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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Discerning group? –

It has taken me a few days to recover from the event and get things back to normal, but it was definitely a big success. The attendees had a great time and I received nothing but positive feedback about the experience. They were very happy with the hotel and the Thursday night cocktail party in particular, so thank you again for all of your hard work on setting those up.

— Justin M., Investment Firm

Fabulous trip for our membership –

Our thanks to you for all of the hard work in putting together a fabulous trip for our membership. In particular, we were most impressed with Royal Coach!!! They were always on time and so accommodating. We loved every minute of the trip — especially the visit to Raymond Vineyard and the Wine Train. Cuvee did a very nice job hosting us — both the welcome party and the breakfasts and the folks at the River Terrace Inn were delightful. We are passing along our recommendation to our Club so that they surely will use your services again — very, very professional!!!

— Betty

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

Successful Customer Reward Program –

As the Marketing Manager for a $1.8 billion construction materials organization, my time and my customers time are a precious commodity. Beginning Q1 of 2012, I began working with both Amy and Alese on our corporate Customer Reward Programs due to a complete failure in performance from our internal travel group. In our industry, incentives play a major role in manufacturer specification selection. Simple rewards, when done correctly, can “flip” projects in our favor with windfalls of between $50,000 and $1MM.

Alese has played a major role in ensuring that (10) ten of my top customers from across the U.S. had a vacation experience they will not soon forget. She handled everything from start to finish with professionalism and class. Her attention to detail has been phenomenal. I have received several calls from those same customers who have expressed their sincere appreciation for a wonderful trip, and the work Alese performed throughout the process. The all commented on her attention to detail and responsiveness to their needs. In fact, several have asked if she was available to assist them with their personal travel arrangements. For me personally, Alese provided peace of mind. Once she was provided the list of winners, I never once had to worry about the needs of my customers’ needs being met with the highest level of service. I will definitely use ARTA (Alese and Amy) for all future event planning and trip management. Both are tremendous assets to your organization.

— Michael D., Marketing Manager, Building Materials Company

Smooth corporate travel –

I want to thank you again for the ABSOLUTELY SUPERB job you and ARTA Travel did for us in getting us to Normandy France this past month. You fought through the March storm delays like no one else could have. Because of you, we had a very successful trip. We made the cover story of Army Magazine and our pro-bono leadership program is getting a lot of recognition. Again thank you!

— Sandy C., Leadership Consulting Firm

My job is easier –

Shout Out to Ann Dennis at ARTA Travel who extends a “Red Carpet” approach to Customer Service!

I manage all the travel for a local ISD, and Ann is the official Travel Agent assigned to our school district. We have come to rely on her attention to detail and her 1000% commitment to ensuring our school district employees and students are taken care of. My job is made easier each day knowing I have Ann on my TEAM!

— Shelly W., Local ISD

My job is easier –

— Shelly W., Local ISD

You make us look good –

I just sent Dr Perry a quick text letting her know that it will be resolved within the next few flights and once again you have come through with an answer or solution quicker than planed! Your responsiveness and attention to detail are just always on point!

Obviously Steve always does a fantastic job for us and has set the bar pretty high for our expectations…and although it’s rare for him to be out…every time he has been away, we don’t seem to miss a beat with you!

Your tenacity and follow through on this today has allowed us to give the best possible outcome to our customer, Dr Perry…who will be happier about traveling for us every week…so she will be less stressed and likely do even better work each week in Modesto…for our client…who waited about 2 months for Dr Perry to start seeing patients back in December…and who is funding all of this.

You’re always quick to say, “No Problem” or “Happy to help” anytime I’ve needed your assistance, I just wanted to let you see how you are making an impact well beyond the our business relationship. You’re making our firm look good to both our traveling candidates and those respective clients as well

— Kevin K.

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.

Concerned that the details of our trip could be a daunting

We needed assistance with the mechanics of converting our AmEx points; flights to and from Spain; flights between several cities within Spain and even into and out of Portugal; not to mention acquiring hotels in several of those cities. We were concerned that this could be a daunting list for anyone to precisely complete. From the moment we were connected with Susan Pinabel, we knew we were in competent hands. First, her professionalism was immediately evident. She was very pleasant and very knowledgeable on all the different facets of our needs. Secondly, she was very precise and provided exceptional guidance during our planning process. When we realized that we needed changes to our itinerary, there was no hesitation, Susan quickly corrected our schedule. She did a lot of work, efficiently and with the highest level of professionalism. We were so impressed with Susan that we had to write this correspondence to specifically acknowledge our appreciation of her work. Susan’s work was beyond the norm, it was exceptional. Susan is an exemplary representative of your company and we wanted not only to formally thank her, but to also acknowledge her work to you.

— Juan and Jimmie S.

The trip was flawless –

The trip was flawless…The trip was flawless. The resort was beautiful and the service was over the top nice. Couldn’t of asked for an easier trip. THANK YOU!!! -

— John T.

