TAILORED BOUTIQUE AND GROUP VACATIONS

Sonja planned the most amazing trip to Greece for us. Everything was organized and executed perfect!

From first making the reservation to the trip home, Sonja did an excellent job keeping us informed and planning our trip. We were very happy with the accommodations and tours and thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to Italy.

This is the second vacation we booked with Sonja.Everything was perfect..our flights and the Villa in Providenciales was great!She makes the planning a breeze and really listens to what type of vacation we were looking for!So happy we found Sonja!

Sonja was great! Our accommodations/transportation were perfect. Whenever I needed to add services, her response was quick. She is super friendly and a pleasure to plan vacations. I will definitely recommend her services and will call her for any upcoming trips.

Sonja has been EXTREMELY helpful through this entire process. From picking wonderful tours, to changing things for us when we wanted something added, to even rescheduling our entire trip due to COVID. I would continue to book through Sonja anytime we need anything! She communicates effectively and answers every question we had.

Sonja was the perfect agent. She handles her clients’ diverse needs in an exceptional manner. She was extremely knowledgable, & showed sincere interest in everyone.

Sonja was one of the 2 people who organized and went along on our 2019 trip to Ireland. She and Mary planned a great itinerary that had something for everyone from ages 5 to 80-ish at just the right pace. We had a wonderful time and will continue to keep our eyes on what they have planned for the future. They also planned a trip to Iceland for a pre-tour adventure so two of the places on our bucket list were accomplished seamlessly.

My family had an amazing time with amazing people. The bus driver/tour guide was the a highlight for us on this trip. We really enjoyed every activity we did. Other than Sonja creating extra hours in a day, I can't think of anything we would change. Thank you for a trip my family and I will always remember!

Sonja is enthusiastic and and cheerful. Her goals were the same as ours, best experience first best rate second. We had to change plans last minute since a hurricane was landing in Florida. She helped us switch flights with no up charge, find a great hotel in Vegas and booked activities last minute. She is awesome!

Extremely helpful and quick service! She helped me to get the best deal I’ve ever gotten with Royal Caribbean!

When you go on vacation you never expect to be the one with a medical emergency- after getting hurt at the resort I contacted Sonja and she helped immediately with all the needs I had with travel insurance and going to the hospital. The resort she booked me in was absolutely amazing and she was there every single step of the way woth her outstanding service and concern. I m so thankful for all she has done to help during this very remember able vacation. Always get the travel insurance, I am so happy with the company she highly recommended!

Sonja helped us plan our dream trip to Italy, and then cancel it all and get refunds after the travel restrictions. But where she really shined was helping one of my daughter's college friends navigate travel back to her home in Italy from Pittsburgh given all of the restrictions in both the US and Italy. My daughter's friend stayed with us when her college went online and was trying to book a flight back home after finals, after Alitalia had canceled her original flight. Sonja made numerous calls to the embassy and to Alitalia and guided us on what documentation she would need to re-enter Italy as well as what flights were available. She did all of this just to help us out, we didn't book anything through her because we were able to use a credit through Alitalia, but she went above and beyond to help a very distressed young lady navigate through all of the obstacles and get back home.

We have had a great experience working with Sonja so far. She has been extremely responsive to all of our questions and has been proactively providing lots of information before we even think or have a chance to ask! I would highly recommend Sonja!

Sonja stepped in to help us with an unexpected issue we had while returning from Italy last week. We had never met her or even spoken to her, but she was very friendly and extremely helpful to us. We were so thankful to have her!

Working with Sonja to plan our dream vacation was a breeze!She planned out the perfect itinerary for us!Our hotels tours etc were 5 star!

Prior to our trip, Sonja was great in keeping us informed about places we would visit and things we needed to do in preparation for our vacation to Ireland. She went above and beyond in helping us with alternate arrangements when our flight from Chicago to Dublin was cancelled, which was greatly appreciated. During the trip she made sure we were aware of daily plans and/or changes and spent time with us as both a great travel agent and a friend. We were thrilled to visit so many places and see so many sites! Thanks to Sonja, she truly helped make this travel experience one that we thoroughly enjoyed and will always remember.

