R&P - Amalfi Coast. September 2007

Flights worked fine from Gatwick.  No problems.

We were very pleased with the car we picked up at Naples Airport – in fact it was better than expected!  4-door, clean and new.

 

The Grand Hotel Excelsior, Amalfi

The location was wonderful.  The hotel was a little old fashioned and the food average.  Some people may be bored due to little entertainment in the evening. We had wanted something quiet with a view, and this was exactly what we got. It was excellent value for money too.  The hotel runs an efficient bus service into Amalfi.

The area was BEAUTIFUL.  Driving was okay.  Boat trips to Capri etc were very enjoyable.  Don Allfonso at Sant’Agata is a wonderful restaurant with 3 Michelin Stars – expensive but worth it!  Gorgeous food and décor.

The service you provided was excellent and we will very happily recommend you to our friends. 

 

 

 

H&G Venice - May 2007

 

Flight from Edinburgh was fine, had one hour delay between Edinburgh and Venice due to inbound flight being delayed.  Otherwise everything was ok.

On arrival at Venice Airport.  Got water taxi from the airport to Venice Centre and walked to Hotel Flora (not far).  We shared the taxi with someone we knew who was on our flight.  Booked taxi upon arrival iHn airport and paid €90 at boat point, in total.  Was worth it! Wonderful introduction to Venice.

The HOTEL FLORA was fantastic!  Will definitely go back.  What a find, Kay.  Could not fault this place even if you tried.  The staff were delightful – discreet, funny, friendly – the lot.  Room excellent, garden was heavenly  Breakfast in the garden is amazing. 

There were no “lowlights” to Venice.  “Did” Venice at 06:30 am and came back in for breakfast.  Fabulous light.  Nobody there.  Loved it and will go back.  It is worth doing Waterbus No. 82 day and night to see Venice at its best.  Favourite – time on S. Giorgio Maggiore – visit Cathedral and Campanile – awesome views and no crowds!  Found great eating place at Parco S. Elena called Osteria.  Cheap and very good. 

Again Shellseekers produced the goods.  Best yet!  A very big “thank you” Kay.  We will absolutely recommend you to our friends and have already done so. 

Once again, a very big thank you Kay.  We had a fantastic time.

 

 

 

Honeymoon. D&T. March/April 2006

Shellseekers' Note: This feedback has been summarised, but is still very comprehensive and well worth reading.

 

 

Orient Express (this was a gift to the bride & groom, so not organised by Shellseekers)

The whole experience is just out of this world and it was a fantastic way to start our honeymoon and I would recommend anybody who has the opportunity to go on it.

As you would expect everything you touch shouts quality from the silver cutlery to the crystal glassware which is marked VSOE (as pretty much everything is).

The train is extremely grand and very long and it is not until you are on the platform that you fully appreciate what an experience this is about to be and get a real flavour for the journey. At check in at Victoria you are given your carriage details and by the time you arrive at the VSOE the stewards at each carriage knows who you are and which cabin you are staying in. As you’d expect the stewards are all stood outside of their respective carriages for which they are fully responsible, in blue uniforms (with white gloves – nice touch) and they show you to your cabins. Your luggage has already arrived and once everybody has boarded the train sets off and you are free to explore the other carriages.

The nice touches that make the trip special and make you feel like an important traveller are things like, a maitre de comes to each cabin to take lunch and dinner reservations so the dining cars know when to expect you and whilst you are having dinner the steward turns the large sofa which is the day arrangement of your cabin into bunk beds (not to mention the rose in a vase and the petals on my bed, along with dressing gown and slippers !) and by the time you return from dinner and drinks in the bar car you cabin is ready for night time.

I must admit I am not sure you could spend any longer than two days and one night on the train as whilst it’s comfortable both day and night it is difficult to sleep and whilst the views are fantastic particularly passing through the Swiss Alps (which your steward wakes you to see in the morning), there is only so much scenery you can look at as it is all very similar. Having said that the train stops at Innsbruck for half an hour and you can get off onto the platform and stretch your legs and the views from here are something else.

