Legacies of Central Europe Ten-Day Tour

Zicasso’s travel company put together a wonderful trip for us! Our 10-day trip included stays in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich, with stops in between in Potsdam and Nuremberg. We had great guides, great hotels, great recommendations, and great communication from them throughout the trip. I highly recommend working with them.

Overall, the planned trip was excellent. The tour guides and drivers were very good. In particular, the food tour guides in Kraków, Budapest, and Prague were great. Our Prague food tour was the best one and our guide was excellent. It was very unique. The hotel in Krakow was centrally located and a pleasant experience.

However, there was a great amount of confusion with the meeting point for our food tour in Kraków. We were told we would be met at the hotel. Then, the day before, we received a text that we would be driven to meet the guide. However, there were no details provided and we wasted at least 20 minutes trying to figure out where the guide was located! Finally, our driver called the contact number. Also, we were not informed that the Salt Mine had 700 stairs down! We ended up not doing it since that was too challenging at the beginning of a long trip.

This was a fabulous trip. We sincerely loved all of the cities: Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. The communication with Zicasso's travel company was great and everyone was very responsive. The app from the travel company was really helpful in describing all of the day's activities, providing the vouchers, and showing who we were meeting, with their contact information. They always communicated and responded to our needs. We felt the whole experience, from airport pickup to drop-off, was very seamless.

Everything (except the horrible heat) was wonderful. Working to plan the trip and who we encountered on the ground in Poland: the guides and drivers, and the accommodations (the Warsaw room was cramped). Oddly, the best hotel was one we found for ourselves in Częstochowa.

My trip was fantastic! Every single minute of it! I was in Europe city-hopping for 16 days and every aspect of the trip was perfect! My travel specialist and her team, who planned my trip and gave me support throughout it, couldn't have done a better job - it truly was the trip of a lifetime!

We started out planning it about a year ago. I contacted Zicasso about planning a multi-city trip and I listed the places that I wanted to visit. I am a woman traveling solo, so I asked for guides for many places that I wanted to visit - people who knew the cities and the best way to get around, great places to eat, etc. The guides were awesome - I had four of them and they each had a background in history or art history, so they were perfect companions to visit museums and palaces with.

I also had a somewhat unusual request - I wanted to go to thrift shops in three cities. I strongly believe in recycling and finding a new home for pre-loved items. I did end up going to thrift stores and some shops featuring local designers and artisans, and found some absolute treasures to take home with me! And I spent one wonderful morning at a Paris flea market with my Parisian guide, and we had a grand time! I found some jewelry and a small piece of art to take home with me. She had me try my first crepe (I've never had one before) and also something that I'm going to misspell that, when pronounced, sounds like "shoe" - yummy!

I wanted to see a show at the Moulin Rouge, but did not want to go to a club at night by myself, so my guide escorted me and we had a wonderful time! Similarly, I wanted to go to a jazz club one evening and my guide escorted me there, where we had a blast! She accompanied me to the Louvre and made sure I got to see all the pieces I was interested in seeing. She also took very good pictures of me at all the spots we visited so I could send them back home. I'll give her a 5+ star rating as a guide! She was just lovely!

My next stop was Prague and my guide was just as superb! She introduced me to espresso tonics (I'm sipping one right now as I've been making them at home - I love them!) and she gave me a wonderful guided tour of the city. The next day we did some thrifting and visited stores featuring local designers. Again, I found some treasures. Another 5+ star guide!

From there I took the train to Vienna, where my guide brought me on an amazing walking tour of the city. She was so knowledgeable about the city and its history - you could tell it is her passion. She also brought me to thrift stores and local artisan shops and again I found even more treasures! We visited museums and enjoyed lunch and coffees together. And she escorted me to a blues club one evening where we had a blast listening to live classic American blues (my real love, along with jazz). My guide is just so delightful! Highly recommended if you are interested in visiting Vienna.

From there I flew to Venice - my final destination. My guide was so knowledgeable about the artwork that we saw at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection - it felt as if by seeing the paintings we were visiting old friends of his! And he also took me to see Doge's Palace and on a gondola ride.

On day two in Venice, we went by boat to Murano, where we visited the glass factory and saw the glassblowers working. I had done very well at sticking to my budget for the trip until I got to the Murano factory showroom. I love glass and the pieces they were selling were all sublime! So much work went into them. I ended up buying two pieces that are being shipped to me so I did not have to worry about transporting them on the plane. And our tour guide at the factory even gifted me a necklace that I'm wild about after serving me prosecco in a handblown glass.

From there, we headed to the island of Burano and had lunch. I've got wonderful pictures of the colorful houses there. As I said, the trip could not have been better. The hotels were all fabulous in each city - centrally located and an easy walk to restaurants and shops. The beds were super-comfortable and each room was very quiet - I slept like a log from all the walking that I did every day.

I even managed to send postcards to friends and family from each city - not an easy task since not many people use snail mail anymore! But my guides were all determined to help me find postage and they did - every one of them!

Each hotel offered breakfast and the food was delicious. I'm on a keto diet but came off of it for this trip so I could enjoy the local specialties. The breakfasts were all buffet-style and offered everything you could imagine - eggs, bacon, sausage, all kinds of breads and rolls, pastries, fresh fruit and juice, yogurt, and the best coffee! Every hotel had an excellent buffet. They were all 4-star hotels and each room was charming. The staff at each hotel were also very accommodating, wanting to ensure that I had everything I needed.

There is nothing that the travel specialist and her team left out. Her team even arranged for a last-minute guide to help me get from my hotel to the airport in Venice and make sure I was at the right ticket counter (I was a little concerned about finding the water taxi and then finding the right place to go at the airport). He wheeled and carried my luggage, which by this time was heavy!

The whole trip was perfect and I'm hoping to return in a couple of years. I'd like to make a trip to the Christmas markets in Europe - especially Prague and Vienna - and you know which guides I'm going to be requesting! The whole experience was top-notch! Have no concerns at all about working with this company - they're the best! I thank each and every one who was involved in my trip. It really was perfect!

This was our fifth trip through Zicasso and our second through this travel company. Last year, we had a fabulous trip in Croatia, organized by our travel specialist, and were thrilled that he was able to help us this year with our trip to the Czech Republic and Poland. Even though this was outside their main area of work, they were very knowledgeable and partnered with in-country teams to help us plan a really special trip. He made it clear that his goal was to create a special and meaningful trip for us, and he did. Everything worked so smoothly, down to all the great hotels, which were perfectly located, tour guides arriving exactly when and where they were supposed to, safe drivers to get us around, and a very meaningful visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau.