotel!) and access to a private beach.