Leisure Client Testimonials

Our clients' feedback is invaluable. It's not merely appreciated—it's essential to our commitment to excellence. Here's what some of our valued clients have shared about their experiences with ARTA Travel.

Northern Italy vacation - November 2025

Good morning, Dwayne!

Ed and I have returned home - tired and happy! I just completed the ARTA survey but there is so much more to say.

First of all, THANK YOU! You created another "trip of a lifetime" experience for us. Every detail was perfect and there were so many unexpected, wonderful surprises. We began with our flights to Rome and were treated with incredibly comfortable and special seats. And a highlight of our arrival at Portrait Roma was the very generous welcome cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, courtesy of you and Jackie. And our room was filled with special foods and beverages. I am sure you two were instrumental in that too. Portrait Roma was so lovely and welcoming and included as hotel guests was a discount at the Ferragamo store - those purchases are the most welcome souvenirs. On to Verona and you arranged for the most spectacular suite in the hotel! We felt incredibly luxurious as we spread out in all of the different spaces. And we thank you for the box of Juliet's kisses awaiting our arrival. And in Milan, what a beautiful and comfortable room and again, the welcome of macarons - courtesy of you and Jackie. Thank you so very much for creating such lovely greetings at each hotel.

The sights and explorations were astounding! What beauty and history and culture we experienced! Ed's favorite words during the trip were - Mind blown! We were so impressed with all of the experiences at each venue and of course the knowledge of the professional guides and drivers. Each day was so full of wonderful experiences which truly piqued our desire to learn more and experience more in the future. Each day was so special but we continue to be amazed that you were able to give us access to each of the Jubilee churches - all in one day!

We are so very impressed with your suggestions of sights, hotels and itinerary! And the organization and delivery by the Kensington Company is perfection!

Ed and I thank you for your care and attention to this very special vacation. We look forward to another trip as we continue to savor our memories from this Northern Italy vacation.

Thousands of thanks to both you and Jackie for this absolutely wonderful experience.

We will contact you soon as we make plans for our next vacation.

All the best,

— Susan C.

You took every detail that was important to us and turned it into such a special getaway...

Thank you so much for setting my daughter and I up with Dwayne for our Italy trip. He took every detail that was important to us and turned it into such a special getaway! He is incredibly responsive (even when I accidentally sent a text much earlier than I intended to) We were able to simply enjoy our time together with zero concerns about travel logistics. I can’t thank Dwayne enough for a fabulous trip!

— Nan W.

Thank you for our amazing trip to Italy...

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for our amazing trip to Italy. We had an incredible time and thoroughly enjoyed everything. The hotels were beautiful and perfectly located. Positano was stunning! Also, our drivers were absolutely amazing! They were always on time, courteous and very helpful. Thank you again for making this an amazing trip!

— Doneta S.

Planning across the miles...

I wanted to send you a note to let you know how much we appreciate the efforts of Joann Austin to provide us nothing but the very best service. We were dealing with a local travel agency in Pensacola when we met Joann (and Wally) on a cruise aboard the Celebrity Equinox.

We were immediately impressed with her warm, caring personality and extensive knowledge of various destinations and cruise lines. We asked if she would work with us on our travel plans even though we were distant. She said sure and the rest is history. She has provided great advice and planning assistance to us on cruises to the Baltic, Australia, South America, French Polynesia, China and many more.

Our original opinion has only been reinforced with every interaction we have had. She is a true gem and we so enjoy working with her.

— Carolyn & Bob S., Pensacola, FL

You went over and beyond for us!

Just wanted to let you know that we are very thankful for your recommendation to Valentin Imperial Maya! We had such a great time and where shocked at how beautiful his resort was! Everything went so smooth I was shocked. It truly was so relaxing and enjoyable! We are already taking about planning next year’s trips to the same resort! They treated us like royalty at the Valentine and really went over and beyond to make sure every corner was covered to make our vacation was amazing! Everything was perfect for us to a T, we had amazing scenery, amazing shows, amazing food, amazing rooms and had just the right amount of night life! Thanks again for helping me make our vacation one to remember! We will never book through anyone else, you went over and beyond for us!

