Encore Travel-Luxury Travel Concierge

The vacation was excellent and the planning was as smooth as ever!

Fantastic. It's been almost 2 years since I took the trip and it is still one of the most memorable vacations I've ever taken. There was a slight glitch with transport at the end of the trip, but that was MORE than rectified.

Hugh was fantastic. With it being our first big trip together, in foreign countries no less, we weren't sure what to expect but we knew a travel agent was a must. After a few discussions with Hugh, we decided on Paris and Rome. Hugh was accessible and responsive not only during the planning portion but also during the trip itself. We had misplaced our bus passes and he helped get us back on track without us missing a beat. The best part of using Hugh - all of our excursions were things we probably wouldn't have thought of ourselves - at least not ahead of time. Everything was planned out and paid for in advance, Super turnkey. And unforgettable. We are now beginning to plan our honeymoon and we will again be using Encore Travel. Highly recommend - we couldn't have done it without him!

It was MAGICAL! Wendy my travel agent covered details that I never would have known of! It was a trip with my granddaughters that I will treasure forever! Everything was so easy and stress free! All we had to do is have fun!

Everything went amazing and was beautiful! Wendy used to live in South Africa and still travels there so she is very familiar and experienced with the area. We were very comfortable working with her knowing we were in good hands.  If I emailed her for anything she was very quick and responsive. We couldn't have asked for anything more!

Hugh stuck with us as we went through many changes in plans and goals during the early part of planning.  The arrangements that he came up with were flawless.  The flights had enough layover time between them to comfortably get from one gate to the next, even if the flights got in late.  The hotel and tour guide accommodations were terrific.  The scheduled events were well paced to give us a good balance of sightseeing and relaxing.  The events themselves were wonderful, with a great mixture of temple tours, smaller more out-of-the-way tours, and a great "foodies" tour that had us wandering the streets of Bangkok at night sampling local dishes from street vendors.  Then we went to Amphawa, which was a glimpse into a different aspect of Thai life.  Then we went to Phuket, which was absolutely one of the highlights.  I never felt like there was something that I was missing out on, the arrangements were diverse.  I would absolutely use Hugh again for future travel planning.

Vacation facility was spot on. Transportation back and forth went seamlessly. Communication prior to the trip was great even after we put the down payment. High was always there to help.

My wife and I never thought we would hire a travel agent, but while we were in the depths of planning our wedding, we both decided that we simply couldn't plan another thing and hired Encore Travel to plan our honeymoon to Costa Rica.  They were very responsive and listened to us when we described the kind of trip that we wanted to take.  Ultimately, the trip that they planned was exactly the right balance of relaxing, luxurious honeymoon and nature-oriented adventure to suit our needs.  The hotels were great; the tours were right on time and lots of fun.  Even though we thought we would never hire a travel agent, we are glad that we did and are planning to do so again in the future.

This was a trip of a lifetime and Hugh listened to and made sure that the tour agency followed through with honoring most of my requests, including plenty of down time to explore each location I went to, meal restrictions, and hotel preferences.
There was a minor snag at the end of the tour through no fault of Hugh's, but when I brought it to his attention he made sure the situation was resolved quickly.
I will definitely use Encore Travel for future vacations!

We used Encore travel in the past for a trip to Hawaii and thought it went well, so we decided to use them again.  I think a list of the issues would be most efficient.

1.  We faxed the agent all of our pertinent information including the usual stuff as well as, FF numbers, TSA precheck numbers ect. When we received our itinerary, we noticed my mother-in-laws name was missing an "n".  But, we had a week before the trip so we notified the agent and he assured us that in the TSA system, it is correct and if it isn't, he would make sure it would be.  When we got to the airport to pick up our tickets, her name was still spelled WRONG on the ticket. (I found this odd because on the post card the travel agent sent us, wishing us a "bon voyage",  her name was spelled correctly).  We were afraid they might not let her board the plane.  It turns out, according to our agent, that the TSA person does not look at the spelling on the ticket, but is looking at some other spelling on some other device, and it was spelled correctly there.  So we were able to board.  But my mother-in-law was still upset that the travel agent didn't seem to care that her name was still misspelled on the ticket.  It was kind of an insult.  

1a. Our itinerary changed weeks before our departure and when I logged into the AA account I noticed we would have missed our connecting flight home. I had to tell the travel agent this so he could change the flights. Seems like something the agent is suppose to be on top of, if you ask me. If I hadn't noticed it, it would have been a disaster.

2.Our TSA pre-check numbers were NOT entered into the system and as a result, we could not use that line either going or coming. A minor inconvenience, but still one just the same.  

3.  We did not receive any vouchers for our activities when the itinerary was mailed to use, but we did get a card telling informing us to call a local number once we were in Hawaii to get our vouchers.  After 2 phone calls and being on hold for 30 minutes each, and leaving a message to please call us back, we still had no vouchers.  Randomly, later that day, we received a message from the hotel's front desk that we had a fax.  It turns out those were our vouchers.  No one returned our calls, or let us know to expect a fax. Very unprofessional.

4.  The second hotel we stayed at did NOT have air-conditioning.  We were not informed of this until we checked in. Our travel agent did not inform us before agreeing to this lodging.  Not exactly luxury travel.

