I just want to say what a great experience I just had speaking with one of the Travel Specialists…read moreat Vacations by Rail! I talked with Aldo today, and I had several questions as I'm driving to the start point of the tour and needed to obtain specific departure times for the first day. I also needed fairly specific return times for the last day. Aldo was able to provide both departure and return times, and included additional information that will make it easier for me to determine the best place to house my vehicle while I'm on the tour. He was friendly, and patient, and incredibly helpful! He answered all my questions and was instrumental in providing information that will allow me to fully plan my travel. Thank you, Aldo, for your EXCELLENT customer service!

Their itinerary was what attracted us. The good... was the tour manager that accompanied us through…read moreout our trip. She was great. Every thing else was down hill. The bad... we requested and paid for upgraded hotels as we required a bit more space for medical reasons. Spoke with them several times to confirm, yet the first hotel had no record. As the room was too small, I paid out of pocket for the larger room as the assigned room was too small to navigate. The tour manager attempted to contact the main booking office several times and they did not reply. They have yet to reply to our requests either. They need to do a better job communicating as they provided us with train tickets to get to and from the start and end points of the tour, but very little information as to how to actually get there. They booked us and I paid for a post hotel stay near our departure airport . This hotel was supposed to have a shuttle to and from the airport/train station. When starting to arrange when we arrived at our departure airport, I contacted the hotel to arrange for the transfer to the hotel. They told me that the shuttle was not available for the next 4.5 hours and wished me luck to arrive there. The rest of this hotel issue is a separate issue, but as vacations by rail booked this for us, they have yet to respond to multiple requests to address the situation. Food provided by the tours at the hotel were mediocre at best. The saving grace was the onsite tour manager who went out of her way to assure a nice trip. Will not book with them again

great trip with Caravan to the Grand Canyon , Bryce and Zion National Parks with many other cool…read morestops along the way! our guide Peter was fantastic and the bus driver Bob did an excellent job job and a great guy.

This is our 2nd Caravan Tour which started in Rapid City on June 6th & ended ten days later in Salt…read moreLake City. Mike DeAngelo a retired park ranger guided us through the Badlands, Yellowstone & the Grand Tetons. He had daily readings, good jokes, inspirational videos, and really made our trip special. Our group of 43 had varied interests & fitness levels & Mike managed to cater our activities to everybody . Ray drove a luxurious motor coach along rural roads. He got us through bad traffic jams, managed to park in some tough spots and always had a bottle of icy cold water on hand. When he wasn't driving the bus, he was cleaning the windows, emptying our garbage, and filling his basket of snacks. Like our previous tour, Caravan took care of our luggage, tickets for attractions & whisked us from place to place. Hotels, many meals & tours were arranged. Pointed out were things not to miss & they were missed the first couple of times we came through these parts unescorted.

I received exceptional follow up after an earlier review that was less than five stars. It seems…read morethere may have been some sort of technical glitch and this company clearly cares about its reputation. Given my recent experience, I would try them again.

We finally did it! Our family trip to Europe. Our boys are big history buffs like my husband and…read moreasked for a trip to Europe to visit specific sites/locations they chose. We decided to start planning and quickly realized we were over our heads. We found Windy City by searching online. Dana did an amazing job of listening to our wants/needs while guiding us to make wise choices as we went along. It was a terrific trip that we will never forget and we are on to planning our next two trips with her already.

Obtaining an E-Visa was so easy, and working with Paul Sewell at Swift made it even easier!…read moreProcessing was quick, Paul's communication was outstanding, and he was courteous and professional. Thanks so much, Paul! :)

I worked with Paul at swift passport & Visa services and he was prompt, courteous, and helped me…read moreget my visa the day before I left. Thanks again Paul for all the help that you gave me.

