Its been a long wait till out vacation time. It would of be great to stay someplace in the sun and…read morerelax on the beach. Would of been great to see something new and and visit an amazing place. Vacation could get to be very expensive. However when we contacted agency Happy Planet, our agent Marina Kroll, has surprised us time and time again. No one can beat her prices. She will make your wishes come true. The unbelievable deal that we got to Caribbeans, on Royal Princess cruise ship, was so amazing, we told everyone we knew. Just give her a call, and you won't be disappointed.

Had a great experience with Mila at Happy Planet - she found a fantastic deal for an all-inclusive…read moreresort and flight to Mexico, beating the cheapest Internet price by $500. She was also extremely helpful and patient dealing with payment issues due to bank spending limits. I would highly recommend her for anyone looking for a great deal and wonderful above-and-beyond service!

I'm very thankful to Natasha for helping me with my tickets! She was professional, helpful, and…read moremade the whole process so easy and stress-free. Highly recommend her and the travel agency!

Extremely rude! I signed up for there affiliate program and I've gotten zero help thus farread more

Typically, I am very much "do it yourself" vacationer. I always thought that travel agencies are…read morerelics of the past. Who needs a travel agent, when you can go to countless web sites, and book everything you want then and there, without even putting a shirt on. Vacation Spirit was recommended to me by a friend. Work was beating me up, and I had to get away. I prepared by researching options myself, in case I have to back out and went to their office. One thing I did not realize that travel agents are open encyclopedia of knowledge. Location I chose was fine, but it appears that hotel I researched was not as good as travel sites made it appear. Per owner's recommendation, I took another property nearby. It was much easier to access the beach, resort was newer, cleaner, and had better pool. I have to say I loved personal touch that Vacation Spirit, and their owner offers. My job planning future vacations just got much easier. They are not a big shop and I guess this is what allows them to offer personalized service.

Honestly, I could not believe the level of personal service I got with Vacation Spirit. Boris and…read moreMarina were on top of everything, answered any question I had. Made changes to my reservation should I need it. Got me an amazing price and itinerary. This was a big deal for me and the trip was smooth sailing. Thank you!

Bella's travel is a very good travel agency. They made my life much easier after my cruise ship…read moreicon of the seas was canceled. Why book with a travel agent they say?? Bella went above the call of duty to put me on another ship saving my pre booked vacation after the cruise. Definitely book with Bella as she's super knowledgeable, smart and very informative!

Stay away! Bella is deceitful, untrustworthy and conniving. We were hesitant to use a travel…read moreagent to begin with since we typically handle booking ourselves directly with airlines and hotels, but a family member recommended her. She promised us a beautiful Honeymoon suite and first class seats. We got coach and a room with no view. She promised that we would receive the miles + points for staying at this property, she booked under her name and kept the points to herself. She gave us "resort credit" which she personally handed to us, it might as well have been monopoly money. I paid additional fees once we arrived to stay in a decent room, on top of what I paid Bella for my "Honeymoon Suite". Also, we were hit with hotel fees upon arrival, meaning Bella removed them from so that it would seem she was getting us a cheaper rate. Worst of all, when I called her to address these issues, she was extremely rude and defensive, as if I was doing her a favor by sending her my business. She would call me non-stop to get my CC information and to book the trip, only to then disappear once the transaction was processed. No follow up, no check in to ensure my trip was going well, just a bait and switch. Bella is a true con artist. Stay away as far as possible!!

Beware!!! This travel agency charged twice as much as the…read morehotel in cancellation fees. I had to cancel my travel plans less than a week before my scheduled travel date, because I had to have emergency surgery. Leanna said the hotel did not care under what circumstances I had to travel; the charge would be half the cost of my room, which was a little more than $600.00. When I called the hotel several times, each representative confirmed that the maximum cancellation fee was $300.00. She refused to reimburse the extra $300.00+ she charged me. Since I had a credit, I attempted to make reservation at the same hotel when I was able to travel. I asked for a copy of the agency's cancellation policy, but Leanna refused to provide one. I reminded her that the agency was obligated to provide a copy of its cancellation policy. She sent an ambiguous copy a day later, after I threatened legal action. After I questioned the vague cancellation policy, she cancelled my reservation and told me it would cost me more money to rebook the same reservation. Leanna still has my money. She did not "uncancel" the reservation I made and she refuses to refund my money.

