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Jewish Travel Since 1993
Toll-free
877-466-2934. Phone 727-254-4373 |
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Jewish Travel Since 1993
Toll-free
877-466-2934. Phone 727-254-4373 |
Clients Feedback
Joan and Morley B from Ontario, Canada, Jewish Heritage tour of Odessa, Ukraine, September 2009
Thank you for your message and excellent planning. Yes, we did not show up. We arrived at 2:30 pm. I had confused September 2 with Day 2 of the cruise--my responsibility entirely. However your contact in Odessa was wonderful and as it turned out, the next day she had a bus picking up 8 other people from another cruise ship. She agreed that we could go on it and we had a wonderful tour with a guide who told us to call her Dona. She is a 73 year old widow and not only did the tour, took all of us to a Kosher restaurant, shared out lunch and then took Morley and myself to a store where I could buy authentic Ukrainian crafts as opposed to Chinese imports and insisted on walking us back to our ship.
So all's well that ends well and I thank you for your assistance.
Arlene & Alan K. from CA, June 2009, Jewish tour of Helsinki - with cantor!
Hello Sophia
I have regards to you from the fascinating Andre. What a day we spent with him learning all about Helsinki's history, the cities major sites and of course the Jewish tour. The highlight was when we went to the synagogue and he sang a Finnish and Hebrew Song and ended with singing Happy Birthday to me in English, Finnish and Hebrew.
Thanks for arranging this spectacular day for us.
David N, CA, trip to Germany , Feb 2009
Dieter was a delight. He went the extra mile in setting up interviews and finding whatever traces of Jewish life we could in Roedelhem, Such a delightful man. I thank you greatly!
Arlene R from Toledo, OH June, 2008
Switzerland & Southern France (French Riviera).
This has been our second time booking with E & M Travel. Sophia has been an
excellent person to work with on our vacation plans, and we would continue to
work with her on future tours. We took a
Tauck guided tour of Switzerland. Our accommodations were superb, the
hotels were great and our tour guide, Karen was very knowledgeable about
Switzerland. My husband and I enjoyed beautiful scenery, lush mountains, and
interesting sites such as riding a cogwheel train up to the Mt. Matterhorn
(Teddy Roosevelt climbed), and Mt. Jungfraujoch, the Ice Palace (made out of a
glacier which we walked on). We visited many cities such as Zermatt, St. Moritz
(we viewed the most beautiful scenery), Interlaken, Bern, Lucerne and had a side
trip to Italy where we stayed at Lake Lugano. We had a beautiful balcony
overlooking the harbor. The Swiss trains are punctual and clean. We rode the
famous Glacier Express with big panoramic windows where we were able to view
waterfalls, tiny alpine villages and glaciers. We finished our tour in Lucerne
and traveled on a train to Basel, which we connected to the Basel airport by bus
(very easy to do) to catch an EasyJet plane to Nice. We spent time in Monaco. We
saw the market, palace, took a city tour, and the buses made it very easy to get
around Monaco. It is very hilly and there are lifts to take from different
levels which is helpful. In Nice we took a half day tour to Cannes (The film
festival area for the celebrities) and our tour guide took us to the synagogue
there. There was a Bat Mitzvah going on.
The Cannes synagogue was beautiful. We also saw Antibes (we drove along the beautiful coast and saw the harbor filled with big yachts and fine sandy beaches). Our last stop was St. Paul de Vence, a quaint village with narrow winding streets, vaulted alleyways, and shopping arcades. This village is noted for painters such as Marc Chagall. We returned to our hotel SAS Raddison where there was a wonderful pool on the roof overlooking the French Rivera beach.
We saw at Lake Lugano at the Dan Hotel there is a kosher restaurant. Also, in Nice add a Chez Arthur kosher restaurant to your list. It is a kosher meat restaurant located in the magician district. Not too far from the city centre. We also found Temple Israelite synagogue in this city centre district. There are 30,000 Jews living in Nice.
Our trip was wonderful and we thank Sophia for helping us arrange these fine places and working on the fine details to make it an enjoyable trip for us.