Janet is a very skilled professional travel agent and a delight to work with. I was planning a 2…read moreweek trip to Europe with my family to celebrate my 50th birthday. Janet listened to our needs and gave us great recommendations from flights, hotels and everything in between. She did everything for us and shared her experiences going to Europe. My whole family met with her. She took the time to get to know each of us. I was getting even more excited planning the trip with her. Because of COVID-19, we had to cancel our trip. Janet worked hard and was able to get all of our charges refunded. That is a big deal! I will be using Janet again. Planning the trip with her in the future is something I look forward to doing.

Janet is fantastic to work with. When I have complicated travel itineraries, I contact Janet for…read moresourcing the best options for me. Janet seems to work 24/7 as any time I send an email, she responds promptly :) Janet follows up with a phone call or text... so her communication skills are perfect in my opinion. Janet is extremely patient and is a great problem solver. I have had several late changes to my travel itinerary and Janet has made the necessary adjustments without any fuss. I highly recommend JK Travel & Tours for both business and personal travel arrangements. Neil Mullan

I can't say enough about John. One of my wife's co-workers referred us to John after John planned…read morehis trip to Italy. We had already planned 2 cruises for Italy and Greece. John worked on our airfare, hotels in Athens and Rome as well as tours in Athens and Rome and Italy transportation. The hotels in Athens were both fairly small "boutique" hotels. The pre-cruise hotel had stunning water views from our room and the 3rd floor restaurant. The tween cruises hotel in Athens had a rooftop restaurant that overlooked the Acropolis. The staff at both hotels were incredibly accommodating for all our needs. Heading to Rome for 4 nights pre-cruise John set us up with private transportation to the hotel and to the cruise port. Perfect. The Mascagni - wow - it didn't hurt that the hotel upgraded our room. Again. Wow. Such wonderful staff. As an aside - John confirmed each and every hotel, tour, car and flight with the companies the day before we got there. And that ends all of John's plans for us....or it should have. The last 2 nights after the Italy cruise we relied on my brother-in-law to book an Air B & B for the 6 of us. BTW - welcome to Venice - the city with no cars and the canal bridges all have stairs. So they booked a 3 story walkup. So...who comes through and finds us a porter and private water taxi for our 9am flight by talking to the Air B & B owner (in Italian) and making the arrangements that saved our butts? No it wasn't Superman. It was John C. John - from the bottom of my heart - thank you for the memories.

I'm so happy that my friend recommended John from Venus Travel to plan and arrange my trip to…read moreItaly. John was informative, answered so many questions, and arranged the perfect trip. We wanted to travel by train through Italy, and John made all the necessary arrangements and provided us with excellent guidance on our itinerary. One of our flights had a time change, and John texted and called to alert us ahead of time, which I really appreciated. Knowing we had John taking care of us made our trip stress-free!

Not sure if this place is still in operations as it was closed when we visited during a weekday…read more Called the phone and left a message but no one called back.

I did not book a tour, but they assisted with getting a visa in order to visit China…read more My Chinese friend recommended this company to me when I asked her for advice for my trip to China. She herself was denied a visa (although she is Chinese) twice, until she sought the help of a tour agency. I am assuming because they are processing so many requests, having an agency helps. Since I am traveling with my large family, and did not have much time, I didn't want to take any chances. Oceania charges a minimal fee ($25) to help process the visa. The embassy charges $140 directly, and they charge $165. I felt that it was definitely worth it. As long as your passport doesn't expire this year, the visa is good for multiple entries for 10 years. Lily specifically assisted me, and was very kind and helpful. She guided us through the entire process. It's pretty straightforward but also very detailed. They will need all itineraries printed and if you have children, you'll need both parents' passports and the child's birth certificate. This was information I wish we knew in advance, but now you know. We spoke on the phone, and also corresponded through email. I am not Chinese, nor speak the language and communication was not an issue. In the future, I would definitely use Oceania again for my travel needs since they were so helpful with getting our visas.

My daughter went on trip with this company and it was amazing. She had just finished 6th grade so…read moreit was one of her first big trips without parents. This program was exactly what we were looking for. They do a wonderful job of mixing enjoyment and giving back to the local community with service projects. My daughter went overseas with the tour and learned so much. I am extremely happy she was able to have this experience. Highly recommend.

