Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary

Tina Sarafa and family in Scotland.

“My mom wanted to see a new country that she had never visited.”

Tom is a magic maker! I contacted Tom around April 24, 2025 to book a cruise for a mother-daughter-sister trip. We wanted a small ship, adults only, and my mom wanted to see a new country that she had never visited. Further, given I was already planning to be in Ireland for a golf trip, I wanted a trip that coincided with my travels, as flying back to California and visiting Scotland later in the summer was too much.

To Tom’s credit, within 4 days of contacting me, we had a cruise booked on the Windstar line departing Dublin for Scotland, which was on my mom’s bucket list. All this happened while Tom was on his honeymoon! Tom’s attention to our needs, and most especially my mom’s, were exceeded. We visited beautiful islands, had amazing excursions, and encountered the most marvelous and caring crew. My mother, sister, and I hope to make this an annual tradition and will certainly use Tom again. He truly made all of our dreams come true on such a special family trip.

We had a wonderful adventurous trip. We enjoyed the long “double” cruise, from Bucharest to Budapest and then to Amsterdam, but found it long. We also found it felt busier than we anticipated with all the excursions, though we mostly did one per day. We found the food surprisingly bland. We were pleased with the recommendation of Avalon, as they handled a boat switch due to low water levels quite smoothly (we were lucky another ship was on its way in the other direction and at the right port to make the switch with minimal disruption).

We had a wonderful river cruise aboard the AmaWaterways AmaDolce, cruising from Bordeaux and sampling wines on the right and left banks. Our cruise was booked by Tom’s colleague Kathy. The cruise is a wonderful mix of culture and history, focused on food and wine but including visits to historic sites. We were very pleased with our onboard accommodations and the included excursions, plus Kathy provided us with some onboard ship credits to make our trip extra special.

We also planned before and after activities, deciding to fly into Madrid, staying there for a couple of days, then took the train to San Sebastián, where we enjoyed pintxos and the incredible Michelin 3-star Arzak before getting a private car to Bordeaux to meet the ship. After our cruise, we returned to Madrid via air and took a couple of day trips, the first to Segovia, Ávila and Toledo, then the next day a wine tour of the Ribera del Duero region of Spain. All-in-all a fantastic vacation—and we can’t wait to get back to Spain!

Danube River.

Heather Brandeburg’s river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest included the Danube.

Thank you, Wendy for referring me to Tom. I couldn’t be happier with the expertise, advice and excellent service Tom provided. His first-hand knowledge with cruise lines and hotels in the areas we traveled made our trip a truly awesome and amazing experience. We wanted a 14-day European River Cruise in May. Tom recommended SCENIC for our River Cruise and we loved the entire experience. It was first class all the way. In fact, I couldn’t consider another cruise line after the SCENIC experience.

Tom recommended a wonderful hotel in London—The Montague at the Gardens—which was a beautiful boutique hotel with a really nice restaurant and bar. The service was impressive and the staff were very attentive and personable. Our river cruise began in Amsterdam and ended in Budapest. Tom also recommended the Anantara Grand Hotel in Amsterdam, which was lovely. The Concierge worked their magic to help us obtain a prescription medication and delivered it to our room within 3 hours so we were able to boars the cruise ship without delay.

The SCENIC river cruise experience was beyond our expectations. The excursion choices offered something for everyone. The Cruise Director was extremely skilled at his job—very knowledgeable, entertaining and funny. The food was excellent and the staff were warm and engaging. Our travels included Amsterdam, Cologne, Bonn, Rudesheim, Wurzburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Vilshofen, Passau, Durnstein, Vienna, and Budapest. My favorites were Bamberg, Regensburg and Durnstein for their quaintness and ageless charm and Vienna for everything!!! Most memorable is the unbelievable scenery we passed while cruising the rivers, and the history of each and every town we visited.

SCENIC is an Australian company and there were many Australians on the ship who were interesting, engaging and funny, which made the experience even more delightful. This was a fabulous, fantastic trip. Tom booked the end of our stay at the Anantara New York Budapest Hotel, where we were afforded early check-in, an upgraded room and late check-out to accommodate our afternoon flight to London. Tom also recommended the Aerotel in London Heathrow Airport, which allowed us to arrive from Budapest in the evening, stay overnight in Terminal 3, and fly back to the US in the morning—making the end of the trip so much easier.

I highly recommend Tom Baker and see why he is on your WOW List. Thank you, again for referring me to Tom and for your extensive travel knowledge.

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