This year, with additional vacation time, I decided to plan our very first trip to Asia. Being…read moreseasoned travelers, we usually plan our own trips. However, since this was our first time visiting this part of the world, I enlisted the help of Deni at Windy City Travel. This was a three-week trip for my whole family across Singapore, Bali, and Vietnam. Deni assisted us in crafting a well-structured itinerary, booked very professional guides for some of our day trips, and offered excellent advice on where to stay and which sights to prioritize in each country. The suggested hotels in each city were all top-notch and ideally located. I'm happy to say our trip was amazing. Our kids loved it, and my wife kept commenting on how smoothly everything went and how well-planned it was. I highly recommend Deni and Windy City Travel and look forward to booking more trips with them in the future!

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.

I came to Swift Passport Services on very short notice, and Jennifer and Kamille were absolutely…read moreincredible. They were extremely professional, friendly, and reassuring throughout the entire process. I felt completely comfortable entrusting them with my passport, which says a lot about the level of service and professionalism they provide. I would highly recommend Swift Passport Services to anyone looking for a safe, reliable, and professional passport service in the Chi area. They made a stressful situation feel easy and seamless. Thank you, Jennifer!

If I could give them zero stars I would. Swift Passport services used to be great. I've used them…read morefor the last six passports for my family. They are either under new ownership or they changed their system completely. There is absolutely no need to use Swift. When you call, they direct you to the US government website to find the passport application yourself. Then they have you make your own appointment with the passport agent, usually at the post office. Then, there is no one answering the phone ever. They call you back after you leave a voicemail so if you don't have time to wait for them to call you back, don't bother. You can expedite your own passport with the post office in two-three weeks or go to another passport expediting service. Swift used to be the best in town. They had an in-office staff, they even took the pictures right in their office. That appears to be gone. For $349 I expect more than an email basically telling me to do it myself.

This is my opinion: Kevin Grubb or his staff sold us travel…read moreinsurance. Yet it did not cover my medical bills! There are policies that would have covered me. Kevin did not suggest other policies. I'm not sure if they make money by selling this specific policy. I asked Kevin to look into this, but I received no fair response. In fact he failed to respond to some emails. We were in Europe and no way to come home without medical transportation, which the insurance denied the claim. The cruise ship he recommended in my opinion is an older boat. Keven holds himself out as an expert in this area and said that he received certain awards.

I'll admit I'm a personal friend of the owner of this place and that's why I chose to book previous…read morecruises with them rather than on my own as I have in the past. However, what I found so helpful about working with Rob and David was that they took the time to really ask me what I was looking for in terms of activities, destinations, budgets, etc. They know me as a friend, but they interviewed me for details as they would every customer. That led to some very specific and expert advice just for me. My partner and I have booked 3 cruises with Cruise Holidays based on their helpful personalization. Because they explore many cruise destinations first hand, they have insider knowledge of what specific cruiselines and destinations offer. This is invaluable, and not to be found in any tour guide! And finally, their customer service expertise extended beyond the planning and purchase of the cruise itself. They were very helpful in answering questions about foreign destination currency and cultures, helping us plan details we'd never get from a guidebook. I also know they went out of their way to help friends of mine who had trouble with their luggage on flights not purchased through Cruise Holidays. The help from Cruise Holidays saved their vacation from disaster.

My fiance and I were planning our honeymoon and worked with another agency that ended up being…read moreawful! We were referred to Mary Dolan at Traveloni and were blown away! She was attentive, quick to respond, and has been great throughout the process. I definitely recommend her and will refer her to all my friends. Below is the address & # for the Traveloni office I worked with. Traveloni: 1357 N. Wells Street; Chicago, IL 60610 Phone (800) 510-5642

I haven't been on a vacation to Mexico in over 10years. I've used Traveloni in the past and when it…read morecame time to book this vacation, I knew I made the right choice in having Traveloni manage my trip. Eduardo was the main agent I worked with and he was well knowledgable about all the different resorts in Mexico. I had to make a change in the hotel prior to going on our trip. He promptly returned my calls, answered my emails & gave me the best price he could quote. I strongly suggest investing the money for the insurance in case you have to change the date or hotel. His associate, Mary, even answered a last minute question in an email to Eduardo (when he was out of town). We spent a lot of time n money planning this trip. Once we booked our trip thru Traveloni, they made our vacation worry free and just so enjoyable. I'd totally use them when booking future trips out of the country.