Ireland was so beautiful and the sights spectacular. Since having my brother and sister-in-law along to share the memories, and spend time to together it made a fantastic time. Such wonderful memories! The weather was so fantastic, and the Killarney days amazing with the July 4th celebration being a special treat. We loved Kylemore Abbey and would like to go back to see the gardens. Thank you Life is Better Traveling, Mary and Sonja, for making this a memorable trip for me and my brother/family.

Our trip turned out to be amazing and memorable. Sonja coordinated many activities for us to learn about the local culture, food and have fun. She was also very helpful, engaged and personable. I will plan to use her services again in the future.

We had the best trip thanks to Sonja’s expert planning and advice! We chose the best hotels and our flights were smooth. Thanks Sonja! Happy travelers we were to Paris and Greece :)

Sonja was fantastic to work with. Sonja planned the best trip to Switzerland, Germany, and Czech Republic. In the preplanning stage she communicated with us frequently. She listened to us and planned all of the places we wanted to stay and the things we wanted to do. When we encountered an issue due to our train being canceled, Sonja responded quickly and was available to help us.

Our travel agent, Sonja Hester is the BEST!! She worked with us to provide a completely customized trip to Paris and Spain (Barcelona, Valencia & Sevilla) for our family of 4 to celebrate our daughters graduation. Sonja provided lots of good information, ideas and suggestions on what to do in each of these areas. She was patient with all of our questions & changes. Our trip was put on hold in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic and European travel restrictions and Sonja guided us through all of the requirements and we were able to reschedule, losing NO money, in 2022. Sonja met with us in person and reviewed our itinerary just before leaving for our trip. Again answering all of our last minute questions. We felt so comfortable knowing our trip was planned so well. We just returned from our 2 week trip and everything went perfectly, we had an amazing time and look forward to working with Sonja again!

I recently returned from a trip to Disney World and Universal Studios planned by Sonja. To say it was the trip of a lifetime feels like a understatement! Every step of the way she considered the needs of my family and planned a flawless vacation. She was always available and very kind when I had a million questions for her. Planning a Disney trip seemed very intimidating in the beginning, but once Sonja became my travel agent it was so easy and even fun!

Sonja is extremely caring, informed, & personable. My husband & I are elderly, & we have traveled 50 years. Sonja is the best & most understanding of any agent we have gotten to know.

She was part of the delightful duo who provided a well planned, perfect pace trip to Ireland for my husband and I.

This was our first Italy vacation for two weeks with my hubby. A big thank you for Sonja Hester Create Great Travel for creating the best, wonderful, organize trip. The itinerary app was so easy to use and such detailed and personalized plan laid out so nicely for us made it so much easier to enjoy ourselves without being distracted worrying about all the logistics. A big thank you to each of our outstanding guides we met during our vacation. We would highly recommend Sonja for any of your travels in the future. Thank you and wish you the best! Garey and Vickie April 2026

After deciding we wanted to try our first, Sonia was the first person I text! She helped me figure out what boat what time of year and what would be best for our family. Not only did our trip exceed all of our expectations, Sonia answered every goofy question I had for her. Everything was perfect and I can't wait for her to plan our next trip!

Sonja helped us organize and execute a 13 day, 4 city trip through Italy for a family of four that had never done this before and our kids are 8 and 12 years old. She did an amazing job. We did our own walking tours, had group tours, traveled via train, overnight ferry, rental car, private drivers, boat trips and anything in between. We took part in cooking classes, truffle hunting, snorkeling, historical tours, boat tours, hiking, sight seeing, beach days and Sonja nailed it. Her communication and documentation was spot on every time. And we messed up a couple times through all of it and had great service from the travel agency in finding another driver or pick up at a later date. She definitely has the boots on the ground knowledge to get you that genuine travel experience. We could not recommend her strongly enough.

Sonja was so wonderful & knowledgeable about our destination. She listened to what we wanted our trip to be and definitely delivered. We had a fabulous time !

We were very happy with our Kensington tour that Sonja setup for us. Sonja was a pleasure to work with. Kensington spoiled us escorting us to each of our private excursions... Hotels were great. I did not have time to plan - Sonja gave us great options and made everything very easy for us. Every small detail was accounted for. We just showed up and had fun. We are looking forward to scheduling our next trip with Sonja.

