Europe Food & Wine Tours & Vacations

Our 10-day trip to Buenos Aires, Iguazú Falls, and the Salta Region was wonderful. Zicasso’s travel specialist was excellent to work with during planning, making themselves available for countless questions and giving excellent advice, creating the perfect itinerary. Once there, the trip was executed perfectly—a seamless, easy experience with no hiccups. Everyone we met, from the greeter at the airport to the drivers to the guides, was stellar.

We were met at our first hotel by someone from the tour operator who took us through the itinerary once more, answered any questions, gave us a welcome gift, and let us know that she would be following our trip and checking in with us through WhatsApp. She was amazing and, as promised, monitored the app closely and provided timely information, such as reminders of reservations and boarding passes, which were sent at just the right time. Any inquiries we had were responded to immediately. Having an in-country resource was helpful and comforting.

For any travelers planning a trip to Argentina, the Salta Region is often overlooked, but was the highlight of our trip. If you enjoy dramatic landscapes, being off the beaten path a bit in small towns with authentic culture and very few tourists, and outstanding wines with breathtaking vineyards, you will enjoy this region. Be sure to hire a driver, arranged by the tour operator, who navigated narrow, windy, gravel and dirt roads with expertise and calm, gave us a wonderful overview of the history and topography of the region, and showed us all the special places and some hidden gems. A wonderful and memorable trip.

We visited Madrid, Toledo, San Sebastián, Bayonne, Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Hondarribia, La Rioja, Barcelona, Montserrat, and the Penedes (Cava) region.

We loved our private guides, private wine tastings, and day trips outside of the big cities.

We just returned home from a very memorable trip to Croatia. Thanks to Zicasso's travel expert and her company for the terrific itinerary. Dubrovnik, Hvar, Split, Rovinj, and Zagreb were all toured with knowledgeable guides and experienced drivers to get us there!

There were many highlights, including the beautiful Adriatic countryside, Plitvice Lakes National Park, and a dinner with wine pairing. Of course, there were many more delightful experiences, but too many to include all of them!

We received top-shelf transportation, well thought out itineraries, and first-rate services. I would highly recommend this travel company!

The entire nine days of travel from Slovenia to Montenegro were seamless as far as being picked up at the arrival airport and departure as planned. Transportaion was on schedule, which was important to me in a foreign country and eliminated any stress. Each private guide and/or driver throughout our trip was courteous and spoke English, which avoided any misunderstanding about all the wonderful sites we saw.

Lake Bled was absolutely wonderful. The guide parked the van at this family home four blocks from the lake and introduced us to his mother and sister, who welcomed us, and we saw how they lived in this beautiful village. The walk of four blocks to the lake also gave us the opportunity to see more of this quaint place to live. Since the lake does not allow power boats, we and about 20 other people were rowed to the island, where an ancient church was located. We found out that this family, in the past, were the caretakers of the island and our tour guide had to row himself to the shore to go to school and, in the winter, skate to school every day.

Next, we were driven to the castle on top of a small mountain, which had a perfect, 360-degree view of the area. Beautiful!

The next day we went to Plitvice Lakes National Park, with too many waterfalls to count and water that looked as crystal clear as any natural water I have ever seen. The four-kilometer walk upstream was nothing like I've ever seen in the USA.

We spent the night in a wonderful mountain lodge, with individual lodges and an upper-end-style bed and breakfast theme.

Split was a city with parts dating back to the third century, with many Roman influences in its many buildings.

Mostar in Bosnia was very interesting and had a central arch-style bridge which seemed to be a central point for all to see. There was so much we saw that it is too much to describe here.

We also stopped at a wine tasting at the most modern winery I've ever been to. It even had 12 guest rooms, with a pool.

On our way to Dubrovnik, we stopped at Ston to have an unbelievable lunch. At the restaurant, we had an oyster tasting of fresh oysters being farmed several hundred yards from the restaurant. We were served oysters three ways, from raw to fried and baked, and they were the best I will ever eat in my life.

We next went to Dubrovnik, which was particularly interesting to me because it is where Game of Thrones was filmed. Our guide was excellent, as he worked as a "roadie" for the film company, helping set the scenes by taking down modern signs or anything modern, and putting them back after filming. He had large screen shots in a spiral binder and would take us to a cove and hold up the screen shot of the actual scene from the movie to show us the similarity. His behind-the-scenes knowledge of the actors and the reaction from the town and church was beyond expectations. My wife and I were fans of GOT and so excited that we are going to watch if all again one day.

Our last day was in Montenegro, which again was beautiful, and we spent the day next to the water there. We were ferried to a man-made island with an old church on it.

Overall, the Adriatic Sea along the coast of these countries was one of the most beautiful stretches of water you could imagine.

Our expectations of this tour were met and exceeded.

I was connected with the travel company through Zicasso. What an amazing trip! Many thanks to our travel designer of the travel company!!!

Our travel designer and her expert team planned a trip to Sicily for my husband and I, my siblings, and my sister-in-law. We were six and everything about the trip was executed beautifully and with great attention to every detail.

We chose to go to Taormina, Cefalù, Palermo, and Ortigia Island, flying direct in and out of Catania. Our travel designer arranged all transfers by private van for the six of us and we never had to worry where or when we were going anywhere. She was able to make changes on the spot and accommodate our every wish.

Planning the trip was so easy, as she was available to chat with me on the weekends to answer questions and clarify details. She even made dinner reservations in every city. I cannot say enough about her willingness to be available and the choices she helped us make. From the terrific winery near Mount Etna to a drive up Etna, guided tours (we had an incredibly fabulous art historian showing us the churches of Palermo), a day at leisure on the beaches of Cefalù, and an amazing cooking class in Palermo, where we learned about and visited the markets, and made pasta and cannoli, every experience was better than the one before it.

We definitely recommend, with five stars, the travel company. Have them plan your trip to Italy! This was my first time back to Europe since 2004 and it was stellar!

I surely will use this company when I plan new trips to Italy, and Zicasso as well!

When we were trying to decide where to go, we chatted with travel partners in several European destinations. Zicasso chooses the best of the best and our experiences with each of them was exceptional!

We will be back to Zicasso when we travel to other destinations!!