Active Austria Family Tour

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.

We found this company through Zicasso.  We were contacted by our travel agent within couple of days.  We exchanged communications both via email and phone call for the next several weeks.  Our trip were to three cities in Germany and Austria and we wanted to splurge a little.  A few weeks before hand, we were given a day to day itinerary.  She gave us options for lunch and dinner each day as well as suggestions and options on the tours each day that we did not have a tour guide.  We travel to Munich, Salzburg, Oberammergau and Rothenburg.  

We were pick up when we arrived in Munich.  As we entered our hotel room, our travel agent had already left the package with day to day itinerary,  maps as well as a I-phone for us to use.  All the locations were input in the contact list so that we can easily retrieve time.  Any of the non-guided tours, our agent has given suggestions on where to park.

We had booked a private tour to Neuschwanstein Castle and Linderhof Palace.  We were surprised that private tour was really a private tour, just my wife and I!!!  It was definitely worth it, no line and the guide answered all our questions and did not rush us along.

The dinner suggestions were fabulous.  Most of them were walking distance to our hotel.  However, if you are not a smoker, you might want to skip Carpe Diem in Salzburg.  They have great food, the restaurant is on the 2nd floor (non-smoking), however, the bar is on the first floor (smoking).  The smoke comes right up the center stairway.  Food is great though. 

All the hotels that we stayed at were wonderful!  We had a room that overlook the Viktualienmarkt in Munich, a corner suite overlooking the river and historic city of Salzburg.  An awesome room in Oberammergau.  And a charming suite in a 800 year old building in Rothenburg where the hotel staff were friendly and attentive.  

We wish we could have make it a 3 week vacation and tour more cities in Germany.  If we ever go back, we will definitely use  this company again.

This travel company handled all the arrangements for our trip to Austria and Switzerland in August. I'll focus here mainly on the Austria segment, because they needed to handle much more for us in that segment.

We spent 6 days in Vienna, and 1 in Salzburg. The travel company booked us into the most amazing hotel in Vienna. It was in the older part of Vienna, very central and easy to walk to all the major sights, but on a very quiet street - exactly what we had hoped to get!  The rooms were suites - sparkling clean, comfortable and modern, and the breakfasts were amazing! 

We also booked 2 tours through them - one was a Vienna highlights tour, including entry into Schoenbrunn Palace. The other tour was a Vienna Woods tour. Our tour guide and our driver, who also did the transfers, were absolutely wonderful. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and gave us great historical and cultural insights we would not have got by ourselves. For both our tours, we actually continued on by ourselves from where we ended the tour (Schonbrunn Palace and Baden respectively) and our agent made sure to tell us how to get back to our hotel. Our driver was terrific all round, and specially helpful on the transfer to the train station, where he showed us how to decode the wagon locations location so we had no trouble with all our other segments in Vienna and Switzerland from there on. He actually waited an hour with us at the train station for the Vienna-Salzburg segment to make sure we had no trouble.

The hotel in Salzburg was also wonderfully central and had a lot of charm, with an amazing breakfast. We did only self-guided touristing that day, but had an efficient and on-time transfer to the train station the next day on our way to Switzerland.

In Switzerland we stayed in Lauterbrunnen for 4 days and in Weggis on Lake Luzern for 3 days. Our hotel in Weggis was amazing, and here again all the train travel and transfers were very efficient and on time. We did not have any guided tours in Switzerland, since we were focused on hiking amidst all the scenic splendors, and there is a wealth of information on hiking trails and how to get to them available online.

I would highly recommend this company for travel to Austria and Switzerland. 

(My sole caveat, unrelated to the travel company, is to go with hotels, not privately owned apartments, as we did in Lauterbrunnen, where we had hosts from hell, who were as inhospitable as it is possible to be.)

