Totally Spain Customer testimonials

Belen, You are the best! In another of my many lives, I was a travel agent in the USA for many years, 1984-1996. I did leisure and corporate travel. Therefore, I can with some authority say you made our trip.

You are the expert and our trip was absolutely perfect. You did not make the weather great but you could have been blamed, so take the compliment on even the weather.

The accommodations and the upgrade in Santiago was such a nice surprise. Please let me know if I can ever be of any help to you.

Just a few lines to say thank you very much for the holiday recommendation you gave us. The Paradors, and hotels you recommended were top class and couldn't be faulted in any way. The places we went to and visited were "real Spain" as we were looking to experience. From the winding narrow streets of Carmona, the Ocean views and lovely shops of Cadiz, the country side and towns of Extremadura, numerous lovely churches, Roman remains at Merida to the Palace and Cathedral at Seville.

The organisation for each place we stayed, collecting the hire car and everything else went perfectly. Your paperwork, maps and leaflets were also of great assistance in making our stay go as smoothly as possible.

Thanks again for providing us with such a lovely holiday and we are in the process of recommending you and your company to our friends as they ask how our holiday went 

We so much enjoyed our trip to Spain. You were extremely helpful and have an excellent knowledge of the region. Thank you very much or all of the wonderful arrangements and recommendations. We plan to go to Valencia for the America's Cup sail race and will contact you then.  I will highly recommend you to any and all my friends planning a trip to Spain.

Just a short note to express my thanks for the arrangements you made for my wife and I for our stay in Northern Spain.

Property TBC14 was ideal both in location and accommodation and Amia was the perfect hostess. The two days in the Parador at Limpias was the icing on the cake. Everything proceeded smoothly and the maps etc you provided were excellent especially the translation sheets for the food. All in all a brilliant two weeks. Thanks again

My wife and I have just returned from our happy holiday to Spain (and Portugal). All the arrangements you made were excellent: the hotels were comfortable and in the right part of the various towns, so that it was easy to visit the sights. We were particularly impressed by AC Hotels, with the Palacio de San Esteban in Salamanca being our

favourite. The view from our room to the two cathedrals was magnificent. The paperwork and guides you provided were also most helpful.

Thank you once more for all your work. We hope to visit again, although probably not for about another three years, when we will certainly be in touch. Meanwhile, we are recommending you to all our friends.

Dear Alfonso,

Our trip was absolutely wonderful. Thanks so much for making the best arrangements. The hotels you chose were well located, comfortable, clean, and attractive.  We thanked you many times as we traveled around your beautiful, friendly, unique country.  We put 1400 kilometers on our little Toyota Corolla.  You would have laughed watching us drive (my first time in 20 years driving a manual transmission car).  We learned a lot about Spanish street signs, one-way streets, traffic, traffic circles, speed, drivers' gestures, etc.

Please forward this email to your boss and tell him how grateful we are for making our trip the best it could be and for keeping the cost affordable for us. We will highly recommend you to anyone who asks us about our trip to Spain.

We are back home and wanted to thank you for your efforts in arranging accommodation for us in Spain.Everything went very well and your maps and general information were a great help in finding our way around. Each of the properties offered us a different perspective on Spain and each gave us a different experience.

We loved the “north coast” and would like to come back again and explore further west. This time we did not travel further west than Bilbao. We really enjoyed San Sebastian and would love to come back and stay in the town at some stage. We explored many of the small fishing villages along the coast, had some great meals and took lots of photos.

The Rioja and the township of Laguardia was superb. We enjoyed staying in the village and loved the local wine. Lezama was a real surprise. The country reminded us more of Switzerland and the accommodation was first class. The owner is a superb chef, which meant that we enjoyed dinner there on both nights. Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum were fantastic.

To then finish with the superb hotel at Hondarribia was perfect. Great views, and a classy town with lots of restaurants. We then headed to France and then home through London.

We are not sure how soon we will be back in your part of the world but we will certainly contact your company when we are planning our next trip.

Hello Ken

Just had to write to say thank you for arranging our holiday in spain this year it was wonderful and the choice and range of the hotels you recomended was exactly right.

The two nights we spent at fuente de were very good with a room with a view of the picos from our balcony perfect. Graeme and Mari made us really welcome at the Casa Zalama. Laguardia was interesting as we arrived on the last day of a fiesta with a bull run through the streets.

