Totally Spain Customer testimonials

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.

Just to say that Liam and I had a marvellous holiday in Northern Spain recently. In fact we only returned to Ireland last Friday night. The real reason I am emailing you is to thank you for all your help and assistance and to say that everything was as you said and all your directions were spot-on. Liam has been telling our friends, since our return, just how efficient you are - take a bow. We had no problems and everything went smoothly. The scenary was wonderful and the weather, as you know, was great, so what more could one want. Once again, many thanks.

Thank you for your efforts to make sure that we had our best holiday ever. Things got off to a good start with the reception at the hotel and got better throughout the evening. Once again thank you very much for your generosity - the food and drinks were lovely and the atmosphere was fun - we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and hope that something similar can be planned for next year.

The apartment on the coast was sensational with a balcony overlooking the bay , with Mundaka and Bermeo in the distance . We spent a lot of time looking at the view and eating meals on that balcony. An excellently equipped apartment, but no bidet - now who would have thought that any English person would remark on the lack of a bidet! Superb beaches , obviously very popular with families from Bilbao - amazed at some of the places that they managed to park their cars! We especially liked Guernika - the peace museum and the Monday market. Very few people spoke English but we met with unfailing friendship and good humour from everybody.

Back to the south and Arnedillo for the last five days. On the journey we wondered what we would find - the landscape is so bleak and rocky and the sun is so hot - but were delighted with Las Pedrolas and Ignacio. You have obviously been there and had dinner on the terrace so you know the way that Ignacio looks after his guests. Lovely food served in very pleasant surroundings . a beautiful (air conditioned ) room and a real attention to detail. The town itself had more to it than originally met the eye - we strolled the riverside paths to the hot pools several times , walked to watch the vultures , and on one cool day we ventured up into the hills for several miles. A perfect end to an excellent holiday.

Thank you for organising such a lovely trip. Every thing went perfectly for us (& some of your other clients who we met!). Only black spot was Velguellina de Orbigo- Nothing wrong with the room but such a sad unattractive town. However the hotel in Rioja more than made up for it, it was so good. As a result next time we shall have fewer paradors, though we loved the one in Pontevedra, and more of your recommendations. What a good service you run.

We are finally back home in Dubai, having spent a wonderful vacation. I would really love to thank you for all you have done, big & small things. Everything was perfect: hotels were charming, information full & all your maps were extremely helpful. And the car turned up to be the same Audi A4 I used to have, so it was really easy. I hope to use your services in future. There's so much to see in Spain. And I will definitely recommend you to friends. Thank you very much again & best regards from my family.

We have just returned from Spain and this email is to thank you for organising superb hotels for us. I am quite delighted with the service you have provided and am more than happy to provide a reference for you and your services should you require this.

Many thanks for your hospitality in Vitoria. The La Blanca festival was certainly a highlight of the trip .... completely barmy. I enjoyed San Sebastian and the coast around there. I did make it to Getaria for some sardines...excellent!! Good fireworks in San Sebastian but nothing quite to match the Celdon in Vitoria. I shall email some reflections later....perhaps after Sleazyjet have managed to bring me my luggage which appears to be having an extra day in Bilbao. Adios.

We have just arrived home after a wonderful holiday in France and Spain and I would like to say a very big thank you for your hospitality at the La Blanca festival in Vitoria - we had a wonderful time made all the more special by being included in your party. It was a tremendous evening we had such fun and really enjoyed sharing the experience with yourselves and the others, they were such a pleasant group of people to spend a few hours with. The girls are still enjoying telling their friends all about it. Thank you once again for a wonderful experience and for being such welcoming hosts.

I wanted to tell you that our trip through Andalusia was a wonderful success. Although very busy every minute of every day, we were able to do and see everything we had hoped: most particularly visiting the extraordinary Moorish architectural sites in Seville, Cordoba and Granada, but also appreciating the beauty of the small villages through the countryside and of the spectacular sites in which the Paradors were located (such as Ronda and Carmona), and experiencing the excitement of the bull fight in Puerto de la Santa Maria, delight in seeing the Cartuga stallions and pleasure in tasting sherry in Jerez de la Frontera to name just some of our activities! The Paradors were lovely and the food excellent (in all but that in Arcos where it was very good). Fabulous! So, thank you for your excellent arrangements, including the nice packet that provided us with all the maps we needed in each site.

Many thanks for organising our recent holiday in the Basque country. We had an absolutely fantastic holiday visiting Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Laguardia & San Sebastian. Despite the weather, your maps, brochures and directions made the experience of driving around the Basque quite easy and enjoyable. All our accommadation was top-class. Everything went perfectly with Europcar !! It was lovely to drop in and see your offices in Vitoria and Belen was most helpful in re-arranging some of our accommodation. Our favourite destination by far was Laguardia. We really enjoyed our time there and have little doubt that we will return again someday. We have no hesitation recommending Totally Spain and already a number of our friends have expressed an interest in your service. We wish you the very best for the future and look forward to dealing with you again sometime. Many thanks once again !!!

