Sweden Uncovered Tour: Stockholm, Gothenburg, and More

The trip planned by Zicasso's travel company was generally good. The walking tour in Copenhagen was about 50% a repeat of the food tour. The hotels were good. The rental car was good and pick-up was close to our hotel. It appeared we could have dropped off the car in Gothenburg, close to our hotel, rather than driving back to the airport. There was a hotel payment issue in Gränna, but it was resolved before we checked out.

This travel company was not located in or experienced with travel in Scandinavian cities. I did not see the other choice of travel company until I had already spent a considerable amount of time with this travel company. I provided the itinerary. They only had to arrange hotels, guides, and transport. This travel company didn't deliver as follows:

Hotels: This travel company did not have a relationship with hotels and made their bookings (at least with respect to one hotel) through Expedia. So, we ended up with the worst room in our category at almost every hotel and had to spend time negotiating to switch rooms. At one hotel, they did not pay for breakfast, even through they said in their booking that they had. When so informed, they offered to pay for breakfast, but that is beside the point. At the hotel in Copenhagen, we were informed that the room had not been paid for and it took some time to get that issue straightened out.

Guides: Except for one guide in Copenhagen, the guides were either inexperienced or did not add value, For example, our guide for the Copenhagen city tour was a young, uneducated French woman who had moved to Copenhagen only 6 months earlier and did not speak Danish. The guide in Stockholm took us to a sandwich lunch at her neighbor's apartment. Not what we were looking for in a city tour.

Transport: We were advised that there was a train that would take us from Gothenburg to Copenhagen in 2.5 hours. In fact, we had to take a bus to Falkenberg and then a train. The trip was 4.5 hours.

Restaurants: We only went to one of their restaurant recommendations. All the other recommendations did not take into account our dietary restrictions.

Attention to the details is the difference!

I have a friend who swears he can use ChatGPT to plan the ideal vacation. He does a search, gets a planned itinerary, spends hours making reservations, and inevitably a “detail” gets missed; something goes wrong. Maybe it’s flight issues (he once booked a semi-private flight and the plane landed in an area of the airport with no access to the rental cars. Oops!), maybe it’s that there’s loud construction next to the hotel he’s booked, etc.

With Zicasso’s travel specialist, there’s none of that. I reached out to her to plan a trip to Sweden (including the hotel made of ice) and let her know our dates, our budget, and what my wife and I wanted to do. A couple of Zoom calls later (including one with a specialist who was intimately familiar with the hotel made of ice), she had a perfect itinerary planned for us (including planning a tricky (for me) overnight train in a sleeper car traveling from Kiruna to Stockholm). All arrangements and reservations were made. I had to do practically nothing.

And I cannot emphasize “perfect” enough. We did so many active adventures, but we had necessary “downtime” to relax. In other words, we never felt rushed, but felt we did all that we wanted to do.

But it’s not just the ease of working with the travel company; it’s those “details.” For instance, her and the team made the recommendation to book a regular (i.e., warm) room at the hotel made of ice for the same night as our one-night stay in an ice room, just in case we found the ice room too cold. So when, in the middle of the night, my wife decided to bail on the ice room (note: she just couldn’t sleep; I found the room delightful), she had a room to retire to. Other guests we spoke to were quite envious of our arrangement/foresight (when I checked ChatGPT, it never made that recommendation).

Another example is that she recommended not snowshoeing in Stockholm in mid-March (due to the likelihood of slushy conditions). In contrast, ChatGPT did not caution against such a snowshoeing experience. She instead offered us a walking tour of Stockholm with a private guide. Note that she was spot-on; the temperature in Stockholm was 50 degrees (Fahrenheit), with not a flake of snow to be seen!

Also, she was there to answer questions about tipping practices, where to get food for our train ride, etc.

And no looking for taxis! We got off the plane in Kiruna, grabbed our luggage, and a driver with our name on a board whisked us away. Same thing going from the ice hotel near Kiruna to the Kiruna train station. Our taxi was waiting right at the entrance at the appointed time.

In Stockholm, she got us early check-in privileges (11am) at a gorgeous hotel right on the water and just a short walk from the old town.

Finally, the travel company’s app kept track of all our travel and activities, and pinged us with various reminders about flight departures and gates, etc.

So, sure, give AI a go if you want (and enjoy all the hassles of and time spent planning), but for true hassle-free travel abroad, I highly recommend this travel specialist and the tour operator.

Our trip was great. We sincerely appreciated the knowledgeable and personable travel guides in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Bergen. I do not remember the name of our food tour guide in Oslo, but she was also an interesting and competent guide. The drivers were all on time and much appreciated.

Zicasso’s travel consultant and the travel company did a fabulous job arranging a family trip to Sweden and Denmark. She suggested experiences we would not have arranged on our own. All of us had a great time!