Review: Family Trip to England, France & Spain, London, Bordeaux, Paris, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Seine River Cruise, Biking

My family of 4 (incl. two young children) had a fantastic time on the 3-week trip to Europe planned by our trip designer. 

Our trip took us to London/ Paris/ Bordeaux/ San Sebastian/ Bilbao. It was very clear from our interaction that this trip designer is very experienced and spent a lot of effort designing the trip so that it is as customized to the needs of our group as possible. We had two or three detailed phone calls and several emails discussing what we liked and potential ideas, and still ended up with a travel plan that our expectations. 

Our trip designer was able to suggest improvements to the overall route that made the trip much more interesting and yet more efficient, which other consultants did not pick up (others just went with what I had originally proposed).

Because my wife likes to sing, we were pleasantly surprised that our trip designer managed to convince our London hotel manager to let her sing at the hotel bar one night, with complimentary drinks!

I had mentioned that I like to cook and our whole family love good food, and the trip was filled with just the right amount of food tours, restaurants and even a thoughtful hotel/ apartment with a kitchen, right in the heart of Bordeaux.

Even though we were traveling with young children, the trip was filled with a good dose of boat trips (Seine & San Sebastian!), punting, hiking (up dunes), biking, walking and transfers with car seats all prepared, to the extent that we felt totally mobile and never "encumbered" by children in tow.

Before we set off, we received a very detailed phone briefing from our trip designer and were given an app that had our entire itinerary inputed... down to exact time/ place of pickup/ sites with links to Google Map street view!

Throughout the trip, our trip designer was in contact with us to check in on the trip and to answer any questions we have on any part of the trip.

There are many more examples of attention to details in trip planning and execution. In short, this is the most professional and attentively designed trip I have experienced and I will gladly recommend them to anyone.