Totally Spain Customer testimonials

Olaia

We returned Saturday from our trip to Spain and are grateful to you for your suggestions, scheduling and planning. Our trip went very well. Your choice of hotels was excellent. Above all, they were exceptionally clean and well kept. We were very favorably impressed. The other thing we appreciated about your hotel choices for us was their location. The Hotel El Prado in Madrid was located a short two blocks from a delightful plaza which we enjoyed each night we were there. What a delight. The Hotel Sorolla in Valencia was also well located for walking access to many places we wanted to visit. The Cotursa Rosello Hotel in Barcelona was probably the nicest and certainly the largest of the three and also located where we could make our way to the tour stops and sights in the city center. Excellent choices. THANK YOU!

Olaia

We returned Saturday from our trip to Spain and are grateful to you for your suggestions, scheduling and planning. Our trip went very well. Your choice of hotels was excellent. Above all, they were exceptionally clean and well kept. We were very favorably impressed. The other thing we appreciated about your hotel choices for us was their location. The Hotel El Prado in Madrid was located a short two blocks from a delightful plaza which we enjoyed each night we were there. What a delight. The Hotel Sorolla in Valencia was also well located for walking access to many places we wanted to visit. The Cotursa Rosello Hotel in Barcelona was probably the nicest and certainly the largest of the three and also located where we could make our way to the tour stops and sights in the city center. Excellent choices. THANK YOU!

I was surprised by the relative reasonable cost of taxis and this information would have been helpful. Obviously we were able to walk from the train to the hotel in Valencia and we took a taxi in Barcelona. Our tours to Segovia and Avila - Toledo - El Escorial and Valle De Los Caidos - the Monastery of Montserrat .. all were excellent. The guides we had were excellent. While their English was sometimes difficult to understand...they worked to make themselves clear and did a very good job. The tours were very interesting and helpful to us in understanding the history of Spain. Would suggest that you let visitors know about the Turistic buses in Valencia and Barcelona (did not use them in Madrid - probably because we saw so much on the three tours). These were excellent for getting to know the basic layout of the city and also excellent transportation (because of the locations of hotels you selected).

We always felt safe in the areas we traveled ... even late at night. The accompanying materials you sent were also helpful. You and your agency did an excellent job for us and we are grateful. Please feel free to use our comments above in any way you wish. If we travel to Spain in the future, we will be in contact.  Thank you once again your efforts for us are appreciated.

Barb and Jerry Brunworth Sue and Jim Rader

Dear Ken

Eric and I just returned from a wonderful two weeks in Spain, and wanted to express our pleasure and gratitude for the thoughtfully orchestrated and well paced trip you designed for us. Everything went off smoothly and without a hitch - no lost luggage or missed flights.

We liked having lodging in the middle of the cities we visited, which made sightseeing very easy. Ronda was a particular highlight; we had a spectacular room right over the gorge.

We wouldn't hesitate to recommend your agency to friends or use your services again ourselves. Thanks again.

Hi Olaia,

Just wanted to let you know that our vacation in Spain was a great success. The hotels were all very good with our favorite being in Granada--it was not easy to find with the very narrow streets but it is absolutely charming and so close to the Alhambra Palace.

The materials that you supplied were most helpful in deciding what to do and see and the mini-van was perfect for our group and luggage. Thanks from all of us for helping to organise a memorable visit to Spain.

Dear Olaia

Just a few notes to say thank you. I deeply enjoyed dealing with Totally Spain, and especially you. From the very beginning I was impressed by your prompt, professional, and pleasant way of dealing with our plans, our changes of mind. The cities you picked for us, the hotel reservations, and all the informations regarding the places we were about to visit were outstanding. Santillana del Mar - recommended by you - was a beautiful surprise. We regretted not having more days to spend there. The hotel in Santiago de Compostela was, maybe, the only hotel, we felt, did not stand up to par with the others, but its location made up for its lack of comfort in the rooms. Once again, thank you for your assistance. I hope to do business with you again in the future.

