InterTrav Corporation - St. Charles, Illinois

Linda B.

My husband and I joined the Pomeranian Heritage Tour 2024. It was a wonderful experience! Our tour manager, Julie, did a great job. She provided a day-by-day itinerary with a schedule for meals, arrival and departure times. She adjusted arrangements with hotel meals to match changes in our timing. She gave us advance information about details such as finding ATMs, suggestions on where to eat lunch, and answered many, many questions about local practices. And she managed to communicate with our extremely skilled bus driver, who spoke neither English nor German!
The tour is planned to meet the desires of the participants to see their ancestral homelands and villages. We visited a number of towns, each with a knowledgeable local guide to show us interesting sites, provide historical information and help us understand what life was like for our ancestors. Many of us arranged side trips to our ancestral villages, each led by a local guide who in some cases, found rural cemeteries or gave special insights into the particular village. My own experience allowed us to enter two churches where ancestors were baptized and married, and to visit the village where one of the families lived....including an encounter with a local farmer who lived in the manor house!
The hotels were quite nice, all of them well located near town squares and other amenities that allowed us to explore on our own and sample local foods. The hotel meals featured a variety of regional food specialties as well as options to meet special dietary needs. We could not have been happier with our experience.

Sig R.

We’ve taken two trips in two years with InterTrav , both were great. We will use them again!

Sally K.

I took a Pomeranian Heritage tour to Poland and Germany. It was not very satisfying because we didn’t have a chance to be on our own to pursue our own interests or to experience the culture. We ate in the hotels’ buffets for every meal and had a different hotel almost every night.

Then when 7 of our group tested positive for Covid we were pretty much on our own to figure out how to get home and when. We had to find a new hotel to go to quarantine and find an English speaking doctor to help us. We each had to make our own flight arrangements to get back home to the tune of over $1300.

This was not my first time in Europe so I have experienced a great tour and this was not it.

Carolyn M.

This review is for a specialized tour, the Pomeranian Heritage Tour departing May 23, 2022. I will begin with the positives. My sister and I signed up for an individual side trip to the area where our ancestors immigrated from. Our tour guide for the day was remarkable. He was personable, knowledgeable, and engaging. He welcomed our questions and gave us insight on life in Poland, as well as playing his accordion, accompanying his daughter as she sang and danced to Pomeranian songs.
Not so positive:
There was too much crammed into this tour and too many people on it. This is not a good combination. When we got off the bus for a location tour it was difficult to hear the tour leaders. Time was always limited. Gdanz is beautiful and a great place to walk and wander. After our city tour there was no time to explore. This was disappointing. We arrived late afternoon and left the next morning. More days or fewer places on the itinerary would make things more enjoyable. Aso there was very little free time.
Negative: customer service
Before we left I was concerned about COVID, as the CDC had a travel warning of 3 for Poland. I called InterTrav about a week before departure, expressing my concern and wondering if the tour was a go. It also bothered me that when I asked about masks I was told they were not mandatory on the bus. I was told the tour was going as scheduled and if I decided not to go there was no refund.
The next to last day of the tour we were told to wear masks, as there was COVID on board. My sister and I had opted to extend our time in Berlin for two days. We, as well as the rest of the group, wanted information on COVID testing sites by our hotel, how much the tests cost, methods of payment etc. First we were told cash only, people scrambled to get money. The next day we were told credit cards were accepted. There was also confusion regarding types of tests, PCR or Rapid. People choosing PCR did not get their results back until midnight. They were told if someone knocked on your door at midnight, you are positive.The bus was leaving at 10 am.
I tested positive two days later. Luckily, I was able to contact another person from our group who tested positive. She told me they had found a hotel to isolate in, and I was able to book a room there. I called InterTrav to ask for help. I was told to call the insurance company and start a claim. I did and was told that if I tested positive after 5 days, I would need certification to travel from a doctor. After multiple calls to the insurance company by me and another person from our group who tested positive, we finally got a link to a website that provided help for people in our situation. This took two days. We were sick, and we were stressed. No real help from InterTrav, other than an offer to rebook our return flight. It should be noted that if you missed your return flight, you were out the money. InterTrav also kept asking us for a list of names of those testing positive. It was a terrible time. I would advise anyone booking a specialized tour to read the itinerary carefully and ask questions. Purchase your own flights; it might cost more, but you have the option to purchase refundable tickets or receive credit. The insurance only covers up to $500 for airfare. People in our group paid $1300 for a one-way ticket home.
I feel that InterTrav, having a group of 36 bus bound people go to a country with a level 3 COVID warning from the CDC, not have a plan in place to help those people getting COVID to be irresponsible.

Barbara F.

InterTrav made our family trip to Ireland a dream come true! Fantastic hotels, terrific driver and many special touches made it almost effortless on our part. Staff was always very responsive, with a special shout out to Shay Clarke!!! Looking forward to booking future trips!

Sara S.

What a great corporation~ They really have some fantastic packages here for group travel. Can't beat the price or the people!

Joe G.

They made things easy which I appreciated!

Bonifacio M.

Great travel agency