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Our trip, arranged through Jay’s team, was wonderful. The staff were easy to work with, they were friendly, professional and very responsive. They were valuable in assisting us with our itinerary and were in contact with us during the duration of the trip. Their Guest Page, which tracked all aspects of our trip, was invaluable. We would gladly work with them again on a future trip.
Our trip included three days in Barcelona, eight days in Croatia and three days in Zurich. All arrangements for private transportation, tour guides and longer day tours all went as planned.
Barcelona:
We stayed at Hotel Barcelona Catedral. The hotel was centrally located, the room was very nice and the breakfast was yummy. We took the Barcelona Old town walking group tour with a Flamenco show. We loved the tour and the tapas, but the Flamenco show was disappointing. We also took The Complete Gaudi group tour, which included Park Guell and Extended Sagrada Familia sites. This tour was fabulous. We also took a Sunset Sailing Experience which was underwhelming.
Dubrovnik:
We stayed at Villa Orebelle, which was centrally located, and had an amazing view from the beautiful rooms. Breakfast was great. The staff were friendly and professional. There was a pretty beach below the hotel and we spent some time there. We would definitely stay there again.
We went on a Dubrovnik private walking tour which was educational and fun. We loved Old Town and spent quite a bit of time there.
We took a full day private day tour to Montenegro, Kotor and Perast. Our driver and tour guides were excellent.
We then took a Dubrovnik to Korčula private transfer with stops at an Oysters farm and two wineries. This was also a wonderful experience.
Korcula:
We stayed at Hotel Korsal, a quick walk to Old Town. The location and the breakfast were great, and the staff were friendly and professional. In our opinion the rooms were dated and could use an upgrade. We took a Korčula Town private walking tour which was fun and educational. The tour guide was excellent. We spent lots of time in Old Town, which we loved. We took a private taxi, all-day boat trip, and spent time at the beaches on 3 different islands. A wonderful day.
We then took a ferry to Split. The ferry was very crowded and dealing with the luggage was difficult.
Split:
We stayed at the Fermai Heritage Hotel, which was centrally located and beautiful. The rooms were nicely decorated, the breakfast was delicious and the staff were fantastic. We would definitely stay there again. We took a Split private walking tour. Our guide was funny, very knowledgeable about architecture, and professional. Again, we spent a lot of time in Old Town and loved the experience.
We took the Krka Waterfalls and Trogir group tour, which was a day-long experience. We would highly recommend this tour for anyone visiting the Split area. The next day we flew to Zurich.
Zurich:
We stayed at Hotel Ameron Zurich Bellerive, which was the most spectacular hotel we stayed at during this trip. The hotel, the rooms, the breakfast, the staff were excellent. If we come back we would be delighted to stay there again. We took a fantastic Zurich private walking tour with a guide well educated in the history and architecture of the city. We also took an hour and a half lake boat tour on our own, and spent our free time walking this beautiful city. Just be aware that Zurich is an extremely expensive city to visit.
Denis and Ciaran did a really good job planning our Prague, Munich and Salzburg trip (Aug-Sep 2025). They were accommodating with the various changes that we requested and took care to address our key wants. Their suggestion of going to the Mozart Dinner and concert at Salzburg was a really good one and started our trip on a great note. The trip to Halstatt was spectacular (and highly recommended). Prague was great, and will need more than the 3 days we were able to spend, but the hotel recommendation and the trips we took around the city were great. We took a car from Salzburg to Prague with a stop at Cesky Krumlov, but in hindsight, a direct train or air transfer may have been better.

The Hill of Crosses was torn down and rebuilt repeatedly under Soviet occupation. Photo: Traveler Chris Kloes
My husband and I had an incredible trip to the Baltics this summer. Jay’s team helped us plan the trip and we are very happy that we chose them.
While the Baltic countries are often lumped together, each is quite distinct, with its own history, culture, and food. We love to travel and are grateful to have explored many countries around the world. We had heard wonderful things about the Baltics, and wanted a trip both to the major Baltic cities, but also “off the beaten path” where we could explore smaller towns, meet local people to learn about culture and history, and explore Baltic cuisine.
Our trip started when we took the ferry from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia. The ferry is huge, clean, and super easy to board and disembark. Tallinn is charming—with a quintessential medieval walled old town. We appreciated the classic things to do in Tallinn, and enjoyed a food tour with an American expat, who helped jump start our trip. We sampled local fare, like smoked cheese and fried black bread with garlic, which were both delicious! We also sampled the incredible local fruit. We also did some more unusual activities, as suggested by Jay’s team. For example, we went bog shoe hiking! We learned that Estonia has many pristine bogs, many over 6,000 years old, where you can walk in them using special shoes, kind of like snow shoes. Our guide showed us how to use them and also introduced us to much of the flora and fauna that you can find in the bogs. It was so much fun and a truly unique way to learn about Estonia. We also enjoyed the up-and-coming artist area of Telliskivi. There were lots of hip restaurants and many galleries and shops to explore there.
One other cool thing in Tallinn—we had a WOW Moment, which is a special gift from Wendy Perrin to us for being loyal customers and having booked several trips with their planners. Our WOW Moment was a private sunset cruise on the Baltic Sea outside of Tallinn. It turned out to be a beautiful sailboat, with a venerable local captain and his trusty first mate. This boat was huge—we were so delighted! Of course, the sun sets at 10:30 p.m. or so in Tallinn in June. So, we were cruising on our own private sailboat with the beautiful glow of the sun starting at 9 p.m. at night. We were just thrilled with our adventure, and very grateful that we have had enough trips with Wendy’s travel specialists that they arranged it for us.