 

 

 

Venice

Hotel Monaco & Gran Canal in Venice

The hotel was excellently placed and we were literally a few minutes walk from St Marks Square which was fantastic.  The décor of the room was quite disappointing considering the feel of the ground floor space and it did feel and look a little tired. Overall the hotel was very nice in the communal spaces but slightly disappointing in the rooms but still a great place to stay with a fantastic location so it was a great choice from that point of view.  Within minutes of arriving at the hotel we were brought a bottle of champagne compliments of the hotel which was a nice touch and obviously down to you mentioning the honeymoon. In terms of Venice generally, we are so glad we included it in our trip and have had the opportunity to see and do everything there is to do, but I must admit, personally it is a place which we do not see ourselves travelling back to repeatedly as we found it extremely commercial and a bit too touristy, although I suppose this is to be expected. I would suggest though to people that are travelling here, just walk around and you see so much rather than getting on the water buses. These are great too (particularly to appreciate the Grand Canal) but we found we saw so much more by just walking around. Obviously seeing St Marks Square and the Basillica were fantastic but if there was one place I enjoyed it was the Peggy Guggenheim museum as being lovers of New York and the Guggenheim there we found it really interesting to see the Venice museum too.

Train

Our train from Venice to Florence was so easy, we simply caught a river bus to the station from outside the hotel and arrived in plenty of time. The train was on time and seemed to be fairly efficient although considering we were in first class we were disappointed in the cleanliness of the train and the space available for luggage. Clearly these trains are not intended to accommodate people doing a mini tour of Italy who have four pieces of luggage as there was simply nowhere to store it, and we weren’t the only ones who seemed to be struggling. To be fair it didn’t spoil the journey particularly and we arrived in Florence on time after a couple of hours. The on from Florence to Milan also worked well and was trouble free.

 

 

Florence

JK Place in Florence

Well, to put it mildly we fell in love with this place !

When you enter JK Place, it feels like you are walking into somebody’s Tuscan townhouse, although you have to buzz to be let in. It is spacious and very beautifully furnished with fantastic contemporary decoration too but it does have a distinctly relaxed, chilled and homely atmosphere too albeit still very high quality.  The staff were incredibly helpful and keen to offer advice on where to visit and eat and would make reservations etc for you too. On arrival our bags were taken to our room as we were shown to the lounge for a drink to relax after our journey.  We were shown up to our room which was off an enclosed courtyard which runs right through the building. The room was small but perfectly formed with a fantastic four poster bed, all the mod cons you would expect and a stone staircase leading up to our bathroom.

I always reckon you can tell something about the quality of a hotel based on the toiletries (silly but I think it’s true) and there was an array of Molten Brown products to use in the small shower room which had everything you could need and was very clean.  What we loved about this place was the relaxed atmosphere. In the morning you came down to breakfast and sat at a table which holds 10 people (like one big family) and helped yourself to a great array of cereals, breads, meats and fruit etc although staff were always on hand to get coffee etc. Then you could relax in one of the lounges and watch TV, read the paper and use the guest laptop to get on the internet or make your way to the centre. The Duomo was a 5 minute walk away so we were perfectly positioned to explore and we actually walked everywhere. In an afternoon when you returned to the hotel, afternoon nibbles and cakes had replaced the breakfast spread and you were free to help yourself again. This was followed by canapes which appeared early evening for you to nibble on before going out for dinner.

Also, on the roof of the building there is a sun terrace and one afternoon it was fairly sunny so we sat up there and it really was quite pleasant particularly as we enjoyed a bottle of champagne compliments of JK Place. (Again, a honey moon treat thanks to you!)

Overall we found Florence a fantastic place that we can’t wait to go back to and we would absolutely save up the pennies and stay at JK Place again – anywhere else just wouldn’t cut it !

 

 

Milan

Enterprise Hotel.  Milan

The hotel was a good 20 min taxi ride from the station and a 10 min taxi ride into the centre by Duomo but what we would say is it is too far out for anybody wanting to be close to the city centre. The hotel itself was ok, clearly a building for some other purpose refurbished to be a hotel and whilst it was clean, simply furnished and fairly contemporary it did look slightly tired in areas.

This hotel appears to have upgraded us in terms of room as when we looked at the fire map we had clearly been given a large superior room on the top floor but I recall you saying that they may do this.

This hotel was by far the best we had during the whole trip in terms of breakfast.  Overall, this is a reasonable hotel to stay in but nothing special due to location mainly.

 

 

General

With regard to the information etc that you provided, it was excellent. The itinerary itself was great and we referred to it all the time.

The service you provided was so friendly and efficient but at the same time felt quite personal too. The additional information you provided was also useful (particularly the map book – thank you) and I don’t really think you could have done anymore than you did to make this trip an easy, memorable and enjoyable experience.

We would like to thank you again for organising a fantastic trip and wish you lots of success in the future. Meanwhile we’ll be saving up for he next trip and we’ll be sure to give you a call when we have gathered enough pennies !

 

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