A group of students from Brooklyn, NY, Shakespeare trip to London, April 2008
This was the second year that
Sophia booked our trip to London and Stratford upon Avon for a group of eleven
students studying Shakespeare. Of course, we returned to Sophia because of her
professional and efficient abilities. Planning school group trips is hard
because there are so many different demands -- but Sophia was amazingly patient
and compliant throughout. The trip was a huge success - the students
learned a lot and had a wonderful time at the sites and with the guides. I
would recommend Sophia to any student group -- she does all the legwork. Once
again, thank you!
Trip to
London Students group report
Yael
Jo-Anne from CA . Kosher B&B in Rome, September, 2007
Thank you so much for finding us this VERY nice accommodation in Rome. We have had an excellent stay here - and the huge room and bathroom, plus the very comfortable communal area with balcony contributed to the enjoyment of our stay in Rome. Eva's husband told us that you had been insistent on the phone with them that we were were to get the best room - and we did! And so I wanted to thank you for taking care of us and also to let you know that this is a very good place to recommend to other clients. It is so conveniently located near the Metro stop and we have enjoyed being out of the tourist area - we have a relative sanctuary to retreat to after a day of sightseeing.
We would love to use you to help plan and organize our future trip.
Michael and Jan B., IL, trip to Russia, September 2007
Dear Sophia,
My husband
and I very much appreciate all your efforts to make our trip to
Your help in the planning of our trip was indispensable.
Thank you for your advice and for all the important information you passed on to
us. We will highly recommend you to friends!
Sincerely yours,
Lejfer Family Heritage trip to Lithuania, Ukraine and Central Europe, July 2007 - Read this incredible story.
Group of 12 people from NJ, private cruise excursions in Turkey (Jewish Istanbul), Bucharest and Sochi (Black Sea), July 2007
I just wanted to thank you for organizing such great guided tours for us. We really enjoyed every one of the guides. However, I did want to specifically site the guide and treatment we got from Mehmet in Istanbul. Their treatment and response was incredible and exceptionally professional. We will definitely recommend them to our friends in the future. Their guide, Ami, was excellent, knowledgeable, accommodating and exceedingly pleasant.
Abe
We thoroughly enjoyed our incredible voyage visiting such ports of great interest and historical significance along the Black Sea. The tours that you arranged for us were outstanding and the guides were extremely well versed, knowledgeable, and most accommodating. It truly made our trip most enjoyable and memorable. I want to thank you for all of your efforts in creating such a wonderful experience for our group. I will certainly recommend your agency to others and look forward to working with you again in planning future excursions.
Best regards, Joy
Michael and Rosann Petrizzi. from NY, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Paris June 2007
Hi Sophia,
Our trip was wonderful with much credit and thanks to you. I apologize for not
getting in touch with you sooner; but, in any event, everything went extremely
well.
FYI: *The London people were excellent in correcting the Prague transfer.
* Drivers were prompt, professional, and courteous.
* Your idea of plane + train transfer (as opposed to just train) was great.
*Even beyond the weak dollar, Zurich prices are off the charts (Ex: $34 for 1
coffee and 2 expresso)
* I agree w a Fodor's review that 2 star accommodations in Prague are a step or
two below 2 star accomodations in most other European countries.
* Our Prague tours wound up as personal ones as we were the only clients-lucky
us!
* The Museum of Communism in Prague is terrific. The fact it's located in a
tourist area (next to a Mc Donald's) shouldn't deter people with a bent towards
this topic.
I thnk the best compliment I can pay you, Sophia, is that you were able
to sense our needs and accomodate accordingly-all via phone and email!
I have recommended you with great enthusiasm to others and will be in touch when it's time for our next trip. Thanks again. Michaels almost a necessity as the hotel sits on top of the mountain between Levanto and Monterosso – taxi’s can take you to the cities for about 15 Euros each way.
Student Yeshiva group from Brooklyn, NY for a Shakespeare trip to London , December 2006
Dear Sophia,
Thank you for the really wonderful job that you did arranging all of the details
for our England Shakespeare trip. The itinerary was thoughtfully planned out and
we had wonderful guides in all the places that we visited. My students learned
tons about Shakespeare and London through first-hand visits and experiences.
Your hard work and patience definitely made the trip a success!
