Spain and Italy Vacations & Tours

We experienced a fabulous twelve night first trip ever to Europe staying in Rome, Sorrento, and Florence with day visits to Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum, a drive with stops and photo-ops through the beautiful Amalfi coast villages to Ravello, and a day trip to historic Siena and San Gimignano through the Chianti region of Tuscany. Our travel consultant and her colleague at the company in Rome, proved to be perceptive to our interests, resourceful in finding spot-on solutions within our budget and patient professionals as we explored various itinerary options. Both women spoke and wrote english very well to thoughtfully help us plan our itinerary for three adults with private transportation and guides. Our private guides in Rome; in Pompeii and Herculaneum; in Naples; one a Canadian ex-pat in Florence; and in Siena, informed our discovery of each locale and its many treasures.  We also did two small group tours. First, a farm/food tour near Sorrento with an incredibly informative and entertaining guide, and catacombs at Saint Sebastian with a nameless guide and small group of 9 during our Appian way visit and final full day in Rome. At times we were chaperoned in private vehicles with english speaking drivers knowledgeable of their territories. In Rome, in Naples, in the Bay of Naples Sorrento area, in Tuscany, and in Amalfi. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend this company to help others plan the vacation of a lifetime.

Thanks for helping me organize my family (of 10 with diverse age from 15 to 63) trip to Italy, from Dec 17 to Dec 31. Whilst different member of my family have different expectation and requirement, I would like to comment you and your team on having planned an excellent trip that not only met each and everyone's interest and expectation but truly exceeded it.

Your planning have brought us to the lovely cities of Parma, Modena, Florence, Orvieto, Civita Di Bagnoregio, Naples, Rome, Venice, Cortina d'Amprezzo and back to our starting point Milan. Throughout the trip, we have a well balance itinerary that covered

- beautiful churches such as the Duomo in Milan, Rome, Florence,

- archeological site like Pompeii, Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Pisa, Verona (learning more about romeo and Juliet)

- great local eating places (recommended by the guides you chose)

- lovely country side and unique sight in San Gimignano, Civita Di Bagnoregio, Orvieto, Lake Como,

- great gallery likes Uffizi, Academia

- Interesting activity such as Snow Mobile excursion in Cortina, Learning Cooking 

- Shopping activities

With so much, yet your team immaculate planning never have us rushing from sight to sight, we were both able to enjoy and learn as much as we can of each sight and at times added more activities.

The team of guides you chose, have truly turn stone and history into exciting stories that the provided the group deeper understanding of the sights we visited and saw. Really like to thank each on of them like our guides in Florence, Pisa, San Gimignano, Orvieto and Civita Di Bagnoregio, Naples and Pompeii, Rome, Verona, Venice and Milan.

But most importantly, thank you for getting our driver, he truly ensure our comfort whilst driving steadily through jams on our way to Naple and snow storm on our way to Cortina d Amprezzo and also took very good care of us ensuring we know what to do where we have no guides and leaving us clear instruction when we needed help. He is truly a wonder.

I will definitely tell my friends heading to Italy about this company.... A wonderfully great experience.

THE BEST VACATION EVER!!!!

I must admit that I was somewhat uncomfortable arranging a group tour to Italy with someone I communicated with only via the Internet and telephone.  However, after my first communication with our agent -- I knew that she “had it.”  She understood exactly what we wanted to do.  She was right-on in both concept and execution.

Our ten-day adventure in Italy began with a private transfer with an English speaking local driver from the Rome airport to our fantastic 3 star boutique hotel located right in the historical center of Rome.  During our three days in Rome, we had fantastic private tours of Ancient Rome, the Coliseum, and the Vatican Museums.  Extremely knowledgeable, English-speaking guides led all of our tours.  Sense of Italy had arranged for VIP, skip the line, priority entrance for all tours -- saving us from long waits in long lines.

After our busy 3 days in Rome, we departed via private van transfer from our hotel in Rome to the Chianti Region of Tuscany.  The transfer included stops on the Val D’ Orcia to visit the amazing Villages of Montalcino and Montepulciano.  The “light lunch” and wine tasting we enjoyed in Montalcino was one of the highlights of our trip.  In Tuscany we stayed 7 Nights in a beautiful, historic villa located on one of the best wine estates of Chianti (Villa Le Corti near San Casciano) where we were met with a fantastic welcome dinner. During our time in Tuscany we were transported by private van from our villa to private tours of Siena, San Gimignano, Florence, Pisa and Lucca.  On each of our stops we were met by knowledgeable English speaking guides that clearly were proud of the history of their country, and were anxious to share it.  Interspersed in all of this activity were numerous exceptional meals with opportunities to taste (and drink) very fine Italian wines.

When we finally were forced to leave Italy, our agent arranged for private transport accommodating our varying departure times from the Florence airport and train station.

