Caucasus Custom Journey 2015

Michele Grimm from United States traveled to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan
5
First of all, we want to thank all of you for helping us have a wonderful and very memorable tour. Overall, this was a fantastic tour and we come away with many wonderful memories of our experience. There were a few hiccups but they were handled extremely well in our estimation. We also always felt like you were watching over us and we appreciate that. We arranged our own air from New York to Baku (one-way) and would highly recommend Azerbaijan Airlines. It was a very enjoyable, non-stop flight and their service was excellent. We were served two full meals and two snacks and water and other beverages were available at all times to prevent dehydration during the flight. There was also adequate legroom. We would HIGHLY recommend that if anyone else chooses to do these three countries in one trip that they travel first to Azerbaijan as we did. We had a very unpleasant experience at the land border as we were leaving Azerbaijan and entering Georgia. Our guide and driver said they had never seen a customs agent like the female one we had to deal with and thought she was new to the job. We had purchased a small copper bowl in the small village of Lahij and this had shown up on the x-ray. She wanted to see it but since she did not find what she was looking for, she finally let us repack the suitcases and we were told to proceed. IF we had traveled in Armenia first and purchased anything there, we are sure she would have confiscated all of it. SO, always recommend that travelers visit Azerbaijan BEFORE they travel to Armenia. Also, please note that we did not have ANY issues in the airport in Yerevan when we went through customs there. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Azerbaijan and appreciated the fact we got to spend a couple of nights outside Baku on our trip to the border. The room in our hotel was adequate and it was in a pretty good location for walking to the town center. Dinner was arranged for us that evening in the Celebi Xan restaurant and we thoroughly enjoyed that experience. On our way to the border, we did some additional sightseeing (as per our requested itinerary) and we very much enjoyed what we saw. We had some sightseeing in the itinerary for the area around the border in Georgia before we headed to Tbilisi. Our visit to the Ikalto Monastery Complex was delayed until day #10 when we were returning to that area (which was fine with us). I realize now that our itinerary in Georgia was VERY ambitious and we could have easily used an additional day in Georgia. We totally appreciated your quick action in replacing our driver in Georgia. We had an extremely good guide in Georgia and we learned a great deal from her. Her walking tour of Tbilisi was superb and she definitely knows her Georgian history which we really appreciated. Our guide and driver (without question, the best driver we had on the entire tour) for Armenia were waiting for us as we walked through the border crossing in Armenia. The driver was very safe and careful. Again, we had a very ambitious itinerary but we were able to complete it all and enjoyed every minute. We enjoyed every place we traveled to and especially appreciated the days around Lake Sevan and Gyumri where we were at higher altitudes and it was a bit cooler. Gyumri was a most enjoyable city and the drive through the countryside was very interesting. You did an excellent job of organizing the meals which were included in the itinerary. We had a delicious fish lunch in the Lake Sevan area; a wonderful kebab lunch in Gyumri; and the organized a delicious dinner in a restaurant in Yerevan, close to Republic Square - "Capture of Caucasus". It was a very popular restaurant--nearly full when we ate there and there was some dancing throughout the meal. The food was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. All in all, our hotel accommodations were superb. We had delicious breakfasts in each hotel which gave us enough to eat to carry us through to a late afternoon or early evening meal. We are very pleased with our trip and highly recommend it to others and would be happy to answer any questions any future travelers might have and provide our endorsement to the trip.
Published,
November 5, 2015
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5
4.83
5 Reviews
5
4.83
5 Reviews
12 days
3 countries, 5 cities
4, 5-starhotels
AzerbaijanGeorgiaArmenia3 countries,5 cities
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan:Baku, Sheki
GeorgiaGeorgia:Tbilisi, Kazbegi
ArmeniaArmenia:Yerevan
5
4.80
5 Reviews
5
4.80
5 Reviews
7 days
1 country, 2 cities
4-starhotel
Georgia1 country,2 cities
GeorgiaGeorgia:Tbilisi, Kazbegi
5
4.70
5 Reviews
5
4.70
5 Reviews
10 days
2 countries, 3 cities
4-starhotel
GeorgiaArmenia2 countries,3 cities
GeorgiaGeorgia:Tbilisi, Kazbegi
ArmeniaArmenia:Yerevan
5
4.53
5 Reviews
5
4.53
5 Reviews
10 days
2 countries, 4 cities
4, 5-starhotels
AzerbaijanGeorgia2 countries,4 cities
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan:Baku, Sheki
GeorgiaGeorgia:Tbilisi, Kazbegi
5
4.93
5 Reviews
5
4.93
5 Reviews
11 days
1 country, 4 cities
4, 5-starhotels
Georgia1 country,4 cities
5
4.89
5 Reviews
5
4.89
5 Reviews
15 days
3 countries, 6 cities
4, 5-starhotels
AzerbaijanGeorgiaArmenia3 countries,6 cities
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan:Baku, Sheki
GeorgiaGeorgia:Tbilisi, Kazbegi
ArmeniaArmenia:Yerevan, Jermuk