Yael
Mr. & Mrs. H.E, NJ , June 2006 Private Jewish Heritage Tour to Turkey
First we'd like to thank your for making all the arrangements, and for making sure that we had good guides who were able to enhance the experience. We had a very good trip. Turkey is a remarkable place for tourists- it has just about everything one would want- history, entertainment, spectacular scenery, friendly people, good weather and more. We were very happy that we finally made the trip- we were thinking about it for a long time.
Every city we visited had something different to offer us, and we took advantage of all we could. Our days were packed with things to do all day. We returned back to the hotel tired but happy. We especially enjoyed Ephesus and Cappadocia. We had no idea how interesting these places could be. Our guides were very good, accommodating and willing to makes changes we desired, and you can inform Mr. Dervis of this. Sardis was so-so. We especially were happy to have Jewish guides in Istanbul and Izmir. Since they were knowledgeable about the Jewish communities and synagogues, we were able to visit many synagogues and places of Jewish interest in both cities. Without them we would never have gotten into the synagogues since security is very tight and people just cannot arrive unannounced and expect to be allowed in to visit them.
The only thing I would change in the itinerary was our visit to Ankara. Although our half -day tour was interesting and we did get a glimpse of Ankara, the 4-hour boring drive to Cappadocia from there was too much. It would have been better to skip Ankara and fly from Istanbul early in the AM directly to Cappadocia (Kayseri airport). We would then still have 1 1/2 days in Cappadocia, which is sufficient to see everything and would have cut out 1 day from the trip. Our guide in Cappadocia was also very good.
Our hotel in Istanbul was great. We arrived to Istanbul in the PM and our room overlooked the city. All the mosques and other buildings were lighted and the scene was breathtaking. It also was a very nice, very well run hotel. Breakfast was outstanding. The hotel in Izmir was fair- acceptable. However the cave hotel in Cappadocia was not satisfactory. It certainly was not a 4 star hotel- not by a long shot. The experience of sleeping in a cave was interesting but we could have easily missed the experience. The breakfast was stingy. The personnel, however, were very nice and accommodating.
One thing we'd like to add for your information when you book other tourists on trips to Turkey. We did not want to carry too much cash so we used ATM machines, and they were available, albeit one had to search for them. We also took American Express traveler's checks, and that was a disaster. We were unable, for some mysterious reason, to cash them anywhere we visited in Turkey. Even the banks did not accept them. We cashed some in our first hotel (at a poor rate) but the other hotels would not cash them or would only if they charged an exorbitant. However, we might have been able to pay for large purchases with checks. If you pay in US dollars you get a better rate than if you pay by credit cards. Very few places take American Express- Visa or Mastercard are preferred.
Thanks again for your effort in putting the trip together. We know it took a lot of work on your part. It was a pleasure working with you again.
Steve J., family of 4, Jewish Heritage trip to Latvia and Lithuania., June 2006
The trip was great. We looked forward to everyday and were never disappointed. Yulik was amazing. He made the trip a journey of a lifetime for all of us. His passion for guiding and sharing is something that was contagious. He is extremely resourceful and truly loves what he does. We were very fortunate to have him with us for this trip.
Helene W. sent her parents and friends on a trip of lifetime to Eastern Europe in Israel . July, 2006
Roberta & Baruch K. , Aug 2005 FL, Private tour of Russia
We are back from Russia, where we had a great time.
I would first like to thank you for all your help.
the trip was AMAZING and we all had a wonderful time.
St. Petersburg is a beautiful city -- Peter the Great can be proud! And the
Hermitage is an amazing place. (But you need a month and strong legs to see
everything!)
We liked the Alexander Hotel
very much: small, very cozy, with a very attentive staff. Excellent for our
needs. We had 2 rooms right near each
other facing the street.The staff was most courteous and the breakfasts were
wonderful. They lent us a computer for the entire time and it was very helpful
for us to stay in contact with the states. The hotel was a 10 minute walk from
the synagogue and the restaurant. In all it was a wonderful place for us to
stay.