Thanks again it was a great holiday

Dear Belen,

It was truly a trip of a lifetime! Everyone loved the variety of the hotels and the locales.

Thank you so much for the varied experience and for helping with our budget. We had had a difficult winter as my husband was sick and this truly was a memorable family trip.

Dear Belen

Thank you so much for the wonderful job you did with booking the hotels and car for our trip. We had a great time and were able to enjoy every city we visited.  Your choice of hotels was perfect. Each was in a location that gave us access to all of the sights we wanted to visit. The staff members at every place we stayed were friendly and helpful.

I would be VERY happy to recommend you and Totally Spain to anyone who wishes to travel to Spain.

Thank you again for making our trip a great one!

We've just returned from our visit to Andalusia and we had a wonderful time.

I'd just like to thank you for the effort it must have taken to put together the detailed information you provided. I've never received such a comprehensive set of instructions,  maps and guides - they made the whole trip so much easier. The hotels you recommended were excellent, especially the Paradores in Ronda and Carmona, and all were ideally located.

We hope to return to Spain again in 2007 for a similar fly/drive holiday and we'll certainly book through Totally Spain again.

Dear Ken,

We had a great time. Everything worked seamlessly. Thanks for making us stay in Vejer de la Frontera. The hotel was great (very unusual layout as you probably know) with a really good restaurant. The local bars were also good. Will be looking at possibly Madrid around easter so will contact you then.

Dear Ken,

I just wanted you to know that the vacation you suggested and booked was great.  My wife and I enjoyed the accommondation and cities immensely.  I will say that Plasencia is not as nice overall as Salamanca or Avila, but the parador there was outstanding.  Thank you so much for making my vacation so much easier and stress free.  The information you provided for each city and translation materials was great.

Dear Totally Ken:

Thank you so much for all your help and guidance with our trip. All your arrangements went without a single hitch, and we were constantly appreciative of your thoughtful, careful planning.  You should know that our new nickname for you is "Totally Ken," a moniker which was invoked many times in gratitude!

We were extremely happy with everything you did to make this trip a reality.  We would work with you again in a heartbeat.  In fact, our parents are planning a trip to Spain some time in the next few years, and we will definitely recommend that they ask for your help in planning the trip.

Dear Belen,

Just a short note to thank you for the wonderful hotels you booked for us. We really enloyed our short, but fun filled five days in Euskadi! We were very impressed with the leisurely pace of life and the wonderful food.

We hope to return again sometime and stay for longer and maybe include the Rioja region next time!

Once again thank-you for all your time and advice and of course we have spread the name totallyspain.com to all of our friends!!

Dear Belen

Many thanks for the info pack which we have now received for our trip at the end of this month. I am impressed. In fact overall, I am quite impressed with your service. You seem to have arranged us an excellent itinerary and booked us very good accomodation well suited to our needs, and it cost us very little effort - which is important to me. You have my thanks, and my congratulations on a very good service.

On a lighter note I must remember that we haven't visited any of the hotels yet, and if the weather isn't superb I just might hold you personally accountable!

But seriously, I have been very pleased by your service in setting up our trip so well, and the info pack has added considerably to our anticipation and our preparation.

Dear Ken

Just to say that we had a great trip to Andalucia and everything went very smoothly.

We particularly liked the Paradores at Arcos, Granada and Carmona (the views at Ronda were great too).

We appreciated the fact that you had taken the hassle out of all the booking for us, including seemingly making it clear that we were a family - that our rooms were always close to each other (in Sevilla we even had connecting rooms.  We also used virtually all of the information that you sent to us.

The maps of each town were really useful and the other leaflets covered a lot of what we ended up wanting to see.  I was especially pleased that you included the leaflet on the Arabic Baths (Hamman) in Granada because I am a sucker for such things. Unfortunately we did not make it to Jerez or Cordoba but there is always a 'next time'.

So thanks for helping us organise our introductory holiday to Spain.  We will be back!

Dear Belen

Just wanted to thank you for all of the arrangements you made for us. Everything worked out great and we were able to make good use of the packet you left for us at the Europa hotel.  The vouchers were all acknowleged with no problems and things went smoothly.  We enjoyed our visit to Spain.