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.

Simply put, this was a terrible tour. Up every day too early and the days were too long. By the…read moretime we arrived at our hotels, nothing was open. Most were too far away from anything, We were told to "take an Uber or cab" if we wanted to explore. Lunch stops were too long, would've had more time to explore. By the time you got to the hotels you were too exhausted. The Hotel in Vermont was the worst. First they put us in a room with one bed, while they had plenty of 2 bed ones. Only one restaurant was open by the time we got there, it was good but way too expensive. All the shops were close but were closed by the time we got there. Place was run down and rooms had alot of damage. The "breakfast" was a joke, not even continental. Newport was one museum (with a rude staff) and a long lunch stop. Mystic was barely 2 hours. Both were in one day. The lunches were not included, that was stated and expected. However, we always stopped in small towns with not much choices. All were expensive and weren't grab and go. How about a fast food joint? Rest stop? 7-11, etc.? Our tour guide Lynn was not terrible. Talked way too much about her personal life. She talked way too much as well. She mentioned her final tip at least 4 times, very crass and rude. Never really led any of our the tours besides on the bus, mostly dropped us off and picked us up. She changed alot of the tour to her liking, we bypassed alot that would have been more interesting. Saying " this place is great, but we don't have time" or "you can come back to see it". That's why I'm here now. We also had to leave early the last day beacuse 2 people out of 48 had an early flight. Tour started all flights after 12pm, she inconvinced the entire bus for 2 guests. We were all dumpped off at 9am at terminal A at Logan, most had fights out of other terminals and were told we can walk, or catch a free shuttle, or "tour Boston one last time". Not stated in the tour description. I could've caught a much earlier flight home. There were also alot of older people on the tour, including my father. She refused to adjust the tour to their needs. Everything was a long walk with few choices. Long days with short rest. Positives (reason for the one ) Our driver Joel. Joel was witty, funny and very nice. He is an excellent driver and was and always on time. He knew more about the destinations than Lynn. We met very nice people from all over the country, in particular many fine southern men and women. They were the best part, friendly and funny, lots of fun and laughs were had. Boston, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Plymouth were the highlight. Portland was nice as well, but we should've stopped in Kennybunkport as well. The final hotel in Ogunquit was beautiful and tge town was a close walk, right on the ocean, wish we had more time there. Simply put, i will never use Caravan again. Our first tour our west they were awesome, accommodating and our tour guide Tom was great. We had a few hiccups, but they were dealt with. Very disappointed

My first experience with MTA travel was to plan my honeymoon to Tahiti and Bora Bora. Our travel…read moreagent Meagan was a joy to work with! She provided superior service, listened intently to our requests, and responded quickly when contacted. We tried a couple of agencies first, and Meagan was able to get us the best deal at amazing properties. She made sure the places were aware we were on our honeymoon and we got special treatment! I have since used MTA Travel for my work travels. They just make my life too easy not to use them!

MTA travel has provided superior service with every single interaction. Their prompt, professional…read morecommunication is fantastic as well as their knowledge of many properties and locales. I would highly recommend them.