Knocked it out of the park –

I recently worked with Jaquie for a last minute request from one of my most important clients and she flippin KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK!! I wanted to email you personally on this bc I was so impressed.

She’s a Rockstar and I so look forward to working with her again.

— Kate T., Marketing Firm

Please don’t ever lose your excellence –

Steve, I just want to take a moment to recognize Brandon. This is LONG overdue for all of the many ways he consistently goes above and beyond for myself and our organization. I cannot count the times or even begin to list all the examples where Brandon has gone above the call of duty and I want to personally thank him for his work yesterday in diving in and helping with a reoccurring issue we’ve been having with our Hertz account. For what seems like months now, doctor after doctor have arrived to get their Hertz rental cars some having no issues and others being told “no corporate account found we need your credit card” this is a huge red flag and not the standard of service we want our traveling staff to encounter. Each time Brandon has immediately stepped up reached out the following morning and got this corrected, recently when booking Hertz Brandon has begun to check upfront prior to pick up to verify that everything is okay with the reservations and even after being told yes we still ran into this issue again. Brandon in true fashion jumped in determined to find a solution and spent a good part of his day yesterday working on our account with Hertz customer service and it was finally determined that on their side somehow a digit had been removed causing our direct bill information to not link properly on all of these reservations in turn causing these billing issues.

— Whitney M., Medical Staffing Firm

Customer service above and beyond–

My group got stuck in Austin after flights home were cancelled on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for Ann, I caught her by phone as she was walking out of the office Tuesday night. That didn’t stop her. Ann was simply AMAZING!!! She was able to work with Southwest to get most of us (who hadn’t checked luggage) onto another flight as well as get a local hotel for all of us, including super shuttle instructions. She worked for about 2 hours getting us all situated and still gave me her cell phone number when she went home around 7. I appreciate the amazing work that ARTA Travel has provided for us and want to say thank you to all of you, but ANN really did an amazing job Tuesday night. Her customer service was way above and beyond her duties.

— Suzana S., Local ISD

A lifetime of memories –

It was the trip of a lifetime. From every tour, tour guide, every transfer, every hotel, airplane seats, and everything in between, it was the perfect family vacation in every way! We give YOU total credit for making a lifetime of memories! Seeing our name on a sign in peoples’ hands every time it was time to transfer, it’s such a wonderful sight! Another wonderful sight is the good ole USA. We love our time away but always love coming home! THANK YOU for Everything, and I can’t wait to plan the next one!

— Jen W.

This was my dream vacation…

First of all let me say our trip to Italy was absolutely wonderful! You did an outstanding job with all the planning and preparation. The hotel choices were perfect. They were all very nice, the breakfasts were delicious and the extra touch with the fruit baskets, appetizers and Spumante made it extra special.

All of our tours were just outstanding. The tour guides were very knowledgeable and covered all the highlights.

All of the transportation by car, boat and sea ran just like clockwork and it was reassuring to know we didn’t have to stress over how to get from one city to another. There were a few glitches with 3 of our flights but that couldn’t be helped and that’s just part of flying. Our flight to Philadelphia was delayed about an hour, there was a medical emergency on the flight to Venice and we were diverted to Ireland for an extra 3 hours and then our flight home was canceled due to flooding in Houston and we had to stay another night in Rome. But if you have to be stuck somewhere Rome is not a bad place to be. Ha!

This was truly my dream vacation as I have wanted to go to Italy for years. Thank you for putting together an amazing trip for us! It certainly was the trip of a lifetime.

As awesome as it was it wasn’t a relaxing trip. We walked 16,000-18,000 steps a day and we are ready for some R and R.

— Phyllis S.

The hotel you suggested was perfect…

Just wanted to let you know we all made it back from Rome and it was a great trip. The hotel you suggested was perfect – great location and the staff was incredibly nice. Room was lovely – quite large given what I am use to seeing in Europe. Our favorite tour guide was Francisco who did the Vatican day. He was so knowledgeable, made everything so interesting. I highly recommend the Scavi tour – blew our minds! Thanks for all of your help. I can’t imagine what you could have done if we gave you more time!

— Shannon

My 11 other friends and I had the most amazing time!

I just returned home from my vacation in Mexico where I used ARTA Travel.

My 11 other friends and I had the most amazing time! The resort was perfect: the food and drinks were great; the service was fast; the staff was helpful and friendly, and so much more.

JoAnn could not have been a better travel agent for us! Dealing with 12 college seniors is not easy, and we could not have had the vacation we did without her. From flights to communication to checking in on us, she truly made the vacation stress free and so enjoyable. She was always taking care of us from the time we booked last Fall, to making sure we were safe when we landed.

If we decide to book another vacation, we will definitely use ARTA Travel as well as recommend JoAnn and you all to friends and family.

— Jayden G

The trip was absolutely perfect…

I just landed back at JFK and wanted to let you know the trip was absolutely perfect. We loved every bit of it. The inside the volcano tour was probably the coolest part. Villi was absolutely great as well on the golden circle tour. Thank you so so much for all of the assistance and planning!!

— Zachary E.

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