Janet is a very skilled professional travel agent and a delight to work with. I was planning a 2…read moreweek trip to Europe with my family to celebrate my 50th birthday. Janet listened to our needs and gave us great recommendations from flights, hotels and everything in between. She did everything for us and shared her experiences going to Europe. My whole family met with her. She took the time to get to know each of us. I was getting even more excited planning the trip with her. Because of COVID-19, we had to cancel our trip. Janet worked hard and was able to get all of our charges refunded. That is a big deal! I will be using Janet again. Planning the trip with her in the future is something I look forward to doing.

Janet is fantastic to work with. When I have complicated travel itineraries, I contact Janet for…read moresourcing the best options for me. Janet seems to work 24/7 as any time I send an email, she responds promptly :) Janet follows up with a phone call or text... so her communication skills are perfect in my opinion. Janet is extremely patient and is a great problem solver. I have had several late changes to my travel itinerary and Janet has made the necessary adjustments without any fuss. I highly recommend JK Travel & Tours for both business and personal travel arrangements. Neil Mullan

I can't recommend this travel agency enough! I received a fast turnaround and professional service…read morefrom the start. I booked my travel to San Miguel, Mexico with Breakput Travel and everything was taken care of! They also provided tour and restaurant recommendations and even make the reservations for our group! If you are looking for a unique travel experience and assurance that every detail will be taken care of book with Breakout Travel!!!

My daughters (ages 20 and 17) and I traveled to England and France to celebrate life milestones,…read moremake memories, explore new countries, and visit a long-time friend. Justin at Breakout Travel was amazing throughout all phases of planning and during our travels. He was inclusive of my daughters and helped us create an itinerary that captured our diverse (and sometimes opposite) interests, physical capabilities, and budget parameters. We each came home feeling like the trip was planned specifically around our individual needs. During the trip, travel was seamless and went according to the well thought out plan. There were a couple of unpredicatable potential delays due to weather and local events. Justin made himself available to provide logistical (and emotional) support. While no changes ultimately needed to be made, his responsiveness gave us the sense of security we needed throughout our travels. We would highly recommend Breakout Travel, especially Justin, for any trip planning needs.

I recommend Natalie wholeheartedly, with no reservation. Both my hubby and I were too busy to…read more'study' what we were supposed to know before the first Disney trip. Once we started reading, we knew it could take forever to check all the necessary details when we only had about a month until the trip and we had to arrange everything ASAP. So I searched yelp in desperation. When it comes to organizational skills and attention to detail, I used to think that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to surprise me - until I met Natalie. She is absolutely AMAZING. Through the end of our trip, she provided the most detailed and updated information in such an organized manner at the right timing. And she was available before and during our trip; She responded to all our inquiries in a few hours, mostly within an hour. I remember asking her if she'd ever rest! We had a wonderful time in March right before the closure. Her created schedule could not have been better - She took into consideration various factors, such as my child's age and interests, our preference for different parts of Disney, length of trip, etc. We can't think of any other agent for our future trips because we know that she will provide her expertise in the most thorough, up-to-date, accurate, organized, and actually useful way for our needs. We just contacted her today to plan another trip, to have a safe family vacation. She is a true professional who loves what she does. That's what sets her apart from the rest. ps) She said that she established a travel agency: *SPARK OF MAGIC TRAVEL* ps2) She gets a commission from the vendors, so there is no service fee! The invoice for the Disney trip was the same as the rate we got from Disney or other travel sites. We felt like we paid the same rate for more tips and benefits! (reminding me of this horrible travel agent in NY that I initially contacted first who charged me $$ for checking a hotel room availability.)

Natalie does more than just Disney. I've never been to Disney, but she's booked pretty much every…read morehotel I've staid in for the past couple of years. It doesn't cost anything extra to use her services, and it takes all the stress out of planning things. You just show up, check in, and get on with your vacation. For an introvert who doesn't like to talk on the phone, this service is invaluable. Having someone to do the talking for you just makes vacation that much better! It's one less thing you have to worry about while out on the road. From the simple to the all inclusive luxury vacation, Natalie will take care of it all. She's got all of my vacation business from here on out!

