Yolanda Hager

My niece and I had
a wonderful trip, and all of the arrangements you made were perfectly
fabulous for enabling us to check-in and out of hotels, take tours,
trains, etc. with no problems whatsoever. I was amazed at the ease of
the process.

I certainly appreciate the time and effort you put in to helping our
trip move along so smoothly. It made an enormous difference to us in
our enjoyment of the trip.

Again, many thanks for your help with our trip.

All best, Margaret Hager

Barry Oehler

Scenic Norway + Stockholm & Helsinki Tour

Hi Berniece,

I thought I would fill you in on my impressions regarding our trip.

The entire tour was as perfect as it can be. We had good weather while in the cities when touring/walking around (cool and either cloudy or sunny) and excellent weather in the Fiords (sunny and cool). That was very lucky as I know it is unusual to get so many sunny days in a row in the mountain areas. The scenery was truly spectacular. We also were lucky with the other customers on the tour. No one was late, complained or was generally a pain. Everyone got along just great together.

Hotels: All the hotel were top notch. The service and food was excellent at each property.

Bus: A very nice, comfortable and clean bus. The driver, Michael, was super and could not be more accommodating.

Local Guides: Generally speaking, all were very good.

Tour Guide: Stephanie was great. She is very personable, highly knowledgeable and showed excellent enthusiasm throughout the tour. She could not have been more accommodating or helpful with the customers. We liked her commentary and never got tired of listening to her. She is very well organized and is careful to double check all the little details that can cause problems like forgotten luggage, dinner reservations, ferry schedules, etc. Due to her persistence, all went like clock work. That is partly luck but mostly skill and experience. Her command of the English language was excellent. We loved listening to her talk about all the details of Scandinavia. I have been on many tours and she certainly ranks one of the top guides I've experienced.

Our group of 6 had a super time and I'm sure the other passengers did as well. We will certainly recommend and sell your product. Robinson Tours did an excellent job.

Thank you for all your help. Please feel free to forward this to whomever may be interested.

Yours truly,

Barry Oehler
Owner
RMA Tours
Denver, CO

Diane Cira
Belmont, Ca
Hi Tom,
The trip went extremely well. Thank you for all your help on setting it up.
D. Cira

Robert Bianchi
St. Louis, Mo
Greetings Tom,

Bob and I wanted you to know how much we enjoyed the Kristina Cruise. The
ship staff were uniformly pleasant and helpful and the arranged shore
excursions were well-planned. All-in-all it was the restful sort of low-key
tour we had hoped for.

Thanks for your help!

Julie and Bob Bianchi

Kirstin Ostrat
Fairfield, Ca
I would like to thank you for your help in putting together my recent trip
to Estonia and St. Petersburg. I was very pleased with my drivers and
guides. My driver in Estonia was extremly helpful in dealing with the
cemetary upon my arrival in Tallinn, I needed to have some work done on a
headstone. I felt that in both countries the expense was well worth it. I
will not be going back to Russia but that is just a personal preference. I
do look forward to using your companies services in Estonia in the future.
Is it possible to use just a driver? There are still places that I would
like to visit where I will need a guide since they are very knowledgeable in
the history of the area but for example my driver in Estonia was very easy
to talk to and for just going to places where I do not need a guide anymore
such as going back to the museum in Viljandi just a driver would be helpful.
Does your company put together any packages for the Song Festival in
Tallinn? If so I would like information regarding that. Also if you do am I
able to choose my hotel. I have been VERY pleased with the Domina Il Marine
both times I have stayed there and it is a very convenient hotel. Please
extend my thanks and appreciation to the tour companies that provided the
drivers and guides in both places as I said before I was VERY pleased with
the service.
Thank You

Kirstin Ostrat

Robert Reverman
Bellevue, Wa
TOM,

I wanted let you know that we really had a great time in Norway. It is a awesome Country. We enjoyed every minutes of our time.
Your instruction was excellent, a very well organized travel agent. I look forward to visiting Norway again with my Grandchildren and my son when my Grandson graduates high school.
I have been to many European countries and other part of countries in the last 40 years, I was a flight attendant for KLM in 1960s, Norway is my favorite place to visit. Simply fantastic. I wished that we avoided the cruise, and spent more time in Norway.
Thank you very much for your perfect arrangement.
Yoshi and Bob Reverman

Carl Marting
Nicholasville, Ky
Ulla: Just a short note to summarize our trip. It could be considered an adventure, rather than a vacation.

First: The hotel Torni in Helsinki was great, very central and near fabulous restaurants. All the documents were waiting
for us at the front desk.
Second: The train ride to St. Petersburg was fine, especially in a first-class compartment.
Third: The cruise allowed a person to see things that a normal traveler wouldn't.