Dear Ken

We wanted to let you know that our trip to Spain in October was outstanding. We appreciated all that you did for us to make the trip enjoyable.

I apologize for being so late in expressing our appreciation but we had a great time and it was due to your suggestions of where to stay and what to see. We are "veteran" travelers and the organization of this trip was extremely well done.

Belen

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond!  Our wedding and honeymoon were wonderful.  Thank you so much for organizing the Spain portion of the trip.

Everything went smoothly and your recommendations were right on the money!  We loved our hotels in Sanlucar de la Barrameda, Seville, and Granada. We especially loved La Cazalla.  What a lovely place.  We ended up having dinner there both nights, and it was marvelous!

We've already been recommending you to many of our friends!

Many thanks for your help and finding us our lovely accommodation. We have just returned from Cadaques after having a super time. Everything went like clockwork and the travel plans were exactly right. The weather was warm - just right for us as we were able to explore the area. The Cap de Creus was stunning. One problem, however - the week just flew past and we wished we had booked two!!! Thanks again for you help.

Dear Ken

We've been back from our trip for 12 days, but I only now have time to write to thank you. We enjoyed Spain immensely. The trip was aided so much by your thoughtful attention to detail and to our concerns.

Each of the hotels was terrific - small, comfortable and perfectly located. The Begur hotel was especially wonderful, for the beautiful suite, the wonderful restaurant, and the magnificent Clara.

I especially appreciated your thoughtfulness in calling both before and after the drive to Barcelona to make sure it had gone well.  Actually, Joan had given me excellent advice as to roads,  and it turned out to be a Spanish national holiday, so traffic was quite light.

As you know, even the weather cooperated in giving us a splendid trip, and I only wish I could find travel advisors as knowledgeable and helpful wherever I travel.

We have just returned from the visit which you planned for us, to Muxica to see our friends, then along the camiño frances by Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Castrojeriz, Carrizo de la Ribera, Guitiriz and to Santiago; what a trip! It was a most memorable holiday, and very special. Thank you very much. You also organised the most splendid weather for us ! We particularly enjoyed the lovely welcome we got from Avelina and Angel in Castrojeriz; they are one of the best advertisements that Spain could ever have. We also very much enjoyed the Posada del Marques, but had the minor complication that the cook was on honeymoon, so there were no evening meals available. Very luckily there is one decent restaurant in Carrizo, where they looked after us very well, though our lack of Spanish was a challenge; but the loss of dining in a hotel in a community with so few tourist facilities was almost a problem. We were very impressed with the sheer thoroughness of your support for us; we knew where we were going, how to do it with the maps you provided - though as we are map addicts, we did buy some extra ones - we were grateful for the menu guide, and we had a marvellous time. We are singing your praises as we enthuse about the holiday. Thank you again.

We had a great trip, thanks in large part to the plans you made for us. The lodgings were welcoming, with warm and helpful hosts, and most in excellent locations for exploring. The countryside in the Basque and Rioja-Alaveysa regions was beautiful, and the brochures and guide info you sent gave us lots of options for planning our days. We had very little trouble driving around thanks to the excellent maps you sent (the only problem was Madrid, but not for lack of maps!). And the Menu translation guide was invaluable! If we were to change anything, it would probably be the length of our stays in the Basque area inns, we could probably have done with only two days each in Sojo and Aia. I'm glad we decided to include a parador, the one at Lerma is beautiful and luxurious. The city hotels in Barcelona and Madrid were so well situated that we could walk out the door and immediately be on our way to major destinations. The hostess at Hotel Larrain went out of her way to provide us with options and called to make our booking at El Fabulista bodega. I'm sorry we missed seeing you in Vitoria, we could have used some help finding our way out of the city! We actually ended up on the route over the mountains and really enjoyed the view coming over into the Rioja valley, so it worked out better that we didn't get on the major highway. One place we stumbled upon in Vitoria was the San Vicente Tower, the guide took us up the tower to enjoy the view, and then we got to walk into the space between the cathedral ceiling and the roof to see the structural beams that upheld the ceilings- fascinating! Thanks for your guidance in planning, all the touring information and for the excellent lodging and rental car arrangements. You facilitated all the details, and that gave us the freedom to enjoy the days at our own pace and based on our niclinations. I would certainly recommend your services to others who enjoy travelling independently.

