Sledding Through Swedish Lapland Itinerary

The trip planned by Zicasso's travel company was generally good. The walking tour in Copenhagen was about 50% a repeat of the food tour. The hotels were good. The rental car was good and pick-up was close to our hotel. It appeared we could have dropped off the car in Gothenburg, close to our hotel, rather than driving back to the airport. There was a hotel payment issue in Gränna, but it was resolved before we checked out.

Both companies Zicasso put us in contact with put together similar itineraries based on our interests, schedule, and budget. We selected this tour operator and they did a great job.

A few minor things:

There were a few glitches related to pick-ups, but they were quickly resolved by the 24/7 concierge group.

Unlike our previous Zicasso trips (this was our third), we were surprised our guides were generally not locals. The personal tours were all very interesting and the guides very knowledgeable, but we are not sure if this is a portent of the future in travel or just an aberration on this trip.

We were excited to have the travel company rent electric cars for us (our first) through a car-rental agency, even including a cross-border, one-way rental. As promised, charging stations were everywhere. However, even though we downloaded the rental company’s charging application, we could not get it to work. We had to rely on stations that could read our Visa card. One day, we probably spent two hours trying to find those types of stations in fairly remote areas of Sweden and Norway, experiencing a little charging anxiety. Maybe prep your customers a bit on this aspect of electric rentals.

Overall, it was a great trip!

Zicasso’s travel consultant and the travel company did a fabulous job arranging a family trip to Sweden and Denmark. She suggested experiences we would not have arranged on our own. All of us had a great time!

Zicasso’s travel specialist was our trip advisor and planner for a family trip to Stockholm and Norway, including a two-day stay in Tromsø chasing the Northern Lights. Although the Northern Lights did not appear for us, their absence did not dim our experiences, as organized for us.

She spent time and energy listening to what we wanted to hear from guides, as well as what we wanted to experience in each city we visited on our own. Equally important, she understood our budget and stayed within its limits.

Her suggestions for restaurants, her travel tips on clothing, her knowledge of the culture, her selection of private guides, and her careful listening to our needs made all the difference between a good trip and an excellent one. For example, I have an extreme shellfish allergy and every restaurant where she made reservations for us knew of that allergy before we walked in.

I cannot recommend her more highly. It was a privilege to work with her.

This travel company was not located in or experienced with travel in Scandinavian cities. I did not see the other choice of travel company until I had already spent a considerable amount of time with this travel company. I provided the itinerary. They only had to arrange hotels, guides, and transport. This travel company didn't deliver as follows:

Hotels: This travel company did not have a relationship with hotels and made their bookings (at least with respect to one hotel) through Expedia. So, we ended up with the worst room in our category at almost every hotel and had to spend time negotiating to switch rooms. At one hotel, they did not pay for breakfast, even through they said in their booking that they had. When so informed, they offered to pay for breakfast, but that is beside the point. At the hotel in Copenhagen, we were informed that the room had not been paid for and it took some time to get that issue straightened out.

Guides: Except for one guide in Copenhagen, the guides were either inexperienced or did not add value, For example, our guide for the Copenhagen city tour was a young, uneducated French woman who had moved to Copenhagen only 6 months earlier and did not speak Danish. The guide in Stockholm took us to a sandwich lunch at her neighbor's apartment. Not what we were looking for in a city tour.

Transport: We were advised that there was a train that would take us from Gothenburg to Copenhagen in 2.5 hours. In fact, we had to take a bus to Falkenberg and then a train. The trip was 4.5 hours.

Restaurants: We only went to one of their restaurant recommendations. All the other recommendations did not take into account our dietary restrictions.