We found Freedom Tours when we went on Tripology to solicit ideas for a family trip to Italy (Rome, Florence). Annie responded and won our business. The great: Annie came up with an imaginative itinerary which included renting apartments in Florence (the center) and Trastevere region of Rome (20 min walk to 'historic' Rome). We included 1/2 day tours of Rome (the classic sites), full day Pompeii/Vesuvius, 1/2 day Vatican Museums, 1/2 day Florence, and a "custom" day in Florence (which was supposed to be the 'Heather' Day.). Annie is world class. Also great: Each and every tour operator in Rome and Florence that Annie set us up with. Top class guides, all used the microphone/headset setup (so you can actually 'hear' the guide), extremely knowledgeable. Mostly mid size groups. Major kudos for this. Airport transfers were prompt. The mediocre: Jessie. Annie treated us like we were her most important client. Jessie - not so much. Jessie was/is responsive - no doubt - but didn't add value. The 'Heather' day Jessie came up with included a full day tasting olive oil and cheese. Hmmm...not what we had in mind. To her credit she came up an alternative idea (horse back ride plus wine tasting in morning, pizza/gelato making in evening) which exceeded our expectations. Surprise #1 (bad): We had to pay city tax in cash in both Rome and Florence on the spot when we checked into our apartment. Nothing from Annie or Jessie warning us about this. Good thing we did get some Euros at our layover in Toronto (NOTE: Don't do this! Get cash from ATMs in Rome). Surprise #2 (iffy): Our Rome apartment check in person (who was great) asked about our Train tickets. We showed him then he asked "no QR code?" Caused a panic wondering if we had the right tix. Well we were over in the Termini area the day before our train from Rome to Florence so we went there and asked. It turned out we had tickets using the Italo train so we were fine. Italo is the 'private' competitor to Trenitalia. Would've been nice to know this in advance. Surprise #3 (iffy): No follow-up just before or just after our trip. Don't use: For soccer tickets. If you want to go to a Serie A game contact the club directly. The club inevitably has someone that speaks English that can help and will save you lots of money (unless of course the game is sold out). They do 'bundle' the cost, so I can't compare the a la carte cost to what they charged us. Even with the aforementioned hiccups we honestly had an awesome and memorable trip. If you plan on going to Italy, check out Freedom Tours. read more

This past summer we traveled to Italy, visiting Rome, Florence and Venice-with many side trips including Cinque Terre, Siena, Chianti, etc. As a frequent international traveler, I started planning the trip on my own. However, as I had never been to Italy and don't speak Italian, I began to feel like I should look for some assistance. Particularly since we were going to be over a week in Florence and wanted to rent an apartment but knew nothing about the neighborhoods. I went on Tripology and Annie emailed me. I heard from other travel agents as well, but decided to go with Annie as her approach seemed to be the most inline with our travel preferences and one of the other travel agents tried to push us to double our budget before he even began to work with us. We worked with one of Annie's employees, Kelly Cleveland who was great! She put together an itinerary that included everything on my wish list and was flexible as I tweaked and rearranged tours to better suit us. Kelly also made suggestions for fun things such as a cooking class, that I never would have thought of. In addition, the trip came in within our budget and the accommodations were great! When we got to Italy everything went smoothly, the tour guides they had arranged for us were excellent and we were pleased with everything that had been scheduled. The one glitch that came up over an unexpected fee for electricity at our apartment was handled promptly and professionally via emails with Kelly. Whenever you travel things are bound to come up and it is how they are handled that gives you the true measure of a business. Based on our experiences with Annie and Kelly, I have referred Freedom Tours to friends and associates without any hesitation. I should also mention that when I tried to reach Kelly shortly before our trip with a couple of last minute questions, Annie called me on a weekend, as Kelly was out of town and Annie was monitoring emails to make sure no one was left stranded-this is a caring business person! This was our first trip using a travel agent, and it won't be our last, we plan to call Freedom Tours whenever we travel in the future, without my wasting time trying to work things out myself first! read more

