Aspire Down Under — Local services in New York

Pros: We worked with Shelley Madsen to plan our trip over several months and we appreciated the time and effort she took to understand our preferences to create our itinerary The quality of the excursions and in-country transportation was excellent; we enjoyed all of the tours we went on and the guides/ drivers were punctual, friendly, and knowledgeable. We particularly enjoyed the Shotover Jet Boat tour, Wineglass Bay tour, Whitsunday Islands tour, and Sydney Opera House tour For the most part, the quality of our accommodations was great; we particularly enjoyed staying at the Coral Sea Resort in Airlie Beach and the Park Royal Darling Harbour in Sydney

Cons: In July 2024 (~6 months prior to our departure), we applied for the NZ ETA to enter New Zealand. Due to a glitch in the mobile app and likely error on my part, the nationality for 1 traveler was oddly both correctly and incorrectly marked (Nationality was listed as USA which is correct but there was also a line that stated "You must have a valid Australian permanent residence visa and resident return visa, in your current passport, when you travel." which indicated some type of Australian nationality which is incorrect). The mobile app did allow me to go back and make any changes, so I submitted it; that NZ ETA still ended up getting issued by the New Zealand government. When I shared screenshots of this NZ ETA, with Shelley and Maria Mittleman of Aspire Down Under in July 2024, they said that this looked accurate. However, on the day of the departure in December 2024, due to this error in the NZ ETA, did not allow the 1 traveler to board the flight to New Zealand. Even after applying for a new NZ ETA, the 1 traveler was still not allowed to board the flight to New Zealand as the ETA was marked as "Pending". This led to flight rebookings, paying for additional flights, needing to contact the New Zealand government, and loss of money on missed hotels/excursions/ transportation of nearly $2,000. When this occurred, Shelley was not in the office, so I was put in touch with Sharon Tidbury who provided some support, but we had to handle resolving this issue on our own. While I take full responsibility for any errors in submitting the NZ ETA, if Shelley and Maria, as experienced travel agents at a company specializing in this region who likely see numerous NZ ETAs on a daily basis, were able to be more diligent in reviewing the NZ ETA as our second set of eyes in July 2024, this error could have been resolved in a timelier manner versus over a highly stressful period of 48 hours. When we contacted Aspire Down Under about this, we were told that they did not have anything to do with this and that it was our fault; ultimately, the "wiping our hands clean" attitude was highly off-putting. We did not find that Shelley or Aspire Down Under came through for us when it mattered most When the 1 traveler did end up traveling to New Zealand and landed in Queenstown, no transportation was organized or provided. Out of courtesy, it would have been helpful to provide this especially as it was right after the ordeal with the NZ ETA At the Stamford Plaza in Melbourne, there was an issue (either communication or technical, exact reason unknown) with our early check-in, and we were later informed that the hotel was not able to identify our reservation because they were given an incorrect spelling of our last name by Aspire Down Under The Travelodge Hotel in Hobart, although listed as a 4-star hotel on Google, was highly cramped for our party size and barely fit our suitcases; it appeared more like a hostel compared to the other hotels, was not comfortable for a 3-night stay, and was not worth the money we paid As mentioned above, the quality of the transportation and drivers were strong; however, for our last drop-off to the Sydney airport, the driver dropped us off at the domestic terminal instead of the international terminal (even after we informed him) which led us needing to unnecessarily walk a lengthy distance with 6-8...

My husband and I were in the process of planning our honeymoon when the thought of using a travel agent came to mind. I generally enjoy researching destinations, creating itineraries and booking things on my own, but traveling during COVID halfway around the world was out of my comfort zone. I did a quick Google and Yelp search and came across Aspire Down Under. Aspire had great reviews and client testimonials shared positive experiences so I called that day day and connected with Phil right away.

Phil was personable, attentive and professional explaining his role as a travel agent and spent a good amount of time listening to my travel interests and budget. After our call, Phil put together a few proposals of perspective destinations and helped my husband and I make an informed decision about the best place to travel. During this process I was impressed with Phil's knowledge of destinations and travel advisories from the State Department. He provided insight and guidance that was incredibly helpful in our decision making. Ultimately, we chose to travel to the Maldives!

Once we selected our destination, Phil continued to fine tune our travel plans by booking airfare and accommodations based on our budget. He looked into several properties we were interested in and shared price points to help us decide. Ironically, the place we chose was one that was not on our list! Phil suggested an incredible resort that surpassed all of our expectations and needs that we didn't even know about.

Phil proceeded to book our flight and accommodations and assisted us on expediting my husband's passport by sharing third party sites. Phil also helped us look into travel insurance (which we purchased) and shared all the necessary information about international travel requirements. This included things like PCR tests, health declaration forms, airline check in etc. Phil was available and knowledgeable every step of the way responding to emails promptly, taking phone calls or setting up a video meeting to make sure all of our questions were answered. He was our primary source of information and his guidance was invaluable. Prior to our departure, Phil created and shared a detailed itinerary of our trip that outlined every step of our journey. It was incredibly reassuring to know what to expect in such an organized manner, especially because our trip had multiple transfers and connections.

I cannot emphasize how happy we were with Phil's level of service and expertise and we are so grateful to have connected with Aspire Down Under. We owe the success of our dream honeymoon to him. Every detail of our trip was seamless en route, start to finish thanks to his effort and help. I truly look forward to working with Aspire again and highly recommend their services to anyone who is looking to travel to the...

My husband and I have traveled through most of the United States and Asia, a bit of Europe, and many other places. Traveling is our love and addiction.

We often put together trips ourselves, but for Australia/New Zealand we needed an expert in the area to help us. We started by first looking at some tour companies. (My cousins used one to go to the same destination.) But none had some of the things we wanted, and I needed a few accommodations. I found three firms online that specialized in this area and that drew my interest. I emailed asking for quotes. Two called and I spoke to the agents, outlining my requests. The Aspire agent responded to a query from my husband on Zicasso. And I let her know (via email and then on the phone) what we needed. She listened to me and provided a quote with items and times that I had requested at a reasonable price. So she was our top pick, and we began to work together to cull the best items for the trip. We never paid a fee until we were ready to book the tour.

I worked with Sharon T. And she was amazing. We got the cities we wanted, in the order we wanted, and with a few special accommodations. (For example: With a recent knee surgery, I couldn't climb the 300 steps at the Sydney Opera House, so she booked us an accessible tour. I sometimes have tummy trouble early in the mornings, so mostly I wanted tours that started at 10 am or later. I did have to give in to early times in a few instances, because they were not avoidable. I even had a specific order to the cities we visited, because I wanted to end the trip in Auckland, New Zealand, where we planned to meet with a friend we hadn't seen in more than 30 years.)

Suffice it to say that Sharon and I exchanged tons [hundreds? :-)] of emails from May through the end of the trip in October. I even emailed her at least three or four times while on the 19-day trip, and I always got an immediate response (if the timing was right with the 15-17 hour difference). As a former assistant travel editor for a major daily newspaper, I may be more particular than most people and harder to please. Aspire (Sharon) was patient, detailed, and offered stellar service.

P.S. The VAMOOS app was incredible. It provided every detail at our fingertips for the entire trip, along...