Rosie did such an amazing job planning our 10 day trip to Slovenia & Croatia. It was filled with…read morethoughtful events, places to see, and things to do. Rosie worked with us to provide the best experience possible based on our interests and nailed it. My wife and I talk about our trip everyday. We will be working with Rosie again!

We had the worst experience with this travel agent, Rosie Allara. We planned our trip to the Middle…read moreEast - Jordan and Dubai. Both my husband and I have very busy schedules, we did not have time to do the planning ourselves, we needed a travel agent to do it for us. We clearly expressed it to Rosie. First red flag was on our first phone call. Our expectation for this call was that the travel agent would spend this call gathering information from us and asking questions about what we wanted this trip to be. Instead, after the initial couple of general questions, she started looking at prices of the hotels on her computer while we were on the phone and telling us what they were. After the first 15 minutes of this, we tried to steer her into what we thought the main purpose of the call was, but she would jump from one topic to the next and to the other and then back to looking at hotel prices again. It felt like she could not organize her thought process. Finally, after 45 minutes of being on the phone and being exhausted from a lot of jumping around and not being able to communicate to the agent in the organized manner, we decided to end the call with the agreement that we would communicate by email. Rosie started looking for the airfair for us. Her prices were very high and the flights she kept offering were at a very inconvenient hours - in the middle of the night or very early in the morning or with very long layovers that would make the flight unnecessarily long. We explained to her that we prefer more comfortable times and flights since it was going to be our vacation. That did not change anything. After a lot of back and forth, we felt a lot of stress and pressure where she would say that there was nothing else she could find from her wholesaler. Feeling between the rock and a hard place, we ended up going on-line and looking for tickets ourselves. We found a very good price on Priceline, 35% less expensive that her price with comfortable hours and flights. We told her and she was OK with us purchasing the tickets on our own. Now, we thought that the rest of the trip - hotels and organizing the itinerary would be fun and easy. Boy, were we mistaken. Rosie gave us an approximate/1st draft itinerary with some hotel suggestions. Being first time to the Middle East, we had questions about the itinerary and we did not like some of the hotels that she proposed. It would take her several days to respond to each email, and in her response she would ignore half of our questions. We had to send follow up emails, she would not respond for several days, then respond with half of the answers again. That was about the itinerary. When we asked for restaurant recommendations, entertainment recommendations, walkable streets where we could walk around in the evening, she would not know the answers at all. Her answer was "The information that I have is old and outdated, you can get this information from your hotel." Really? isn't it your job, as a travel agent, to have an updated information? Isn't this why we needed a travel agent so we don't have to scramble for this information when we are in a foreign country, not speaking the language. It was back and forth, we were running out of time, it was getting close to our trip time, we were not making any progress. She would not care about our time, she did not care about the information that we asked for. After 1.5 months, we felt that we did not accomplish anything, we did not get passed that first draft of the itinerary and unsuitable hotel recommendations. She did not complete a single thing for our trip. The only item that we had after working with Rosie for 1.5 months was the plain tickets that we purchased on our own. After depleting all our patience and being completely stressed out, we had to find another travel agent. Fortunately, he did a great job for us and we ended up having a great trip. As far as Rosie is concerned, even though she did not get anything done for our trip, she refused to refund the $300 fee that we paid her to prepare our trip. We believe that Rosie is completely disorganized and lacks knowledge in the travel industry. She indeed has outdated information from the time when she travelled to the Middle East herself 10 years ago. Even bigger problem is that she is not willing to do a new research and provide her clients with the new, updated information. If she is not interested in updating herself and all she does is re-use the same information year after year after year, she should not be in a travel industry that is constantly changing. In our case, we asked for a new information (like anybody else would), she just ignored us, did not respond to our emails, dragged her feet, ignored our questions, and wasted our time hoping that we would just go with it. Awful experience!

I found a travel agent for life! Cadao is short of a miracle worker and I'm so glad that I found…read moreher on Yelp! This is my situation: As soon as I found out that my mother died yesterday in Vietnam, I started to look for a travel agent. Because tradition dictates that her burial to be in 3 days, it was extremely important that we leave immediately. This was an unexpected event and because of the special situation, I needed someone who knew the requirements for travel to Vietnam and be able to get us plane tickets ASAP. Well it turns out the this is also Chinese New Years and travel to and from Vietnam is pretty much booked so finding 4 tickets could be difficult. On top of that fact, none of us had visas and this was Friday afternoon (SF time). No visa, no getting into the country. period. Cadao worked relentlessly until she was able to book our flights, and coordinating with her contact with China Airlines. This all was happening while I was in her office. Then we drove and dropped her off at the Vietnamese Consulate to get our visas. Initially, only my wife and I could get visas since we live here in SF and had our passports on hand. My sisters however had to fly in from out of town. Cadao stayed and waited until my sisters could email their passports to the Consulate for their special visas to be issued. It was later in the evening that she called to confirm that all the visas were issued and that the flights have been confirmed. We are leaving in 4 hours. It's rare to find someone who goes far beyond what you expect or takes care of all the arrangements like Cadao did for us in the situation. I can't express how grateful my family and I are for what she has done for us so we can be there for my mother's burial.

