Beth was a wonderful tour guide, informative and fun Enjoyed our day there. No wait time and…read morereally liked the house. Beautiful setting and a nice day ~ thank you Beth.

Visited the adult home of this famous child of the Mississippi River, during the final days of our…read moretrip to Connecticut. It was a very enjoyable experience. My wife and I were flying out of the Hartford airport (Bradley International) to go back home, so decided to spend the day before in the area. A popular tourist attraction is the Mark Twain (two fathoms or 12 feet deep) House & Museum, so decided to center our day around that. Maps will take you right to it, passing by large and beautiful homes from the turn of the (19th) century. The end destination was a large parking with plenty of spaces on a Friday afternoon. Daily hours are 9:30 - 5:30, with seeing the house only available through guided tours, so it was recommended to pre-reserve slots online. There are two versions of the tour, both guided but with the less frequent Living History Tour being led by a cosplay actor. We arrived at 11:20 and was able to get tickets for the 11:30 normal tour (on this day, the normal tour had hours at 9:45, 10:30, 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, and 4:15). Because the tour lasts about an hour, there were multiple groups in the house at the same time, but it is big enough to absorb the three concurrent groups, all seeing different parts of the home. The entire home is maintained only by ticket admission ($28 adult, $26 senior, $15 children). This was the home where he spent the most productive 17 years of his life, raising his three daughters with his wife, and writing his classics, including Huckleberry Finn. The house tour included all four stories of his home, with complete restoration being just completed in 2016. Rules: no photos or videos inside the house; don't touch anything, stay in same room as guide at all times, and no food/drink. The house was built with forced air vents, and the AC was working well within the house this day. Upstairs on the second floor was the living area, and the 3rd story attic was where Twain had his offices. The basement were the servant quarters. The entire house was fully furnished with either originals or faithful reproductions. We later learned that much of it had been given away initially, but the restoration brought much of it back. There are no elevators in the Twain home. In the visitor center, anybody could enjoy a 20 minute version of Mark Twain documentary by Ken Burns. The most celebrated Mark Twain actor was Hal Holbrook (he played a mean Lincoln too), and his very familiar voice could be heard quite a bit throughout. The souvenir shop in the visitor center had a variety of things related to his life, but to the hobby of reading for pleasure in general. There were distinctive wallpaper patterns inside the house (our favorite was that of a honeybee colony), and the same patterns could be purchased as paper in the gift shop. Because the main house is on elevated ground, one story above the visitor center, there are two parking areas. The main one near the visitor center is what Maps will guide you to, whereas the much smaller one south of the house at the same elevation is meant for handicapped spots and being much smaller, will fill up. We did see if we could walk from this parking area via local roads, but found it was much easier to just go back from where we came. We spent about 2 hours here, and saw what we wanted to see. We both felt it's well worth visiting.

It was great when it WAS here!…read more This must be very out of date as Van Gogh exhibit closed more than a year ago!

I don't know who put this all together, but it was a genius move. Spectacular way to display Van…read moreGoghs work, even if you don't know another about him, you will get all you need heretic room where everything definitely wakes up is so beautiful, and the VR was really cool too. Look up the immersive experience in your town and go!!!

"Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh"…read more Do you know that the original title of the song we know today as Jingle Bells was "The One Horse Open Sleigh?" Yup, it was written in 1857 and it's original purpose was lost to history. Some say it was written for a Sunday School choir, others say it was a drinking song. So, take your pick. You'll see a bunch of beautifully painted one-horse open sleighs along Hopmeadow Street as part of the Simsbury Sleigh Trail. The sleighs all date back to the mid-1800's and are part of a Simsbury Historical Society's winter program to refurbish these aging antiques, and sponsor the painting of decorative murals on the sleds by local artists. The artists worked within the theme of "Winter Scenes" and were to illustrate life in the 1850's. Many of the sleighs were rotting away in old barns and their owners welcomed the opportunity to donate them. There was a lot of rodent and insect and deterioration damage to renovate before they were ready for the artist's palette and paintbrush. The sleds have gorgeous color paintings of landscapes, a bobcat, a fox, bears, horses, an owl, a cardinal, villages, farms, local landmarks, a snowman, and children sledding. The detail is amazing, and the colors are gorgeous. What a nice way to honor the past and add some splashes of color and creativity to our lives! (Word of warning -the exhibit closes at the end of February)

A beautiful combination of art, garden, and urban storm water educational piece. Enter the wrought…read moreiron sculpture entrance on Salem St and take a stroll through the alley for various art works and gardens along with info panels about the storm water project features.

