This latest trip was to Occidental Grand in Costa Rica.  It is a great 4 star, all-inclusive resort in the Guanacaste area.  Lots of great room category choices, good food, beautiful views and the customized rates I do are great.   If interested in experiencing something similar, let me know and I’ll be happy to customize a great Costa Rica trip for you as well.

Thank you again Trevor and Allison for the kind words below and for sharing your pictures with me.  Looking forward to your next trip…

Hey Skip! We absolutely loved Costa Rica It definitely was not a relax on the beach type trip, but more of an adventure! We loved the Occidental Grand Papagayo because it was the perfect combination of the relaxing vacation we wanted before Trevor deployed AND adventure. Our favorite tour was def zip lining through the rainforest…what a rush to be 700 feet above ground going 50 mph through a REAL rainforest! We also LOVED our room, it was like a private villa right on the bay! We couldn’t have asked for a better anniversary/pre-deployment trip! Thanks Skip, we’ll be traveling with you next year!

Trevor and Allison Finnell

The only hiccup we had was a small problem with the airline, which had cancelled some of its summer flights out of Austin. We ended up taking a flight out of San Antonio (about an hour away), but Skip reimbursed us for our week long parking and even offered us a hotel (which we declined). This situation with the airline was not Skip’s fault, and he went out of his way to try to make sure we were happy. We understand that sometimes unfortunate situations happen, and knowing that you have someone working for you on your side definitely calms the mind!!!

Thanks so much Skip for everything! David and I look forward to working with you in the future for all of our travel needs!

Thank you so much Summer for the kind words and the great pictures you shared.  I’m so glad that overall you guys had a great vacation.  Thanks for being great clients.

Continued happy travels.

Dear Skip~

   Thank you so much for your help in planning our summer 2011 get away to the Turks and Caicos islands! We had such a good time, and thoroughly enjoyed all of your recommendations while on the island. It seems like every year I do all of the research, planning and booking our vacations, and honestly I am exhausted by the time we get there. This year was so much better with your assistance, as I was able to sit back and take the advice of a trusted professional and colleauge. It made the biggest difference! As soon as I set foot on the island, I was already relaxed and knew that everything was taken care of. Our hotel transfers were on time and our room at Grace Bay Resort was was exactly how you explained it…heavenly with a perfect view!

Thanks again for the valuable information on all of your island suggestions. The health and safety precautions were appreciated as much as the general island and activities descriptions. You truly have a world class set of resort accommodations to choose from. We look forward to booking our 2012 vacation with you in the coming spring!