Terrible travel agency. The agent I got wasted my time with my booking, accused me of losing…read moreinformation they supposedly sent but never did, lied about not being able to cancel my travel. I regret ever using them.

I would put negative stars if I could. I booked a tour through take tours booking agent for me and…read more3 family members and ended up with be taken by Happy Vacation tour line. We chose a Friday for our Niagara Falls / DC tour so that it would go to upstate NY and make its way to Howes Cave ,close to Albany where I live. We confirmed prior to purchase that we could join the tour their, just 40 minutes from our house. Suddenly we were informed that they will not be going to Howes Cave because of the July 4th Holiday weekend (our Tour was for July 5th, Friday), and we had to get up at 2:45AM to leave by 3:30am to make it to grab our bus in Chinatown by 7:30am. We get there, and if you are not that familiar with Chinatown, well you had better know that it is one of the most filthy places you can go in the United States, its gross.. and its a shame that they cannot live a clean life. So we get shuffled from the first meeting point to a second meeting point, then they have us hanging around for 30 minutes, then ask us if we care that the tour has to be reversed in order..and we didn't really know how we felt and just wanted to be cooperative and helpful so we said, sure.. whatever you need. So they then shuffle us to a different street.. and have us hang out for a while then board this terrible bus that is literally falling apart.. has missing grills, rusted spots that were just partially sanded and repaired... dirty, etc.. Get on.. its completely humid and hot inside.. bus driver has the bright idea of not turning on the bus to cool it down for all of its passengers. He is absurdly obese, and has not moved from his seat the entire day, until the buffet at dinner! He apparently does not care for his own health or safety or that of his passengers. Because of an irregular pattern in a section of the highway and his weight, he began bouncing up and down in the chair..and it began squeaking excessively ..and all I could think of that it sounds like a movie sound of a couple having nooky upstairs :) ..passengers were quietly cracking up. The bus driver proceeds to say frustratingly to the tour guide, that this bus is falling apart and began to confirm when we will arrive at the hotel and how long are we there so that he can have a bus swapped out. Ok.. i've gotten ahead of myself... We were supposed to leave by 8am, we did not get out of their until 8:45am and it was hot and muggy . With only had a few chinese people on the bus from which I learned speak english for the most part & the tour is not in our country's language, English, its also in mandarin. The tour guide, Justin, has no passion, could care less to connect to the passengers and rapidly blares out quick statements about this or that in English and Mandarin like a drone, opposed to asking the handful of Chinese if they are fluent in english and mind the tour be in english as its simply more efficient and Justin was completely overwhelmed with all the apparent confusion with the tour operator and overbooking (although our bus only had 29 guest). The microphone hardly worked and he mic checked literally, at least 60-80 times through July 5ths day of the tour.. static .. feedback.. squelching.. instead of simply talking to the group with his own voice which would have been perfectly manageable. He proceeds to start to sell us tickets to upcoming non inclusive parts of the tour.. and thats neat for being organized, but there is more to it. We join the DC cruise, he says $23/ each , find out on the cruise that it was $20 to the general public. The cruise was terrible by the way.. the cruise ship, 149 passenger indoor a/c , was nice.. guides again did not connect at all with the passengers.. just rattled off a bunch of facts in english and again in mandarin . So we end up at this buffet tonight and are told $16 a person including drink and tip (keep in mind its a buffet! - no one serves you). I am in line and I notice that its $12.85 on the sign in front of me. The two girls ahead noticed the same thing and wanted to pay the normal price and not the inflated price. The manager defended his sudden inflated price until I jumped in and had to threaten to call the authorities. These Chinese restaurant managers and operators along with the chinese tour operators are trying to scam their own people and innocent tour attendees which is despicable. They should be ashamed of themselves. Even worse was the food. A complete filthy mess. -- fruit in huge chunks and no flavor and barely edible -- sushi was dry old and tasted terrible -- ice cream spewed liquid chocolate and terrible vanilla ice cream. Just plain dirty. -- I could not bring myself to eat any meat or seafood but others at my table felt sick to eat anymore than the lite they had. Just go somewhere else and eat less and higher quality. This is just day 1.. and our family is having a good time anyway.. but there is no way I would ever choose these sleazy, underhanded hustlers for a tour