— Kimberly H.

When things don’t go as planned...

Over the course of the last several months we have had the pleasure of working with Suzanne Gardner in order to plan a trip to Germany. We found Suzanne through the American Express Travel website. During the planning phase Suzanne was extremely helpful, knowledgeable, always followed up and helped guide us as we planned the trip. We were extremely satisfied. Suzanne embodies all the characteristics of someone who excels in customer service. We expressed those sentiments in a survey which was sent to us by American Express where we documented our experience with Suzanne with the highest possible ratings.

Our last stop, during our recent trip, was Munich. We arrived in the late afternoon on New Year’s Day. We checked into the Hotel Excelsior and when we walked into our rooms we were extremely disappointed; actually that is putting it rather mildly. The hotel had been represented as a 4 or 5 Star hotel and we felt the rooms more closely resembled an old Super 8 badly in need of renovation. I won’t take the time to outline the issues we had with the hotel since the purpose of this note is to make sure you know how Suzanne responded when faced with very unhappy clients. We contacted the American Express Travel 800 number on New Year’s Day. American Express reached Suzanne and she contacted us immediately. She again demonstrated that, at her core, she is the essence of a person who defines excellent customer service.

The following morning, January 2nd, Suzanne had arranged for us to have a private driver take us to Dachau. By 9:30am we had confirmed that Compass Tours did not have us on their schedule and would not be picking us up. As you might imagine we were not pleased. I sent Suzanne a rather terse email regarding the mix up.

The reason I wanted to reach out to you is that it is my experience that you really understand someone’s commitment to customer service when things go wrong. As a small business owner I am keenly aware that generally speaking I only hear from our customers when things don’t go well and rarely do I hear when something goes right. I wanted to make sure that as the owners of your travel company you know that Suzanne Gardner’s actions reflect well, not only on her, but on your agency as a whole.

At every turn Suzanne acted on our behalf to rectify these situations. I am quite certain that had Suzanne not proactively worked to make things “right” for us we would have ended our trip on a sour note. Instead, solely because of Suzanne and the steps she took we returned as happy and satisfied clients and would not hesitate for one minute to contact Suzanne and your organization again to plan our next trip, which we believe will be this coming summer when we return to Germany and then travel on to Italy.

It is my hope that on our behalf you will recognize the outstanding job that Suzanne did, she represented your organization in a superior manner.

— Jay & Cindy J.

Why use a travel agent?

I just want to take a moment and tell you what a great associate you have in your office.

I just walked in on Friday, and never expected to receive the kind of professionalism and courtesy that was given to me that day. By the time I got home from your office I had received two scenarios of my trip that were perfect. I was able to then come up to the office in the afternoon with my associate, Ray, and book the itinerary.

Karen was amazing and quick, more important all of my needs were met. We were so pleased with Karen and your company and look forward to booking all of our domestic and international travel with Karen. When we got in the car to leave both Ray and I asked each other what have we been doing all these years without a travel agent.

Anyway, thank you for introducing us to Karen.

— Carol M.

Customs was so easy...

I wish to thank ARTA Travel for the great chocolates we enjoyed on our cruise and also thank Pam Silverman for a delicious bottle of red wine. Pam was great in setting everything up perfectly for us and this was a remarkable cruise to the Baltic. Our eyes were really opened wide on this journey – everything was stunning. The trip home was really uneventful going through customs in Chicago and SAS partnered with United and so it was so easy to walk through customs and twenty feet further we handed our bags to someone and we left terminal five and went to terminal one so easily. Thanks to everyone for their superb professionalism and management of our wonderful experience on Regents Seven Seas Voyager.

— Robert B.

Special details...

We had a wonderful trip! This time of year is amazing in Alaska! We had sunshine every day. The ship was great, our shore exclusions were fun and Charlie caught a 21 lb. King Salmon on our fishing trip!

