After reaching out to multiple agents at Lake Shore Travel to be able to communicate with them or the owner (who I could not find the name of) about our trip and poor experience with Shonah Rabman, no one would respond and therefore we feel pushed for our voices to be heard through some channel in order to prevent others from making the same mistake we did. Like many of the poor reviews below, Lake Shore Travel, specifically working with Shonah Rabman was a horrible experience. I should start with the fact that I have never written a yelp review in my life, but I felt the need to save others from using this agency and this specific agent. As a business owner myself, I wanted to resolve this over the phone with Lake Shore but I have tried reaching out via phone / email over the past couple of weeks and no one will return my call. Therefore - I urge you to read this before using this agency: Shonah's inattention to detail, inconsiderate tone, avoidance to plan our trip after we already paid, last minute changes, and overall condescending/gaslighting messages to us were horrible to work with. We were going to 5 locations on this 2-week trip that we began having her plan over a year in advance for. We needed someone to help us pick out 5 star hotels and private tours. Shonah could not have cared less about our trip, the details, and us as clients. She avoided planning our trip for over 6 months, and when considerately addressing to her that we haven't heard from her on any details of our trip (so we could start planning ahead) she yelled at us over the phone stating she has other clients and we were bothering her. We asked Shonah to help assist us in booking restaurants as the location we were going to frequently does not take reservations over apps (mostly reassertions over emails and calls in the native language). This was 5 months before our trip. She agreed over email multiple times she would be happy to do this. One month before our trip after, she finally shared with us it was up to us to find restaurants for a 14-day trip, but she would do it anyways as a 'courtesy'. Again, another thing that should have been communicated to us and we felt misled once again. The week of our trip (after weeks of trying to get our final itinerary/ documents from Shonah) she finally stopped ignoring us and anxiously requested we answer a bunch of questions within 24 hours that she needed to verify because she left everything until the last minute. We downloaded our app, got our itinerary, and none of us could open our documents... as they were encrypted. We call Shonah up, explaining that the documents she uploaded to the app were encrypted. Again, she yells at us letting us know that it's our fault we can't see the documents, there's nothing she can do, and she quickly hangs up. Extremely unprofessional. Feeling helpless, we call Axus (the app's helpine) where, they told us our travel agent did not upload the documents correctly, and Shonah needed to upload the documents as PDF's for us to view them. A mistake on her end. We forwarded her the emails, and she responded "always learning something new - I will re-upload them." Again, no apology for the way she spoke to us over the phone, no accountability, nothing. Again, we were doing her job for her and we felt extremely disrespected / scared to communicate with her moving forward. We had emailed Shonah two months before we left to confirm she had input our TSA numbers (we paid extra for her to book our flights) and that we would not have a problem. We get to the airport - TSA numbers are not on our ticket. I wish I could write everything that went wrong, but Yelp has a limit. Other things that went wrong: all dinner reservations were either not made, made for the wrong time, or made for the wrong day. Made for Spain is the travel agency that Lake Shore connects with to book trips. We stopped going through Shonah and began corresponding with Maria from Made for Spain who is INCREDIBLE. She texted with us back and forth to help 'fix' Shonah's mistakes throughout the trip. She also continued to check in via text throughout the trip to make sure everything was running smoothly, and she responded within minutes of me writing her. About me: This is the first and most likely last yelp review I will ever write in my life. As a business owner who is client facing 24/7, I can confirm that if someone on my team acted the way Shonah has acted, I would be extremely alarmed. I pride myself on kindness, respect, and generosity towards people's time and money. Her attitude, frequent inattention to detail, condescending tone over the phone, and lack of respect / patience was disheartening to clients like us who were overly conscientious in having someone book a 14-day vacation (a time where we were excited to relax and have things run smoothly) with clear directions. I would stay away from Shonah Rabman and furthermore I would probably stay away from this travel company. read more

Terri Netzel helped us plan the trip of a lifetime to Costa Rica to celebrate our 30th anniversary and we loved every minute of it! Terri had great suggestions on where to stay and what to do. She set up a top notch itinerary, taking into consideration our interests and abilities; we experienced activities we didn't know existed, and had a blast! Thanks to Terri, everything was set up...we just had to show up! We'll definately call Terri again!! read more