2 stars for service. 4 stars for the places we visited on…read morethe tour. Touring with a Chinese traveling agency has its ups & downs. At first it may seem cheap. I had low expectations because I knew what I was walking into & boy was there a major catch. I went on a 4 day trip to Canada with my mom, sister & boyfriend. When you book the tour, you pay for tickets for the seats, their deal was buy 3 tickets, get 1 free BUT after you get on the bus, you find out that you have to pay couple hundred more for tickets for places that we had to visit. Initially our trip was suppose to start on Thursday but we got a call asking if we can move it to Friday. We were fine with that since there was no school. Day 1: If you lived in Flushing, there's a meeting place there by the church & if you lived in Chinatown, there's a meeting place in front of their office. We got there super early searching for a coach bus which is what we expected to get on. Turns out we had to get on those small shuttle buses. If you google "small shuttle buses," you'll be disappointed if you were expecting a big coach bus. It took us to Chinatown where they picked up the rest of the people. We were furious because we didn't pay to travel on a shuttle bus. Everyone paid to travel on a coach bus. They told us that we will change buses the next day. Okay fine. We started traveling to Albany where we made a pit stop at McDonald's for bathroom & food. Then we continued our way to Ausable Chasm. Here we hiked and the scenery was beautiful which ultimately led to a rafting ride. Our stop after crossing the border to Canada was Chinatown in Montreal. Here we stop by to walk around & grabbed dinner on our own & met back at the bus at a certain time. After dinner, the tour guide brought us to our first hotel which was at Hilton Garden Inn. This hotel was amazing which included a gym & a swimming pool. We didn't know that we should have bought something for breakfast for the next day. Day 2: Early morning, we were so hungry but we packed our bags & continue on with our tour. We visited St. Joseph Oratory of Mount Royal. The church was really nice especially when you go all the way up but my boyfriend & I somehow took one too many pictures with the amazing view that we ended up getting separated with the tour. We ended up being the last ones back into the bus. Next stop was at Montreal Olympic Stadium where our tour guide took responsibility to get our group into the place first over all the other dozen tour groups that were there. Another place with an amazing view looking over Montreal. Next we finally found a place to get breakfast before we went into the Montreal Biodome. We can view the animals so much closer than how we view the animals here in NYC. A lot of the exhibits didn't have a glass that separated you from the animals. Next was another couple hours to Ottawa. We were brought to a very touristy place but they had really good hot dog & poutine. After staying at this place, our tour drove us another couple hours to the Thousand Islands. Here was the place where we were going to change our bus to a coach bus! On the coach bus there were another half of the group. After changing buses, we took a boat tour that showed us the Thousand Islands. It took us across the border & back via water. We stayed at Sheraton hotel (another nice place) Day 3: CN Tower, Downtown Toronto with the glass floors. Oh man, Ripley's Aquarium was right next to it & I wish that it was included in the tour because we don't have big aquariums like that in NYC. We had another relaxing boat ride after this. After that we went to Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls. Here we watched a dumb movie which I regretted paying for about the Niagara Falls & had lunch inside the tower. The restaurant spins very slowly so it was a really cool experience to eat & see the view change. We were then taken to the Maid of the Mist where we got to skip the super long line. This event was probably one of the best on this tour. After we can walk around & visit places on our own & had to meet back at a certain time. We had to cross the border after this which took quite a while due to traffic. We were brought to our hotel called Quality Inn in Batavia, NY. This hotel was complete crap compare to the first two places. If they were aiming for low quality, they got it down. I visited the Walmart supercenter at night since it was opened 24 hours & bought some food & snacks for the long trip back home. Day 4: On our last day we went to Corning Glass Museum where everything is literally made of glass. After that we were taken to a crappy buffet place in the middle of nowhere. I've tried better buffets in NYC for this price. The food was stale & disgusting. The bathroom was so filthy. After this, it was time to go home with a couple pit stops along the way.

