Totally Spain Customer testimonials

The holiday was a great success and we enjoyed ourselves very much - the area will definitely be in our plans for a return visit in the future. Thank you for all the work with the booking and the advice on the selection of hotels. We enjoyed our stays at all the hotels. The most impressive view was at Casa Rosario as our room was on the top floor with a large balcony outside for us to sunbathe on. Thank you for sending a copy of the Bilbao hotel voucher to us in Ribadesella - still not sure where the original one disappeared to. We were given the packet of brochures for Galicia as soon as we arrived at the Parador in Leon. That is an amazing building in its own right in a town with many impressive buildings.

Thanks for such a lovely holiday. The hotels were great - the swimming pool in Ronda came as a complete and very welcome surprise and the hotel in San Lucar was very impressive. The weather was certainly very hot in particular Seville but the air conditioning over there is much more efficient than in the UK so it wasn't too bad. We were certainly very impressed with Andalucia and had a nice relaxing week.

Even before we arrived in Spain the information, help and advice you gave us was unbelievable and yet when we met you it was further surpassed. The three hotels you found for us in Bilbao, Vitoria and San Sebastian were of the highest quality and at an amazing price and together with all your information enabled us to get the best out of these places in the time we stayed there. The festival in Vitoria was one of the best things I have ever experienced; totally unbelievable! Thank you for your hospitality during the festival which again was incredible; drinks, meal and such friendliness. Every one I spoke to could not believe the service you provide, one which is rarely seen in the tourist industry, and your company deserves every success it gets. On my return I have told everyone planning a holiday to contact you and experience the fantastic service Vicky and I got. Thank you both for making our tour the best trip we have taken! We still show friends the pictures of us on the Mayor’s balcony from the Newspapers! Looking forward to travelling with you again.

We just want to thank all for the work that you put into organising the holiday for us. We really enjoyed the whole trip, the accomadation was excellent and the information pack that you included was a great help on our travels around the region. The festival in Vitoria was one of the high points and we have been boasting that we were with the Lord Mayor as he got things started. Again many thanks for your suggestions and help.

We had a lovely holiday thank you, and without the information you sent we would have been a bit lost. We are so pleased that the hotels had air conditioning, as while we were there it was very hot on a couple of days. The best hotel of our entire trip we thought was the one in Segovia, very nice. And we enjoyed the places you mentioned it was a good insight into Spain. One thought that you might like to know, we thought the countryside very like South Australia; the wheat fields, the olive groves and the vines and the way that the mountains appeared was like the Flinders Ranges or The Grampians in Victoria. We would like to say THANK YOU for your advice and help.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed every place we went to, and your arrangements helped the holiday pass very smoothly. We lunched in the Parador located in the Alhambra, read by the pool with the most awesome views in the Jaen Parador, ate buckets of Tapas in Seville, enjoyed the baths of Cordoba (an excellent suggestion) and many other very happy memories. The small place in Arcos is a true gem of a place, we felt very lucky to have stayed there. Also, Ronda was extraordinary and again the views were incredible. Temperatures reached 43 at one point, but with ample fino, air conditioning and swimming we managed well. Many thanks for all your help. I would, and already have, recommend your services to anyone wanting to find an experience of Spain all too easily missed. No negatives at all, I am a very satisfied customer indeed.

We're home and trying to digest all the details of the two weeks of travel in the Basque Country. Your documentation was fabulous -- so well organized and helpful. We very much appreciate the service. All the arrangements you made were excellent -- we loved the two country casas and thoroughly enjoyed our hosts at both. I practiced my Spanish on Patxi at Iketxe and he seemed to appreciate my efforts. He's really something! We would recommend your service any time!

INDEPENDENTLY THROUGH TOTALLY SPAIN ITN (International Travel News) readers looking for something a little different might be interested in hearing about a 3-week independent trip my wife and I took in September ´02 in the Basque area of Spain. With email input from us, it was arranged by Totally Spain. We highly recommend this company, which is run by an Irishman, Ken Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin tailored the trip to our exact needs. We had told him we wanted a variety of lodgings with 2 to 4 night stays at each and didn´t want to do a lot of driving. Our route took us to Bilbao, San Sebastian, Vitoria and the Rioja wine country and ended up in Madrid via Segovia and Toledo. Incidentally, Spanish roads are excellent. We were accommodated at two charming country inns, several well-located moderate in-city hotels, one parador and one deluxe seaside resort. Mr. Baldwin provided us with extensive pre-trip material and maps plus museum tickets in advance. He even made a hard-to-get special restaurant reservation for us. The cost for all lodging (with breakfast) and the car rental was 1,850 US dollars per person. ** Letter appeared in International Travel news. February 2003**

We thought the area was absolutely stunning, and the house was really lovely, better than we had hoped for... We had acquired quite a lot of guide books and information for ourselves, but your very comprehensive pack was still welcome, particularly your own sheets on driving round Cantabria, which led us to some very charming villages and churches which we might not have found otherwise. There was plenty to do, and we did several walks, went riding, and also quadbiking, which we enjoyed especially. I am very grateful to you for your help in finding exactly what we were looking for, and in organising it for us.