My wife and I had a very enjoyable 10 days in Italy. We had a great mix of small group tours, sightseeing and relaxation. Rome to Florence then Tuscany tour then Sorrento and the Amalfi coast.

Sonja listened to the experience we wanted to have and created a wonderful custom trip. The tours were excellent and the hotels were great. Sonja was very responsive when there was an issue with our train ticket.

The trip was one to remember for a lifetime. Sonja made it so simple for us just to jump in the car and go and move from beautiful location to beautiful location. The experiences she had picked out for us were unforgettable and a great way to really enrich yourself with the culture. We will be using her again in the future, for how simple and painless she made the traveling process all the way from booking to using the application for keeping our itinerary in line. Highly recommend using Sonja!!

Went to Italy with my family. Started in Milan , Lake Como to Venice Florence Rome Amalfi coast to include Capri and ended in Sicily ! All went well thanks to Sonja !! Bravo

Sonja was extremely helpful on our 45th anniversary vacation! Always there phone, email, text thank you so much Joe and Mary Beth

Golf & Tour

Sonja booked our vacation to Jamaica and everything was perfect! Process was easy and everything was taken care of for us.

Sonja is amazing!We have booked quite a few vacations with her. She really gets to know her clients so our vacations couldn’t be more perfect! Highly recommend!

Most magical and amazing trip! Florence, Rome, Sorrento, Positano, Capri, Pompeii - fun along the way! Explained everything to us, was patient and is currently helping us work through some minor glitches,… Simply an amazing experience. Professional and knowledgeable. Will refer to friends.

this my second trip I have booked with Sonja and its as smooth and complete as the first , everything was perfectly explained and put together, its a comfortable feeling needed to start a vacation!

Sonja helped us with our trip out of the country and did a wonderful job!

Sonja was amazing! She presented travel options and described each step of the way during our trip planning process. The details included finding us superb car service, booking excellent hotels and buying tickets in advance for flying, ferry and train transportation. Sonja cared about our safety and trip enjoyment as her client. Many thanks to Sonja for a fabulous and memorable trip!

The hotels were beautiful and the staff friendly and welcoming.
I cannot think of anything we would change!David loved Rome and would love to go back and see more. We LOVED Sorrento. The hotel was the absolute favorite as was the town which was not as hilly and was less crowded with tourists (function of no cruises likely when we were there)
Capri was lovely and the hotel amazing!
Positano – loved the hotel and the staff. We had 2 days at the hotel all day – 1 for sunning and 1 for a rainy day.
We loved the beach clubs, the restaurants up the hill that the hotel made us reservations for, the shopping and the views.
We also loved Ravello especially, and Amalfi. That day trip was great.
Pompeii and Mt Vesuvio – Amazing. I could have spent 2 full days at Pompeii. It was so cool.
THANK YOU!! Truly – our trip was relaxing and full of joy and I know we can thank you for that! We may return to Italy in the future and you will be our first call!

Sonja has been the best and easiest to work with ! She not only planned a wonderful Honeymoon trip to Italy for us - she planned a Spring Break get-away for our family as well. The little touches - the text, the special trip bag created and mailed...I felt we were really with an expert.

Sonja Hester planned my trip to Italy perfectly. She provided various comforts that I would have not considered. She provided the knowledge, customized care, & the best comfort for the perfect trip with great enthusiasm.

There is absolutely nothing negative to say about our experience with Life is Better Traveling and our agent, Sonja!
The two week trip, for 7 family members to the UK, was planned perfectly! If I were able to
give 10 stars…it would be done! To say I would recommend them is not saying enough!

I can’t thank you enough for working through all of these problems on our behalf. The good news is that our trip was filled with fun memories and we thank you for all of your help along the way. I know I ask a lot of questions!
We appreciate all you’ve done for us and for working so hard to get a credit approved.
Thank you!