An urban green public art gallery! Love! A collaboration…read morewith the Acre neighborhood group, city, and university with contributions of art by local Public Schools and poetry too! Don't forget to get Cote's famous beans on Salem St (and throw in a whoopie pie)!

This sculpture garden is right in the center of Springfield Museum plaza. There were a handful of…read morecopper/metallic sculptures of many famous Dr. Seuss characters. There's also a giant book sculpture that has some famous verses from Dr Seuss engraved in it. The garden has elegant walking pavement covered by trees. It leads to entrances of four museums around the plaza. There's also an outdoor tent for people to sit in front of the garden. Overall it's a nice garden for families and kids.

The sculpture garden is situated in a small park area that is surrounded by different museums. It's…read morea nice area to spend a couple hours sightseeing with family. There is limited parking in the area.

One of the best places to go in the Hartford area. It has an amazing collection of classic artwork…read moreand rotating collections of modern art. I've been many times and somehow I'm still surprised by some of the pieces on display (Van Gogh, Monet, Dali, etc.). They run various events and community days, and membership costs are very reasonable. Support the Arts!

I was miserable most of my time there. BUT. This was a great museum. I was miserable because the…read moreonly time I could go was on a Saturday, a free Saturday no less, on a day they had a festival, arts and crafts, and a Christmas tree event. So the crowds were INSANE. Like NYC level insane. That being said, I have lots of great things to say about this place, which underwent a huge renovation and modernization several years ago that was so good that the New York Times wrote an article saying it was "a masterpiece of renovation." The great hall is beautiful and though I don't care much for old school colonizer art, I was bummed it was teeming with Christmas trees and families, hindering my ability to take an artful photo to capture that masterpiece. The museum does a great job of mixing colors, styles, appreciating the classical, while also mixing in fun and modern elements. They have European art. Impressionist art. All that gold religious stuff. Modern art that's just some blocks and colors and makes you wonder, "is this really art?" They have a great surrealist section and a huge Dali painting, which is actually the marketing they used to get me here. They have some sculpture, some Greek sculpture and some contemporary art. I enjoyed the art by Black artists and art focusing on Black struggles in the Amistad Center, located on the third floor, though I wish this section was bigger. They had an Islamic art section, Chinese art, American art (most of what I saw was from the 20s through the 90s). I loved how each space was painted a rich, moody color. And the common spaces were full of patterns, stained glass, and multi-colored walls winding up the staircase. The staff were nice and helpful. I paid 20-something bucks for admission, but since I bought a ticket for a free Saturday, the staff was cool enough to contact me and ask me if I wanted a full refund. I told them to take the fee as a donation. I've seen almost all the museums in New York City, which is my favorite place in the world. But this one can hold its own. But if I ever visit again (which I doubt, cus who needs to see Hartford twice?)--I will avoid weekends and free days and definitely the Christmas tree festival!

The house is beautiful and full of original furniture. Our guide Elizabeth was very professional,…read moreknowledgeable and friendly. She loves history and answered all our questions. Enjoyed the tour immensely! I would recommend this tour as a DONT MISS!

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of touring the historic Lippitt House in Providence--and it was…read moreabsolutely amazing! What made the experience truly unforgettable was our guide, Elizabeth Gilbert (not the author of Eat, Pray, Love, but THE Elizabeth Gilbert who brings history to life). Her tour was informative, engaging, and full of fascinating details that transported us straight into the elegance of Victorian times. If you're visiting magical Providence, don't miss this gem. It's a beautiful step back in time, guided by someone who clearly loves what she does.

Our guy was spectacular. I think his name was Ted. He says they do tours for different areas I…read morewould like to hear his talk in green mountains.

Have to drop them to 3. Had been on a few trips with them that went well, but after this past…read moreFriday they lost me. The 'Friday Funday' Mystic trip was cancelled. Ok. I get it trips get cancelled when there aren't enough people signed up for it. But in this case, they didn't even bother to tell me/us. Even got the confirmation/reminder email the day before. So being at the pickup point and its 5 minutes after we're supposed to leave, I call them to see what's going on and then they tell me it got cancelled and I should've been told Tuesday, but obviously wasn't and again, even got the confirmation/reminder email the day before. As someone that doesn't get a lot of time out work to burn a day off with nothing to show for it is extremely frustrating, and honestly, I just can't risk getting burned again. The owner Ted called later that day offering to make it right and I was refunded the money for the trip and the other trip I cancelled but I can't risk burning another day off with nothing to show for it. The people have always been nice, so I won't completely knock them, but beware even getting a confirmation email the day doesn't mean the trip is happening.

