Travel Review: Trip to Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Slovenia

This trip, planned to celebrate our 35th anniversary, was far more incredible than I'd ever imagined it could have been.  I am a perfectionist, notoriously hard to please, and with extremely high standards but it was truly perfect in every way and well beyond my expectations.  I would rate this trip, and this travel agency at 12 out of 10 if I could.  I could never have imagined a travel agency this good even existed, and feel incredibly lucky to have found it!   There is no doubt that I drove Andrea crazy in the planning process, as I am very stubborn and particular about every detail, and we wanted an itinerary that was jam-packed with activity every day with little to no downtime.  This required a large number of iterations and much creativity to make the most of our limited time.  Throughout the planning process, Andrea always rose to the challenge to be very creative and accommodating in meeting our needs within the limited time constraints, and making needed changes when requested.  Her attention to detail is superlative, and she was always highly responsive and showed great initiative as well as patience.  It became clear early that she is a perfectionist also, and with a total customer service orientation that is extremely rare.  She gave us her cell phone # if anything went wrong, though nothing did.  Every driver, guide, and hotel assistant was given one another's cell #, and we were handed over to the next person on the schedule seamlessly by every team member.  There was never a time when we had to wait for anyone or take charge of anything ourselves--eg. the driver would call the hotel assistant when we were 10 minutes away to be ready to pick us up with our luggage (we always stayed in pedestrian only centres), and would reconfirm that our guide would be meeting us in the hotel lobby at 6 pm.  Each individual was well-informed in advance on every detail of our itinerary for the day and had a take charge/ can-do attitude.  We were greeted in our first hotel room with a welcome letter from the agency, and a letter in our last hotel room hoping we enjoyed everything.  Our travel agent Andrea even surprised us in the lobby of our hotel the last night with a box of local chocolates to thank us for our business.  So many special, personal and thoughtful touches!  The personnel we dealt with in each destination were all very motivated and professional, and we really enjoyed getting to know a great many of them, who also typically went above and beyond to make our experience first rate.  

Most notable in going above and beyond for us were full day drivers Jake (two days), Julia, Stepan, and Gaspar, as well as Mr. Tudor (forget his first name!) and guides Uros, Ivana in Zagreb, and Ivana in Dubrovnik.  We really enjoyed getting to know all of them, and you could tell they loved their jobs and wanted to do whatever they could to make our time in their country the best possible.  They truly played a huge part in making this the trip of a lifetime, and gave us great insight into their countries' history, culture and current way of life that was invaluable.

Our hotels were all perfectly situated and very central, many with stunning views.  I would not have wanted to have stayed anywhere else!  All were a very short walk from the action, which we found essential after a long day and evening exploring.  Our favourites were the suites and villa in Dubrovnik, which both stood out not only for the character of the stone walls in the old city but for their warm and helpful staffs.  Hotel in Zagreb which is truly incredible in every way and an experience in itself.  Our room in Hvar town was also very special--our room had two balconies which we made great use of for enjoying the view of the harbour and listening to the late night music. The suite was incredibly spacious though furnishings in need of update. Hotel in Zadar was also unique and beautiful and the service also terrific.

I would highly recommend Andrea to all our friends, and anyone planning a trip to the Balkans, and would definitely use this agency for our next trip to neighbouring countries in Europe.