You have the experience of a lifetime waiting for you with RLT!!…read more Super amazing trip, with an incredibly welcoming group. Each day filled with different activities from snorkeling, rafting, canoeing, hiking, biking and so much more! Counselors were always there to help and listen to you if you needed anything, also to provide extra supplies if you need them for the plethora of activities that we did. Each day was unique in its own way, I was never bored and there was always time to hang out after an exciting day. The service work was also amazing because you really felt like you were part of the community that you were helping. RLT staff that was not on the field was also super helpful every step of the way to keep parents informed as well make every event run smoothly. Special thanks to Nicole Smart for her readiness to help and skillful problem solving! I would do a trip with RLT any day, and would definitely recommend this camp. I made amazing memories and friends for life!

Shawn is terrific and world-class. I have worked with him on two separate occasions and he…read moredelivered above and beyond. Whether that be providing thoughtful guidance around the application process to taking the time to review my documents with a fine comb, his team supports you through each step of the way and is readily available. The really daunting task of applying for China Visa (and all the many documents) gets 100% simpler working with this team. Give Shawn & China Visa Solutions team a shout if you're looking for a positive, and smooth experience! cheers -

At the moment, going through the process of trying to obtain a Chinese tourist visa. However,…read morealthough there seems to be good reviews regarding Shawn, my experience with him thus far as been very difficult. So far, when I correspond with him by email, he comes across as arrogant, abrupt and rude. He has had my visa application since late December 2025 and up until the week of February 22 through 28, 2026, I did not hear from him regarding next steps in obtaining the Chinese tourist visa. When I finally heard from Shawn, he still did not provide clear procedures to complete the Chinese tourist visa. I've come to learn that an individual can easily procure a Chinese tourist visa directly with the Chinese consulate. However, at this point, since my application has been submitted with Shawn, not sure if I can still take this route since the trip to China will be in April 2026.

This is a long overdue review for a Mena Tours & agency. My wife & I were planning a trip for our…read more25th wedding anniversary back 12/2021 to one of our bucket lists to Barcelona Spain. Usually I would plan our trips but I was having some issues planning because of Covid restrictions & multiple locations. We noticed that Mena Travel had a small advertisement on the back of the church bulletin w/a contact on the ad. Jon/Juan was our go to for Mena Travel. While we didn't book our entire trip through Mena Travel Juan was able to help us w/a number of things that proved to be very helpful. We were going to Spain for 9 days & decided to split our time between Madrid & Barcelona. Jon mentioned that Iberia flew directly from Chicago to Madrid. We did book the airfare through Mena. One of the problems I have w/looking for hotels is not knowing the geography of the cities we're going to. Juan was very helpful w/offering us a number of locations in both Madrid & Barcelona leaving it up to us to pick our choice. Both locations ended up being centrally located in the downtown areas of Madrid & Barcelona. Since Juan lived in Barcelona for 2 years his knowledge of the city proved to be very helpful. He gave me a couple of suggestions for our 25th Anniversary dinner on 12/01/2021. The restaurant I selected based on his recommendation was an awesome place in The Gothic Section of Barcelona called Brugarol. (See my review)

As we all know, the internet teams with information and it can be quite overwhelming. Some of this…read moreinformation, I learned, can also be false. I'm not going to point any fingers here, but a resort in Mexico claiming to be on the ocean with a pool and other lavish amenities turned out to be a run down hostel with limited electricity. Not wanting to put my trust in strangers on the internet, I turned to Mena and boy am I glad I did. This business has a rich history in the traveling department and their wealth of knowledge is incomparable to some of these bozos on the internet. They were immensely helpful when I had to plan a friends bachelor party in Puerto Rico. They helped me pick our camp for the week along with activities to take part in. We got a taste of everything and saw all that Puerto Rico had to offer. It is a time I will not soon forget. I would like to thank everyone at Mena who answered all my questions, booked all flights, constructed detailed itineraries, organized transportation, made reservations, etc. I can't wait to work with you again on my next adventure.