Sonja was amazing to work with for our trip to Italy. We gave her a fairly tall order in a relatively short timeframe to plan, and she knocked it out of the park. She took care of booking our plane, hotels, train tickets, and car service to/from the airport/hotels/trains. She listened to our requests and selected hotels in perfect locations with great accommodations/friendly staff, the car service was always perfectly on time...and overall the timing of everything was excellent. We managed to fit a lot in (Rome, Florence and Cortona) in not a ton of time (5 days plus 2 travel days), and we certainly could not have executed it without Sonja's expertise and phenomenal planning. We will absolutely be recommending her to our friends and family, and look forward to working with her for our next European adventure!

Sonja is awesome. She very thorough and looks at every detail to plan a great trip.

Great experience all around. I loved not having to call and wait on hold with Disney. Having a car/driver with car seats waiting for us at the airport was amazing. Sonja thought of everything and even reminded me to check in for our return flight.

Sonja planned our self-guided trip to Iceland before we joined a group she and Mary Yohannan planned for a small group to tour Ireland.

Sonja is the perfect travel agent. She always does everything I want while continually offering suggestions to improve my trip.

Sonja is very professional and personable. She responds to inquiries very quickly and if very thorough. She was able to answer all of our questions and made took care of all of our needs.

She was absolutely the best! Sonja did a fabulous job with our trip to Italy. She was on top of everything! I’m sure it was pretty challenging! We had less than a month to plan a 15 day vacation traveling all over Italy! And she did it! And it was perfect! Our hotels, our transfers, our trains. We could not have asked for a more perfect trip! We gave her our budget and she planned it. She also made several suggestions that made our trip more feasible and economical. She suggested some wonderful excursions and they were wonderful. Our tour guides did a fantastic job! She definitely will be our next trip hopefully to Hawaii! We could have never done this trip without all the details. I think she saved us money compared to what we were trying to do ourselves! She was always very easy to contact and thorough with every detail. Everyone we came in contact with were very professional and personal! I would not hesitate to give her a great recommendation to anyone!

Sonja planned the pre-trip visit to Iceland

Sonja arranged a wonderful trip to Florence, Venice and Paris for us! She was very responsive and accommodating throughout the whole process, including the whole time we were on our trip. The tours and excursions she suggested were great - we especially loved our wine tasting and lunch in a castle in Tuscany!! Just amazing. We highly recommend her to anyone planning a European adventure!
Thank you Sonja!

Sonja was incredibly helpful and was very patient with us throughout planning.
We had an absolute blast and no major issues. It was especially helpful to have the driver first in Ireland to get used a bit to driving on the left side of the road before we picked up the rentals.

The Scottish Highlands were beautiful
Ireland was beautiful
England was... England
The Edinburgh Tattoo was one of the most incredible things I have ever experienced, would definitely recommend this in the future for anyone traveling to Edinburgh in August
The kids loved the castles (and fighting with fake swords a bit too much lol)
No complaints on the lodging except the Stay Central in Edinburgh - was not super family friendly (but the location was great as it was just a short walk to the castle, so it was a worthy trade-off)
Just everything was great, and couldn't have asked for better weather, really only got rained on once the entire trip.

Amazing experience! Sonja was so helpful and made sure we had transfers to and from places so we weren't lost. She also fought for us and stayed on hold with the cruise company for hours making sure they didn't screw us over. She is the best! Everything ran smoothly because of her!

Always a joy

Sonja was the absolute perfect travel agent. We had visited Italy independently numerous times before traveling with Sonja. Sonja was willing to accept our input, but she made certain to give us the easiest & most rewarding trip possible. She arranged everything we asked, & always made a range of suggestions. My husband & I were amazed how Sonja was able to accommodate everyone in our group. It was our easiest trip to Italy,, & we will contact Sonja for future travel.

Sonja was very helpful and pleasant. She had wonderful suggestions.

Sonja was great to work with. She was pleasant and knowledgable and I would definitely recommend her services to others

Sonja planned a vacation for us to Iceland.

When planning a life long bucket list trip to Italy it’s very hard to trust all the little details to an agent. You have to pick the very best agent who knows exactly what you want. Someone who is willing to go the extra mile and who is excited to deliver your dream experience. Not only did Sonja hold my hand each step of the way in planning my itinerary but also gave great advice on seat choices , packing, gift purchases and customs. She was quick to return calls, emails or text messages with answers to my many questions Always with her patient and sweet disposition. She planned an event filled, organized trip with beautiful accommodations.. She did a superb job, so good, I’m booking Ireland 1019 with her,

Sonja listens well and makes suggestions that suited our interests. Our guides were superior and the sites spectacular!

