5 Responses to “New England, Canada & Niagara Falls - Customer comments”

1. George and Janet Ellison on August 20th, 2010 10:56 am

   Dear Roger and team,

   Thank you for organising yet another superb holiday for us, which we really enjoyed. Please find set out below some detail to help you with feedback to those involved in the provision of service.
   We wondered, at first, how much use the big file you gave us would be and decided to put it in hand luggage, having removed only the story about the Boston Ducks!! We did find it useful and often the driving directions proved useful and/or linked in well with the GPS.
   ACCOMODATION
   Omni Parker House Boston This was an excellent location and comfortable. The staff were welcoming and efficient. They enabled us to calm down after a tough time at the airport and provided a good base from which to explore Boston.
   Inn at Cape Cod Yarmouthport MA. The owners Mike and Helen are great people who are dedicated to building up their business. You are made to feel welcome and individual. The breakfast is excellent and the restaurant next door provides a good choice, so you can dine there several times and do not need to get in the car to go and eat.
   Manor on Golden Pond. Holderness NH We liked the location and the comfort here. We did not feed back to them that we thought their menu provision could be improved by combining their fine dining with the more ordinary menu. There was a place down the road, which we walked to the 2nd night which offered greater choice at lower prices. The Manor had live piano music, but did not advertise it from the roadside, which seemed silly to us.
   Trapp Family Lodge Stoe VT. An excellent location with plenty to do at the resort in terms of guided walks and being able to just walk around on your own and enjoy the beautiful woodlands. Staff were friendly and efficient and accommodation was great. Even some showery weather did not spoil things.
   Fairmont le Chateau Montebello Quebec. This was another location where you did not have to use the car. We chose just to amble round the estate and thoroughly relaxed. If we had chosen to do more strenuous things, then facilities were available for that and we are sure that we would have enjoyed them. I had a misunderstanding with the guy who was supposed to unload our car – it may have been a language problem. However the lady who checked us in upgraded our room for us and so we felt we were treated properly.
   Deerhurst Resort Huntsville ON This was a wonderful place to stay and we could have cooked for ourselves, had we so wished. We could easily have packed in another day here in the Algonquin National Park, and in hindsight would have clipped a day off the very busy Cape Cod area in preference to the walks which were available to us in this location. The bar area was great, with friendly staff and the dining was very good.
   Westin Castle Harbour Hotel Toronto. This hotel was incredibly busy when we arrived and the room safe did not work despite them trying to fix it. I was not pleased to be told that they had safe deposit facilities at the front desk when I rang to request a change of room, which the guy who tried to fix the safe had suggested we do! Anyway, they did move us and after this had a good stay. This hotel had been our own choice and you kindly arranged it for us. No complaints, then. There is an Irish Pub/Restaurant on the waterfront which is great and the atmosphere at the Harbourside is great, though we found Toronto generally busy.
   Travel Arrangements.
   British Airways travel was generally fine despite the usual problem of a faceful of seat-back from a reclining passenger in front. I wrote about this last year to BA and got £100 compensation. I might do the same again, but don’t want to drive them closer to bankruptcy! Thanks for your help in giving us maximum flexibility with potential strike possibilities. We made Mark’s wedding as planned!
   You know about the disastrous pick-up by limo from Boston airport. The taxi fare was $30 including tip and I made 3 international calls on my mobile. The important thing here is that if the firm in question is incompetent, then it is not used by your American colleagues. We were not at our best and really should have rung the firm first, not American Driving Vacations. It was a bit of a mess really. They should know, however, that planes are often late and that passengers are delayed by immigration so a 3.00pm arrival against theoretical landing time of 1.00pm is not unusual.
   The pick-up from the Westin to Toronto airport was very, very good.
   Within the timescale that we had, the experience in USA and Canada was tremendous. We had both town and countryside to explore variously and the vehicle hire gave us flexibility. Perhaps the SUV may have been a little too big – we ended up with a Dodge Caravan 8-seater because there were no smaller ones on the lot when we collected, but it was nice to be high off the ground and see the scenery. One problem we hit that is perhaps not uncommon, from what friends and family tell us, is that when we came to drop the vehicle off in Toronto there were no signs to help us find the location and the GPS gave a whimper and got depressed. Janet parked up by the station and I raced down the steps to find the Alamo office for directions. The location was 2 levels down in a PUBLIC CAR PARK with no signs outside to let you know that Alamo is in there. You can imagine how uptight we were when we finally got to the drop-off point. The guys working there said it was common!! So why don’t Alamo give precise directions? Driving in Toronto is quite hard without that hassle!
   The Tour to Niagara was well-organised and the Tour Guide was a mine of information. We have often signed up to a DUCK tour, which we duly did in Boston and were not disappointed. As we have never actually met face-to-face, we thought it might be nice to introduce ourselves pictorially with me in front of the Dukw and Janet by the Trapp family lodge, although we doubt very much that these would be any good as publicity photos.
   With best wishes and thanks,
   Yours sincerely,
   George and Janet Ellison

2. Peter on August 3rd, 2010 12:17 pm

   Dear Claire,

   I’ve been meaning to email for a while, but unfortunately work caught up with me when I got back from my holiday.

   Many thanks for the arrangements that you and CNA made for me on my recent holiday, everything went seamlessly. All of the hotels were of the standard that I was looking for and some of them were truly spectacular. I found the holiday file that you put together for me was invaluable and helped me to take more scenic routes on occasions where my SatNav wanted to take me on the most direct route.

   Thanks again….a great holiday !

   Best regards

   Peter

3. Alex & Karen on October 3rd, 2008 4:47 pm

   Hi Claire

   Just wanted to let you know that we had a fantastic time on our honeymoon. The upgrades were brilliant - esp the room overlooking Niagra falls! Also thanks again for coming round to the house to drop the documents off - it was much appreciated.

   Thanks again

   Alex and Karen

4. David on October 10th, 2006 7:39 pm

   Just returned from our holiday. Thank you for making all the arrangements, all went very well. All hotels were great and in good locations. Good foliage colours and only one wet day.

   Having satnav was absolutely brilliant, we used it all the time,well worth the extra cost. In fact, we didn’t need to use any of the driving instructions you kindly supplied, and on the trip to the Montebello from Stowe where you have to cross the river at Montreal it even took us across on a small car ferry rather than a main road bridge.If you don’t already do so, would suggest you recommend having satnav to all your customers.

   Once again thank you for all your help and for the notelet box awaiting our return. Wouldn’t hesitate to use your services again.

   David

5. Mark & Lisa on July 30th, 2006 10:14 am

   A slightly belated email to say thank you for another excellent holiday. This year we did the New England, Canada and Niagara fly drive, which was a complete contrast to the CNA Western that we did last year, but just as enjoyable. Once again many thanks and we are looking forward to next year’s holiday with you already.

   Mark & Lisa

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