Christmas in an Italian Castle Reviews

I would recommend Global Journeys to anyone wishing to book a holiday. Everything went off with out a hitch and we had a great time. The Albatross trip was great because we spent very little money as everything was mostly included and all the people we travelled with were great. The food and the wine included were terrific although I put on 3 kilos!. read more I would travel with them again, its a pity they dont have more of a variety of places they go.

Excellent, well thought out tour format. Plenty of time to enjoy destinations. Great accommodation and included meals. Highly recommended for anyone who doesn't want to stress or worry about what to do next, where to go next or where to find great food whilst on holidays!

We booked the tour with a little trepidation because we heard about tours that had oversized & grumbling tour groups, ordinary & poorly located hotels, overbearing tour guides, bland food and so on. However, our fears were totally unfounded on Albatross's 'Christmas in an Italian Castle' tour. All hotels were well located in city centres and were of read more good 4 star type quality. We will especially remember the family friendliness of the staff of Mohrenwirt at Fuschl and the historic elegance of the palace of Castelbrando. The food was fantastic, almost always good, plentiful examples of local fare, with the several course Italian Christmas dinner at Castelbrando a standout. Not everyone on our group liked everything put before us (although we did!), but all were willing to have a go, as sampling local food is part of the adventure. Surprisingly (and happily), wine was amply included at several of the dinners. The places we visited in this tour were all stunning and it is hard to pick one as a highlight. However, one special place worth mentioning is the historic little town of Hallstatt, on the side of a hill next to a lake. It's quiet beauty and charm is straight off a biscuit tin lid!

The tour was generally well paced with a good mixture of guided tours and opportunities to 'do your own thing' and wander through historic townships on your own. Our only complaint was that we would have liked to have spent more time at some of the sites such as Bolzano and Sirmoine rather than move on and shortly after have lengthy meal/comfort stops at service stations. Best of all was the charming, eloquent, informative, helpful and patient tour guide, Gilberto, who led our group. Gilberto's knowledge, enthusiasm and informative anecdotes about the places we passed by or visited really added to the value of the experience. He is an outstanding asset to Albatross's organisation and, if their other guides are as half as good, they are well ahead of the pack. We can't finish without mentioning Marco, our tour coach driver, every inch a charming Italian gentleman himself. His skillful driving along snow covered, winding roads was reassuring and something to admire. We will have no hesitation in recommending Global Journeys and Albatross. Our consultant, Frances, was fantastic and helped organise our trip professionally and without fuss.

We had a fab time and were very happy with Albatross and believe that the 'Christmas in an Italian Castle' was very well organised, good value for money, great itinerary, not too rushed and it was great having at least 2 nights or more in most places. We met some great people on the tour with us with a good mixture of ages. The tour leader Deryk Brown read more was very helpful, pleasant and a wealth of information having been in that job for many years. One family on our tour were onto their 5th Albatross tour which speaks for itself. The highlight was a visit to Hallstatt, the oldest known village in Europe and as they say possibly the most beautiful in Austria. I was happy to be able to ski fresh powder in Italy and the Castle for the four days over Christmas was stunning to say the least. We were very happy with your service, particularly as I was a bit stressed about Glenns back in mid 2012 and worried about if we should/would be able to go. I will recommend Global Journeys to family and friends, and yes please upsell this particular tour when you can.