Outdoor Austria Adventure Tour

Our 12-day trip to Vienna, Salzburg, Hallstatt, Bratislava, and Budapest was planned carefully. All accommodations were excellent and within walking distance of sightseeing attractions and restaurants. All in all, we enjoyed the trip very much and thank our Zicasso travel partner for making this vacation a reality.

Both of our tour operators kept in touch with us throughout the trip and provided updates as needed. It was comfortable to know someone was monitoring our progress.

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.

My son and I were so fortunate to have our Zicasso travel agents. They offered wonderful ideas for our itinerary based on our needs and wants. All of our hotels were amazing and well-appointed, especially the hotel in Grindelwald, which was top-notch. The receptionist was so attentive and made our stay absolute perfection. We loved the town of Grindelwald. Thank you to our agent for convincing us to stay in this lovely village as everything we needed was accessible from here.

All of the tours he mapped out for us were really nice and just what we wanted to see. The only tour we missed was Hallstatt and we truly regret that. We thought the weather was going to be worse than it was, but that was our fault. We will just have to return to Austria and visit Hallstatt next time

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing trip. We learned much about the history of the Czech Republic and Austria- in particular, the pre-history and the recent history (18th century to present). Also, it was interesting to experience the residual effects of the communist regime in Prague and the contrasting cultures of Prague, Salzburg, and Vienna.

Hotel accommodations were spacious and well-located. The hotel in Prague, while clean and spacious was not what we would classify as a 5* hotel, on par with the hotel in Salzburg or Vienna. The use of vouchers was problematic. With the exception of the hotel in Prague, the others seemed surprised when we presented them with vouchers. It was not clear to staff at the front desk that we had pre-paid, resulting in numerous back-and-forth discussions. The Hallstatt Museum would not accept our voucher so we had to pay to enter.

It was relaxing having a driver for day trips out of Prague and for transfers between Prague, Salzburg, and Vienna. Having the same guide/driver for 6 days in the Czech Republic was enjoyable and most informative.

Because of time constraints, we were not able to visit several of the places on our itinerary: the Mucha Museum, the National Museum in Prague, the Royal Mint in Kutna Hora, or the State Castle in Cesky Krumlov. We just drove past the village of Durnstein. Perhaps better planning would have helped here. We were surprised that one of our 3 days in Vienna was a National holiday-stores closed. The tour at the Johann W winery informed us about modern wine-making techniques but the wine pairing was not up to our or our guide's expectations.

Arrangements for our trip through Prague, Vienna, and Budapest were somewhat involved, as we also made overnight trips to Cesky Krumlov in the South Czech Republic and Hallstatt, Austria. By providing drivers for each leg of these side trips, Zicasso’s travel team was especially helpful in avoiding much longer train itineraries to these locations.

Overall, our travel company was wonderful in providing numerous recommendations at each location, private guides in all five cities, and were very flexible with adjustments to the itinerary or hotel locations based on our preferences. Their communication throughout the process was wonderful.