I've been on 4 Zoom trips over the years (Cuba, Vietnam/Cambodia/Myanmar, Kenya/Tanzania/Rwanda and…read moremost recently Thailand/Sri Lanka). Every trip has been fantastic- lux accommodations, great food, interesting activities and lovely people. The Zoom folks have also booked some private travel for me and I've always found them responsible and responsive. No hesitation in giving them 5 stars. Will definitely travel with them again.

We recently fulfilled a bucket list vacation by traveling to Egypt and Jordan with Zoom Vacations!…read more Joel and his Zoom team took care of everything for us from start to finish! Every day brought us new, exciting adventures and experiences that we will remember for the rest of our lives! All of our accommodations and transfers were first class. We didn't know any of our group at the beginning of the trip, but, by the end, we had a hard time saying good bye to these marvelous, interesting people. To us, this is what travel is all about and Zoom accomplished it with panache' and class! Till we meet again! Cheers! Richard and David

CIRE is the best! Melissa took great care of us on our recent trip to Mexico. Highly recommend.read more

From the owner: CIRE Travel is the premier corporate travel and group travel agency in Chicago. Not only do we add…read morea professional, personal touch to your business, meeting or leisure travel...we also connect you to the same buying and booking power that Fortune 500 companies enjoy. We work with clients all over Chicago and across the United States. If you are a frequent business traveler, have a destination wedding approaching or just want to connect with a professional travel agency, your best choice is CIRE Travel. Contact us today, we'd love to hear from you. Consultations by appointment only.

We booked a trip to Cancun with Ok Travel a few years ago and everything was Ok. The hotel was…read morereally nice, the flight not so good we couldn't pick our seats. The Resort had a "Travel Club" and they were relentless about getting us to join. Inviting us to go to a meeting, we had limited time and this was very annoying. I suppose this is not the travel agency's fault. The past few years we have tried to book something with OK travel but they take really long to get back to us. We end up looking on Expedia finding great packages and booking it ourselves. We get an email from OK Travel sometimes a week after we call and by then we found something else that's better than what they were offering.

I have used Karen to plan several of my travels and she is the best. She gives you honest and…read moretruthful recommendations and will find you a place with your highest priorities in mind whether it be food, entertainment, location, etc. She's the best at finding you the best rates and great flight times. You will have different insurance plans/payment plans based on the resort and airline and Karen is sure to explain everything in great detail. I have never had a hiccup during any of my travels booked through Karen. I HIGHLY recommend her.

Meg is fantastic! She answers endless questions efficiently and courteously. She responds…read moreimmediately and always offers great suggestions.

BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!! If I could pick zero stars I would. Someone at work referred them and I…read morethought why not let someone else do the leg work on my trip while I sit back and not stress over it....it turned out to be quite the opposite! This agency is incompetent to say the least! I could have done better if I had booked it myself and had way less stress!! They do not return calls or emails. They changed my original agent to another because the first was "too busy" to reply. This is a $10k trip with a 2 bedroom suite on a cruise and they couldn't be bothered to follow up or give me reminders of upcoming payment dates. Instead they called me the day before the balance was due and said we need it now. I had to email several times to get airfare booked as prices were just going higher and higher, that took a month for them to book! Finally after being fed up, I got thru to them this morning and asked them to release my reservations so I could make changes it to it myself as it would be faster. My dog sitter fell thru so I needed to change the flight day out to LA, it cost me $200 with the airlines to do so because they did not release my reservations. They told me thats not their problem it's an airline rule. I am still currently working with the cruise line to take them off my reservations as well. I had to hang up the phone as Mike was literally yelling at me into the phone. I could go on and on with the horrible details but bottom line....they are rude, incompetent, ignorant to their clients needs and basically think they are doing you a favor by taking on your travel needs. Please do not use this agency!

My GF and I purchased a Groupon for the Chicago Photo Safari and we chose to shoot at Millennium…read morePark. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into the session, it started to rain so the group (around 10 of us) fled into the Chicago Cultural Center for the remaining time. I thought the CCC was interesting for about an hour but definitely did not have enough interesting areas to fill up a 3 hour photo shoot. This brings me to one of my complaints-the safari was supposed to be 3 hours, but it was only about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I'm sure it would be a better experience in Millennium Park but if you are planning to make the safari rain or shine, you should have a better back up plan. Also, b/c the CCC isn't brightly lit, this limited the settings people could use while taking pictures. Our instructor - Scott - is a student at Columbia and he had a good personality and did his best to engage the students and help them. I thought it was helpful that he had an iPad that allowed him to pull up a picture that illustrated the concept that he is explaining. He also was knowledgeable re photography. The one complaint regarding Scott is he clearly was out late the night before and still smelled like stale beer. Not a big deal to us, but I can see how that might bother some people. I think this class would be useful for someone that has a DSLR and only shoots in automatic mode or in program mode without understanding what is actually happening in the program mode. I'd say the majority of the class fit into this description. But, if you have a basic idea of how to set the exposure, what depth of field and what ISO are, I'd skip the safari and just walk around Millennium Park. The 3 stars is based on the Groupon price and if you are an absolute beginner. If you paid full price the rating would be a 2 stars.

