• Every part of our trip to Scandinavia and Germany worked well booked through Ciao Travel. Lapland was a great experience and the most enjoyable part of trip. Our hotels and excursions were excellent, the Husky Safari, Auroa Borealis and Santa Safari to Santa’s home and workshop!

    The train from Stockholm to Copenhagen encounters a booking, especially at this time of the year, as it is exceptionally busy, so you may have to be flexible with travel times.

    Finnair was a very good airline and we enjoyed the service.

    Thank you once again for another memorable trip.

    Mary and Ross. Drysdale, Victoria, Australia
  • Thanks Cindy, we enjoyed an unforgettable family holiday to San Francisco, Disney World and New York, memories for a lifetime!

    Air New Zealand offered a great service and very nice aircrafts. Staff very helpful with a young toddler. The Handlery Hotel in San Francisco and Affinia 50 in New York were excellent. The Buena Vista in Orlando was very good and rooms spacious for a family, however next time we would stay at a Disney hotel to be closer to Disneyland and Epcot Centre for convenience.

    Trip Tip: Esa Bagel – located on the corner of Lexington & 50th Street, New York is a “Must Try”, especially the salmon and cream cheese on 9 grain Bagel!

    Sonia, Martin, Olivia and Hugo. Angelsea, Victoria, Australia
  • We recently booked and travelled to Vietnam and Cambodia with Ciao Travel who recommended from personal experience a tailored trip with Insider Journeys. We had a wonderful time from start to finish, our driver met us at the airport and we had an air-conditioned commute to our hotel. Each and every time on all legs of the trip our drivers were waiting with a cool drink of water in hand and a smiling face. We booked local excursions through Ciao Travel, farm visits on bicycle, and even a fishing tour in Hoi An which was very enjoyable and informative, all our guides were extremely knowledgeable as you would expect but also local and had great knowledge of the history and future opportunities for these great countries.

    TRIP TIPS: The ability to relax most afternoons and then look ahead to planned tours where driver and guide were prompt and efficient really takes the stress out of travelling in Asia, it’s comforting to know you don’t have to hit the tourist desk and plan and pay for local tours (based on availability) the day before, it was all pre-booked and planned and seamless.

    A great trip and we are excited about more travel, visiting INDIA and ITALY!

    Thanks Cindy for all your help and especially your recommendations and advice!

    Tami, David and Will. Highton, Victoria, Australia
  • Hi Cindy, on behalf of my friends Angie, Lyn and Carol, I would like to thank you for organising our wonderful trip to Italy last September.

    Your advice, guidance and itinerary made our trip was so memorable and easy to follow. We simply had to read our itinerary and knew exactly what to expect each day. So many highlights, including our private tours with wonderful tour guides.

    We saw magnificent sights of Italy, ate great traditional Italian food. We loved our 2 cooking classes, our Mediterranean cruise and our week long stay in a villa in Tuscany. My favourite region was the Amalfi coast. Our stay in Positano was magnificent. Our accommodation throughout our holiday was first class, my favourite hotel was Villa Palazzo Aminta in Stresa.

    So many highlights, so many wonderful memories shared with my friends.

    Thank you again for being such a great travel agent and friend to us.

    Regards Annie Sproules

    Anne and friends Carolyn, Angie and Lyn. Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  • Dear Cindy,

    Roger and I would like to “thank you” from the bottom of our hearts for all the work and detail you put into making our adventure the most wonderful time we could ever have imagined!

    Every detail was so well thought out by you, we were absolutely so impressed with all our destinations, accommodation choices, all your suggestions worked so well for us.

    There wasn’t a day that we would have changed, we loved every experience.

    Every day was exciting and we got the most out of every 24 hours that we could physically squeeze in.

    It’s been a wonderful, beyond our expectations, introduction to travel!

    We were blessed to have had the wonderful company of Graeme and Debbie travelling with us.

    Thankyou sincerely for everything you did for us. We will have very special memories of this trip forever.

    Diane and Roger. Xo

    Diane and Roger, Mt Gambia, South Australia, Australia
  • Dear Cindy,

    Wowsy! Thanks for another great trip. We enjoyed the best holiday with so much fun on our tour of mainland Greece vising Delphi, Olympia and Meteora. Santorini was magic! And Rhodes was Dad’s favourite, beautiful memories and lots of stories to tell you. We loved our Regent Seven Seas Cruise and our time spent in Verona with friends.