I have used Freedom Tours for two trips during the past year. In all instances, Annie and her employees have been professional, responsive, and creative. For Peru, I gave Annie a rough itinerary and she was able to connect the dots in a seamless fashion. This would have been impossible for me to do given the language barriers and the very complex reservation system for hiking the Inca Trail. The hotels and tour operators were exemplary and the connections worked flawlessly. Even though they have not had many clients request trips to Peru, she proved they can coordinate a custom trip anywhere you would like to go. Our second trip was to Cuba, before US flights were able to fly into the country. For this one, I just gave Freedom tours a blank canvas and let them create a trip based on my interests. From their suggestions, which were based upon their personal experiences, we were able to design a custom trip tailored to my interests. read more

I used Annie Collins for my honeymoon trip planning to Hawaii. She did an excellent job of planning the trip and was able to help get us a refund back when we had to come home early. I recommend her for all your travel needs. read more

I'm in the middle of planning a trip to Ireland. I didn't know where to start and was starting to feel confused. I went on Tripology and from there Annie emailed me. I personally can't recommend Freedom Tours enough. Keith has been extremely helpful so far. The itinerary he has planned is great. Annie and her staff are both professional & personable. read more

I would like to recommend Annie to anyone who is interested in finding a travel agent because for my 20th year wedding anniversary she made my vacation everything I imagined and more!!! I was very nervous about traveling so far away from home, Annie not only insured that we would have comfort as we traveled but sent printed documents of our trip so we were fully informed on what to expect each day. She asks questions and resolves any concerns. She is now the only one I will let plan any of my vacations and who I will forever recommend. She deserves recognition for her dedication and contributions she gives to her customers. Great job on being one of the absolute best travel agents in the market. Keep up the good work. read more

Ms. Annie and Ms. Michelle (one of her associates) did an amazing job of providing a wonderful itinerary of the trip I requested. They were very responsive to my feedback, requests, and budget and were amazingly flexible with all of my requests. They went above and beyond to not only provide an excellent trip that filled all my needs, but also to build amazing rapport with my husband and I so that we were confident in every decision regarding our trip. I was thoroughly impressed with their speed, attentiveness, and general congeniality in my dealings with them. read more

My husband And I have gone on many Freedom Tours... Portugal, Italy, Morocco, Greece, and Turkey... Needless to say we love these tours.. Always special and amazing! We have told our friends about them and they have joined us on many of them making it a grand adventure together. I highly recommend Freedom Tours! read more