Recommendations: A person should stay 3 days - preferably in a downtown hotel - in both St. Petersburg and Moscow,
before and after the cruise. The docking port in Moscow is so far from the center - commute times
on the bus were too long - especially at rush hour.

Regards, Herb Marting

Michael Mccourt

Hi Ulla,

I just got this nice email from happy clients, the McCourts. Thank you for all the great planning.

Anne Kennedy, CTC

Just wanted to thank you for all your help planning my trip with Mike to Scandinavia. We had a wonderful time and we were so impressed with how well organized everything was. All the arrangements were perfect and we've recommended that my parents take the exact same trip next summer (if they can)!

Joan Ehrenfeld
Highland Park, Nj
Hi Ulla,
Here’s some comments about the Denmark bike tour – I also sent this directly to Bike Denmark (they were really great – the person who gave us the bikes, etc. was very helpful and informative!).

We just returned from the “ Best of Northern Sealand” bicycle tour (June 17-22), and wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed the trip. The hotels were all excellent, both the rooms and the food! The bikes were also great – perfectly suited for the roads and paths, and very comfortable. The route was also fantastic – a wonderful mix of towns, farmland, forest, coast and magnificent castles. The directions were very clear and easy to follow. Altogether, it was a great way to see the country!
We do have a few recommendations, however, for improving the trip. First, it would be very helpful if the directions include more information about where lunch can and cannot be obtained. On the Hillerod-Roskilde trip, and also the Roskilde-Copenhagen day, we ended up not having lunch until we reached the final destination, because we didn’t realize there was no place to buy anything during the second half of the route. It would have been helpful if the directions had told us this! Second, on a related note, it would be great if it were possible to have the option of paying each hotel an extra fee (say, 50 kroner) and be able to fix a picnic lunch (for example, a cheese sandwich and some yogurt and fruit) from the breakfast buffet. This would have made it both easier to get lunch, and also, as there were some beautiful places to stop and eat, easier to enjoy the landscape. Third, the directions should include some information about nature reserves and natural areas, in addition to the information about castles and museums. We passed a nature reserve (after Veksas?) on the way to Roskilde, and then another trail to an archeological site (??) at a rest stop on the highway into Roskilde, but because we hadn’t had lunch, we just went on. Had we known about these sites, we would have planned better so that we had time to stop at them. I would guess that many others would also be interested in stopping at natural areas and nature reserves. Fourth, the directions should mention that museums and castles, etc., all close at 17:00, and actually start closing by 16:30, and often don’t open until 10 or later, again so that it is possible to plan better. We spent a leisurely time walking around the Blixen house site, and arrived in Helsingor shortly before the Kronborg castle closed, and we didn’t want to wait until 10:30 the next day to start seeing the castle, and then get a late start on the next day’s ride. So we only saw a small part of the castle.

Finally, there was one point at which the directions were unclear: Leaving Helsingor, after passing the Marienslot and riding along the path, one turns left and goes up the hill. At this point, the path breaks up into at least 4 dirt tracks: it was not at all clear which was the one we were to follow, as the description didn’t correspond to what was visible from that point. We figured it out OK, but the directions here could be improved. Other than this point, the directions were really great!

Thanks again for a great trip, and feel free to quote us!
Joan and David Ehrenfeld

Laurie Jacobs
Cincinnati, Oh
Hi Tom,

This is Alice Frye. You (and perhaps others) arranged a trip for me and my sister and mother to Norway which we just completed last week. I'm just writing to say thanks. We had a wonderful time and we were delighted with the hotels and all the travel arrangements. We were especially pleased with the Hotel Augustin in Bergen.
Thanks again for pulling it all together for us!

Alice Frye

Arlene Kavlock
Portland, Or
Dear Ulla,

I want to thank you for all your help with our recent trip to St.
Petersburg - we had a wonderful time, and only wished we could stay longer. I also wanted to let you know that our guide, Angelina Kolakoutskaya, was exceptional, and we feel very lucky to have had her services during our visit. We would give her our highest recommendation.

Thanks again for providing such a great experience,

Arlene Kavlock

Jaime Ungo
Tupelo, Ms
Ulla, thank you so very much. Your services are extraordinary and will be highly recommended. We did have a wonderful, unforgettable time. Again thanks, and I will be contacting you, hopefully soon.