Just to let you know we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Spain & we were very happy with all the arrangements you made & we were very impressed with the thoroughness of the instructions on how to get from San Sebastian to Comillas & the apartment (they were very useful, especially returning to Bilbao airport when the fastest route was the one we needed). We were also very impressed with the whole pack you supplied & enjoyed reading & exploring the area around Comillas based on some of your recommended routes. The apartment was exactly as you described & although there was some noise it was no more than expected at a holiday resort of this type & it was not very busy in general so we have no complaints at all about the apartment. In fact we thought it was in very good condition & very spacious ... the boys certainly enjoyed the kiddies pool !!! Thanks again as I am sure the effort & attention to detail you put in helped us relax get as much out of the holiday as we wanted.

Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it. It has been a pleasure to deal with a company so customer focused. You have answered all my questions and queries (and there have been a few) promptly and in full. That has been a big help for me and my wife when it has come to making decisions about this holiday.

We arrived home last week and I wanted to thank you for your help in arranging our holiday in Spain. The Madrid hotel was in an excellent location and although only 1.5 days there we had a great time in Madrid. We managed to see the Prado, Thyssen and Palace Real (all of them great highlights), as well as hopping on and off the tourist buses (I'd suggest you push the bus for people only spending a short time in Madrid - especially the ticket which includes museum admissions).

My wife picked up a Lladro and some killer heel shoes so she was doubly happy. I can thoroughly recommend the Golf Guadalmina - provided people have a hire car, to get to Marbella for dining and shopping. We had 2 dinners at Guadalmina and, frankly, they were the best meals we had in 2 months through Europe. Golf Guadalmina is in a beautiful setting and our balcony looked over a couple of holes, down towards Gibraltar and Morocco. The pool and beach areas are very pleasant and quite peaceful.

Nerja was just the most beautiful place, with its narrow lanes, white-washed buildings and elevations above the sea. The Parador enjoys a great location, with the most fantastic views. By the time we reached the Costa Del Sol, we'd been on the go for 6 weeks and we were both well and truly ready for a very laid-back beach/ book rest, with just a bit of shopping and dining thrown in. Both places we stayed at were very good. So, thanks for your help - there's not much available in Australia and you’re advice was very good; particularly the location advice in Madrid.

Just back to work this morning - what joy. We had a fantastic holiday and all went to plan. It´s hard to pick out a favourite spot as we saw so much and the places we stayed were so varied. We particularly enjoyed our stays in Lanciego and in San Pelayo and meeting the personalities there. Hondaribbia was also very enjoyable and then there was Cudillero .... I could go on. Its just a pity it all had to end. We'd definitely do it again though might limit ourselves to a smaller area the next time and will recommend you to anyone who mentions going to Spain. Thanks for all your help.

I just wanted to express my thanks for arranging such a marvellous holiday for myself and Craig. Spending 2 nights in Madrid and Marbella worked a treat and it all went perfectly for us! In all destinations the accommodation was ideal; the arrangements worked perfectly, our only problem was, as you know, with the first night as we believed that the ferry was going to take 28 hours, not 36! Anyway, this email is really to thank you and the team for all of your help, we would certainly recommend you guys and would use you again!

Yet again Liz and I would like to thank you for your recommendations and arrangements enabling us to have another superb holiday in Spain.

The accommodation in Lanciego was lovely and the owners particularly helpful. As for Arnedillo, this was definitely my favourite. a terrific small hotel - great room, very enjoyable good food, very friendly host (despite our not speaking Spanish) - set in a beautiful location. A place I hope we can return to one day.

Thank you for recommending Zaragoza. It was just right for a 2 night city break - small enough to walk to the main sites without getting too tired. Dining in the evenings was fun as well. On the way from Arnedillo we visited Belchite and as you suggested it is a remarkable place worth going out of our way to visit.

We really enjoyed the Costa Brava and would like to thank you for making the arrangement for the alternative apartment. We also preferred Calella to Llafranc, so things worked out very well for us. One thing we did was to take a drive to Banyoles in the middle of the week - a leisurely stroll round the town, lunch by the lake, followed by a boat trip -it was the most relaxing day of the whole holiday and thoroughly recommended.

And finally, Barcelona. Yet again your choice of hotel was excellent. The hotel recommended an excellent restaurant round the corner and, being close to the fountains, it was an excellent way to finish the holiday.