Thank you so much for all your special little details. I notified them all and would say Joann did this for us! Dinner at the Murino was delicious! Thank you so much!

— Susan M., Realtor

Made every request attainable...

I wanted to reach out and let you know what a terrific help Dwayne King has been in planning my family’s trip to Italy. He has been a wealth of information as he guided us throughout the daunting process of where to start, what to do and when. Dwayne flawlessly has made every request attainable and always did so timely.

This trip is going to be so memorable and much to the efforts of Dwayne. I have already recommended your agency to others and especially Dwayne. Your company is fortunate to have him and I am so thankful that he has been the one helping my family plan this trip of a lifetime.

— Julie S.

This was over the top!

You guys—what a fantastic trip you planned for us! The guides were incredible and we could have listened to them all day. In fact, Kimberly and her husband ended up not going with us to Jersey Boys, so we begged for Debbie, our guide from Thursday, and her boss, Reynard, to use those tickets, which they did.

Since we had to return a bit early yesterday, Debbie was able to make our harbor cruise happen on Thursday, which was perfect. The 9-11 Memorial was unbelievably poignant. It had been 9 years since my last visit to NYC, so this was an amazing transformation.

As always, thank you for your wonderful, professional planning! To quote Keith, “This was over the top!” We couldn’t have choreographed it better if we’d tried

— Margaret J.

35-Day Adventure...

Carolyn and I recently returned from a 35-day wonderful adventure to New Zealand and Australia that was seamlessly organized by Joann Austin. Throughout the process, she was always there to guide us, make reservations, ensure visa compliance and offer great suggestions. Our trip included air arrangements from Pensacola to Auckland, back-to-back cruises on Celebrity Solstice and air arrangements from Sydney to Pensacola along with lodging before and after. Other than truly efficient handling of all requests, we appreciate the fact that she has traveled extensively including a variety of cruises.

We first met Joann and Wally onboard Celebrity Equinox. We were so impressed with her extensive background knowledge and willingness to help and resolve any issue, we decided to shift our travel arranging to her instead of using a local travel agent in Pensacola.

We are looking forward to many future adventures arranged by Joann.

— Carolyn and Bob S.

When thing don’t go smoothly...

Often when we evaluate a business person’s ability, it’s not what they do when things are running smoothly, it’s how they handle adversity! You are a real professional in that you don’t get rattled, lose your composure, or lash out at the people who have dropped the ball. The group respected how you handled yourself.

It is a pleasure traveling with you! Thanks for a wonderful trip!

— Gerald

We LOVED the place...

I just wanted to let you know how much Linda and I enjoyed our trip and how much we appreciated your planning expertise. The hotel selection in Paris was fantastic…we LOVED the place! We also loved Uniworld…the trip was delightful, ship was first rate with exceptional service. Thank you so much for your help in making it all happen.

— Lisa A.

Dwayne “stitched it all together for us”...

Dwayne King recently did an excellent job of help us with a 10 day itinerary trip to Italy. We had already booked portions of our trip using award miles for air, and booked Air B&B for a house with other couples outside of Florence, and 4 days at a cooking school outside Arezzo. My challenge was in the last part of the trip to the Amalfi Coast. Dwayne stepped in, found an excellent hotel in Sorrento (Ambascatori) with a rooftop terrace and breathtaking views of the Bay of Capri and the sunset each night. He also found an excellent small boat tour from Sorrento to Capri for us. But perhaps the most amazing part was the hotel he found – in the face of many hotels being booked – the Covo de Saraceni in Positano. Perfect location (right on the beach) with a small terrace overlooking the beach/ocean and the entire town of Positano. Truly a magical place. Then Dwayne “stitched it all together for us” with car services and train tickets to get us where we needed to be. He is a truly accomplished professional and someone we will absolutely look to in the future, and, even more importantly, refer anyone we know with plans to travel to Italy. Thank you for introducing us and for building such a great team at ARTA.

— Patrick D.

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