Overall, given the amount of money we spent, nearly $15,000 on the trip, we expected any details that the travel agent was in control of to be correct.  After all, they tout themselves as "luxury travel".  We did not like having to constantly check and make sure our trip was prepared correctly.  It detracted from our experience and left us wondering what exactly did we pay for?   

Friendly, available, responsive and flexible.

FANTASTIC!!  We had the trip of a lifetime!!!
 Hugh did an excellent job of coordinating flights originating from three different states, then getting us all together to fly over the pond.  He coordinated hotels, transportation to and from airports, shows and personal tour guides that spoke both Spanish and English so we all could understand.  We stopped at a couple of small towns on our way from Madrid to Barcelona.  This gave us a much better understanding of the "real" Spain.  The tour guides were amazing and showed us areas in the small cities we would have never known about and history facts that helped us really understand the culture of the area.  
The trip was planned in such a way that we had plenty of free time to explore the cities on our own, but also had tours and shows scheduled ahead of time so we did not have to take time on our trip to plan them ourselves.  There was a perfect balance of free time and scheduled time.  
The Hotels were incredibly comfortable and luxurious.  I asked for Four Star hotels and Hugh did an excellent job of putting us in the middle of all the action.  We were able to walk to most of the sites we wanted to see and we were always happy to return to our hotels at the end of the day to relax in style.
I would HIGHLY recommend Encore Travel for your next trip to Europe.  
One word of caution though.  Check the documents you receive thoroughly.  There were a couple of vouchers left out of my packet I received and if I had not caught it before we left it would have caused some problems.  Once I brought the missing items to Hugh's attention, I received them right away, but they should have been included in the original packet.

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We ended up planning a short trip to Madrid on short notice to meet up with our daughter studying abroad.  Hugh and his staff were extremely helpful in setting things up for us.  Everything was terrific.  The hotel was wonderful and the tours and transfers set up for us were very nice and enjoyable.  When we arrived at our hotel we had a very nice treat of champagne and Strawberries.  Class act! 

What I find exceptional about Encore is the communication with them is terrific.  Always responding to emails and questions (and we have many of them).  Great customer service!

We have planned a trip to Italy that Encore has worked on,  spending a lot of time to see we will enjoy the trip.  I will be back on Angie's List to leave a review in the coming weeks.

Highly recommended

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We had a great time on vacation!  Adding to our fun was the delicious chocolate covered strawberries and champagne delivered to our room.  Nice touch-thank you Hugh!!  I would recommend Encore Travel to anyone and will use them whenever I have travel needs.

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All (with one Exception -- the carriage ride around Salzburg) went exactly as Hugh had planned in the itinerary.*
   * this was NOT Encore Travel's fault, but a miscommunication with the carriage driver about the Voucher

We went to Salzburg, Munich and Fussen, Germany.  Salzburg stood out.  We just LOVED the place.  We only stayed there for
four nights, but could have easily spent 10 nights or more there.  The Hotel Wolf Dietrich was terrific, the tours (save the carriage
ride) were all excellent, the architecture astounding.  The cleanliness immaculate.  The tour to Lake Konigsee beautiful. The boat
ride on the Lake (surrounded by Mountains on all sides was a must see!)

Munich was too crowded and busy for us, but necessary as a hub to travel to southern Germany.  The train ride from Munich was
fast (2 hours) with lovely scenery.

Fussen was nice too.  The tour to Oberamergau and the Zugspitze (Highest mountain in Germany) and some Castles were great too!
Note: Take warm clothing for the top of the mountain by cable car (temp 72 at the bottom, 32 at the top) if you're squeamish about
Heights, consider this: about 9,000 feet at the peak

We even bought a lovely cuckoo clock handcrafted in the Black Forest.  Expensive, but gorgeous.  It's still awaiting it's arrival at
our house.  Hope it arrives without damage.  They have a nice selection at Galleria Bavaria in Fussen.
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We had very limited time to plan a vacation (we usually enjoy all the planning) so realized we needed a travel agent.  The first agency I contacted seemed to have their own agenda and didn't listen.  Then I contacted Encore. I gave them our budget and what we wanted to do and they took it from there.  I worked with Kimberly and Hugh, and they listened, asked good questions, provided us with exactly what we wanted. They made some hotel recommendations, we did a little research into what they recommended, and were very happy with the hotel/resort we chose. There was really nice attention to detail and some nice surprises, such as a welcome basket in the hotel upon arrival, and the agency they use for airport pickup and tours (on our departure date, the driver called to state there was heavy traffic due to construction and recommended leaving a half-hour earlier than scheduled, which got us to the airport stress free).  Our itinerary was mailed to us in plenty of time.  As for attention to detail, we asked for an oceanfront room on a high floor, and that is what we had.  We had our own tour of some local sites, and the tour driver was a local, very knowledgeable and gracious.

So, if you need help planning a vacation, and want a worry-free experience with good attention to detail, give Encore Travel a call.

We never use travel agents, but after a couple of tough months we decided we needed some help planning a vacation.  The first agent we contacted didn't listen to what we wanted, so we then contacted Encore. Haven't taken the trip yet, and will be hearing more from Encore as travel date grows nearer.