My husband and I took a trip to Germany and Austria at the end of May.  We couldn't have asked for a better experience!  It was more than we could have ever dreamed  of, and our travel agency made that happen.  You can't get any better than booking through a company who LIVES in the country you are visiting.  From Day One, we worked with our agent who was extremely patient with me, answering my MANY questions over several months, always answering my e-mails within 24 hours.  With being a trip of a lifetime for us, she knew how important it was to make this trip everything we envisioned it would be.  We were looking for a romantic trip for the two of us..looking at it as our last "big" trip before starting a family.  She created the perfect itinerary, based on the type of trip we were looking for, including areas that were a "must see" for us, and throwing in recommendations as she saw fit.  She even asked what pace we wanted the trip to be at, and how much we wanted to include each day.  There is NO way we would have had the same experience with booking on our own.  She was able to tell me what would or would not work best.  During the last few weeks, another agent assisted us with some last minute changes and questions and again, was incredibly sweet and would always respond immediately.  Everything was taken care of for us beforehand, including hotel bookings, car rental, tour tickets, dinner reservations in the bigger cities, and more.  All we had to do was show up!  The binder we received upon arrival broke everything down by day-to-day schedules, accommodations, tours, etc. even down to the best gelato shop in town!  There were restaurant suggestions for lunch and dinner in every town (even the ones that were just an option to drive through), based on the type of food that we like/wanted to experience.  We ended up sticking to their list for the most part, because we were not once disappointed and they of course knew best!  Every single map was labeled and we had every piece of information we could possibly need.  It was so fun to follow along each day, and to look ahead for the next.  We were even given a German cell phone with full access to internet, and several apps that were useful throughout the trip.  Upon our arrival to Germany, our driver met us at the airport with a smile on his face, escorting us to our brand new Audi A6, stocked with a cooler of sodas/waters which was refreshing after a long flight.  He drove us to our first cruise along the Romantic Rhine Valley, and then to our first hotel.  It was so nice speaking with him on the first day, as we were able to ask any important questions needed before being on our own, in a different country, for two weeks (we requested to plan the majority of our trip, as a self-guided trip).  He was very professional and we had such a great time with him!  You could tell that he really cared to know everything about us before our meet.  He was already familiar with who we were, why we decided to take this trip, and so on.  And then the Hotels....we were in AWE of every single hotel on our trip  Pure luxury at it's finest...we felt like royalty and that we were in a dream.  Each hotel we felt that it just couldn't get any better, and then were proven wrong at the next.  You can tell that each hotel is chosen carefully, and chosen for a specific reason..and we did not have to do any of the work researching them ourselves!  They were very much our style, with a nice mix of historic/castle/modern.  There is no way to explain the beauty and hospitality, without experiencing yourself.  And then there was our personal travel concierge who was sure to check in with us each day, whether it was via text or phone call.  We cannot say enough about her and she was able to throw in fun ideas for us, and answer any questions along the way.  If our itinerary adjusted at all, or if I needed help with ANYTHING, she was there to reach out to and always responded right away.  After only a couple days I would look forward to her checking in because she was so fun to chat with, and felt like a friend we had known for quite some time.  I honestly thought going into this that once we were there, we'd be fine exploring on our own..but knowing that she was there when we needed her, was SO comforting, and am very happy that we had that option. My husband, Seth, joked around with me, asking what I would do after our trip, with not talking with her each day :) Both Germany and Austria were just breathtaking.  I would live there in a heartbeat.  You cannot beat driving through the windy, gorgeous countryside roads, with the Bavarian Alps / Austrian Alps in front of you, and my husband was thrilled to drive on the Autobahn! Radlers and pretzels became our new favorite afternoon snack!  The small towns with cobblestone streets are right up my alley and so beautiful.  We have checked so many things from each town off of our bucket list (including the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg!) Our last day in Munich, we met with our guide for a half day tour (which we almost passed on, but our agent highly suggested doing at least a half day).  We took her advice and are so happy that we did.  We learned and SAW so much more than we would have on our own, especially in the short amount of time that we were there in the city.  She was very knowledgeable and was sure to focus in on our interests.  She, also, did her research and knew all about myself and Seth upon arrival.  Our concierge had told her about Seth's love of Dachshunds and she even had the perfect little shop for us to attend, because of it.  She knew the year we were married, what this trip was about...the fact that I do not eat a lot of meat, and more.  It was very impressive and showed that she really cares and ENJOYS what she does!  Overall, I could clearly go on for pages about our trip and our experience with this company.  I give them 5 GOLD stars, and would recommend them to anyone and everyone.  I have been talking nonstop about them since I have been home and my sister's plan is to use my same itinerary with them in the future!! I only wish they covered other countries, as I would use them for every single trip we ever plan! (I know they cover Switzerland as well, but I have been there).  I am so thankful for Zicasso too, who brought me to them, and will most definitely be using this site in the future for our next trip.  I now know that I can completely trust their agencies.  THANK YOU a million times over, to everyone who made this trip so very special for us.  It was most definitely the trip of a lifetime, that will never be forgotten.  I can only hope that this review helps anyone still in question.  Worth EVERY single penny.  You cannot beat the hospitality that we received.  We can't wait to do it again someday :) 