As a preface, this company is currently under investigation by the Better Business Bureau, the…read moreFederal Trade Commission, the Consumer Protection Division of the Illinois Attorney General's office, the Consumer Resource Center of Washington State, and several financial and private institutions. I will update this review accordingly, if that changes. But here's why: The TLDR: A) the company does not responsibly or efficiently apply the money you send them toward your accommodations, B) they engage in deceptive billing practices, C) they ignore clearly specified preferences when booking additional accommodations/excursions, and D) when questioned about any of the aforementioned aspects, they delay response or cease responding altogether. Here is my point-by-point experience with Magical Mystery Tours (MMM) and their deceptive practices. 1. The company did not responsibly apply our money towards hotel/flight accommodations. We booked travel from December 10-19 of 2004 and the company later revealed, under pressure, that they did not book ANYTHING until early December. In the best case scenario, flight and hotel were booked TEN DAYS before our trip began. In no scenario could this have been the cheapest timeframe. (see picture 1, a segment of an email from MMM). 2. During the trip, our preferences were not adhered to. We informed MMM that we were vegan during our preliminary correspondence. They proceeded to book us reservations at several restaurants with no non-meat (and certainly no non-dairy) options on the menu. Despite this, we showed up, trusting MMM had made some sort of arrangement. The restaurants in question said they were informed of no such thing. The same story played out with 3 other excursions we had them schedule that included meals. 3. When we returned and asked for a breakdown of costs, MMM included a Paypal Transaction Fee of over 3% of the total vacation cost. It is explicitly stated in the Paypal User Agreement that merchants may not pass on the merchant fee to the seller. They must have known this, but were counting on me not knowing. Ultimately, they did refund the fee, but only after being pressed--partly why I continued to distrust and investigate the rest of the bill. 4. When we requested original receipts, our request was denied, despite the their advertising otherwise (see picture 2, a screenshot of their website BEFORE we requested original receipts). After requesting this, they promptly changed the wording in an attempt to hide their billing (see picture 3, a screenshot of their website AFTER requesting original receipts). 5. After sending the before/after screenshots of the changes to their website, and applying additional pressure, they sent undated and unverifiable screenshots of receipts, refusing to send anything else. 6. There were several discrepancies in the final total trip cost relating to the percentage taken as an MMM "fee"--which were substantial. After several follow-up emails were sent regarding this, MMM ceased communications. (Note: the amount in dispute was less than $200. Imagine if you were challenging more than that...) The takeaway: Be careful when dealing with MMM. Do not pay a "transaction fee." Do not book unless promised original, dated receipts beforehand. Demand proof that your travel preferences will be adhered to. Double-check the math of your bill afterwards. My advice: Do not book with MMM. There are many other companies offering this service without deceptive practices: Pack up + Go, The Vacation Hunt, Black Tomato, Rustic Pathways Mystery Trips, Blind Experiences, Guess Where Trips, etc...

We had the absolute best surprise trip experience with Katie and MMT! We had done a surprise trip…read morewith another travel agency previously, and MMT was above and beyond more exceptional in every way. A few highlights: 1. I appreciate the thoroughness of the survey. Based on the questions, you can tell that MMT puts a lot of thought into the nuances of the experience for their customers. 2. I LOVE the customizability, especially with the budget. We weren't sure what our budget should be. Katie was immediately transparent on the minimum budget MMT would recommend in order to provide the experience we were looking for. We ended up giving a larger budget than MMT's minimum recommendation and were issued a refund of unused funds at the end. 3. Katie was timely and thorough in her responses to all of our questions throughout the process. She was sure to double check every detail before finalizing anything. 4. The excursions planned for us were INCREDIBLE and aligned with our survey exactly. It was the perfect combination of activity and downtime that we requested. I cannot wait to book our next surprise trip with MMT!

I used their service to apply for a family visit visa. Definitely satisfied with the service and…read moretimeline and the price was cheaper than other service provider that have similarly great reviews online according to my research. All you need to know about them : 1. Clear instructions. 2. Great communications. 3. Speedy service and they actually got the thing done! Definitely recommend using them

Not the cheapest option, not by a long shot, but if you are under a time constraint and need your…read moreChinese Visa done right, this is the best place. I thought they were very prompt, super helpful and delivered on-time. Their website has a lot of very helpful information. I recommend spending at least 30 minutes reading about the requirements and then following them exactly. Overall, they are really professional and I would recommend them to anyone.

Bruce was a great guide on our Lincoln Park tour! Lots of info about Chicago's gangsters. Thank you…read moreBruce!!

While the tour started out good led by Bruce and we were excited to hear about the Gangsters it…read morequickly turned into a very boring commercial for things within Chicago - pizza, hot dogs, theatre .... Bruce had a list that he kept referring to and items that he had to plug. It was a very disappointing tour -- and Even more so because I've been on FTOF all over the world and have never experienced this before, anywhere. Oh well. Weather was beautiful and enjoyed my time with my friends.