Travel Escapes

They never emailed me back.

Great to work with.

Outstanding

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Applying her extensive knowledge of Great Britain, Jenny worked from our outline of destinations, sites and attractions we wanted to visit and produced a detailed itinerary (with passes, tickets, show reservations and the rest) that got us where we wanted to go. We had great, conveniently located accommodations in Edinburgh, Peak District and London and enjoyed our time with a wonderful private guide she had arranged for the Salisbury, New Forest and Chawton (Jane Austen's Cottage) area. We also enjoyed the little side tours, particularly in Edinburgh, that she recommended. All along, she kept us updated on changes in flight schedules, etc. and stayed in touch on our trip to make sure things were going well. I don't think we could have gotten any better assistance from start to finish.

Our schedule was quite complicated. We stopped in Seattle for a wedding, then went to Alaska. On our return, my husband went a different route to a conference and my boys and I came home. Karen helped me work out the best times to work with the boy's schedules and was incredibly responsive and helpful. She provided all of the information in the time she promised and it was right on target for what we wanted. She was incredibly professional and friendly. I would recommend her in a heartbeat and will definitely be calling her again in the future.

Actually, it wasn’t very good. I didn’t want to plan a big trip with her. She basically said that she didn’t have the time for that. She was very present. It was clear she just felt that she couldn’t make enough money off me to make it worth her while. I don’t have any experience with how she plans things. I think that she said that to do any research about it would cost $50. She said that she have too much things to do to spend time on this. I didn’t pay anything. She did say that usually travel agents didn’t charge you anything for the service; it was the airlines whatever you’re booking with that would rate you something. Apparently, that’s not true anymore with what she said. She didn’t get the details that I needed. She didn’t provide that service for me. She felt she was unable to do the job I asked her to do. She was there and she talked to me. I didn’t get a recorded menu. Her professionalism was very poor. I have a lot of relatives in Europe and if I plan to go, I might have called her and asked her to organize this for me. I certainly will not do that now. I asked her a really small thing and she just didn’t feel like it was worth her while but that means I’m not going to take big things either. I can’t really rate the whole work she does because she didn’t do a real work. Most airlines won’t book an unaccompanied minor to a destination if there is a change of plan in the middle. The only airline that does that is Delta. You cannot make your reservations online. You have to speak to them directly. I have spent several days waiting hours on hold and finally giving up because I couldn’t get through to them and that’s what I’ve asked her to do. I was assuming that as an agent, she would have somewhere getting through that I didn’t have. She did not do that. I called Delta and got through almost right away. I was able to take care of it myself. I was at a point where I was getting frustrated. I thought that a travel agent is someone who could help. She didn’t give me bad information or make things worse. She just didn’t help.

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It worked out all right. I have only used them once. I did not dislike anything.

Jenny was great! We needed help focusing in on what was realistic to accomplish during a two week stay. We didn't want to try driving overseas, but also did not want to do any large group tours. We identified our likes- history, literature, and natural beauty, and Jenny helped us find small tours, self tours and various attractions that met our needs. She provided a very specific itinerary down to "50 yards from X and turn left"! We were able to pay for most of the transportation, tours and accommodations up front so we won't have to worry about that when we go. We bought trip insurance and are all set for an interesting and fun trip. We initially had tried to do this all ourselves with the internet, but got hopelessly bogged down. Jenny's knowledge of Great Britain saved us a lot of time and confusion, and her personal connections with people and knowledge of activities "off the beaten tract" in Britain has contributed to what wil be a perfect getaway for us. We would never have been able to do this on our own.

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We had a wonderful trip and I wouldn't have had the time to figure out each activity and book it on my own. I absolutely loved the hotel she picked out; it was so beautiful and centrally located. She printed instructions on some of the more complicated ones - which trains to take, etc and made suggestions as to when different transportation might be necessary. I had one concern and that was her suggestion that I arrange for private transportation to and from the airport. This would have been a good idea - but it was included in my tour package and neither one of us was aware of that. So, an expense that I wouldn't have had to pay for. Other than that - we loved our trip and would use this provider again.

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My big Alaska trip is coming up in the next month and they're helping me finalize that. I feel like they have my best interests when they're researching and providing information. They always give me a variety of options so I can make the decisions -- not them. They're not as concerned about their commission as much as they're concerned with my wants and needs for the trip.

While we decided to plan the trip ourselves, I would definitely reach out to them for a future need.

I contacted Karen, the owner of Travel Escapes a few months before I planned to travel to Africa. I had been there several times before but did not have time to make all the arrangements on my own, so I asked Karen to help. She was totally professional from the the first call to the last. Easy to talk to and would do anything that I asked and I asked for alot:) After multiple changes on my part, the trip was booked and I was on my way. My last week in Africa I was booked to stay in Mauritius. Before we booked my hotel, she was very up front with me and said that she had never booked in this part of Africa before and was not sure of the hotels, she could only go on the reviews that were presented to her. When I got to my hotel is was horrible! I called Karen and the next morning, I had someone waiting in the lobby, to help me find a hotel that I liked. That day I found a nice place. Karen helped me get the money back from the hotel that I did not like. Karen is very easy to talk to and a pleasure to deal with. I highly recommend her for all of your travel needs.

I contacted this travel agency on a wednesday morning and was told by the woman i talked to that an agent would call me right back who handled travel to the Carribean and Maui. Four days later i get an email with 2 terrible suggestions Maui, hotels rated80% and 75% by reviewers on Trip Advisor. Then the hotels on Aruba which we did not even say we wanted to go to because no one even called us to ask were rated 76% and 68% with the later reviewers showing photos of c*** roaches at the hotel and stating it was stuck in the 90's. Evidently this travel agency just assumes they know what kind of hotel you are looking for and don't feel the need to actually communicate with you after my initial call. I would not recomend them and will not use them. We were looking for a first class hotel and were considering the Andaz or Four Seasons in Maui and first class flight, which had they called we could have told them.

Karen has been fabulous in all regards. She has amazing attention to detail, has been very responsive, and has been far and away the best travel agent with whom I have ever dealt. I would not hesitate to utilize her again for any trip, anywhere. She has planned everything exactly as we asked her, and she got much better prices than I was able to research on my own. We are going to Hawaii during the top holiday season. This is the travel agent you want to use when planning your trip. I cannot recommend her highly enough.

Everything went unbelievably well! Sue Mason helped us to make plans for our four week Euro vacation. She reserved all the airline tickets, as well as getting tickets for some our tourist activities (plays, museums, etc...).

Normally, I plan and book all vacations using the internet but this is our first trip to Europe. Kept discovering more and more places I wanted to visit. Totally overwhelmed and tired of searching the internet, so we dropped in on Travel Escapes. They helped pinpoint the areas we wanted to visit. Then, they explained what opportunities were available. We selected several options that worked with our timeframe and travel dates. Our agent Jennifer took the time to call and workout all the details on those options. Then, she sent the information by email for us to review on our own. We made our selection and within two days our trip was planned and booked. No surprises yet! Cant's wait for our pre and post land excursions and an 8-day river boat trip down the Danube.