Moscow is not "pretty" but it is very, very interesting, and a major world capital. Both cities deserve to be visited -- and I'm delighted that we did not destroy them during the Cold War! The Novotel on Novoslobodskaya was a good choice. We took the overnight train to Moscow -- it was a very good experience that I would recommend to tourists who wish to travel between those two cities. Much more fun than another airplane ride. I would do it again. Also: I took George's advice and ate "a peach from the market" (those were his words to me) and I must report that it was excellent/delicious! So thanks for the advice, and for your excellent service. Best regards
Jack R, FL, Jewish Heritage tour from Port of Odessa, Ukraine
Diane B, NYC, 4 people , private trip to Russia, Sept 2005
We had a wonderful time. I found the cities, people, food, etc all very inviting. Our guides were friendly and knowledgeable. With the exception of the Armory tour mishap, the trip went without a hitch. The weather was very agreeable too. I only lament that we did not have more time to see more of the sites :) Given the opportunity, I would most certainly go back
Jacqueline D, September, 2005. Group of 10 people from Australia. Stayed at Beaune, France, Hotel Hostellerie Le Cedre
The hotel in Beaune Le Cedre was fantastic. Thanks for your help with booking this hotel. The staff were very friendly, the location perfect and the hotel facilities were great
Ester H., August, 2005. Trip to Lithuania
I have not replied to you sooner, we had a wonderful trip. The guide is Vilna was not who you had assigned but it was a lovely woman name Tamar, she was great and it was a fantastic experience. Thank you for all your help. Esther
John P, UK, August 2005, Da Vinci Code Tour, Paris
The tour was very good especially in the Louvre as I don’t think without Delphine you could put together the scene of the murder etc.
Arlene from OH, June 2005, Paris, Rome and
Central Europe.
(Editor's note: Alex is in Prague - our local support office)
I would like to share our trip with you. It was fantastic. You did a nice and thorough job planning for us. Let's start with Paris. Adventure tours, we had an Evening illumination cruise which was lovely. The next day we had a full day tour for three of us.
Now eastern Europe. You did a nice job planning our trip. The hotels were fine, the transfers were almost fine. The sightseeings were almost fine too. The drivers all met us at the stations and picked us up okay except in Prague. It was pouring rain. We waited for the driver who never showed up at the train station. We tried to call Alex. We ended up taking a taxi to the Ramada. Alex did reimburse us for the taxi. This was the only bad problem with our transportation.
In Budapest July 5 our tour guide never showed. We called Alex many times. So, we bought a Budapest card and went on the metro and trolley to the Gellert baths. The next day Alex found us a tour. This was fine. We enjoyed Budapest.
In Vienna, more rain. We went to the Schrombrunn castle, toured the Vienna Opera House. We also were surprised when we got to our hotel to see your thoughtfulness. You sent my husband a bottle of wine and a nice note for his birthday. Thank you. We went out for my husband's birthday to the Strauss Musical with some ballet. Afterwards, next door was the Strauss restaurant and had a fine dinner. We celebrated birthday with Strauss in Vienna. Also, did some shopping in the rain.
Prague we enjoyed very much. Alex knew our schedule very well. He was nice to work with. We just had a few time schedule problems.
You sent us good information before we left on the cities, currency, and language information. Thank you it was helpful. We enjoyed your plans and would use your travel service again if we took another vacation. We would also inform other people of your services. We were glad you sent us Alex's cell number and numbers. We needed to use them. I enjoyed working with you.
Norman and Adele A., NJ, August 2004, Private tour of Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg)
Thanks to you and your organizations our trip to Russia was without equal. Everything was organized perfectly and Adele and I will be happy to recommend E&M Travel and Interactive Russia in the future.
Just one thought. We were not comfortable with the night train between the two cities. An airplane trip would have worked better especially since we were unable to sleep on the train and when we arrived in St. Petersburg we had to sit in the lobby from 6:00 am to 10:00 am because no room was available. Saving a night's hotel wasn't worth losing the night's sleep.
We thought the Radisson Hotel in St. Petersburg worked well. Our room was fine(heated tiles in the bathroom), its location is excellent, and the price was fair. The National in Moscow, of course, is one of the best.
We were highly impressed with the Interactive Russia staff. The guides in both cities were outstanding and the drivers most professional. They did everything they could to make our trip enjoyable. Elana, Anna and Svetlana were a delight. Thanks much for your help to make our trip a success.
