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Testimonials
Thank you Megan for the wonderful job you did in planning our honeymoon to Tahiti. Your recommendations were very insightful and ensured the perfect balance between the resorts in Moorea and Bora Bora. It was the ultimate finish to our wedding.
Ken Takahashi - New York, NY - May 2006
Sharon,
I wanted to relay my appreciation for your assistance in my last minute business trip to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. I was a little apprehensive that the routing and timing of my itinerary would lead to an extremely high airfare. Your imaginative "out of the box" suggestions meant that you used airlines and stopovers that I'd have never considered. The flights worked perfectly.
Jim
McDonnell - Linden, NJ - July 2006
I know
that positive feedback is always great to receive...so I just wanted to
express my thanks for the great job Aspire Down Under did in arranging
my vacation to Fiji & Australia and my trade show in Sydney.
Castaway island was as idyllic as you described and was a thoroughly
relaxing experience. Your choice of tours at Ayers Rock and Sydney
ensured that I avoided the large coach crowds. The hotel in Sydney was
in a great location and meant I could walk to and from the exhibition
center at Darling Harbor.
Niki
Day - New York, NY - Sept 2006
Sharon, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the outstanding
job you did in coordinating our Australian and New Zealand family
vacation. It was an absolute pleasure working with you. Your
extensive knowledge of the "territory", your meticulous attention to detail and your tenacious follow up insured that we achieved OUR goal. Working together, we created a unique, action packed, efficiently organized, luxury vacation - with tremendous emphasis on sophisticated and exceptional accommodations, food and events.
From the beginning it was clear that you listened to, understood and always, prioritized OUR objectives. You made great recommendations, frequently after doing extensive research and due diligence. You were committed to dealing with the best providers and made sure that they fully understood the scope of their assignment. As a consequence we were always dealing only with top professionals, restaurants, tour guides, hotels and event coordinators.
More importantly, your
well conceived plan resulted in flawless execution enabling us to fully
maximize our time down under. In less than 3 weeks, we ended up
staying in 7 world class hotels, dining in 19 incredible restaurants,
taking 9 extensive (and personalized) tours, and attending 3 major
performances. We swam on reefs, walked on glaciers, watched a
sheep shearing, attended rugby grand finals in the Olympic stadium,
sampled an opera in the opera house, sky dove from 15000 feet, sampled
wine with one of the Barossa Valley's most gregarious (and generous)
owners, etc, etc, etc. In our tine down under we even exercised
vigorously and did some extraordinary shopping and touring of art
galleries and museums.
Our day on Kangaroo
Island was a great example of how your pre-planned, intricate
coordination worked so well. In a period of just over 9 hours, we
were picked up from the Adelaide Hyatt, brought to the charter section
of the airport, had our luggage stored, flown to the island, given a
privately guided tour (during which we had lunch, saw koalas, kangaroos,
wallabies and sea lions in the wild and petted koalas, kangaroos and
other animals "close up" in captivity), were chartered back to Adelaide,
transported to the main terminal, flown to Sydney, transported to the
Four Seasons, and then dined at one of Sydney's finest restaurant - EST.
Obviously, no time was wasted, anywhere. Ten different unrelated
companies and service providers worked together accommodating our busy
schedule. Everything was incredibly well coordinated and everyone
had contact information for everyone else. Clearly, this didn't
happen by accident!!! But, rather, as a result of your choosing
reliable professionals and insuring execution through persistent
follow-up.
Your absolute
dedication to all aspects of our trip was uncompromising. The
hours that you spent planning, organizing, discussing and revising our
itinerary (resulting in 7 versions, each over 13 pages in length),
created a trip, beyond comparison. The completeness of the final
itinerary insured that we had addresses, phone numbers, contacts, costs,
descriptions, time frames, and weather conditions. It also
providied the basis for a seamless transition for all participants in
our trip.
Although your level of
service was always "over the top", you were also extremely concerned
with cost effectiveness and insuring that we did not overpay. Your
suggestions regarding air fares, travel insurance, private vs standard
tours, always thoroughly evaluated cost/value relationships.
Without your guidance, we could never have achieved as much as we did,
or done it economically. Thank you!!!
We look forward to
working with you again in the near future. Please share this
letter with others considering utilizing your thorough and comprehensive
services.
Les
Zimmerman - Bethesda, MD - Dec 2006
I just want to
say that I travel a lot and have worked with several travel agents, and
you have been wonderful. I had a 3 month Europe trip go awry due to my travel
agent booking us into 2 wrong tours (one didn't go to the correct places and was shorter, and
the other was all ages versus the 18-34 tour we were supposed to be on). I know how hard it is
to get a good travel agent and I am thrilled with your service. Several of my law school
friends want to go to Australia for their "bar trip" (the month of August, after completing
the bar exam) and I will tell all of them to use you! I know I've been a little flighty in
deciding where/when to go, and that I had you do a lot of work on airfare only to buy it myself, and
that I pestered you with constant emails - I acknowledge and appreciate your patience in dealing
with me. Thanks again for
everything.
Nicholle Winters - New York NY - Feb 2007
Megan, I got back last
Tuesday night from our trip to New Zealand and Australia and I want to
thank you for putting together this marvelous itinerary. Over and over
as we were traveling around we commented on what a great agenda we had –
and so we were singing your praises often while “down under.” Everything
just worked so great and the pacing was beautiful. We thought the hotels
were good and the estimated driving times you gave were spot on. We had
perfect – and I do mean perfect – weather throughout the whole trip, so
that made it especially rewarding. The hotel in Sydney was a great, good
location, beautiful rooms with a marble bath and lovely kitchen and so
convenient to the train stations.