If you like to be insulted then this is the group to work with! I was planning 5-star trip to Greece for my daughter's high school graduation. Came across this organization and gave it a go. I originally emailed the owner, Annie Schroeder who sent a newbie my way which is fine. I spoke with the newbie (remain nameless as she was very pleasant but clearly new to the game) and told her what I was interested in. Knowing nothing about Greece I didn't even know where to start. Told her I was interested in 5-star hotels and wanted everything taken care of. She immediately sent me a "stock" itinerary (since the airport of departure was Denver and I am in NY, clearly I was given an existing itinerary). Again, having NO experience with Greece I asked a few questions and got a lot of "I don't know's". Right before I started the process of booking I did a little research on my own as to what I would expect the cost to be - everything is out there on the internet and you really should prepare yourself. Well, I came up with about a $2500 difference. When I asked to have some detail as to what the total cost (over $2500 per person) was made up of, I received this mail from the owner: "I am the owner of Freedom Tours, and newbie shared her conversation with you from yesterday. I would like to respond to your concerns about pricing your trip. Freedom Tours, is a unique travel company and unlike other agencies is not simply a booking source. Our company does not work from commissions, rather we gather pricing from our wholesalers and mark up the services--exactly like the other high end tour companies that we mentioned earlier--Smithsonian, Trafalgar and Tauck. Similar to these companies, we offer a wealth of personal knowledge, Twenty-four/seven concierge service before you travel, during your stay and following your return home. Additionally, we often are able to make recommendations that save our clients hassles that you simply cannot put a price on. Our clients are mostly 4 and 5 star professionals who want the extra hand-holding service that we offer. They prefer to spend their time taking care of business and do not want to deal with the "surprises" that arise in this every changing world of travel. And we would love to offer that to you too. If you are simply looking to book travel services, you might be better off doing that yourself. Many people do book their own travel, but more and more share their horror stories with us and vow to trust the services to a professional. Of course, we would like to work with you. Please let us know how you want to proceed." So here is my problem - I had no hand holding and I had zero recommendations on what to do etc. So I am paying for what? I have traveled to Africa, Asia etc and have never been told I need to accept things and just pay for them. The arrogance of the comment about the 4-5 star traveler being her customers is mind boggling! She didn't know me from Adam but because I asked for some kind of reconciliation, I must be dirt. I answered somewhat similar to my response above and have not heard back. There clearly is no "business" mindset here that understands agreements as to costs and expectations should be discussed. Well, in the end, I went to another agency (sorry but they are a dime a dozen regardless of what Ms. Schroeder believes) and I booked a similar vacation with more exciting things on the itinerary as well as a local contact that is doing all the work in Greece and, I am actually paying about $2000 more than Ms. Schroeder's itinerary but here is the catch: They were respectful and worked with me in understanding the cost structure for each leg of the trip and, made many recommendations as to restaurants, car rentals, things to do etc. Nothing that I got from Freedom Travels. So you know, I am a frequent traveler and have NEVER written a review about anyone or anything. But this arrogance was too much! read more

I have taken two wonderful trips with Freedom Tours to Vietnam and Morocco, and they remain my top "go-to" choice. The arrangements were seamless and met or exceeded my expectations. As a former tour operator myself, I am intimately familiar with the challenges of managing someone else's travel expectations and I can't stress enough the hundreds of hours Annie and her crew saved me in planning. I was most recently in Morocco, where Freedom Tours arranged a private English speaking driver for myself and two friends. It was the spring of '11, when there were uprisings all around us. Annie took the extra steps before we left to talk with her Moroccan contacts about the situation and to make sure we were well informed and wanted to go ahead with the trip. Extraordinarily, there was an al qaeda bombing in Marrakech when we were there and a week later Bin Laden was killed while we were in the country. I heard from Freedom Tours consistently throughout the trip, and they were brilliantly proactive. One never knows of course what will happen on any given adventure, but in our particular case, we all felt so lucky to be in Morocco at that time. Circumstances allowed us to make friends with so many different people I'm sure we never would have met otherwise. That being said, it was a great comfort to know we had a travel partner looking out for us vigilantly. Freedom Tours are with you until you arrive home. Priceless. read more

Just returned home from a wonderful trip to Italy with another couple (all in our 50s and 60s) coorindinated by Freedom Tours. They did a great job incorporating our many desires into a 2 week tour all over Italy: from the Northern Lake Como region all the way to Rome with Florence, Venice and Cinque Terre in between. They planned private tours, group outings and gave us suggestions of things to do on our own. It was not always an easy task working with us 4 as we changed our minds many times. But their organization made our vacation much easier and we knew if there was a problem while we were overseas, they would have our backs. I will recommend them as a travel agent to anyone. read more

