Croatia & Northern Italy 22-Day Travel Agent Review: Mostar, Venice, Verona, Florence, Dubrovnik, Zagreb

We would have modified our itinerary somewhat and deleted one day at one spot in favor of adding another day to another, but those choices were our initial choices, not the fault of the travel agency. See below for letter sent to this agency that also indicates some other changes we would have made, but again, we have no reservations in using this travel agency  in the future.

11/5/19

Re: Evaluation/Review of recent trip.

Trip: 3rd-24th October 2019

22 Days in Croatia and Italy

GENERAL REMARKS

We had an outstanding trip with many highlights. This travel agency’s work to set up hotels, transfers, car rental, train travel and city guides made travel mostly stress free. (See below for one exception.) We have every intention of using the company in the future when we plan our next trip.

LOCAL AGENCY CONTACTS:

Trip Planner in Dubrovnik and our trip planner in Venice met us on our initial arrival in each city. The provision of a phone was an excellent addition to our travels as we used it on occasion. (See below). Both representatives gave us a very quick overview of the itinerary and then left. Ellen and I felt that both representatives rushed the review and seemed in a big hurry to move on. However, we appreciated the gifts each representative gave us.

The Zagreb representative set up a welcoming drink and meet where we met some other like travelers. This was a very nice touch and appreciated.

DRIVERS:

We had excellent drivers. Both drivers who took us to Split through Mostar and the other driver who took us from Zagreb to Rovinj were both very informative, friendly, and professional.

CITY GUIDES:

It was very much appreciated to have an initial city overview and tour. Our apologies that we did not make note of the names of our guides. The one exception was the guide in Mostar who spoke so fast that it was hard to comprehend what she was saying. It felt like she had a formal script to cover and a short amount of time to rush through it. The other guides were much more relaxed, informal and flexible in their presentations and tours.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE TRIPS:

1. Tell clients that Monday’s as a general rule should be used for travel since many sites, museums, attractions are closed.
2. Re: Train rides: First, revise the written directions. If you read them, you will see how poor they are. For example, we found out only by contacting the trip planner, is that we needed to proceed to the main station, not just to the front location of the locomotive as directions stated.

Secondly, book direct train rides. Our ride from Verona to Florence had a 10-minute window to move our luggage and make another connection. We missed that connection and had to contact a trip planner. She was gone that weekend but had someone cover who arranged new tickets which we eventually got after a 45+ minute wait at the ticket window. A direct train to Florence would have avoided this. We know from talking to others that such trains were available. (As an aside, our planner contacted us the next day but no acknowledgement of what had transpired at the train station.)

1. When booking hotels, make sure the rooms are not located facing the street. The noise level in two of the hotel rooms was bothersome throughout the nights.
2. The hotel in Zagreb should be eliminated. The staff was rude, if not oblivious. No friendly greetings or assistance with luggage. Of course, a major tour bus had just arrived, and they had one bellman working. But the front desk made no offer of assistance. Then when we got to the room, we were very disappointed in the quality for a 4-star hotel. It was small and looked like a Best Western hotel room, certainly not a 4-star similar to our previous hotel stays. We let a trip planner know of our disappointment and we are grateful to her for upgrading the room the next day. My sense is that the hotel is complacent and resting on its reputation.

Fred and Ellen

TRAVEL COMPANY COMMENTS:

Hello Fred and Ellen,

Thank you very much for your feedback. We are really pleased to hear that you had an outstanding experience with us and you would use our services again in the future! 

We apologize if you felt rushed on meetings with our local representatives, we will definitely address this. We're glad to hear that you generally enjoyed our guides but sorry the guide in Mostar may not have met your expectations. We take your feedback very seriously so we will make sure to look into this further and reconsider our future cooperation.

When it comes to the train ride from Verona to Florence, the trains offered were the best possible options and the fastest ones on your dates. Unfortunately there is no direct option on the route Verona - Florence.  As for the hotel in Zagreb, we have already addressed the issues with the hotel manager. We apologize for the inconveniences and hope the room upgrade we provided in this case made your stay in Zagreb more comfortable and enjoyable.

Once again, I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide this valuable feedback which will allow us to make some necessary adjustments to improve the experience for future travelers. We are looking forward to hosting you as our guest on another trip to Europe in the near future!