Our three-week winter escapade to France, Switzerland, and Austria was nothing short of a magical journey through some of the most enchanting winter wonderlands Europe has to offer. From the romance of horse-drawn carriage rides to the charm of bustling Christmas markets, every moment was incredible.

France: A Parisian Winter Dream

We began our adventure in Paris, the City of Lights, which becomes even more captivating during the winter. The Eiffel Tower sparkled against the night sky and Paris offered a blend of elegance and festive cheer that set the perfect tone for the rest of our trip.

Another highlight was our visit to Colmar, a charming Alsace town that felt like stepping into a storybook. Its cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses, and magical Christmas market made it an unforgettable experience, with festive lights and holiday spirit around every corner.

Switzerland: A Snow-Capped Wonderland

Next, we ventured to Switzerland, where the true magic of winter revealed itself. The highlight was our trip to Jungfraujoch, the "Top of Europe." The journey up was as breathtaking as the destination itself, with panoramic views of snow-draped peaks and charming alpine villages. Once at Jungfraujoch, we were mesmerized by the endless expanse of snow and ice.

Equally unforgettable was our visit to First Mountain. The crisp air, thrilling walk, and ziplining added an adventurous touch. The view from the suspension bridge, with the mountains stretching endlessly into the horizon, was a sight that will forever be etched in our memories.

We also had the thrill of dog sledding near the Matterhorn. Gliding across snowy trails with a team of eager huskies was an exhilarating and unique way to experience the majestic mountain landscapes.

Austria: A Symphony of Tradition and Festivity

Our final stop was Austria, where the Christmas spirit was alive in every corner. The Vienna Christmas Market was a dream come true, with its illuminated stalls offering everything from handcrafted ornaments to mouthwatering strudels and mulled wine. Salzburg, with its Baroque architecture and snow-dusted rooftops, felt like stepping into a fairy tale. We also attended a classical music performance that added a touch of cultural richness to our holiday.

To top it off, we enjoyed a cozy, horse-drawn carriage ride through a picturesque Austrian village. Wrapped in warm blankets, we listened to the rhythmic clopping of hooves as we glided past snow-covered chalets and twinkling lights – a truly enchanting experience!

The entire trip was a seamless blend of natural beauty, cultural richness, and festive joy. Each destination brought its own unique charm, leaving us with unforgettable memories of twinkling lights, snowy peaks, and the warm glow of holiday cheer. Winter in Europe is truly a season to behold and this journey was nothing short of spectacular.

Our Zicasso travel representative made sure every small detail was organized and even double-checked the drivers, tours, etc, in advance. This is the perfect travel company and we will surely use them again! Our agents communicated with us throughout the trip to ensure everything was flawless! Thank you for the most magical holiday ever! We shall cherish these memories forever.