This was my first Life is Better Traveling trip and it was amazing!! We saw ALL of Ireland, including all of the main attractions of the country. I can't believe how much we saw on this tour!

Unbelievable experience.something I will never forget .

Sonja is so passionate and enthusiastic ready to make your dream vacation become a reality! And she did for me! I’ve wished for a very long time, to visit the land of my Italian ancestors and it did not disappoint! We stayed in great hotels, breakfast included, saw the sights that I truly had my heart set on, and had the most fantastic and knowledgeable guides to lead the way! Sonja was great tackling any challenges that popped up, and from there, it was always smooth sailing! And did I mention the food? Excellent restaurant choices and knowledge about the tipping customs were top notch! Sonja did a great job getting us to and from Rome/Florence/Venice without a hitch! All of the tours that we experienced were absolutely amazing! We had a great group of people and our chemistry really clicked! This made my trip even better than expected and I now have a few new friends! Thanks so much Sonja for your expertise and big smile! Til next time!

Sonja was exceptionally fantastic, making the best of every precious moment an experince of a lifetime on my trip to Italy. During the trip, we stayed in the best hotels, saw the best & popular sights of Rome, Florence and Venice with the best tour guides. Sonja handled every challenge encountered with positive and professionalism outcomes. Sonja went above and beyond to make every aspect of this trip comfortable and enjoyable, pleasing the entire group. During the end of the trip, I got an extremely bad cold with congestion and inflammed ears. Sonja talked to the flight attendants which made a comfortable bed of 4 in a row seats for me to lay down during my flight home. Sonja has a unique talent with her knowledge of traveling giving great advice on what to do or not to do, helping with language and custom barriers. You can tell that this job is her passion from the every well-planned detail of my trip resulting in an amazing experience #priceless.

Great experience. Sonja was easy to work with and adjusted our itinerary several times to fit our needs.

Sonja is awesome!

Sonja made out trip to Chicago to go smoothly. She coordinated out travel plans with another couple - making sure our hotel and flights coincided with each other. Her documentation of the plans were concise, accurate and detailed. She was easy to contact thru both email and phone. I would recommend Sonja to assist you in making your next travel plans.

Sonja has been amazing to work with! She scheduled us an amazing June honeymoon to Italy and Ireland complete with museum tours, winery tastings, and a cooking class that unfortunately we had to cancel due to COVID-19. Throughout the cancelling process, Sonja was constantly in contact with us, keeping us up to date on what was going on with our trip. She quickly put together a trip itinerary for September while my husband and I still decided what was best for our schedules.

My husband and I were unfamiliar with Europe and wanted a combination of tourist activities and some not so tourist activities. Sonja gave us some wonderful suggestions and a lot of options! She even incorporated a day in each city to just explore. I can't wait to be able to go on the honeymoon she planned for us!

We had booked our flight but didn't have time to plan on hotels and tours, so by the time we reached out to Sonja we had a short window of time for planning. She came through and provided exactly what we wanted for a personal tour of the Emilia Bologna region of Italy. She was very responsive, could always be reached and was thorough. Would definitely use her services again.

I must say you had the best tour guide I ever had in Rome. We got to see every part of Rome. She also knew the best places to eat at with great food and did not break the bank. Every part of the tour was just wonderful. Sonja, if I could I would give you ten stars for making my Dream vacation come true. Also want to thank you for choosing people to tour with that had siminular personalities, this even made it more wonderful, we had so many laughs. Can’t thank you enough really had a great time. I look forward to booking my next vacation with you. Thank you again for the trip of my Lifetime.

Hello Sonja,

We want to thank you for all you did to make our cruise so easy for us. The itenery was so easy to understand, the Holland Cruise Line was a excellant choice.

Thank you for the excursions you planed we had a great time. We are looking forward to the trip you are planning for us in Italy. The least we can do is let other people know how easy you make it to travel.

Thank you again for all your efforts.

Bill & Sandy