Thanks to this travel company and our agent for designing the perfect vacation for our group.  The only complaint that I heard was that we ate too much — wow was all the food delicious.  I really don’t know how she did it.  All of the tours were great — the van drivers friendly and helpful, the guides knowledgeable, and the sites spectacular.  Our stay in the villa was a great experience.  We were treated royally everywhere.  We all marveled at our agent's ability to get us, the vans, the guides, the food and wine, etc. all at the right place at the right time.  She is a genius!!!!

Jeff E

I cannot say enough fabulous things about the luxury tour company. It exceeded every expectation my husband and I had for customer service, care, attention to detail and planning our 12-day tour through Spain in mid-January.

We are seasoned world travelers and have been on many amazing and wonderful adventures. We've had great experiences with many tour companies, but none compare to the level of expertise and excellence of this tour company.

We simply told our trip planners that we wanted to go to Spain, and didn't know exactly where or what to do or see. They took it from there -- all by email, though they certainly were available any time by phone had we wanted to talk. We prefer email. They asked about our interests, what level of accommodations we wanted, how physically active we wanted a tour to be. They then emailed a sample itinerary. We tweeked it some. And voila. They planned a trip for us that was magical and memorable on all levels.

We were greeted at every stop by a driver and taken wherever our schedule directed. All of our plane and train travel in Spain was arranged. All we needed to do was show up. When we arrived in Barcelona, as well as Madrid a week later, there was a taxi strike. We worried how we would get to a soccer (football) match in Barcelona. Our young woman guide for two days simply said, "Don't worry about it. I am your eyes and ears, and I will take care of it." And she did. A driver picked us up, delivered us to the stadium, and waited for us at a nearby location until after the match, when he ferried us back to our hotel.

On our day in Barcelona that was planned for all things Gaudi, it was raining quite hard. Our guide that day did some quick thinking and as I told him, took lemons and made lemonade. He and our driver took us to a small company town outside of Barcelona that Gaudi had designed. In fact, the small church there that he designed served as a first impression of his large cathedral in Barcelona. Then our guide took to a former hospital that exhibited fascinating architecture and history. By the time we finished touring it, and following a delightful lunch, the rain had let up enough for us to visit more Gaudi designs.

Our guides arranged for us to visit a private Gastronomic Society in San Sebastian, which was so much fun, and our lunch was outstanding. They also got us into the private home/office/studio of two art restorers in Sevilla. After the duo showed us the type of art (old paintings and statuary) they restored, and how they did it in their studio, they invited us to their personal upstairs apartment for some refreshments and lively conversation about Spain, Sevilla, politics and food. So delightful and interesting.

Our entire trip was like this. Each and every guide at every stop was bright, knowledgeable and personable. Our trip planners laid pearls here and there along the way -- small delights and pleasures -- that surprised us and kept us totally engaged in the history, culture, food, wine, art and joy of Spain.

This tour company is 100% responsible for making our trip the amazing adventure it was. We look forward to returning next year. This tour company will plan our trip through Northwestern and Southern Spain and then to Portugal.

If you're interested in traveling anywhere in Spain or Portugal, and you want luxury and the trip of a lifetime to deposit into your memory bank to warm you when you're too old to walk the cobblestones, call or email this tour company immediately. Or email me. I'm very happy to share more details of our heavenly trip.

P.S. Our 12-day holiday covered: Barcelona; San Sebastian; Bilbao; Sevilla; Cordoba; Madrid; Toledo. We took two flights and one high-speed train during that time.

Wow, just wow! This 26-day trip through Spain was absolutely fantastic. While the process of planning a trip can be overwhelming, it was made easy with the assistance of Zicasso and the travel company. The travel agent really listened to what I wanted to see and do, and came up with a perfectly paced itinerary that included Madrid (day trip to Toledo), Sevilla (day trip to Ronda), Granada (a visit to Córdoba along the way), Barcelona, San Sebastián (and small villages), and Bilbao, with day trips to small villages and the La Rioja wine region.

We had a nice combination of planes, trains, and automobiles traveling across Spain. Our private guides were all very knowledgeable, engaging, and very enjoyable. Our drivers were on time, meeting us at airports and our hotels.

The hotels they picked for us were all wonderful, centrally located in the cities and within walking distance of all of the things we wanted to do.

Our agent was very responsive to all of my questions prior to the trip and we received a beautiful layout of the itinerary, which not only gave dates/times of each activity, but also a history of what we were seeing. We also received a list of recommended restaurants for each town we visited (which we used a couple of times).

The entire team at the agency was wonderful and available 24/7 while we were in country. Thankfully, the trip ran so smoothly that I only reached out to them a couple of times to let them know what a great time we were having. I would definitely recommend working with this team if you are planning a trip to Spain!