I think you must really know me because you gave me everything I would have picked had I known to myself. All the hotels were perfect in every way and the right assortment. And, I was impressed with the locations of the hotels you choose for me. Each one was in the perfect area for me to get around and see everything!! I absolutely adored my wonderful hotel in Ronda. What a charming, tastefully delightful place! It's a must see, must stay at!!! I referred several people to just even go there for lunch or dinner for the rest of my trip to anyone who was going to Ronda. It was so wonderful and my room opened up to the most fabulous pasture with horses and sheep. The garden where we had our most delicious meals was a dream in itself. The other hotels were charming, beautiful and wonderful service as well. And the car, I did just fine. In fact I enjoyed driving and found every destination without problem as you had explained when I previously was paranoid about my inexperience with maps. The highways are so clearly marked for each city in each direction I had no problem and loved the driving. I even liked the small amound of driving on the cobble stone streets when I went out at night from town to town. I had the most wonderful trip and you really did such a fabulous job in order to make it all work, easy, and perfect for me. I plan to go to Italy next year so I hope there is a "Totally Italy" and you book it.! I will recommend you to anyone and everyone (I have all ready begun to) who is going to Spain. I consider you totally responsible for my smooth plans and delightful trip of perfect hotels, car, and complete plan! Thank you so much!!!

You may remember that I booked a holiday through you and Totally Spain to the places suggested below. I would just like to drop you a note to thank you for all your help and suggestions. From the first contact with you to the final handing over of the car at the airport, the holiday could not have been better organised, the details any clearer or the information more helpful. The house at Lezama was outstanding and the hosts were unbelievably hospitable and friendly. The second house at Hondarribia was lovely and was a perfect base for exploring. We thought Hondarribia was a fantastic town. Many thanks again to you and everyone at Totally Spain. I would certainly look at using you again and would recommend you without hesitation to anybody.

We had a wonderful time in Catalonia. Delighted with accommodation and all other arrangements. Thanks to you our holiday was a great success. We are currently spreading the gospel of 'Totally Spain' to all of our friends.

We have arrived home safely and wanted to thank you again for helping us plan a fantastic trip to Catalunya and the Basque region. Our accommodations were lovely; those that were most memorable include Castell d'Emporda and Posada Migueloa. The staff at these properties just embraced us, and the accommodations far exceeded our expectations. We would not have known of them without your introduction. Your care and personal attention to our needs made our trip very memorable. We can not thank you enough. While we have only been back for a few days, we are already thinking about our next trip to Spain. Thanks again, and we look forward to working with you again in the not-too-distant future.

Just a brief email to say thank-you for the extremely prompt and professional organisation of our recent trip to Bilbao / Cantabria / Asturias. I was very impressed with your organisation and on the ground all the accommodation, car etc. was very satisfactory. I will definitely recommend your company to my friends in the future. We had a lovely trouble free time in your country.

I wanted to let you know that we had a lovely time in Northern Spain. The two posadas and hotel we stayed in were great particularly El Bosque where Isabel was so hospitable. The setting of this posada is superb with wonderful views of the Picos. It was a nice touch of yours to have some more brochures waiting for us at the Joshe Mari hotel. Thank you for that. All in all we felt the service you provided was very good and have no hesitation recommending you to others.

You did a fabulous job planning this trip.. every hotel was great and in the perfect location. My mother-in-law raved about it! Everything went smoothly, from check-in throughout. The hotel in Jerez was our favorite, though we took a while finding it! Your maps and suggestions were very helpful. We did not get to ride in Andalusia... too many other things to see and do, though we did get to the Real Escuela and really enjoyed that. I think we all liked Seville and Barcelona best, and the Alhambra was our most memorable stop, along with the Gaudis in Barcelona. The only glitch was missing the overnight train to Barcelona .. totally my fault. After all your work getting the tickets to us, I had the departure time wrong in my mind. We spent another night at the AC, and they were terrific about helping us out. You are our hero! Thank you for your time and care ... I will recommend you to anyone I know planning a trip to Spain.

Just a quick note to say we really enjoyed our holiday. The area, people and rental property were great. The hotel in Bilbao was very comfortable and an excellent location. The rental property was in a great location too. The mountains and beaches were great. The beaches reminded me of the beaches in Donegal, but more heat and warmer water!