Gary and Diana G. from MD, Family of 5, 3 generations. Heritage Trip to Lithuania and Poland, June 2004
Our trip overall was wonderful. The guide in Vilnius, Yulik, was fabulous! He was so knowledgeable and so accommodating that our stay in Vilnius was as perfect as we could imagine. The Hotel Conti was also fabulous. The accommodations and staff were simply wonderful. I think the hotel deserves more stars and Yulik is an absolute treasure!
We had a very nice guide in Krakow though he wasn't the one that you arranged originally. Apparently there was a last minute switch. The guide's name was Pawel (I have the last name at home). One difference between our experience in Vilnius and Krakow is that the tours with Pawel did not include any entrance fees which I thought should have been included as they were in Vilnius. Was I mistaken? I also had the impression that, although he was obviously very knowledgeable about facts in Krakow, he seemed less experienced with the whole process.
The pension in Szczawnica was ok. Perhaps I expected more luxury for the price. The sheets didn't really cover the mattresses which were old and unattractive. However, the owner was very nice and the breakfasts were good. My mother and father did the raft ride with us and it was outstanding. We had a terrific time in the town and found LOTS of relatives.
Budapest was a beautiful city and reminded me of Paris. I would like to go back someday without my parents so that we could explore more of the city.
Thank you for all your help in making our travels to eastern Europe a great experience.
With best regards,
Diana
We loved the trip. My mother did great. Hope I have her energy and stamina when I am 86.
As promised, I will give you some specific feedback to help your future clients.
Prague is drop dead gorgeous. Just a fabulous city to visit. Budapest is also a fine city but does not have the city center walk and gorgeous architecture of Prague. The people in both countries were for the most part very friendly and good to be around.
Otto (a private guide in Budapest) did his job most professionally. He is very Americanized after living in US for 30 years. He is a slick entrepreneurial guy. He was very punctual. You can recommend him without reservation. We give him an A.
Both of his guides were adequate. We would score them a B. Adequate but not memorable and several notches down from the guides we experienced with Abercrombie and Robinson. The guy guide, Valentine, did not have much of a personality and spoke very softly but a very nice young man. The gal was a motor mouth and talked nonstop. Very knowledgeable but after hearing a zillion dates and stats, you would rather get a sense of the dynamics of the history. Nevertheless, we are pleased we chose the tours we selected. Every site was memorable. Perhaps the Spanish synagogue and cemetery in Prague were the most memorable sites but Parliament in Budapest was awesome also. On our own, we saw the ethnography museum in Budapest which is highly recommended.
One suggestion for future clients: From Hotel Julis you do not need any transportation from the castle tour back to center of Prague because it is a short walk from castle to Charles Bridge and from there, the hotel is 10 minutes. The driver never showed up going and we took a taxi. Going back, we walked so we wasted money arranging for the transportation.
Food. Highlight restaurant among many fun bistros was a Russian place down the street a few hundred meters from the Hilton in Budapest. Incredible comfort, service, wonderful food. Wines were adequate in Hungary not memorable and simply awful in Prague. Stick to the superb beer there, at half the cost of bottled water!
Weather. Except for one cold rainy day in Prague, the weather was fine for walking around. Low 60s...perfect walking around weather.
Hotel selections: We loved both hotels. Julis in Prague has a fabulous location and is very modern. The staff and receptionists are rather cold and unhelpful but the place is spotless with every modern convenience including free internet in the lobby reception area. You can walk everywhere from there. The Hilton in Budapest does NOT have a convenient location. I recommend stay on the Pest side where all the major sites and shops and restaurants are except for the castle. You need taxis to get anywhere. However, the staff is wonderful. Very, very helpful, friendly and welcoming. Could not be nicer. The hotel is equal to any Four Seasons. Very beautiful in a 13th centrury castle site. Views are spectacular and again, the rooms have every convenience. We loved it....especially with breakfasts in the VIP lounge which also had gorgeous views.
In summary, this trip was totally successful. We got to see what we wanted to see and walked both cities every day. The time in both cities was just about right but did not leave time for excursions to outside destinations.