    I must just thank you for the wonderful cooking class in Athens, it was such a surprise. Dad and I enjoyed preparing traditional Greek food, it was absolutely fantastic & so much fun! We had 3 other couples ‘playing’ with us in the class plus wining & dining, all from America.  Fofi our instructor was just gorgeous, imparting lots of knowledge & tricks of the trade, i.e. how to use olive oil Greek style!

    Apparently Greeks use 18 litres of olive oil per head per annum compared to 0.8 litres in Australia.

    Dad & I are looking forward to trying our hand at our recipes & eating them too! Thank you once again for arranging another holiday for us.

    Cheers, Liz and Tim.

    Liz & Tim, Tatyoon and Barwon Heads, Victoria, Australia
  • Our most recent trip organised with Cindy at Ciao Travel was to southern Africa, and as much as we loved the last few trips she booked us in Europe, UK and Ireland and Borneo, this took the cake. The Australian government is recommending at the moment that some parts of Africa are not safe to travel to but with the companies that work with Cindy to organise our trip directly in Africa, we couldn’t have felt safer.

    We didn’t have a lot of time to spare driving between places which can take a whole day in itself, so Cindy organised over a dozen small chartered flights for us in the space of a few weeks which went like absolute clockwork and made our trip just that much more enjoyable. Overall Namibia is the most picturesque country, the people are beautiful and the hospitality we received at all our lodges was exceptional; especially Hoodia Desert Lodge. But the absolute highlight for us was our time at Camp Moremi in Botswana. The guides there are so knowledgeable and over the five or so days we were there we say antelope, zebra, giraffes, hippos, elephants, warthogs and most special two leopards and a pack of African wild dogs no more than a couple of metres from our safari truck.

    TRIP TIPS: Some currency cannot be bought in Australia so make sure to exchange at the airport you fly into before leaving otherwise you may not be able to get it anywhere else.

    It can also be difficult to withdraw currency in countries like Zimbabwe, so make sure you have enough cash on you.

    Get a good camera before you leave (lots of zoom) and go out on absolutely every available game drive, wildlife is unpredictable and you never know what a new day will bring and to travel all that way and miss out would be awful.

    Gaby and Andrea, Inverleigh, Victoria, Australia
  • Our third trip with Ciao Travel and the service once again was excellent. Some of our favourite highlights Cindy arranged for us was the Bateaux Parisians Dinner Cruise in Paris, Monet’s Garden in Giverney bike tour, Hostellerie Le Cedre was a beautiful hotel with an extraordinary restaurant. Our hotel on Lake Maggiore was just the perfect picturesque setting and the roof top bar was the best place for evening drinks with magnificent views over the lake. We returned to The Covo dei Saraceni for a second visit and for us is the best hotel in Positano, Italy. The location of this delightful hotel is fantastic with restaurant, pool, bar and cafe.

    Trip Tip: Donna Rosa Restaurant in Ravello, Italy is the best restaurant on the Amalfi Coast.

    Julie & Wayne, Moriac, Victoria, Australia
  • After not having travelled overseas for 32 years, my husband and I were a little anxious, however there was no need to be, as Cindy took that on board and put together the perfect trip to England, Zurich and Singapore for us. The “Back Roads Touring” tour company was suggested by Cindy for part of our trip, and was excellent. Small group, very personalized and really did take us on the back roads of England. All our accommodation throughout was excellent and the airlines recommended were very slick operators, no negatives with Singapore Airlines and Swiss Air. Our experience of car rental in England was very good, no problems and attendant friendly and efficient.

    Ciao Travel will be planning our next trip to Japan!

    Lindy and Chris, Curlewis, Victoria, Australia
  • We just wanted to express my sincere appreciation and give deserved recognition to Cindy and her team at Ciao travel for their outstanding customer service, professionalism and for ensuring our trip to Italy was special. Cindy listened to our wish list and designed a unique trip to suit our needs, using local drivers to collect us from airports and trains, local guides to show us amazing sights and tours and booked clean, inviting 4/5 star boutique accommodation .Her insight and advice, given her many years of experience, ensured we felt safe and experienced no unforeseen situations. It certainly exceeded our expectations.

    Rebecca and Cherie, Geelong, Victoria, Australia