We thoroughly enjoyed the whole region especially our circular tour around the Picos, with ever changing scenery from the hot interior with warm winds playing on the reservoir to the thunder and lightening as we wound our way round the hair pin bends on our descent. Everybody was friendly and helpful dispite the language difficulties and the food was great. Many thanks and we would certainly recommend your company to anyone visiting the area.

Once again many thanks for arranging one of our best holidays for a long time. We are still amazed at the variety of countryside and interesting places to be found in the Basque Country.

We had a wonderful trip through the countryside and all of the plans that you made went extraordinarily well. Our only regret was not spending more time in the GUGGENHEIM which we loved. Your directions were excellent, the hotel in BILBAO was great and dinner the first evening was outstanding.

We had a superb trip. Thank you very much for your organisation and attention to detail... Overall, the whole holiday exceeded our expectations in terms of beautiful scenery and buildings; the beaches; fine accommodation: the friendly helpful nature of the people who are not out to exploit tourists: and of course the food and wine. Our only disappointment was that we did not have more time to relax in and see more of the Basque Country!

My companions on the trip were very impressed with your excellent service! We had a fantastic time and found the Basque Country to be a lovely welcoming place full of friendly and kind people.

Many, many thanks for your help and advice. We had the most fantastic time and the memories will stay with us for a long time. We both agreed that it must be one of the best holidays we have ever had!

Thank you so much for the organization of our holiday. It was brilliant and has put my faith back into Spain. Everything went like clockwork and your choice of accommodation was brilliant

We would like to thank you for all the preparation you made so that our visit ran smoothly and everything was perfect. The hotel in Bilbao was first class and placed in a wonderful area. Within half an hour of arriving we were in the old quarter enjoying a meal and felt far away from the South East of England. The car pick up went well, upgraded to a most comfortable Seat and the drive to Lanciego, via Vitoria was superb, especially the stop off at the balcony of the Rioja where we were high above the clouds, so although no view of the area was available the sight was memorable. The Hotel Larrain was as you told us, friendly, comfortable and offered wonderful food. Rocio was a great help, booking us a trip around La Fabulista in Laguardia where we were lucky enough to receive a personal tour and tasting conducted in English. The wines and food we had were all interesting and new and the bird watching, once the fog had lifted, proved to be a success, with us finding several species we had not seen before. The storks at Logroño were particularly spectacular, as was a rare warbler we found along the bank of the Ebro at Assa, which I have since reported to the Spanish bird club. Thank you once again for your diligence in organising such a great trip, (again) and we look forward to doing business with you again in the near future.

At last an opportunity to thank you for the work that you put into our holiday last month. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time and when the time came to leave that glorious country we were most reluctant to say goodbye. The accommodation at SOJO and AIA was superb, our hosts were welcoming and nothing was too much trouble for them to ensure that we had a first class holiday.

In AIA we had a very beautiful large room and the owners were extremely welcoming and went out of their way to be helpful. The village itself was great as there were many pubs & restaurants. The fiesta was also on while we were there and after a few days we felt like one of the locals! Next we went to SOJO, the house is fabulous and the owners were exceptionally nice, the food was excellent and we had a super time there......

The La Blanca Festival in Vitoria, especially the bull (imitation) with fireworks on its back. Caserio Iruaritz, Francisco’s cooking especially and the sound of sheep bells in the distance. The sight of the Rioja plain for the first time, the lovely room and breakfast at Palacio de Samaniego. Laguardia and Estella – another fiesta there with gigantes. Wine and food generally. The view form Aia, and the fireworks there.

Ate best sea-bream ever at GETARIA and loadsa different fish down by the port at SAN SEBASTIAN thanks to your suggestions; enjoyed watching jai-alai everywhere we went; the fiesta in VITORIA was a great experience (including the heifer-running!), and there are no words to describe the experience of visiting the Guggenheim in BILBAO- wow!

Thank you for the itinerary you put together for us this summer. We had a wonderful time and the stress was taken out of visiting a new country through your excellent arrangements and the personal touch... The night of the festival in Vitoria was one of the highlights of our holiday.