Dear Ana,

We had a wonderful time at all the Paradors, it was nice to see so much of Andalusia.  Carmona and Jaen were our favourite Paradors and we would like to stay at these two for longer next time.

We were worried about driving but it all worked out to be perfect.

Thank you so much for making the arrangements, you all offer a great service, and we found the Spanish people to be most polite and helpful.

Dear Olaia

Just to let you know the apartment in Noja was fantastic. It was brand new & beautifully clean and it had every possible facility. I think it was excellent value for money. The people in charge of the apartment were friendly and very helpful too. We would highly recommend it. We stayed in a top floor apartment (not a ground floor one as you'd advised in your email) but it was large, comfortable, very clean plus the views were great. We did not get your information pack until Saturday (I think it must have been in the office but our Spanish is not good so maybe our fault?) but when we got the information pack it was packed full of everything we needed. We loved the area around Santander & we will be going back again, for sure. It is a beautiful part of Spain. Thank you very much for all your help & for finding us this lovely apartment. Very best wishes,

Dear Ana

Just a brief note to say that we had a terrific time. We successfully collected all the documentation from the hotel in Madrid, and everything went just fine. We didn't spend much time in the hotel in Madrid, so the location was the most important thing (as you said) , and managed to visit the flea market on Sunday morning which was an experience.

The hotel in Segovia was delightful, Salamanca was stunning, one full day in Leon was probably enough and Comillas was ok despite the rain! We travelled to Comillas through the Picos de Europa, which in difficult weather was slightly nerve racking, but made for some excellent memories. So no complaints whatsoever.

Thanks for putting this together for us so quickly and at short notice. We'll definately recommend your service and use it again

Dear Belen,

I assume that by now you are on maternity leave and that a colleague is intercepting your e-mails. If so I would be grateful if he / she would pass on my thanks for the very successful way in which you organised our tour in Andalucia, 5 - 13 July. My wife and I enjoyed our trip very much. The hotels which you recommended were not only lovely in the themselves, but also very well located from the point of view of visiting places of interest. We were able to find each of them with little difficulty - our only negative experience being a puncture in Cordoba. The rest of the trip was marvellous and memorable.

Thank you for the maps and booklets which you sent in advance; these were very useful and contributed significantly to our enjoyment of our holiday. Our favourite anecdote for this hoilday comes from Cadiz, where we took the "City Tour" and sat on the top deck of the open top bus. As it passed the "Atlantic" Parador where you had placed us, the commentator said "... and on your left is the city's most prestigeous hotel where the King and Queen of Spain stay when they visit Cadiz". Our children were very impressed and so were we.

Thank you once again for providing a flawless service.

Dear Ana

Not sure I ever thanked you for all your help with our trip to Spain this summer. Every recommendation was incredible and the maps were worth their weight in gold. I am sick they slid out of my suitcase when returning home. I just got back from Spain yesterday and could have used them for a trip to Girona and the Pyrenees. I have told many friends about your services. All of your recommendations were fantastic, especially the farm house near Santander. The Senora who runs the inn is a very dear lady and the food there was excellent.

Hi Belen

Just so say that we all thoroughly enjoyed our time in Noja. It was fantastic to see this beautiful part of Spain and we intend on coming back. The apartments and location ticked all the boxes, so much so that our children did not want to leave.

Thank you so much for everything.

Working with Belen from "Totally Spain" was such a positive experience. I was very nervous using an agency from "the internet", located in Spain, but a trip that a group of us were planning to the small town of Murcia Spain for the World Roller Skating Competition wasn't going well.

Between the language barrier, and the inaccuracies on some of the "discount travel sites" we definitely needed some help. Belen and Totally Spain were GREAT! She responded right away and took a lot of time to be sure that the hotels she was recommending were in the right part of the city to be close to the event. She even helped us communicate when we ran into difficulty getting tickets from the arena.

The prompt responses, attention to detail (there was even a package of info waiting for us in the hotel), and the professionalism were excellent. I would highly recommend this agency and especially Belen to anyone wanting a great experience in the beautiful country of Spain.

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.