This is my first ever Yelp review…read more I've known Cadao Tran for about 20 years and I've just recently started using her and Smiles Travel again. For the longest time it was very easy to do most of the airline ticket and Vietnam visas myself. Now, post-COVID it's all become a lot more complicated. With airfares, it's been hit and miss. Last November she got a great price on a trip to Vietnam. On this month's trip I didn't get a bargain, but I didn't pay more either. ( Sometimes she can get special deal with business class !) What I've really appreciated is someone who knows the ins-and-outs of Vietnam travel visas. The new requirements getting a visa are supposed to be friendlier and easier, but I found the e-visa confusing and complicated. I'm much happier just turning the whole process over to her. If you're having any problems with the Vietnam visa process, just call Tran Cadao at Smiles Travel. She's very responsive, very knowledgeable, and very helpful. You can contact her by her cell phone 415-516-0332 Jimmy B

I have used Hitomi-san twice for our visits to Japan. Both trips were absolutely memorable. On our…read moremaiden trip she put together an itinerary that was highly personalized and perfect. Not only did we want to visit the usual tourist sights we also wanted other experiences such as a stay at the Benesse House on Naoshima and to hike the Kumado Kodo trail and stay in a temple. Hitomi-san put it all together and things went off without a hitch. All our travel documents and tickets were waiting for us at our first hotel in Tokyo. The second time we were well versed on using the transportation system throughout Japan but , we used her services to secure some hard to get reservations at the Sakura Resort on Yakushima and a few odds and ends. I've recommended Hitomi-san to a number of people who want something off the usual beaten path. I can't recommend her highly enough. Maureen A.

We had a beautiful trip to Japan, thanks in large part to Takako-san, who made all our hotel…read morereservations, organized a detailed itinerary, and purchased our train tix and had them waiting for us at our first hotel. She was very responsive when we had questions, and gave us many very helpful tips for our trip - including the names and platform numbers for each train! We couldn't be more pleased.

Lisa is very helpful with everything, from booking international plane tickets on back orders, to…read morescheduling tours to view the gorgeous Napa, her service is the best. I first started using her when I first got married, and the Napa tour was our first mini honeymoon. It was perfect and we were very happy with it. :) The tour guide, who is Chinese, even translated everything he said to English for my husband, even though he was the only American in the group. My mom came to visit me when we got married but I didn't have enough time to go sight seeing with her because I have a busy job. So, I asked Lisa to recommend my mom a perfect tour for her, and she did. She found my mom a 7 day Las Vegas/ Grand Canyon/ Yosemite tour. My mom said the tour was great and she loved it :) Last Christmas I went back to Lisa and wanting to buy tickets for me and my husband to visit HK. Of course, just like every year, plane tickets sell out very fast around Christmas/ New Year, so we got ourselves on the waiting list. A couple of days later, she got us our tickets. And her price is usually lower than what you can find online. It was my husband's first visit to my home town, and he was very excited! This year, again, we're going back for more. Lisa again is very very helpful on getting the tickets. She is aggressive on the ticket selling company, but not on the customers. She is VERY friendly, listens to what we need, and she answers the phone every single time I call her (which is a LOT) and answers every single question I have for her. I can't say I can find a better travel agent than her.

The travel agent is called Lisa. She is very considerate in terms of helping me find the cheapest…read moreflight ticket possible and she is very quick in returning my calls and email inquiries inc. weekends !! Once I was going to fly with China Airline from San Francisco via Beijing to Hong Kong. I was already happy with the price and the route so I gave her the deposit, but she kept searching other deals for me until she found a even cheaper one which flew with Japan Airline and saved me $50 with a shorter transfer time. There was another time that, my father's flight got delayed by 10 hours in Seoul and he called Lisa for help out of desperation as he does not speak English well. Lisa stepped out of her job description as a travel agent to negotiate with the Korea airline and my dad was given a night of hotel for free (I heard that not all passengers on that flight got the same offer). I felt very thankful for SunEast in this particular case. Since then, my family books trips with Lisa almost every year.

Koey and Kevin are great at taking care of immigration and notary type business…read more They are multi-lingual speaking English, Cantonese, and Mandarin fluently. Recommend with my utmost regard, respectfully so!