I live in Texas and I sought Freedom Tours to plan my honeymoon to Italy in March 2014. I only corresponded with them through phone and email and Jennie answered all of my questions quickly with such detail and made me fee very comfortable. When it came time to pay for our honeymoon to Italy, I felt VERY comfortable transferring money to this business! I work in finance in Texas and I am very conscious of monetary transactions and fraud. Having said that, for me to be VERY COMFORTABLE with Freedom Tours is a huge complement coming from me because of what I do for a living. I had very high expectations and Jennie met all of them AND THEN SOME! My husband and I worked very hard to save for our trip and I gave them a set budget. Jennie gave me everything I wanted in our Honeymoon package and so much more. We stayed at THE BEST Apartment In Rome and Sorrento in the center of everything. I have been to Rome before and the trip Jennie planned was by far THE BEST experience my husband and I have ever had! We spent two weeks in Italy and it was beyond PERFECT! I cannot express enough what a stellar job Jennie and Freedom Tours did to ensure we had the best trip. Before we left Jennie sent us everything we needed in a nice package. We had NO PROBLEMS AT ALL while we were abroad and everyone we scheduled tours with and drivers were of the best! Freedom Tours ensured we had the best quality apartments, drivers, tours and they even scheduled a few surprises like a visit to a winery on the foothills of mount Vesuvius! My husband and I had the best honeymoon thanks to Jennie and Freedom Tours! We WILL be going on another trip in the future and we will DEFINETLY use Freedom Tours again! I trust this company so much and for having never met them in person, I feel like I've know them for a long time. They have such a lovely staff and are able to help you get the most bang for your buck and design the trip of your dreams!! THANK YOU JENNIE AND FREEDOM TOURS!! read more

In September 2013 I planned and fully paid for a June 2014 trip to Paris for my granddaughter's high school graduation present. We live in Texas and Freedom Tours came highly recommended to me. I talked with Annie and she told me about a fabulous apartment that her friend owned and used it as a rental. She said that she had stayed there herself and that it was very nice, had a great view and was centrally located and close to everything. She said that staying in an apartment was much more economical than renting a hotel for 7 days. She sent me an itinerary which I approved along with her invoice. I paid for the trip in full in October of 2013. No mention was made of the apartment being non-refundable. As a matter of fact, I never knew the name of the apartment until I kept asking for more details in March of 2014 because my son wanted to know where his daughter would be staying. Annie emailed me with 2 reviews dated July 2013 of how great it was and thanking the owner for letting them stay there. That should have been a red flag to me right there. She gave me an address and said it was City-Central. I never saw any pictures of the apartment until I received my travel packet. It contained three pictures. One of the view, a partial one of the living room and one of the kitchen table. There was Disclaimer information on the bottom page of the packet saying that Freedom Tours was not responsible for any misrepresentations, etc. When we arrived at the apartment, it was not at all what we had expected it to be. The apartment was located on the 19th floor of the building and it was pitch dark in the hallway until you found a light switch to turn on the light so you could find the apartment. Once inside there was such an awful odor...a combination of stale smoke and a pet odor. My granddaughter got sick to her stomach. The bed linens were wrinkled and smelled old, not to mention that the beds looked like they were about to fall down. There were someone's personal belongings all through the apartment. There was medicine in the bathroom cabinet and old food in the refrigerator. It was very obvious that the apartment was someone's apartment and they had vacated it for us to stay there. I was not told this by Annie. I definitely would not have agreed to this arrangement. I immediately called Annie and told her the situation and that my granddaughter was sick and that we were not going to stay there and that I needed to go elsewhere. Her first words were that I would more than likely not get a refund. Her Paris representative was scheduled to come over to meet us anyway so she came over to see what was going on. She agreed with us and said she would not stay there either. The owner had asked us in his set of rules that he left us to water his plants while we were there. That let me know that he definitely lived there. While we were looking for a hotel room, the owner's maid came over and verified that the did live there and had moved out so we could rent his apartment while we were in Paris. I was lucky to find a hotel room. The hotel ended up costing me an extra $4,000. The trip to Paris has cost me $13,245.00. Freedom Tours has tried to get the owner to refund my money for the apartment, but to no avail. However, I did not make a deal with the owner of the apartment. I dealt directly with Annie at Freedom Tours. She is not willing to reimburse me any money. We had fun on this trip. However, I tell everyone that asks me that they should be very wary of travel agents because some are not very ethical. read more