This was the first time we traveled with Collette. The 7 day/6 night tour, "Spotlight on South…read moreDakota," featured Mt. Rushmore, Devils Tower (in Wyoming), Badlands National Park, and much more. The itinerary was appealing because, in contrast to tours with multiple destinations linked by long, tedious motor coach rides between 1- or 2-night hotel stays, we would be headquartered in one centrally located spot with no more than a 2-hour drive to the various sites. The poor communication from Collette's main office prior to the tour was unsettling. An invoice stating, "Please remit full payment no later than 17 Feb, 2025" was not received until March 7. An accompanying document included an alert that the names we had scribbled on our registration forms during a travel talk 5 months earlier had to exactly match the names on our Real ID cards. Unfortunately, Collette sent out this "reminder" AFTER they had purchased our airline tickets. I promptly submitted a minor correction. Well, imagine my outrage when they passed along an airline "name change fee" of $100.00. I disputed this ridiculous charge (and won). Many of our fellow tour participants were not experienced fliers. But beyond making our airline reservations, Collette offered not one iota of guidance - not even a useful web link - towards navigating online check-in, baggage, self-service kiosks, TSA, etc. Granted, every airport and airline has its own arcane modus operandi, but still ... Nor was the Collette Compass app I installed on my smartphone useful. The itinerary was a mere copy of the printed documents previously mailed to tour participants. An accompanying list of restaurants and retail stores was woefully outdated; several had closed and others were inaccessible except by rideshare. Search engines (e.g. Google) provided far more concise and up-to-date info. Apart from the above 'plaints, we truly enjoyed the tour. Our hotel, Hyatt Place, was centrally located in downtown Rapid City. Brand new and luxurious, it was within easy walking distance of multiple stores, restaurants, and other attractions. The activities and attractions included in the tour itinerary were generally well curated. At times, though, we felt rushed, especially at lunch stops. We surely could have stayed longer at Wall Drugs, Hill City and Custer ... I'm certain most of our traveling companions would have been OK with returning to the hotel at 5:00 instead of 4:00. Also, after 3 days, multiple museums, displays and talks featuring the history and lore of South Dakota were becoming repetitive. Our tour included three dinners. A "welcome" dinner in a banquet room at a Best Western motel was catered by the adjoining Minervas Restaurant. A presentation by a native Lakota family was delightful but less so our meals, which arrived tepid and daintily portioned. In contrast, the food portions at the "farewell" dinner at Sabatino's were hearty (but their kitchen was not so accommodating in meeting dietary restrictions). The chuckwagon supper and show at Ft. Hays - not included in the tour price - was better overall than the included chuckwagon supper and show at the High Plains Heritage Center located in Spearfish. Collette really ought to consider switching to Ft. Hays for future SD tours. We traveled between sites in a brand new motor coach, enjoying a wonderful driver who was not only punctual and friendly but also knew Rapid City backwards & forwards and shared some great suggestions (including the enjoyable evening at Ft. Hays). But I've saved the best for last, namely our tour manager Barry. He is the reason I gave Collette 4 stars instead of 3. Never appearing stressed or impatient, Barry was unswervingly cheerful, polite, helpful, and an inspiring fountain of knowledge about the various sites we visited. When the weather turned sour, he got us to smile and laugh. In short, he was a great traveling companion and friend to every tour participant. We hope to travel with Barry again (and we hope Collette's HQ office gets their act together on communication and documents).

Booked a trip to the UK with an extension to Paris in spring of 2022. We traveled from Scotland to…read moreLondon and then took the train to Paris. This was our first international trip since the beginning of the pandemic. As we neared the end of our journey, my husband and I tested positive for Covid and had to quarantine in Paris (we needed a negative Covid test to re-enter the U.S.) Collette was wonderful. They extended our stay in our hotel, assigned a lovely woman who spoke French and English, to call us every day and make sure we didn't need medical attention. After 5 days, we received a negative test and Collette got us home the next day. Fortunately, I had purchased trip insurance through Tripmate and, once home, Collette help me fill out the paperwork to submit to the insurance company. I was reimbursed for my hotel, food, Covid test, flight adjustment, and one day of our stay in Paris. I can't say enough good things about Collette. They were so nice and extremely helpful. We will be going back to Europe this upcoming autumn with Collette. AND I want to give a shout-out to our UK guide, Gail. Best tour guide ever!