Excellent and friendly services! Help solved our complicated authentication on my son's birth…read morecertificate with China Embassy. Highly Recommended.

A Huge Thank You to Shutterbell Travels!…read more One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is the opportunity to explore the world, and as my son prepares to celebrate his graduation with a trip to Italy, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the incredible work that went into planning this adventure. From the very beginning, Shutterbell Travels took the time to get to know my son, his interests, travel style, and personality to create an experience that feels uniquely his. Every detail was thoughtfully considered, from centrally located, walkable accommodations to tours, local experiences, and neighborhoods that match exactly what he hopes to get out of this journey. What impressed me most was the communication. Questions were asked that I never would have thought to consider, and every recommendation came with a purpose. It never felt like a generic itinerary it felt like a trip designed specifically for him as he celebrates this exciting milestone. Throughout the planning process, she patiently answered every question I had no matter how small and always provided her honest opinion. I never felt pressured into a particular choice. Instead, she offered thoughtful guidance, explained the pros and cons, and helped us make decisions that were the best fit for him and the experience we wanted him to have. Planning international travel can feel overwhelming, but having someone guide the process, think ahead, and truly listen made all the difference. Knowing that the details have been carefully thought through allows us to focus on the excitement of the experience itself. Thank you for helping make my son's graduation trip something truly special. We can't wait for him to experience everything you've planned and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Shutterbell planned us an amazing family trip to Belize! From flights to accommodations to the fun…read moretours we went on, everything was perfectly thought out! We stayed at a beautiful air bnb that had all the amenities you could need and a gorgeous pool overlooking a lagoon! She planned us the most amazing tours from seeing howler monkeys to the best snorkeling trip I've ever been on! If you need someone who truly care about your travels Shutterbell is the way to go!!

These guys are great for what amounts to a discount service, and though what you get is just as…read moregood as any of the big, expensive companies, it's worth noting that it's discounted for a reason--in this case, the bathroom on the time machine was a little bit foul. My girlfriend and I used Golden Time Travel when we wanted to take a vacation but couldn't get any time off. It's a great vacation option since you can be gone for literally months and return to the present only a moment after you left. Our first trip booked with Golden was pretty great. We wanted to get away to somewhere familiar so we went to San Francisco in 1905. It was real nice and the exchange rate was excellent, particularly because of inflation since then. The trolleys got us around real easily, and everyone was very friendly. We had a nice time staying at the Palace Hotel, and our bellhop, Edward, was wonderful. You can imagine our shock when, upon arriving home, we looked him up and found out he died the next year in the earthquake, along with the hotel which was destroyed in the ensuing fire. Very sad. I kind of wish we'd warned him now. The next year we saved up a bit and went to classical Greece. Golden Time Travel dropped us off and picked us up two weeks later without a hitch. My girlfriend has a lighter complexion, and though she got made fun of a bit for being a "barbarian"--several times we heard children chanting "bar-bar-bar" and making fun of our yet-uninvented tongue--the famous "Athenian hospitality" more than made up for it. Plus, those togas are surprisingly flattering. My only critique is that the cuisine left something to be desired. We forgot that this was pre-Columbian exchange, so no tomatoes, potatoes, chocolate, corn or avocados. Also, they hadn't quite figured out chemistry in that era, much less baking, so don't expect to be impressed with the pastries (no baklava yet). For our next trip we decided to check out the Bay Area in 2085. Now, I know this wasn't Golden Time Travel's fault, as they just provide the time machine, but this trip was an absolute disaster. Apparently Mark Zuckerberg is a robot fascist dictator in that year, and he forces loyalty through perpetual social surveillance. Well, it was really terrifying, and we spent most of the trip dodging the Google Civilian View drone copters that track down "nonconsumers" and install g-chips to catalog their brain. I know the contents of the future aren't the fault of Golden, but we would have appreciated some forewarning. They certainly have the technology.

These guys are legit. I wanted to visit 18th century France, and lo and behold, there I was. Now…read moregranted, I've only tried them out once, and I really don't know the extent of their capabilities. As other Yelpers point out, it's definitely a service at a discount, no frills, and you have to be *really* explicit with your request. Don't leave anything up to chance, as I don't think they even have insurance (I bought my own). FWIW I think the Wild West and Ancient Egypt would be a blast, and who knows, maybe check out some dinosaurs? Note: they do *not* offer visits to the future.

My passport was expired and i need to go home asap in the Philippines. She was so helpful to give…read moreme information how to get a travel document. She even booked me immediately far less cheaper than what i was inquiring from other airline ticketing agents. She also did an extra mile to call me in the Philippines if i was able to get my passport done. Thanks Nini. I highly reccomend.