Ayse Boykin, PADI-Certified

Hello Ayse,

We had an absolutely terrific time! Everything went extremely well, and all of the arrangements were perfect. We LOVED the hotels you selected, especially JK Place. The people were so nice there. My room at the Hotel Splendide Royale was like the Taj Mahal. I could have run laps in it, it was so big! Of course Le Sirenuse was a big hit with everybody, and a great spot to rest. In Venice we ran into some friends of ours who were pulling their luggage through the streets to their hotel. We had the luxury of stepping out of our private water taxi into the lobby of the Hotel Monaco without having to handle our luggage at all. And what a view from our room of the Grand Canal!

The drivers and guides were almost flawless. I say almost because we did have some trouble with one who could not speak English but Alberta corrected the situation immediately. She called several times to check on us. The guides in Venice, Florence, and Rome were just fabulous. I especially liked Daniela Lippi, our guide in Florence, and wish that I had booked her for the entire day instead of only a half day. I may have to go back there and get the rest of her tour. We were driven in comfortable Mercedes the whole time and just were treated like queens.

We loved the dinner arrangements you made for us. To my regret we canceled our reservation at Don Alfonso in Sorrento because we had eaten and drunk wine to excess by the time we arrived in Positano and we were told it was a 40 minute taxi ride each way. As we were leaving for Rome at 8 the next morning, we decided it would be better to find a restaurant closer to our hotel. Now I certainly wish we had gone, but the others were too tired on that particular evening. Oh well..next time!

I hope your ears were ringing because we drank at least 2 toasts to you and sang your praises throughout the week for planning such an extraordinary trip for us. Several times we bypassed extremely long lines and went immediately to the entrance thanks to the guides that you had arranged. The line at the Vatican was unbelievably long, but we didn’t have to wait in it. Likewise, we didn’t have to wait in line to see Uffizi or David, or St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, and the lines at all those places were very long!

Many many thanks for your splendid arrangements. I’ll look forward to the next trip you plan for us, whenever that might be!!

Ayse,

I’m back from the Lighthouse Reef Resort. It was great and just what I was looking for (and more). The environment was great and so was the diving. The diving instructor had a special gig to take Leonardo De Caprio to the blue hole on Sunday and could not begin with us on Sunday. In the end, he came back early so we were able to squeeze in our 1st open water dive on Sunday afternoon. Plus we were also content to just relax on Sunday as well. We didn’t max out all the dives as a result, but that’s ok b/c I was getting maxed out by the end of the week anyway, so it really didn’t matter.

The instructor and dive masters were great and so were the seasoned divers with us. We went from completing our referral to a night dive then a 130+ dive in the blue hole. Thanks for all your help with this. I hope to follow up with another great trip in the next year.

Regards,