Have been using Whiz Travel for 39 years! You don't know what a travel agent can be until you use…read moreWhiz

The travel agency could start to be more honest and forthcoming about flight cancellations. My…read moremother and I were traveling to Sicily which required a connecting flight from Rome to Catania. A day before the flight I logged on ITA airways to check in. That is when I learned that our flight from Rome to Catania was cancelled. I contacted Smile travel and was told not to worry. They told me to call the following morning and they will check the status of the flight. I called, they were busy and told me that they would call back. They did not call me back. I gave them 30 minutes and called them again and was deliberately lied to. They promised me that they checked the status of the connecting flight and that everything was fine/ nothing changed and we were good to go. When we got to the airport and waited online to check in the airline rep told us that the connecting flight was cancelled. We were directed to go to ticketing and get a new flight. My mom is an octogenarian and cannot wait on lengthy lines for a extensive period of time. We had to wait online the check in line a second time. All because Smile Travel decided to be deceitful, lazy and unprofessional! Awful!

SCAM!!! BUYER BEWARE!!! DO NOT SHOP HERE!!! I had a bad experience with Smile Travel, so I…read morecaution others to be careful. My parents booked a cruise through them for $2652, but unfortunately, my mother was hospitalized and could not travel. When we contacted the travel agent, Victoria, she informed us that they could only refund the taxes, and that the cruise company would need to process the refund. We reached out to MSC Cruises, who confirmed that they could not refund the money since the booking was made through a travel agency, but exceptions could be made if we provided discharge papers and a letter from the surgeon. However, despite months of calling and emailing, we haven't received any solution. The travel agent tried to help by contacting MSC, but even after waiting on hold for 3 hours and sending emails, we didn't receive any response. When I spoke to the owner/manager, LUISA, she became angry and unprofessional, yelling at me and refusing to take responsibility. She even suggested that we should have taken trip insurance. As a customer, I feel disrespected and frustrated by the lack of professionalism and compassion. I hope others are more careful when booking travel with Smile Travel.I had a bad experience with Smile Travel, so I caution others to be careful.

Winston Churchill famously described Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." I…read moredidn't realize how incredibly true his words are ... even today ... until I tried on my own to obtain a tourist visa to visit Russia. Byzantine procedures. The vetting is beyond what America considers "extreme" these days, and I was close to just giving up. Then a little Yelpishness led me to Russian-American Consulting Corp., a tiny office in the bowels of a private Russian parcel service in Brighton Beach Brooklyn. The boss (Lena) sorted me out right quick and for a reasonable fee -- I had my visa in about two weeks. I admit it was uncomfortable turning my original American passport over to a complete stranger along with loads of personal information and payment in advance ... but don't let that deter you. Lena knows Russia and the ins and outs of travel there. She even does ticketing at rates that beat the published fares on the internet. RACC is not the most convenient business to get to, and there are no weekend hours -- which accounts for my 4 star rating. Still, I consider it the best service of its kind in the metro area and well worth the up charge over the basic Russian consular fee. Top Tip: Don't bother filling out a Russian visa application online. Waste of time. Lena will do it for you in 10 minutes -- just come prepared to answer the dozens of personal questions the enigmatic Russian government asks for. You can pay by credit card -- but there is a 4% fee if you do.

Disclaimer: I've never been to the Brighton Beach location, but I have been to their 34th street…read morelocation in Manhattan twice and used their website extensively, so will speak to that in my review. Both times, they exceeded my expectation in helping me obtain a visa to Russia. They are extremely thorough and professional and defy cultural stereotypes by being upbeat. The first time I applied for a visa, I had no clue about what I was doing; an employee walked me through the visa application step-by-step, didn't charge a fee for that (as I learned later, the agency that the consulate officially outsources to charges a $25 fee for that), and didn't make me feel stupid when I had a question. I was so pleased with their professionalism, that I used them again when I needed to apply a second time for a Russian visa. I also very much like the fact that their website is designed to support the user. Someone with a solid knowledge of web design and foresight clearly created it. They have a flash demonstration of how to fill out the online visa application step-by-step. You can order a hotel voucher right from the website and it generates automatically, which takes much of the hassle out of filling out the visa application. Kudos to these guys!