Llanes and Comillas were very nice towns, and San Vicente itself was a lovely spot and a great base for exploring the area. One thing that I think would be of benefit to have in a house is a toaster, we have been to a lot of self catering properties around Europe and find a toaster in most of them. This may just be an Irish need! We enjoyed our holiday very much and will return. We are recommending the area to lots of people since we came back and will gladly point them in the direction of your website.

We received the vouchers and the excellent guides. We have travelled extensively and no travel agent in the past has sent such a thorough and organized package of information. We definitely are very excited about the trip. Thank you so much.

Just wanted to drop a note to thank you for all the effort you put into helping plan our trip to Spain. Everyone was most pleased with all of the hotel accomodations and you wouldn't believe how much luggage can be squeezed into one of those small cars with a little effort. Spain truly is a beautiful country! We loved every aspect of it, but were most fond of the north. Thank you again and we won't hesitate to recommend "Totally Spain" to any of our friends.

We had a great 3 weeks. I think the highlights as far as hotels were concerned were Arnedillo and Hondarribia... they were fantastic. The Picos were also amazing. The weather was pretty good to us... and we managed to do some swimming in the sea, especially at the beaches in Cantabria. We will certainly be back again, when time allows. Again, thanks for your help to organise our honeymoon. We would not have managed without you.

We had an excellent holiday. In both France and Spain we had interesting and positive experiences. Our time in Spain was great. The B&B TBC 24 in Bizkaia was fantastic - our hostess, Maria, was wonderful - and the countryside was beautiful. The Parador de Chinchon was a good place to stay and visit Madrid and Toledo. We also visited the Palace at Aranjuez from there. Hotel BAR 08 in Barcelona was an excellent hotel, in a good location, with a very helpful staff. Thank you so much for your help. The information packet we received was invaluable. I would recommend your services to anyone interested in a Spain vacation.

We're just getting settled back in Chicago. Everything went perfectly with the possible exception of the weather. We had rain for our visit to Biarritz & San Sebastian. Too bad since both were beautiful and interesting cities. The "Guided Pinchos Tour" with Gabriella Ranelli was definitely a highlight and the Paradores were exactly what we had hoped for. Thanks again for all of your help. You made a good trip even better!

I just wanted you to know that our trip to Spain was spectacular! All arrangements worked beautifully and I thank you for all of your patience and assistance. You were right about the northern area. We all enjoyed Barcelona but all agreed that the best part of our travel was up North. I hope you will keep me on your mailing list. In future I might like to organize a group of friends to rent a country home for a week. We especially enjoyed the Parador at Hondarrabia and we would like to return to the San Sebastian area. Thank you again for helping to make our trip a success.

We were impressed with the efficiency with which you put together an excellent package in a rather short time, with your attention to detail, informed by your local knowledge. We spent six days exploring a different world: without seeming to try, we saw and experienced so much that was new and interesting to us, that we feel as if we had been away for twice as long. We shall recommend (in fact we already have) the region and Totally Spain to family and friends. In Bilbao, we found the restaurant L’Estraunza rather disappointing, despite the best efforts of the waiter to entertain us – he had nothing else to do because we were the only diners until a family arrived after 11pm. Lunch at the Guggenheim, however, was excellent. In Laguardia, the Posada Mayor was splendid, very characterful and very friendly. One of the sons of the family gave us a very entertaining introduction with wine-tasting, of course, to the bodega under the building. We dined in the restaurant twice and were impressed with the quality on each occasion. The best meal we had was in Calahorra, at the Taberna de la Cuarta Esquina. Very unprepossessing on the outside, we happened on it by chance, trying to find anything interesting in the town: very busy, friendly, efficient, good value and very good quality. Back in Laguardia, a charming English –speaking woman in the tourist information office opened the doors of the Santa Maria de los Reyes for us and gave a very informative and interesting talk about the painted portal which we were most impressed with. En route for the airport we spent several hours in your home town: the visit to the Artium was an appropriate way to end a visit which began in the Guggenheim. Personally, I enjoyed the contents of this gallery more. So, thank you for doing such a good job. No doubt we shall be in touch again in due course.

Dear Belen

The holiday far exceeded all our expectations in every regard.  All the arrangements and bookings from the accommodations to car rentals, were first class and we did not encounter a single problem or  disappointment.  The charming seaside accommodation in Costa Brava was really wonderful and was the perfect spot to enjoy some relaxation and explore this lovely coast. It was every bit as lovely and peaceful as you promised and the local wine and cuisine exceeded our expectations.

To be in Rioja during the wine harvest was a special treat and we had so much delicious wine and food, it was impossible to pick favourites!  Each village we explored was even more lovely and charming than the last.

Thank you Belen for making these arrangements, setting our itinerary and making this the best vacation we can remember having.  Everything was perfect, even the weather!!  We fell in love with your country and  we cannot wait to come back.