The score of A+ goes to you. We are grateful for your attention to us as your clients as well as your handling of the many details that go into planning a trip. We look forward to a long and successful association with you and George and be assured that we will call upon you first for any and all of our travel plans.
Bye for now and again many thanks
Paul Z. , a family from California, Jewish Heritage trip to Latvia and Lithuania, May 2004:
I just sat down to send you a thank you for a very well planned trip. It was great. We enjoyed all the hotels, and their locations in the various cities! The Selters visit was perfect! We were met by Mr. Leyendecker and other people in the town, including the mayor and vice-mayor, all of whom had stories about my family!
Lev & Marina K. from CT. June 2003, trip to Turkey and Israel.
I'm happy returning back to the
US. The trip was better than Marina expected (she was afraid of going to
Israel).
In fact, the first part (Limra hotel, Kemer,
Antalya) was nice. I would recommend this hotel/resort to people who want to
relax and forget about everything. The sea beach is good enough (no sands, but a
lot of tents and beach chairs), and the sea is wonderful. Food is good enough
too - for many different tastes. The hotel is 50 km from AYT, and the taxi costs
60-80 euro. The Turkish agency (Novista) promised to provide local
transportation between AYT and the hotel, but they did not keep this promise.
There were a lot of tourists from Russia there, so if somebody wants to speak to
'real' Russians, this place is worth visiting.
The second part (Dan Panorama hotel, Haifa) was
also good enough. We did not expect anything extraordinary from this part. The
situation in Israel was relatively calm, and the weather was hot.
BTW, the I(nternational) C(omfort) hotel (~1 km
from AYT) is very comfortable, so if somebody wants to stay close to the Antalya
airport, this hotel is the best choice.
The only problem was Turkish Airlines itself.
It seems like they don't obey the schedule, so the passengers may wait for hours
without being provided with any reliable information. You are relatively lucky,
if you are waiting inside the terminal, because the air conditioning works good
enough there. If the flight is delayed after the boarding is completed, and you
are waiting inside the plane, you may think about Nazi gas chambers - no air
conditioning before the plane takes off, and the outside temperature is near 100
F.
In the whole, the trip was successful. Thank
you very much for your help ! Please, send our thanks to Mehmet Dervis. The air
tickets and the hotel voucher arrived in time.
Seymour F. from Maryland. Grand Hotel Michellaci, and Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittorio, Sorrento, Italy, April 2003
The total trip was excellent. The Passover portion worked out perfectly. The hotel @ Gabicci Mare was very lovely as was the staff. It is a very pretty town and was not crowded quite yet. The price for this portion of the trip was half of what is offered by other Passover tours. In spite of this and my worst fears, the food was very good and plentiful. The drive to Sorrento was uneventful until we got to Naples. The lady @ the hotel @ Gabicci Mare had told us it was a holiday weekend. We did not understand what this entailed. Of course I believe it is always a holiday weekend in Italy. I have never seen traffic or drivers like the drivers trying to get out of Naples that day. Each driver seemed intent on cutting me off. However I survived this jam and eventually got to my palace in Sorrento. I have been in many fine hotels but I thought the Excelsior Vittoria is superior to all of them. It was worth the extra $, particularly since you obtained such an excellent rate. The next day we decided to drive down to Positano. Another drastic error for all of the reasons listed above. However, we survived this trip and determined not to repeat this error. I parked my car amongst the garden parking lot and determined not to even think of moving it again. We found that there are boats plying the placid waters between Naples and all points South . We used the boats and public transportation for the rest of our tour. We are trying to reduce our luggage so that next year we can use the train system in lieu of renting a car. I did not leave a tip for Rafi the tour guide for Masserat @ Gabicci Mare. I would like to be able to send him a gratuity . I thought that Masserat did an excellent job. We very much enjoyed the young Rabbi Jonathan, that was in charge. The food and the service were both excellent. We thank you for your help with this trip and look forward to using your services again.
Mark L. from Baltimore, Europe, May 2001
Thanks for the "Jewish information"- I know it will come in handy ! You have been so wonderful to work with, it has been a real pleasure and we thank you for everything. I will be giving your number to my niece and nephew who will be traveling to Italy in July.
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