Romantic Exploration of Austria Tour

Overall, the trip was great. Daily reminders for the next day's itinerary were great and it was easy to communicate with the help desk team, which was a plus.

It would have been good to know in advance if I were to have the same guide for multiple days. We didn’t find out until our first tour in Vienna that we’d have the same guides for three more days. Our guide talked negatively about going on a long day trip to Salzburg and Hallstatt with our four-year-old. I almost canceled that long day trip, but decided not to. Our guide and driver for that day were wonderful and he made our journey the most memorable.

Our guides and drivers in Prague were wonderful. We were just not thrilled with the local agency this travel company chose for us, given they knew we were traveling with our young daughter. If I have more choices for our future destination, I don’t think I’ll be working with them again. Thank you!

Zicasso's travel expert pulled together a great itinerary and was very responsive to all of our questions, regardless of the time or the day of the week. He checked in with us during the tour and arranged for a birthday cake when we were in Vienna.

We were more than pleased with our guide. He was helpful, always on time, and just a pleasure to be with. He was always helpful with restaurant suggestions and always made reservations for us. He was always ready to help us with our luggage and he even carried a backpack for us during one tour. He even played a "Sound of Music" recording for us while we traveled to Salzburg. It was like we were traveling with a new friend. We would highly recommend our travel company and our guide, We are in the process of planning another tour with them.

The trip was operationally well planned and the coordination with Zicasso's travel agency was generally very good. Their proposal was significantly more expensive than the competing proposal, so I guess I expected a bit more. I would give it 4.25 or 4.5 stars if the rating system was bit more nuanced.

A few things were sub-optimal. On our first morning, the guide contacted the agent to tell them that they would pick us up at 10am (or at least that is what the guide told us), but our itinerary indicated 9am. At 9.15am, we called the agency and they called us back about five or 10 minutes later to tell us about the new 10am time. Not a great start.

That guide and the one in Munich were what I would describe as average guides – knowledgeable, but without much personality. The guide in Salzburg was outstanding.

From an organization perspective, we went to Salzburg from Lucerne, Switzerland, passing Innsbruck on day four, then trained it back to Innsbruck the very next day, basically adding four hours of driving/training for no real reason. We could have just stayed in Innsbruck on day four and then gone to Salzburg on day five and not backtracked.

Lastly, the hotel in Munich was very dated and the whole feel of the place was drab, including the decor and the lobby.

All that said, the operational people were very responsive and just about every leg happened right on time and the guides were organized. I never heard from the lady who organized it after I booked it, which I told her was odd, especially since I thought a trip to Italy, their specialty, was on the cards for my larger group that I had been with in Ireland the week before this trip.

So, all in all, a good trip, but not a great trip. I am not sure I would use our travel company again, but I have not landed firmly on that just yet.

Thanks, Greg S.

Zicasso’s travel specialist was outstanding! From the beginning, he listened and curated exactly the kind of experience we had hoped for. The trip was fantastic. The hotels were perfect and everything went smoothly.

The guides for the Salzburg food tour and Vienna walking tour were particularly outstanding, as well as our driver-guide in Munich. The travel specialist created a custom itinerary that not only met our expectations, but exceeded them, with VIP experiences that made this mother-daughter trip truly special.

The planning and organization for our trip to Germany and Austria was expertly handled by Zicasso's travel partner. We could not have asked for a better trip. 

We gathered our adult children and friends together to celebrate Christmas and New Year in the Old World. In and around Munich, we saw Neuschwanstein and many of the city's beautifully ornate churches. We also visited the Christmas markets and beer halls, and ate way to much fabulous German food. 

Our agent contracted private guides in Munich and Salzburg. These guides were superior. They had detailed knowledge of the area, its history, and people. 

We spent Christmas in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It is a lovely, magical town in the shadow of Germany's highest mountain, Zugspitze. On Christmas Day, I took the cable car up the mountain and the sights from the top were tremendous. On the day we were there, we could see 230km in all directions. Of course, when in the Alps, you must ski, so we visited Hintertux for a day of skiing and glacier exploration.  

Then we went to Salzburg to explore the sites of Mozart's birthplace, but there is so much more to the town than that. The town has over 1,000 years of history and the people there could not have been more hospitable. 

From there, we went back to Munich to celebrate New Year at Tollwood. 

Thank you, and a special thanks to our travel team for all the planning that went into the trip. It was pleasantly unforgettable. And I cannot forget our guides. The guides in Munich and Salzburg were excellent – extremely knowledgeable, personable, and always there when needed. I cannot wait to go back, and when I do, I will be planning our trip through your company.