Diann Rohde, New York Sept 2007
2 words: Wonderful & Wonderful.
Your accommodation recommendations were excellent. We loved every spot.
Especially the Intercontinental with the lounge - thanks for highly
recommending that. That made for such an enjoyable experience. Same
with the Sofitel in Queenstown, King Fisher on Fraser Island, and the Rialto in
Melbourne. And the others were all excellent fits for the towns we
were in.
We were also very pleased with the # of days spent in each place, given
the amt of time we had. We really felt we were spending the right amt
of time in each place (given our time constraints obviously:)...thanks
again for that as well.
We truly had such wonderful experiences - from start to finish."
James Weinberg, New York, February 2007
Sharon! You Rock! I loved New Zealand. I wish I had booked my Australian vacation with you also but I had a wonderful time there as well. You planned the perfect vacation for the amount of time I was there. I want to thank you and Aspire Down Under for your service, attention to detail, and excellent advice. thank you!!!
Mack
Smith, Monterey Bay CA March, March 2007
Megan,
The trip was awesome. We thoroughly enjoyed your country and found nearly everything exceeded our expectations.
Qantas is an awesome airline. They really make all of North American
airlines look bad.
Balloons over Brisbane was incredible. We not only highly recommend them, but would use them solely for your clients. They were kind, courteous, and made our anniversary the best one to date. It was the highlight of an incredible trip.
Need I rave about the bridge climb? It was better than I could have expected.
The day trips were impeccably planned. The timing and pace of each trip
fit like a glove. We were afforded much time to explore the cities on
our own, but always felt confident in our exploration because we had a
city tour the first day we arrived in every city. This made it easy to
ask a driver questions and/or decide which part of the city we would like to explore.
Our trip to Tangalooma was fantastic. May I recommend for your clients
the free bush walk? When talking to a local he pointed it out to us. It
is only for your clients who can do moderate to heavy cardio activity,
but the views are worth it. We felt like we owned the island, because it
was so desolate.
Rottnest island was another highlight of our trip. The lazy boat road to Fremantle was enchanting, and created a great atmosphere to and from the island. We also recommend clients who visit Perth, to take a train on their own and spend a day in Fremantle. Like most other cities, they have a free bus system available for use.
Kangaroo island is fantastic. The wildlife and rock formations are one of a kind. We really enjoyed the camping style BBQ lunch because it fit in well with the entire theme of the island. We could have spent a few days there.
We used a lot of public transportation on our own, and found it not only easy and extremely accessible, but very affordable. We rode in planes, trains, taxis, shuttles, buses, boats, ferries, and trams.
We must close by telling you the trip was impeccably planned, and was made even better by the extremely hospitable hosts. We not only recommend your company to other clients, but this trip has become the impetus for us to move to Australia as permanent residents as soon as we are able. Thank you again for your professionalism and kindness. "Good on ya"
Adam
and Robin Francis, Fort Myers FL, June 2007
Shelley,
as you are aware Linda and I have just returned from our trip. We had an
excellent time and in no small measure it was due to your assistance,
planning and efforts. The rooms and all the services that you arranged
for were great. We would not hesitate to recommend your organization to
others. Thanks again for all of your assistance and guidance.
It was greatly appreciated.
Ken
and Linda, New York NY, October 2007
Hello Shelley,
I wanted to write and tell you that we had the most
fantastic trip. We did not have one moment's worry the
entire 2 weeks thanks to your exquisite planning. The
worst experience we encountered was having to wait 5
minutes for our hotel transport, and that was because
our flight arrived 25 minutes early..... All our hotels were more than we had
hoped for. All transfers and tours were on time and staffed by courteous
and knowledgeable drivers.
We are eager to return Down Under. Yours will be the
first, and only, number we will call for assistance in
planning our next trip.
Thanks again.
Tamara Talbott, Mary Dotson, Kimberly Kavanaugh,
Washington DC, October 2007
Shelley,
This email is LONG overdue! I just wanted to say thank you for planning our Australia trip last August! We had the time of our lives! Everything was fabulous from our seats on the plane to every hotel we stayed in and tour we took. The best part about the excursions you planned is that so many of them were so small. It was like we had our own personal tour guide everywhere we went. I also felt like everything I had mentioned to you was addressed, the whole vacation was exactly what we wanted. I definitely want to go back someday and when we do, Aspire Down Under is who we will call! Thanks for making the celebration of my husband graduating law school a success! We couldn't have done it without you and your advice and knowledge!
Thanks again!
Christie
Christie Tinker, Dallas, February 2008
Sharon, Your assistance really added to the quality of our visit to New Zealand.
Your guidance about where to go and your help in arranging domestic
flights within the country made a big difference. We liked the Brothers
Boutique Hotel in Dunedin that you selected: it had been a Christian
Brothers residence until remodeled 7 years ago. A far more elegant lodge is in Nelson, the Te Puna Wai Lodge, which was
beautiful and the two owners similarly helpful and friendly. Thrifty Car Rental was excellent. We discovered on Air New Zealand that what it calls "premium economy"
is in fact the same as Business Class, with all the advantages that means.
What they call Business Class is really first class (a category they do
not use) and differs from Premium Economy only in having flat beds. Same
flight attendants, same excellent food, china, linen, wine etc. So it's
helpful information to know what the labels translate to. Thank you for your help
Judith & Richard Rabkin, New York, March 2008
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