We also visited Saaremaa and Pärnu, two smaller towns in Estonia. Saaremaa was charming, with lots of old windmills and a lovely 800-year-old castle. Our hotel room looked out at the castle. The hotel—the Ekesparre Boutique Hotel—was thoroughly charming, cozy, and elegant at the same time. We loved the breakfasts here and it was a great location to walk, wander, and explore. We also had one of the best meals of the trip here at Resto Hafen, a local seafood restaurant within walking distance from our hotel and that was on a small marina. Everything was so simple but perfectly prepared; fresh, with lots and lots of seafood and tasty local veggies.
Pärnu was also lovely. It is a beach escape for many Estonians. We rented bikes and had lots of fun cruising around while we got the lay of the land. The beach was very approachable, with families and friends staying out late into the still-light evenings, even at 11 p.m. and later. We stayed at the Hedon Hotel and had an amazing spa experience here. The spa had 13 separate stations, including 5 different types of saunas and 3 types of pools. To say we were truly relaxed afterwards is an understatement!
We left Estonia for Cēsis, Latvia. This town has the most interesting castle we saw on our trip. It was built in the 13th Century and there is so much you can learn about Latvian history by visiting. The castle is incredibly well-preserved for a place that was sacked by Ivan the Terrible! While in Cēsis, we stumbled upon a pan-European bike race that was ongoing, taking over the city streets. It was the kind of experience that is serendipitous and makes you feel like a local!
We left Cēsis for time in Riga, the capital of Latvia. It’s a lovely town with a sizable walled city center that has many lovely churches and historic buildings. Riga has the most amazing food market you can imagine, called the Central Market. The market is housed inside of several former zeppelin hangers and each hanger has its own theme, like one for meat, one for dairy, one for seafood, etc. Our guided tour of the food hall was one of the highlights of the trip, for sure.
As we were leaving Latvia, we stopped at Rundale Palace in Latvia — this place was incredible and so surprising in a fairly remote location. It is the Versailles of Latvia, for sure. The palace is enormous and impressive, with incredible furniture, decoration and art. It’s amazing to think that it was later used as a school and in total disrepair as recently as 20 years ago.
Finally, we ventured into Lithuania for the last segment of our trip. Lithuania is the biggest of the Baltic countries and the only one that is predominantly Catholic. We had a stop at the Hill of Crosses as we made our way to Vilnius. The Hill of Crosses is just that, a living monument for Lithuanians to celebrate the dead but also other events for the living, like a baptism. There must be literally millions of crosses of all sizes. It made you appreciate the resilience of the Lithuanian people, who rebuilt the monument in the cover of night every time the Soviets tore it down during the occupation years. And from there, we went to Vilnius, a lovely city that we knew nothing about. It also has a walled city center, with red roofs, lively streets and squares. We took a guided city walk to ground ourselves in the history of the city and the country.
Throughout the trip, we were thoroughly impressed with our guides and drivers. Some of the most interesting conversations we had were with our drivers, who knew so much about the social and political history of the places we were visiting. And our guides were uniformly excellent, personable with just the right amount of local flair and color thrown into our tours and activities.
Finally, we need to shout out to our local contact, Adam. Any time things needed attention or if there was a hiccup in the plans, he was there to help and make sure our experience was excellent. We called upon him a few times to help us with adjustments, questions or recommendations—he always came through. We think having a local contact like Adam, available both through WhatsApp and via phone, really makes the difference between a great trip and an extraordinary one.
We should also mention that this is a trip we had originally planned to take in the summer of 2024. When we had a family medical issue that kept us from being able to travel, Jay’s company worked with us to reschedule the trip. We truly appreciated the flexibility and compassion.
This is probably the 8th or 9th trip we have booked with a Wendy Perrin-recommended travel specialist and we are hooked! The local expertise, personalization, and help on the ground are incredible and we feel fortunate to have found such a trustworthy source for our travel planning.
Thank you for guiding us to Jay for our trip to Normandy. While we only used their guides for the beaches and Bayeux, his staff went out of their way to assist us in Paris. In fact, when we arrived, Elena met us at our hotel with chocolates and cake to help us all celebrate the anniversary of our travel companions. In addition, she stayed in close touch with us while we were in Paris and let us know that she was available to help make any arrangements that we might need. She went above and beyond what was promised to us.
From the minute we arrived in France, everything worked seamlessly. Because our first hotel didn’t have a/c, we decided to change our hotel in Bayeux fairly late in the planning stages. Nevertheless, the replacement accommodations worked out beautifully. Our guides in Normandy were superb! We’re giving a shout out to Matthew, who gave us the history and took us to the American Cemetery. His knowledge of French history and WWII brought it to life for us. In addition, he is part of the group that is trying (and succeeding!) to identify the Jewish Soldiers who were long ago buried in mass graves, or, because the Jewish soldiers were told to remove dog tags or any other items that would mark them as Jewish, in graves that have crosses. The bodies can now be returned to their families or be buried with a Magen David. Remarkable!
The WWII jeep trip with Amandine and Philip was extraordinary in its own way. Perhaps the most meaningful exclusion we had with them was when we visited the British Cemetery. Surprising to us all, German soldiers are also buried there. The British Cemetery is much smaller and less grand than the American cemetery, but every bit as moving.
Thank you to the Wendy Perrin group for steering us to Jay and his team. We have now had more than a decade of wonderful travel due, in no small part, to you!