Update! Need another reason to use a Expert Travel Agent?…read moreWife and I on our way to London today for our annual Conference we host. Delta sends us an email saying " your flight is delayed 50 minutes." Unfortunately we booked a flight with one stop - 40% less. The delay, if you believed it was only 50 minutes would put us on the edge of missing our connecting flight. I called CHARLIE told him we'd appreciate his intervention and experience to see if he could get us the Virgin flight non stop from SFO. ( understand the Upper Class tix are selling for $8500 each. Crazy right?) we had one free using miles on Delta and a greatly reduced ticket using Delta Vacations. He was able to get us the Virgin flight, Biz Class, no extra $. Do you really think you can do this yourself online using Expedia?? Not. The $40 I spent per ticket ( his fee) was inconsequential. Enough said.

I used SBT many years ago for a European trip and had a great experience, so I tried them again for…read moreanother European trip. Unfortunately, this time was not good. I will not use names in this review as it is not my intention to hurt them but to report what my experience was so readers can make an informed decision. If you have mobility issues, please use a travel agency that understands and caters to these specific issues. SBT does not and it was obvious based on many issues including the location of some of the hotels, and certain arrangements that they did not complete. After the initial contact, I waited one month without contact and had to call and email them to get a response. The bottom line is that another agent took over. I was relieved until I found out that the original agent was doing most of the work. The new agent was on a three-week vacation during the planning and contact was not easy. Due to the original agent's lack of understanding or experience, the plans were incomplete, not what we wanted or more importantly not what I needed. As far as the train arrangements for wheelchair service, I was told they were made but they were not. When I emailed them from overseas regarding this issue, I was emailed the information and told to contact the service on my own. It was so bad that we skipped using the train two times and hired a taxi instead at four times the cost of the train. Three of the five hotels were on severely sloped streets and were so sloped it was impossible to use a wheelchair. Also, I had asked for all hotels to have an in-house restaurant and 3 of 5 did not. The final hotel was at the airport, and I was told it was in the terminal. It was not in the terminal and to make it worse there were no shuttles to the airport from this hotel. I do want to give you the positives, the second agent recommended a Masseria to stay in, and it was great, and we truly enjoyed the experience. He also recommended a restaurant in a cave and that was seriously awesome too!! Honestly, the entire experience with SBT was so frustrating. The day before the trip started, I was still desperately emailing them to finalize plans for the trip. There is a lot more that went bad but there is not enough time to cover all the issues. I wish I could recommend SBT, but I cannot. Sadly, I will be looking elsewhere for a new travel agency.

Steve and his expert team have helped my family enjoy the wonders of the world for years! From…read morePortofino Italy to the Inca Trail in Peru :) and don't even get me started on the incredible cruises. They handle all the details and we have never been disappointed. They are truly the best and they make traveling with kids stress free. LOVE THEM, SWEAR BY THEM, YOU SHOULD USE THEM!!!

I can't stand making travel plans so when my out of town girlfriend was planning to come visit and…read morehad "nice hotel with spa services" on her wish list I was at a loss over where to stay. Another friend told me to call Isabel and I am so thankful for the suggestion - she handled everything, from finding dates that worked within our price range to the booking to the spa credit and I didn't have to do a thing! She replied to every email promptly, made great suggestions, and my friend and I had the most wonderful relaxing weekend. I have often thought about vacations I want to take with our family but we always end up just going to Santa Barbara or Palm Springs or to visit family on the east coast (which are all lovely of course) because of how much I do not enjoy figuring out travel - I'm so happy to have found someone who can do the legwork. We may actually get out of California for a real family vacation one of these days! I will definitely work with Isabel/Strictly Vacations in the future. Thanks Isabel!

Sue is an amazing travel agent! A couple of years ago she helped us plan our 10-year anniversary…read morevacation to Italy and France. It was SPECTACULAR! She helped us locate excellent hotels and arranged all of the travel accommodations including flights, car service, and train connections. In fact, she even went out of her way to find us the perfect restaurant for our 10th-year-anniversary dinner. It was magical. Literally probably our favorite dinner of all time. Stunning view of the Tuscan countryside, private setting, fireflies flying around, and just spectacular Italian food. All-in-all, you can't go wrong with having Sue help with your travel plans. She is the BEST!

Hands down, Sue MADE our trip to Greece. We received a recommendation from some friends to use her…read morefor our honeymoon and we couldn't have been happier. I'm a Type A planner, so it was hard to give up the "decision-maker" role, but Sue ensured that we made the final decisions every step of the way. She did her research; set us up with the best hotels, activities, and concierges; provided tons of travel tips; and really just allowed us to enjoy the 2 weeks we had after our wedding. I honestly could not recommend her enough and we can't wait to use her services again! Just a note that we were a little skeptical to plan our honeymoon with someone who we would never meet (she is in SoCal, and us in NorCal), but she was so attentive that I felt like the whole thing was planned in-person.

There really is no better travel agent than Cathy Kroll!…read more She's passionate, worldly, knowledgeable, extremely "into you having THEE BEST trip", and works tirelessly to make sure everything works out perfectly! She will always go the extra mile for her clients no matter what! Not only have I known her for 38 years, but I have taken trips through her. And I honestly can say she is one of a kind! You will not be sorry if you book through her, she's worth every penny!

