What our customers have to say:
-
Hi Celia,
I just downloaded all our photos - so nice to re-live all the lovely days spent in Paris and the countryside.
As I said earlier, the trip was almost flawless, and even the one or two little blips were pretty funny. The first was when we landed at CDG, and the driver met us right at the baggage claim. Nothing could have been smoother but for the fact that 7 cops had surrounded his van and were busy ticketing him for numerous violations. His van was towed away, and so our first task in France (with my minimal and Eric's nonexistent language skills) was to comfort the poor driver. All worked our fine, however. Another driver was dispatched within a half hour and we were on our way to Rue du Pantheon, a neighborhood we love. The hotel is absolutely charming, and our English cousin who took the train over from London had a beautiful room next door. We weren't even too exhausted - went to a baroque concert at La Chapelle the first night in Paris.
My favorite spot was Provence. Eric's vote is for the Dordogne. So I guess we'll have to return to both spots. Lodging in both places was excellent. We like to relax with a couple glasses of wine in the evening so it was perfect to be right in the village both in Rousillon and Rocamadour. We liked returning to our hotel in the early evening, relaxing, and not having to navigate the winding, narrow roads in the dark. You were absolutely right about getting a GPS. We would still be driving in circles right now if it weren't for the little voice telling us "if possible, turn around. . . "
I am so glad you figured our a way for us to enjoy 2 distinctly different regions in this one trip. Having only been to Paris and the French Alps in the past, we now feel we are on our way to knowing France. My language skills continue to disappoint me (I have been doing Rosetta Stone), but I'll just have to keep trying and hopefully have a chance to use them again before too long.
Thank you so very much for designing a perfect trip. In this Internet age, we have planned many trips on our own, but nothing takes the place of someone who really knows an area and can select truly nice places and anticipate possible problems. Just knowing that you had considered such things as remembering to click train tix in the yellow box and returning the rental car before the place closed at noon gave us enormous peace of mind.
We will gladly sing your praises to anyone we know considering a vacation in France or Italy.
G. Koster (California)
-
Hi Celia,
We had a lovely time in France. Neither of us had ever been to Bordeaux and now both of us really want to go back to spend more time in this amazing city. We want to thank you for an amazing trip and great customer service!
M. Wagoner (California)
-
Hi Ladies!
I wanted to give you some feedback on the tour while everything is fresh in my mind. First of all, both of you did a wonderful and very skillful job. My thanks for making everything so seamless, even with the volcano, the BA strike and the car accident. I would definitely recommend you to others and use you again. The group had a wonderful time. I met an American tour group operator on the van tour of Carcassone, and her tour seemed so canned, so formulaic and so shallow and I was really glad that I had chosen your company to plan our tour. It makes a huge difference to have a French person making the plans because you can distinguish between what is the real France and what is the tourist France. Clearly, we did lots of touristic things, but we also went to a LOT of places where we were the only Americans around, and that made it a much more interesting trip like we were experiencing France like a French person would. I think I can safely say that everyone was quite pleased with the tour thanks to your great planning and suggestions.
K. Hattori (Seattle)
-
Bonjour celia,
What an exciting trip! Thanks for putting so much fun into 2 weeks. While i wasn't affected by the airline strike, your ability to "fix things" was a great relief to those affected. I know nancy was one such person. Considering the length of trip, i thought it was well mapped out. While paris had much to offer, it was good to be able to see small local places. I enjoyed walking their streets, eating the food, and getting a tiny feel for what life must be like. would i do it again? you bet as long as you were still on the planning team.
R. Machulak (Seattle)
-
My wife and I have used the services of Bella Terra travel on two occasions. The first
was in 2006 when we spent three weeks if France, two of them touring by car. Celia arranged for our hotels in Annecy, Avignon and Lyon. Both our hotels
in Annecy and Avignon were unique and had a personality of their own.
Recently we revisited Annecy and Lyon. In Lyon, due to the world rugby championships, we were forced to book a hotel we would not
otherwise have chosen. After our first night, I left a message for Celia (this was a Sunday morning
in the United States) and asked if she could do anything to get us either a better room or a
different hotel. Given that it was the weekend, I didn't expect to hear from Celia until Monday at
the earliest. To my surprise, Celia called me around 7 p.m. local time, told me that she had
arranged a room at the Grand Hotel des Terreaux, and could she send a cab to pick us up? We were
stunned to say the least. In addition to the good choices she'd made for us in 2006 and 2007,
Celia had the resources and a dedication to customer service so as to get us out of an unpleasant
situation.
One other example of Celia's attention to detail and customer service: While we were working out
the arrangements for our 2007 trip, I mentioned to Celia that we would be celebrating our wedding
anniversary in Annecy and could she recommend a good restaurant (she provided us with a list of
several good restaurants). The day of our anniversary, Celia had made arrangements with our hotel
to buy us an aperitif before our dinner. A lovely, unexpected touch on her part, but indicative of
how she conducts her business.
We will, no doubt, use Bella Terra travel in the future and would recommend them to our friends.
P. Mason (California)
-
Dear Celia,
I just wanted to drop you a line regarding our trip to France and Italy. First of all we had a
great time. The accommodations were nice and what we expected them to be. Every thing was
centrally located and made it easy to get around. The tours you set up we first rate and the
guides were all very knowledgeable about the attraction they were responsible for. Also we did not
have a single driver that was late. In all cases they were a little early. As I said everything
went great and I would highly recommend everyone you used. Further, I will be sure to recommend
your agency to any friends or family traveling to Europe. It was a pleasure to work with you and
hope we can use your services in the very near future.
B. Mitchell (Oklahoma)
-
Celia was a huge asset to my travel plans. I spent time in three different
parts of the country over a ten-day period. I took local flights, rented a car, stayed in hotels
and in the mountains. Celia was patient, resourceful, pleasant and fun in planning my travels.
Happy Customer, T. Ohm (California)
-
Thank you so much for all you did to make this a wonderful trip. (...)
I have been telling all my friends about the wonderful service that we received. We are also
planning our return trip to Italy when Chelsea graduates from college. That will be our present
to her. So.... we will be in contact with you in about a year.
Thank you again,
K. Reimer (Texas)
-
Hi Celia! I'm home and I'm trying to unpack. I had a fantastic trip! I have
to tell you that you had everything taken care of down to the last detail. You did a
marvelous, magnificent job in putting this trip together for me. It was absolutely
spectacular! I want to tell you about the things I enjoyed so much. The people
at the Hotel des Grands Hommes was very very nice. Lunch at the Eiffel Tower was
very nice too, I didn't have to wait in line and was treated like a VIP. I took some
beautiful pictures and had a great lunch.
Even the smallest details were perfect, I never had a travel agent so meticular!
The service in all the hotels was exceeding superb.
Anyway, I just wanted to tell you I was home and everything is wonderful.
I really had a great time and I will absolutely recommend you to the people I know.
J. Scroggs (California).
|