European Vacation Ideas & Itineraries

Our family of five just got back from the most wonderful vacation in Tuscany and Rome.  Our agent crafted a set of amazing experiences for our family from the private tour guides to Florence, Pisa and Lucca; a private wine tasting lunch at the Capannelle Winery and vineyards in Chianti; tickets to the Papal mass at the Vatican; to a tour beneath the church of San Clemente to see the excavations of a byzantine and then a Roman street neighborhood; a day excursion to the Amalfi coast to visit Positano, Sorrento and Pompeii; and more! Our agent and the guides found excellent restaurants from a simple salumeria where the locals ate to some high end restaurants.  The hotels were right in the center of Florence – on the piazza della Repubblica - and Rome – between the Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps.  Our agent was attentive to our plans and made excellent suggestions.  Everything went extremely smoothly.  All the guides drivers were very friendly, spoke English and were very knowledgeable about art, history and the local culture.  We saw so much every day because everything was so well planned.  Simply the best travel experience ever!

My husband and I, along with our 2 children (age 20 and 17), enjoyed a wonderful Italian vacation booked through Zicasso and this travel agency.  Our travel consultants listened to my ideas and arranged for us a fantastic custom itinerary.   They stayed within the budget allotted, offered choices for beautiful hotels and private tours, and made several revisions as per our request.  We departed from New York on our 25th anniversary, and spent 10 days traveling the country within the month of November.  This off-season time proved to be a great decision as reservations were easy to obtain, crowds were minimal (mostly all locals), and the weather was conducive for walking and sightseeing (average 60 degrees F).  Transportation and the personal drivers were top notch; with Mercedes SUVs or minivans to take my family from Milan-Chianti-Florence-Verona-Venice and then the high speed train down to Rome.  Accommodations arranged for us were phenomenal!  We stayed in a 12th century castle in Chianti, in the heart of the city center in Florence, and near the Spanish Steps in Rome.  The personal tour guides were friendly and knowledgable, and were happy to recommend eateries preferred by locals.  All in all, everything was flawless. We plan to return some day to see the Amalfi coast, Positano and Capri.  We would absolutely recommend these travel consultants, and the travel company team to anyone who is looking for a personalized Italian vacation.

My wife and I and another couple asked this European travel company to plan a trip for us to Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest, with a stop in Cesky Krumlov and a separate visit by our friends to the High Tatras and Krakow. With the exception of a coupe of glitches in Berlin (the hotel, while very nice, was not near the central city, as portrayed, and a day trip for me and my wife to Potsdam was not what we expected and extremely disappointing, for which our agency reimbursed us), the trip was wonderful. We had requested well-located 3-4 star boutique hotels and Maggie and Lindsey of at our agency really delivered. The Abba in Berlin, in the main shopping area, was sleek and hip; the Am Stephanplatz in Vienna was quite nice and in an absolutely great location, directly across from the magnificent St. Stephan's Cathedral and within walking distance of everything to see in Vienna; the Century Old Town in Prague and the K&K Opera in Budapest were also great hotels located near many or most of the main attractions the Ruze (Rose) hotel in Cesky Krumlov was old, but the best in town. All of them included good service and excellent breakfasts. But it was in the tours that our agency really sparkled (Potsdam aside). We asked for individual tours rather than group tours, and our guides were either very good or outstanding, as were the drivers who took us from city to city (the difference in price between private cars and four Eurorail passes was not as much as we thought, and the drivers were anxious to act as guides as well, making the additional cost well worth it). Joe, our guide in Prague for two tours spoke fluent English, was trained as a lawyer, and had been part of the crowd that was fired on when the Russians moved into Prague in 1968. Not only was he full of stories and opinions, he was a cheerful and affable companion as well. Our guide of the Jewish Quarter in Budapest, Kata, was tenured professor who gave us tremendous insight into Jewish-Hungarian history and current European politics. We followed that tour up with an ourstanding traditional Jewish dinner at the home the widow of a rabbi of a congregation in Budapest. In addition to these tours, our agency arranged for fascinating tours of a food market (Budapest) and vineyard (also Budapest), and walking tours in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Dresdan and Bratislava, the latter two as part of the drives between cities. We would not have changed a single one of these. As for our friends' extension to the High Tratas and Krakow, they said it was just as great as the part of the trip they shared with us.