Alaska Travel Specialist

Karla always has the best interest of the clients/customers in everything that she did. She has excellent problem solving and decision-making skills. Her great organizational skills, attention to detail, incisive mind, perceptive insights, and friendly demeanor are her valuable assets. Karla has a strong work ethic and she is driven. She builds relationship with people very easily. Her interpersonal skills are superb. I believe, she found her "nitch" in this position. She loves to travel. She always does thorough research about the places she travels to learn about their history and culture. I have no reservation in offering my highest recommendation.

I’ve worked with Karla in the Higher Education setting for 5 years. During my tenure with Karla, I’ve found these moments to be the most profound in ways through her leadership, knowledge, guidance, and encouragement towards my own growth and success.

Karla’s leadership and vision has always been centered towards the ideology that there is a space for everyone and their ideas. A great communicator with strong attention to detail, she makes it her priority to listen to understand which plays a key role for her in providing strong, quality work towards creating enriching opportunities.

Karla takes the time to continuously learn new skills, ideas, or concepts that benefits those around her, and this motivates others to do the same. A role model for delivering quality care through her work, Karla will prioritize your needs and wants by going the extra mile.

Karla is the right choice for helping you create your next memory. For many years, she’s helped me create mine.

Karla was excellent to work with. She was personable and really listened to what my interests were. She made suggestions and put together an itinerary that made for an amazing and memorable trip! She was awesome!

Karla is great to work with! She planned a trip for me to visit her in Wisconsin and provided a variety of options to choose from. She asked questions to learn more and listened carefully. She is creative and loves to plan outings and events.

Karla is a true professional that uses her own travel knowledge to advise clients on what best fits their travel needs. She is an awesome planner and her enthusiasm to try new things and explore the world is contagious.

Travel is a passion of Karla’s, and she approaches the planning process with as much anticipation and enthusiasm as the trip itself. Karla planned a trip to Italy that we embarked on a few years ago. The trip took us through Rome and Florence and then into beautiful Tuscany and the cities of Sienna and Assisi. We saw popular tourist spots, but also enjoyed some excursions into the Tuscan countryside. The itinerary that took us on planes, trains, buses, and taxis was meticulously planned. Hotel reservations at every stop were all in place and well placed for easy access to the sites we wanted to see.
Travel for Karla isn’t just site seeing. It’s stepping outside of your own life to appreciate how other people live and Karla believes this can foster an appreciation for your own life on this Earth.

I knew Karla would be great at helping us plan our trip! She is very professional, organized, and capable and initiated, researched, planned, and coordinated multiple facets of our trip. She has incredible interpersonal skills, a wonderful sense of humor, is a great problem solver, and clearly loves to travel! It was so fun talking about travel with Karla, especially about her own unique and extensive travels! Karla is the perfect person to plan an exciting travel itinerary tailored to whatever you are up for, with lots of ideas about things you might not have even thought about!!

I've known Karla for over 27 years. As a professional colleague she was innovative, responsive, and creative in her approach to serving customers. We've also traveled together as friends and I would describe her as a joyous and adventurous traveler. She is attentive to the smallest detail and enjoys personalizing the itineraries of her trips to suit the travelers. She fully enjoys the journey and not just the destination! I am certain she will bring this customer focused and joyous approach to her work in the travel industry.

Karla is a superstar who will customize your trip to make it one to remember. I've worked with Karla in two different jobs - her attention to detail is impeccable and her work ethic is second to none. In the decades I've known her, she's planned many trips for friends and family, both in the US and abroad. She herself is a seasoned traveler and knows how to ask the right questions to create the perfect experience for you. Let Karla do the work for you. You won't regret it.

Karla is a person of the highest integrity! You can trust her to have done her research and that she will provide you with the best possible information available regarding your travel needs. Not only will she be knowledgeable and organized in assisting you, she will take the time to get to know you personally to ensure she is aware of not only your hopes and wishes for your trip, but also any needs you might have overlooked. Karla is a naturally curious person who loves to experience new places and meet new people and she will use all she has learned along the way to help you do the same!

We so appreciated the help pulling together our family trip. Starting with identifying a great resort for us and then making all of the travel arrangements for our four families to get there. It was a great Christmas!

Karla helped us figure out a great destination and attended to all the details of our family vacation to make it a great trip! We spent a week in Puerto Vallarta and went on a day-long excursion away from the resort. We enjoyed the food, the sun, the beach, and our family time together! Thanks Karla for making it a memorable trip and taking care of all the details.

Our trip to Christmas Markets on the Danube was wonderful. Besides being able to spend this time with my daughter it was so historical and beautiful. The Markets were so fun and a night market makes one feel like they are a part of a Hallmark commercial.

Budapest hotel was fantastic and close to Viking launch. We were a little disappointed in Viking room and size of tours and tour cancellations and date changes. Viking personnel on board were great as usual and transfers fantastic. Hotel in Prague fantastic as well. Vienna stop for 2 nights from boat was very crowded as we hit a national holiday/ 3 day weekend. Nights in Budapest and Prague were beautifully lit up. Karla arranged a very nice food tour for us in Prague that was one of the trip highlights.

The ship, the crews on the ship, all met our expectations. We enjoyed learning about and experiencing our first cruise.

Karla was very helpful in directing us in the set up and planning of this trip. She gave us the details and methods needed to complete the preparations for this trip.