Kindly~ Summer

Happy Travels

Hi Skip,
Sorry that it has taken me a few days to get back with you regarding our trip. It has been crazy busy after getting back and flying right to Vegas for Jackie’s wedding, I am exhausted.
We had an AWESOME time at Temptations. Forget about any of your pre-conceived thoughts about what it may be cause it’s not like that at all.
First, I was impressed with how many people we met that had been there repeat trips. I mean people that have been there 5, 8, 10, 13 times in a row. They bring groups of friends or they meet the same people there that they met the year before or before that. We ended up meeting a group that had met previously, they live all over and meet there every year for vacation. It was great.
Alot of people from Canada. Alot. They were fun to talk to…
Great party atmosphere.
But, they also have the quiet pool if you want to get away from that.
The beach was ok. Small in depth, literally walk down the stairs from the pool and the water was 20 feet away. Not really a complaint. A little bit more seaweed then I personally like but, there was always someone out there raking it up so they are definitely giving it a good effort to keep it under control. There is always a chair to find on the beach. Not so much at the pool. Well at least the sexy pool. We were able to snag some here and there but, if you didn’t get up early, you weren’t going to get one. And we are not the early risers, it’s vacation!
This was my first time to the Cancun area so I was surprised by how commercial it was, I knew it would be but, I guess I thought Temptations would be a little more secluded. When you were on the beach you could look down and see all of the other hotels. There were vendors that would walk up and down the beach trying to sell stuff, that was a little annoying but, I got that as the atmosphere of Cancun. Not to bad after you told them no twice. People from other resorts would walk the beach to so there was alot of activity.
The entertainment staff was pretty good. Some more enthusiastic then others.That wouldn’t keep us from giving a bad review though. They had fun activities by the “sexy pool”. Once afternoon they had a DJ by the pool, that was great.The one complaint we would have is that they played the same music over and over again. So the DJ’s at night and by the pool were a breath of fresh air.
The nighttime entertainment was good. We had a great time at the lingerie party. They really do mean lingerie. They would not let the guys in with a shirt. They had a pool party another night, not in the pool though, around the pool. That was fun, they had some acrobatics and a Michael Jackson impersonator. Every night they had offers to go to the clubs. Pretty decent offers with a shuttle taking you there and back. We didn’t participate in any of those but, it was nice to have the option. There was always a night time event at the resort though. You could never really be bored. Some were cheesy that we didn’t stay for, others were good.
The room was nice, contemporary in style, alot of red everywhere. We were on the third floor, no elevators. No to big of a deal for us. We had a nice little balcony over looking the beach. More palm trees in the way but a decent view that we didn’t expect. We heard of other rooms with a two person shower, we did not have that but, it seemed like a common thing. We thought room service came with the all inclusive but, it did not. I read online that it did, I think it was an upgrade.
Food was good. I would say close to 4 star. I know they are rated 3 but, I would give them a little more credit. They had an Asian and an Italian restaurant you had to make reservations for and wear nice clothes. Me and Jonathan like that. Plus we were use to it from El Dorado. The food at the Asian restaurant was great. One of my favorites. They have a Caribbean restaurant, not so much Caribbean but the food was good. If you wanted a glass of wine with dinner it was extra. A little disappointed in that. Lunch options weren’t bad. Buffet was actually really good. I thought the food was always fresh and a good selection. At the paty’o bar lounge which is open till 6am, they have appetizers until about 10-11 maybe and then they have a guy on the grill until 6am serving burgers and hot dogs with fries. We took back a plate almost every night to our room. The burgers were terrible but the hot dogs were awesome.
If you ever have anyone go, tell them to bring singles. Everyone tips and it’s the only way to get attention at the bar. We threw down a 10 the first day at the bar and we were good the rest of the time, they get to know you real quick as I’m sure you know. But with everyone around you tipping as well, good to be prepared. We tipped at El Dorado to but, we definitely tipped here more. It was well worth it!
The hot tubs are not hot tubs. They are in the pool so they are pool temperature with jets.
The service was excellent. Can’t say anything bad about anyone.
We didn’t get hassled into any time share stuff. They threw it out there when we were checking in but, we never heard anything after that.
They have a “sports bar” in the resort, pretty gross. They need to update that for sure. The only sports they show is soccer. We went in and played one game of pool and left.
We ended up buying larger mugs for our drinks because they serve everything in tiny plastic glasses. After the first few hours we couldn’t handle that anymore. Moved up to the big gulp basically. We heard from others that frequent that no matter where you go in Cancun, you better bring your own big cup. Lesson learned.
All in all we had a great time, we have a great time no matter where we are though, lol. I would go back with a group of friends. I can see our group of friends having a blast together there. I’m not the type who would want to go somewhere 10 times in a row and it wouldn’t hold my attention for me to go back that much but, I would go back and recommend it for a group of friends or couples.
Other people there have been to the Temptations in Los Cabos and said it was not as much of a party as Cancun. Just a heads up in case you ever have anyone ask.
I think you would have a blast there Skip! Take a couple friends and go check it out.
For the money of Temptations, well worth it!!!

Thanks so much for all of your help with our trip. You make it worry free!
Now we plan for Vegas in October!!!

Talk to you soon…..
Marie

Take care and happy travels.

Skip-
Thank you so very much for booking our honeymoon trip to Bora Bora for us.  It was absolutely WONDERFUL!  The entire experience was awesome. The resort was amazing, and the staff was excellent.

They took very good care of us; the bungalow was a castle; housekeeping was always making sure the room was clean and that we had plenty of fresh towels.  The snorkeling was out of this world.  We dove off of our platform, and enjoyed the sea life right around our bungalow and the entire area of the resort, there was no need to go out on an excursion.  We did take advantage of the boat transfer to the main island of Bora Bora for shopping and sight seeing, and were so pleased that we chose the Hilton Bora Bora Nui Spa resort!  The seclusion and raw beauty of the resort makes this a crown jewel in our book!

We have already decided that we want to go back there for our 5th Anniversary!

Thanks again-

Amy and Robert Devereaux

Happy Travels.

Hi Skip
Dennis and I just want to let you know how much we enjoyed our time at the El Dorado Royale in Mexico.  The Restaurants were great. The food was so attractively displayed and tasted as good as it looked.  The people and the service was wonderful.  Dennis and I enjoyed talking to the other guests as well.  We met and talked to other couples from Texas as well as couples from all over the world.  The view and the grounds were fantastic.  I just have one question.  How did you manage to get the weather so perfect for us.   A little bit of light rain, a few clouds and a breeze to keep us cool while we walked on the grounds and enjoyed the beach and just enough sun for me to get a tan. You are definitely a miracle worker. What more could we ask for. Our vacation was perfect and we owe it all to you.  
Thank you so much.