Pretty much ruined our family vacation to London and Paris. Poor attention to detail, did not keep their word and really added little to no value to the research and planning we did on our own. A trip that was supposed to be the best family trip we ever took became the trip I have worked hard to forget...thanks to Lake Shore. read more

We have used LST, specifically Terri Netzel for trips to Belize, Mexico, Italy, Thailand and most recently South Africa. Each of those places has its' own subtle challenges while traveling that were all overcome by Terri and LST. We arrived at each location and were greeted by someone who knew our itinerary and handled everything from transportation to check in and out. As we have gotten to know Terri we now are able to describe the trip we are looking for and our budget while she then creates a dream travel experience. I cannot recommend highly enough the professional service that is offered. If you have a destination in mind but are like me, a bit apprehensive to get out of your comfort zone, call Terri and she will get you there and back without having a single worry. She has truly turned me into a "traveler" because I can focus on the moment and experiences and nothing else because she has handled it all, for that I will be forever thankful. read more

I am giving them a one star since zero is not an option We had a family gathering at an all inclusive resort. This should be an easy assignment for a travel agency. All Lake Shore Travel had to do was arrange rooms and the transportation from the airport in Mexico to the resort. We were 20 people. We sent them a spreadsheet to confirm names, room type, arrival and departure information. They are so unorganized. They had the wrong names, in fact names our vouchers arrived with names of people that did not exist. They take no ownership for anything that goes wrong. Mistakes are never their mistakes. If you must use them stay clear of Michelle, Vivian and Roseanne all incompetent and useless. read more

Thanks Myrna. You saved us $750 on an $1100 Flight. In an Internet world, we think we can find the best price, w/o travel agents. Maybe, but there's a lot to be said for quality people and quality service. Myrna arranged our wonderful Hawaiian Vacation in February, 2009. That's why we called her when we needed to rush our son from Marquette, MI to Chicago, IL for his grandmother's funeral. Sure, I tried the Internet looking for the "best price". And I thought flights from Marquette to Chicago had been canceled so I looked for flights from Escanaba and Green Bay to Chicago. One call to Myrna and in 3 minutes she found a direct flight from Marquette, MI to Chicago, IL, round trip. But the price was $1100. But Myrna is a travel pro and knew we could get a "bereavement special" from the airlines for our son to attend a funeral. I bet the reader of this didn't know a "bereavement special" exists. You won't find that on the Internet. So Myrna arranged an aisle seat for our 6'6" tall son that takes only 2 hours to get from Marquette, MI to get to Chicago, IL, and back again. I won't have to worry abut my son driving 100, 200, or 400 miles to get home for a funeral in bad weather. And Myrna made it affordable for our family because of her knowledge. From beginning to end, it took Myrna 3 minutes to find the right flight, and about 15 minutes to call the airline and arrange a "bereavement special". Yes, this is a bit long. But great service deserves an unsolicited, great review. When your time is precious, when quality in travel arrangements matters, call Myrna at Lake Shore Travel of Glencoe, IL. 847-835-5090 Thank you so much Myrna. read more

My wife and I want to acknowledge the caring, professional and knowledgeable services that we received from Terri Netzel for our recent trip to Europe. Even while we were there, she was able to make an adjustment for us that I would not have been able to do myself. She followed up and gave us a comprehensive package to assist us prior to our departure. We highly recommend Terri for your travel needs! Kerry and Sherri Wolfe read more

I was referred to this travel company to plan my luxury trip to Greece. I thought that because they were a Virtuoso agency, which deals with the high end, they would be a good match for me. Boy, wasI ever wrong. I found them to be the WORST travel agency that I've ever used. They wouldn't know a luxury hotel from a La Quinta, and I would have been much happier staying at a La Quinta in most instances, instead of the rip off places they booked for me. I think the main problem is that most of the agents have never been there, and had no experience. I wish they had told me that prior to my trip. What a disappointing trip. What a disappointing experience with this Virtuoso agency and Vivian in particular. read more