I have not used a travel agent to plan a trip in decades (William Shatner has handled the majority…read moreof my bookings), but when it came to traveling to two countries I had never visited, a friend suggested Cathy Kroll as she had been to Ireland and Scotland (and apparently the rest of the globe) on several occasions. I thought I would receive some good hotel and tour recommendations, but what I received was much more valuable. At every hotel/B&B/Castle we stayed in we received upgrades (free breakfast/ larger rooms with 5-Star views/ complementary massages, etc...) that were worth at least $2,000 when added up (although it is hard to put a price on some of the views). Also to my surprise, our airfare was lower than what we had found using various travel websites. Cathy met with us several times before our trip to insure she had covered all of our needs and then tracked us during our travels to insure we were receiving all of the extra perks, and upon our return she inquired as to any changes we would suggest to the itinerary she suggested. I would highly recommend Cathy to anyone planning a trip and will be using her on all future trips!!!

We had an amazing trip to the Amazon River and Lima in Peru and it was all thanks to Robertson…read moreInternational Travel Consultants. Heather was amazing, very responsive and extremely helpful. We can't thank Heather enough how much they did for us and for planning such a fun vacation that my wife and I desperately needed. If you're looking for an exciting getaway with cool activities, look no further. Robertson Travel is the real deal!

I really want to thank Ruth of Hot Spots for dealing with my families' very difficult and lengthy…read morebooking for their trip out here to visit. She was very diligent in finding us EXACTLY what we needed without losing patience with us. Let me tell you that was no easy task I am sure. We were certainly a handful with our endless questions about every option and ever changing minds about the perfect place to stay. We needed a group booking with a block of rooms, as our family was coming and going at different times, and Ruth calmly handled all of the switches and last minute changes with ease. Everyone was pleased with their accommodations and I will absolutely use Hot Spots again. Thanks again Ruth for your professionalism, patience and outstanding customer service, it's a valuable and extremely helpful service you are offering.

This service is great. I learned about Hot Spots about 4 years ago (September 2009) when I was…read moretrying to find a room for one night for my sisters bachelorette party. Hot Spots found us a fantastic sweet in the perfect location. The room was totally reasonable and the hotel waived the 2 night minimum stay. This is huge when you are visiting SB in peak season. I used Hot Spots again in June of 2011 when my boyfriend and I wanted a weekend getaway, but didn't want to spend all our vacation money on the hotel. Again, Hot Spots gave us options and rates that were fabulous. This past weekend was the best experience. We stayed at a hotel that did not honor the rate that Hot Spots quoted. It was a misunderstanding with the hotel staff. I called Hot Spots and, without any hesitation, they took care of everything. The hotel apologized and refunded us. More than anything, Ruth was ready to correct the fee discrepancy without hesitation before she even contacted the hotel. I knew that I could trust Hot Spots to honor their rates. Great service. Great attitude. My husband (the former boyfriend from trip #2 mentioned above) and I rave about hot spots. We simply do not understand why more people do not know about them. We are doing our part to spread the word.

Special thanks to SBTravel for our two week cruise/vacation. Everything was perfect. We had a…read moreflight delay and Heather was awesome. She contacted hotel and limo service to advise them of our problem. Thanks again to Charles and Heather.

My wife and I had a fantastic experience working with David de L'Arbre to plan our two week…read morehoneymoon in France at the end of September. David and his team did an incredible job putting the itinerary together based on some feedback we provided on the regions we wanted to visit and the activities we were hoping to do (enjoy local cuisine & winery visits!) . I was particularly impressed with the choice of accomodations, every hotel we stayed as was elegant, charming, convenient and and we were treated incredibly well given we were booked through David and their affiliations with Virtuoso. Travelling internationally during covid was a bit stressful but we were put at ease by David proactively reaching out with reminders on paperwork (Passe Sanitaire) and covid testing requirements for the countries we connected through. Our trip consisted of 3 seperate legs (Paris, Avignon, St. Jean Cap-Ferrat) with trains, planes and various ground transportation arranged at each stop. All we really had to do was sit back and enjoy our honeymoon. First class experience and we can't wait to plan another trip with David and his team.

Friendly staff, reasonable rental rates! Ended up purchasing a used bike at the end of last year…read moreand I'm very happy with it. Great place to do business.

Our family of five booked a guided e-bike tour of Santa Barbara last Monday. Four out of the five…read moreof us were nervous about being on the e-bikes. We had never ridden them before and also we were worried about riding around traffic. Our guide, Alex, was very thorough and made sure we had a level of comfort before we left the parking lot. He showed us lots of interesting sights that we would not have seen if we had not taken this tour. I feel like Alex also did a good job navigating traffic and making sure everyone was safe. Thanks Alex! We had a great time!

What a cute little visitors center near Santa Barbra train station. We came in to take a look…read morebefore our dinner next door. They have so many cute souvenirs, also pamphlets and maps for visitors. The Santa Barbara tray I got was cute and functional. Staff were friendly with big smiles!

What a wonderful first impression of the lovely city of Santa Barbara! We stumbled in here after…read moregetting off the Amtrak train, looking for recommendations for kid-friendly eats, and we left with a wonderful list of places we try. The staff here are super friendly, just people wanting to help other people. Shoutout to Ruairi, the awesome Irish, who really helped us lay out the food land during our visit. We visited most of the food spots that he recommended and had a wonderful foodie experience - we found our new favorite pizza spot! The store is clean, quaint, and a lovely visit. Will recommend tourists to pop in for a quick visit just to make sure you have all your t's crossed off :)