My Mom and I bought a Groupon and did the Millenium Park daytime safari. I live out of town, and…read morethought this would be a fun way for us to spend time together while I was visiting for the holidays, and it was! The MP safari was beginner level, which worked well for my mom who was borrowing one of my DSLRs for the first time. As a more intermediate DSLR photographer, I got more familiar with my new camera and was able to talk lenses and other advanced topics with the instructor and students with the same DSLR Rebel I had. But the most beneficial thing for me was the fact that we spent so much time photographing the same subject (the Cloud Gate) over and over. Other yelpers lamented that there wasn't enough subject matter to photograph, and although that is true, the real benefit to the repetition is that you can take the same shot over and over and adjust your settings each time. Then when you go home, you can load the shots into the computer and compare the settings for each picture, and try to learn more about what settings work in which conditions. "Setting intuition" is something that I struggle with and having a slow tour through MP has already helped me to better predict how to set my camera for different lighting conditions. I would certainly recommend Chicago Photo Safaris to (1) beginners who own or have access to a DSLR camera or (2) intermediates who are either looking to become more familiar with their DSLR or use the safari as a way to experiment with settings, take home the shots, and critically evaluate them. The MP safari was NOT for folks who (1) want to take a bunch of pictures of different things, (2) don't own a DSLR or other digital with shutter speed and aperture controls, or (3) are easily bummed out by being outdoors on one of Chicago's many less-than-perfect days or indoors in one of our many old, under-lit buildings. As for me, I would seriously consider another Chicago Photo Safari when I'm in town in the future.

Jonathan worked on my European trip I just took. I was amazed at how much he saved us in money and…read moretime. Thanks for a great trip. I'll be in touch in a few months for my next adventure.

From the owner: Personal service - meet or beat any price - with you every step of the way. Open late to serve you…read morebetter! All destinations - Caribbean, Europe, Asia, international air, all-inclusive hotels.

I just want to say what a great experience I just had speaking with one of the Travel Specialists…read moreat Vacations by Rail! I talked with Aldo today, and I had several questions as I'm driving to the start point of the tour and needed to obtain specific departure times for the first day. I also needed fairly specific return times for the last day. Aldo was able to provide both departure and return times, and included additional information that will make it easier for me to determine the best place to house my vehicle while I'm on the tour. He was friendly, and patient, and incredibly helpful! He answered all my questions and was instrumental in providing information that will allow me to fully plan my travel. Thank you, Aldo, for your EXCELLENT customer service!

Their itinerary was what attracted us. The good... was the tour manager that accompanied us through…read moreout our trip. She was great. Every thing else was down hill. The bad... we requested and paid for upgraded hotels as we required a bit more space for medical reasons. Spoke with them several times to confirm, yet the first hotel had no record. As the room was too small, I paid out of pocket for the larger room as the assigned room was too small to navigate. The tour manager attempted to contact the main booking office several times and they did not reply. They have yet to reply to our requests either. They need to do a better job communicating as they provided us with train tickets to get to and from the start and end points of the tour, but very little information as to how to actually get there. They booked us and I paid for a post hotel stay near our departure airport . This hotel was supposed to have a shuttle to and from the airport/train station. When starting to arrange when we arrived at our departure airport, I contacted the hotel to arrange for the transfer to the hotel. They told me that the shuttle was not available for the next 4.5 hours and wished me luck to arrive there. The rest of this hotel issue is a separate issue, but as vacations by rail booked this for us, they have yet to respond to multiple requests to address the situation. Food provided by the tours at the hotel were mediocre at best. The saving grace was the onsite tour manager who went out of her way to assure a nice trip. Will not book with them again