Luxury European Family Vacation Review: France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Venice Mask Making Class, Louvre Scavenger Hunt

Review by traveler

Jeanne B.

8.27.2015

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Greece

Italy

France

Switzerland

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Our agents from this European travel company were great planning partners for me and my family! They worked tirelessly to make sure that our complex trip, involving 8 family members including 2 kids, went without a hitch. Our agent was so patient with me as we fine-tuned our plans, added/subtracted people from the itinerary, and patch-worked things together to complete an amazing 4 week adventure. I never once heard “no” from her. She always found a way to figure out great solutions. She was always a complete pleasure to work with and I credit her with reducing my stress level and making our vacation a fun event for all! I really can’t thank her enough!
The team at this company was really good at:
• Listening to our ideas and asking the right questions to truly understand what it would take to make us happy
• Responding well to feedback and using our input to identify great new solutions
• Worry Free detailed planning – they took care of complex logistics then documented it all thoroughly. This was a huge stress reducer for us
• In depth knowledge of and experience with the destinations, hotels, tours and restaurants. We always felt like we were working with experts!
• Identifying great hotels that were centrally located (so we could walk to many attractions), but also not in the center of typical tourist spots.
• Finding very knowledgeable private guides who were able to keep us all engaged and interested (from kids to grandparents!)

• Giving us great attention – Our agent checked in on me every once in a while to make sure all was well. I knew that I could always reach out to her if I needed to. This was very comforting!

We highly recommend this company!

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

We had a fabulous time all around, but some of the highlights were:

1) Gladiator school – A fun afternoon even for those of us who were just spectators! The Gladiator teacher the boys had was amazing! I can’t remember his name. He was a HUGE guy and did a good job playing the ‘mean’ teacher, but he threw in just enough giggles, smiles, and funny little jokes to let the younger participants know they didn’t need to be afraid.
2) Mask painting in Venice -- the young man who helped the kids, was just fabulous! The little workshop was so cool and quiet, heavenly on a hot summer day. We all really enjoyed just being there and relaxing by being creative. Hands on activities really worked well for the kids.
3) Scavenger hunt at the Louvre -- the tour guide, was absolutely THE BEST kid-oriented guide we had. She focused her entire presentation on Walker, and did a fabulous job of talking to him at his level. When he didn’t quite get a concept, she would relate it to something he would recognize in his own life to help him understand. He was completely captivated! On top of that, the scavenger hunt game was really well designed, easy for him to grasp and interesting for all of us to play. The fact that the final clue was in French, and our guide helped him learn how to say it was the icing on the cake! We still walk around the house saying “Je voudrais rcuprer mes affaires s’il vous plait”!!

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

1) I would spend more time ahead of the trip researching, planning and/or making reservations for meals. Even though our travel company had provided us with alot of good suggestions, we typically were making the decision on where to eat too late in the day and everyone was already hungry and crabby. More often than not, we ended up deciding to do whatever was easiest which wasn’t always the best experience for everyone. We should have done this planning ahead of time!
2) I would look for more cultural events that include music, dance, or other types of entertaining shows during meals. I know this can be very touristy, but anything to entertain the kids while they’re waiting for and eating their meals would be great!

3) I would set up all my tours, plane/train/hotel reservations, etc. as appointments in my phone so they would be right at my finger-tips.

Photos

Luxury European Family Vacation Review: France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Venice Mask Making Class, Louvre Scavenger Hunt

General Info

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

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