Used Insight for first time. Had a great experience. Travel guide was amazing. Learned a lot.

Everything worked!!

We had a great time. Saw so many things and learned so much.

Karla did a fantastic job at helping us create the perfect trip to Scotland. The hotels were unique and fit the bill for what we were looking for at each stop along the way.

Working with Karla was a delight I like to have my ducks in a row without too many surprises, if possible. She was patient with my MANY inquiries… and she has a sense of humor as well. Lovely lady.

We signed up for our first cruise and chose the 7-Day Glacier Discovery Southbound Alaskan cruise with Holland America. At Karla's suggestion, we added a Denali adventure ahead of our cruise and it did not disappoint! The highlight of the trip for me was the McKinley Explorer train ride from Denali to Whittier. The cruise was superb with sensational food, outstanding service, nice-nice people, and delightful surprises each day. Karla was helpful in answering our every question and offering details and insight we didn't know we'd need. I tell everyone who asks about our trip, "If a trip to Alaska is on your radar, don't wait! Call Karla."

Karla helped us from all stages of our trip - from our first thoughts to every every last detail. We had a truly breathtaking experience in Alaska! Starting in Denali and then cruising to Vancouver was exactly what we wanted and Karla's planning made it seamless for us. From our built excursions to the recommendations Karla offered, we feel that we fully experienced Alaska just as we dreamed!

Karla organized a trip to Europe for my college-aged daughter and I. We started in Stockholm, traveled through Norway and ended in Iceland. Over the course of 2 weeks, we stayed in 5 different hotels , had numerous bus, train and flight transfers and a mulitude of tours booked. The trip was seamless. Karla had a clear itinerary which outlined exactly what we needed to do that day including any vouchers and tickets. She included everything we asked for on the trip and it was a nice combination of scheduled tours/excursions and free days. We couldn't have asked for a better trip and will definitely use Karla again for future vacations.

Karla helped us pick our destination by listening to our travel interests. Quebec City was perfect for an alternative to going to Europe. Choice of hotel was fantastic. We really enjoyed the six day adventure. Travel through Toronto on Canada Air was a bit long but no alternative.

Karla was very helpful and listened to exactly what we wanted on our trip!

Karla took care of everything. We had no idea what we wanted to do in Spain and she sent lists of things to pick from. She set up our tour in Morocco with Intrepid and that was excellent. When we had to change some of our travel dates she did that also. She followed trough on everything and made sure we had all the info we needed. It was something we had never done so we needed someone who could help us and Karla was the one. Now she is helping us with an Alaskan cruise.

Just got back from a wonderful 15-day tour of Thailand and a few days in Seoul, South Korea. I'm so glad we worked with Karla in planning this adventure! There were so many details involved - flights, hotels, airport transfers, tours....Karla took care of all the details and all we needed to do was follow the instructions in the travel documents, and everything went as smoothly as we could have hoped for! I can't imagine how much effort it would have taken for us to do that ourselves. All we needed to do was pack! One of our flights did end up being cancelled, and Karla was very responsive to our need to get on another flight and make the necessary changes to arrangements for the hotel and transport from the airport on the other end. She also reached out during our journey to make sure things were going well. It was great knowing we had a partner to call on if needed.

Karla initially provided guidance in helping us determine the options available to us for our trip. Once we identified our choice, she was very helpful in ensuring the details of the trip were addressed for us. When we had questions, she responded quickly with answers and suggestions. She also provided timely follow ups for payments, and to ensure that we had all the trip details for the airline and tour company addressed. When we had problems, she was able to address matters and get us back on track. For instance, when our departing flight was cancelled, she worked with us to determine how to proceed, contacted the airline to get us rebooked for the next day, and then reorganized our transfers and the hotel nights so that we did not have to deal with all of those details. Additionally, she tracked us during our journey to ensure that things stayed aligned and that we were having a good time. From my perspective, Karla was a partner in our journey and I appreciated knowing that I could

Our guide was knowledgeable and took time to make the trip fun and educational. His choice of restaurants were very good. Mexican food will never be as good here in the states.

The tour was great! Would definitely do another Nat Geo tour. Lots of history, culture, local experiences and great food. Accommodations were very nice.

Everything was taken care of and we didn’t have to worry about a thing! We’ll definitely work with the team again.

I am a vacationer who likes to sightsee and learn about the history and culture of the places I visit. My trip, planned by Karla, was packed full of opportunities to learn. It began in Amsterdam, a place I had never been to before. Karla planned trips to museums and places where key events happened during WWII. Karla listened to my interests and made sure I didn't miss any opportunities to learn while in Amsterdam. Then, I went on a 7-day river cruise on AmaWaterways down the Moselle and Rhine Rivers. This was a nice balance of excursions and relaxation. The excursions kept me busy during the day so at night I could dine and relax in the warmth of the ship. Many of the tour guides on the excursions were people living in the communities we visited, and they were very knowledgeable and gracious to share the history and culture of their hometowns. This was a very enjoyable trip to Europe well-planned by my travel advisor, Karla Thoennes. I would recommend her to plan your next adv

We were very happy with our trip. Karla was prompt and responsive both with planning out trip and a last minute hotel change

Karla was very professional and listened to our trip wishes.

Karla was very easy to work with, easy to communicate with and scheduled just what we needed.

Karla did an excellent job planning our trip to Italy. We had a balance of planned events and free time while hitting all our must see requests.