Dennis and Terry

Skip, you did a good job of picking out a place that fit what we asked for, but I
must say…we were spoiled by El Dorado Royale that you did for our honeymoon and were a little disappointed by
the Dreams Villa Magna Resort.  The beach and grounds were beautiful, and we liked the
layout of the modern rooms, but the food and restaurants did not even come
close!  We decided that next time we would rather spend the extra money for
the nicer resort, and are already thinking about where we can go next time.
We met a few other couples who had also been to El Dorado Royale and felt
the same way.  We were really glad that we went with the ocean view room,
and we were able to watch the night-time shows from our balcony.  We also
liked that they offered entertainment a little earlier, since we don’t stay
up that late.  It was neat that they played the first game of the World
Series at the roof-top bar and had a spread of traditional ball-park food.
The staff were nice and attentive, and overall we had a great time.  We
don’t have many pictures of us because the heavy sun exposure caused me to
break out in cold sores, and I was a little under the weather while we
there.  That’s probably too much information.    They also have fairly
inexpensive wireless internet, which was nice because we both needed to
check-in on work stuff.  I noticed that they had a great kids program, which
kept the kids away from where we were most of the time…which was nice.

Anyway, I know I’m rambling.  It’s been a long week back.  Feel free to
paraphrase what I have to say.  We will definitely be utilizing your
services for our next trip.  It’s great to have everything planned out and
not have to worry about booking airfare and transfers and all that.  The
travel bag also came in handy!

Talk to you soon!
Jackie Collett

Thank you so much for the kind words.  You guys were great to work with and so glad to hear that the honeymoon went well.  Take care of yourself and thanks so much for keeping the Guru in mind for future travel.

Skip

Planning our honeymoon we wanted to make it something to remember and hearing about Skip, we decided to leave it in his hands.  We gave him a simple list of the things we wanted and simply said,” He delivered with perfection!”  Our honeymoon to the Valentin Imperial Maya resort exceeded our expectations. The resort was everything we hoped for from the room/view, FOOD & DRINKS, and overall friendly & welcoming.  As they said when we first arrived,”Welcome home!”  Working with Skip will indeed be in our future trip planning, not only based on his services, but on his attention to detail and constant follow ups to make sure everything was perfect before and after our vacation.

Sincerely-
Chris & Amanda Neelley

Hi Skip,

“We were looking for a romantic resort to celebrate our 15th anniversary.  Skip made several resort recommendations based on our preferences for resort size, dining options and activities.  We have a lot of specific criteria we wanted in a resort, and Skip patiently listened to all our requests.  Skip answered all our specific questions about each resort, and we felt with his first hand knowledge of each resort, we were able to make a very informed choice.   We chose the El Dorado Royale Casitas resort and had a wonderful time.   The resort had all the amenities and variety we were hoping for when we first spoke to Skip.     We booked a swim up Casitas, and luckily got the end individual Casita (room 2825). The location was perfect since it was right next to the beach and had its own pool access.  The beach bar was only 20 steps away!   The location was also right next to the Kampai restaurant which we loved.  It was open all day and really was “Gourmet Inclusive” as they advertise.  Yummy!   The pools, the staff, the grounds, the food, and service were all first class and wonderful.   We even were able to use our spa credit which Skip included through his service to enjoy a sky massage on the beach together.  Thank you Skip for your help and for a wonderful and memorable vacation!  We will certainly be contacting you in the future for our next romantic vacation. Greg and Shalise Pratt”

Hope you have a great summer and thanks again for all your help!
Greg and Shalise.

Thanks guys so much for the kind words and I really appreciate your friendship and all the great feedback..  Rest up, because you are going back to Maui very soon..

Skip,

Sherrie and I wanted to thank you for putting together a great first time trip to Hawaii!  We didn’t know what to expect and leaning on your expertise went against our nature, but trusting you was the very best decision we made!  We told you we were willing to make our own breakfast and lunch while on Maui and you found us the Outrigger Condo on the Kaanapali Royal course and just a 5 minute walk to the beach!  It was PERFECT!  When we return to Maui, we want to stay there again!

Then, you set up a second island visit to Oahu!  Staying at the Waikiki Parc with that incredible view made the trip!  You set up everything for us to do and with your contacts, made everything SO much easier to deal with!  Visiting the Arizona Memorial was a very moving moment which all Americans need to experience one day.  But, for me, the one event that made the trip was the Dolphin Encounter out of Waianae Bay.  Oh my, swimming with Spinner Dolphins and Sea Turtles is one of the top 5 experiences of my life!

Thank you again for putting together such a wonderful trip to Hawaii… it will not be our last!

Randy Nutt
Round Rock, Tx.