Regards,

Gabriela Ungo

Doris Bodenheimer

Hi Ulla,
Doris Bodenheimer returned home from her Scandinavian trip on Tuesday. She thoroughly enjoyed it. She said the tour guide was great. Her name is Candy and she is from the Canary Islands. Very well informed guide, a delightful person, and spoke both English and Spanish. Doris was very impressed with her. The extension in Stockholm was very good. She was able to connect with one of her Swedish friends, Gosta, and was entertained by him and his guests. Then the trip to Falun was excellent. The room in the hotel was very large and even had a luxurious robe and slippers for her to use. When she went to Carl Larsson's home she was able to get a bus there, but none coming back so she went to the tourist office and the lady there suggested Doris go to the car park and ask if she could get a ride with someone. A lovely family did not hesitate. They even went for coffee! Doris felt the people in Scandinavia were very friendly and helpful. Her regret was that she did not have a larger suitcase to buy some of the lovely Swedish things, but she did say it was probably a good idea she was limited because everything is so expensive!
Thank again for arranging a great trip.
Shirley Mooers, Santa Cruz Travel

David Gormley

I returned home from Scandinavia last night. Everything turned out very well, and I had a great time in all three countries that I visited. I think that my favorite city was Oslo, and I really enjoyed the bike trip in Denmark.

A few general items for you . . . .

The folks at Scandinavian Airlines were very pleasant. My luggage got lost this past Friday night when I flew back up from Copenhagen to Gothenburg, so I had no overnight supplies that night or fresh clothes yesterday. Fortunately, a helpful gate agent yesterday learned that the bag had just arrived in Gothenburg that morning, and she made sure that it was retagged and was loaded onto my Gothenburg-to-Copenhagen-to-Dulles-to-Columbus flights just minutes before my flight took off from Gothenburg for Copenhagen yesterday. The retagged bag did make it all the way to Columbus. Phew.

The Norway hotels that you found for me were all great. I especially liked Kvikne's in Balestrand. The dinner buffet there was amazing.

The Bike Denmark program was really relaxing and was very well organized. Everything worked out great at all of the hotels along the way during those five days.

Dennis Piper
San Diego, Ca Usa
Hi Tom,
We got back from Iceland Saturday night. Everything was perfect! All of the reservations worked as you said they would - car, hotels, transfers all went without a hitch.The variety of hotels was excellent, from very adequate chain establishments to historic guesthouses to working farms. Our favorite was the Egilsstadir Guesthouse because of its uniqueness and charm, but all of the others worked well for us too.
I can't tell you what parts of the tour we enjoyed most. Kathy has always been a fan of glaciers, and I've always been intrigued by waterfalls, so both of us had a lot of the things we like. The entire area around Lake Myvatn was fascinating in its diversity; we enjoyed the solitude of driving for miles without seeing another car; we were impressed with the cosmopolitan nature of Reykjavik; the scenery was amazing everywhere we went; your suggested itinerary included a vast variety of interesting sites; all of the people we met were friendly and helpful; the food was excellent albeit a bit expensive! Outside of the single long day, I couldn't find anything that would improve the tour (except maybe a few more days to see the few areas we missed, such as the northwest fiords and the central highlands).
Tom, we really appreciate all of your help and patience in arranging the tour and the two extra days in Reykjavik for us. We will recommend Scantours to all of our friends. We wish you continuing excellent service; please give our best regards to everyone at Scantours.
Thanks,

Dennis and Kathy Piper

Warren Fournier
Belleville, Il
We've just returned from a much too brief holiday in Sweden. We
spent 2 nights in Stockholm, flew up to Kiruna, then traveled by
dogsled to the ICEHOTEL. We stayed 2 nights there-yep, we actually
slept (quite comfortably!) in a hotel made completely of ice! Despite
walking around like giant blueberries in our poofy coats, we had a
blast! We met some great people, ate some crazy food, and saw more
stars than we knew existed...The weather was gorgeous.
Thanks again. Oh, and the people at First Reisen were FABULOUSLY helpful. Send EVERYONE there!
Kate Fournier



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Deborah Halloran
Collins Center, Ny
Ulla, the trip to Stockholm and the Ice Hotel in Lapland was wonderful, everything went off without a hitch. The people were wonderful , the accomodations great, and the food was fabulous. We ate at Wend Holm Fisk-superb-pricey, another favorite was Kryp In in Gamla Stan, great local fare prepared with the chef and kitchen in full view ( In case you wanted some recommendations). Thank you for puttng it all together and fielding our questions. I will recommend Sweden and your service any time. The Best, Deb Halloran

Ellen Gilroy
Waldorf, Md
Hello Berniece,

We wanted to thank you for all your help in planning our trip to Iceland. As you can see we had a blast! Everything was perfect!!!!
Thumbs up to Scantours and double thumbs up to you!

Respectfully,
The Gilroys