Going Places Travel

I don’t know how a business like this can stay in business, given all the internet options we have, but I’m glad they’ve figured it out! It was a profound relief, after spending hours looking at travel options online, to find a long term competent travel agent to easily take care of my travel needs in such an easy and very affordable way.
I pay other professionals for services and don’t try to learn their trade. I’m glad to use the services here and look forward to having them help me book future trips. It’s great to support a small business like this — they provided me with valuable service, and I’m truly grateful. Now I can relax and look forward to my travel!

Terrible & outdated would simplify my description. I don’t normally write negative reviews but this place deserves one. They didn’t have the proper amenities to call themselves a travel agency. They didn’t even have brochures or anything to show us! The lady that helped us had to call someone else and I could’ve done that myself! The service was slow and not detailed. BORING. Save yourself the trouble and head somewhere else or maybe just look on the Internet?

Thank you, fellow Unilocalers! You were right about this place. We tried to find a way to upgrade our way to Europe, but we’d just about given up on the whole trip when we paid a visit to Stephen Hendriksen. He’s very smart and very fast, and he found a way to get us there that met our complicated needs. He stayed past closing at one point, just to make sure that our reservation was secured. Without his help, we would not be going to Europe at all.

Carolyn was super helpful with planning our big trip. We had so much going on that we needed help with all the details of our honeymoon. Carolyn asked questions and provided options to create the perfect introduction to Costa Rica. All of our vouchers were accurate and in place for us; we had no problems with any accommodations. I’m very happy that we trusted one of the few travel agencies available and they came through big time. Thanks Going Places!!!

Steve was extremely helpful with international plane tickets, making it clear he wanted me to get the best deal I could get, and being very patient and flexible with the variables I was trying to sort out. I can’t recommend him highly enough!

After many unsuccessful attempts to find direct flights to France and a reasonable vacation package I wandered into this travel agency boy was I lucky they knew all about giving you the best deals the best hotels and the best prices and above that they are so friendly and so hospitable and so knowledgeable but I will never use Internet online again this is the place to use if you want to have a wonderful vacation

I went in an extrmemely busy day, and you could tell that all the agents were extremely stressful at the moment. I also thought to leave because they all seemed far too busy, but I’m glad that I decided to stay and wait. Steve was extremely helpful and professional with all the travel related things, and he really did try to find the best value and lowest price for me. I would recommend this place to anyone who is welling to wait for a great service.

FANTASTIC Travel Agency in the Bay Area. This place is simply, well, fantastic.
Honestly, I gotta say I was a little hesitant to use a travel agency to help me with my travel arrangements. I mean, there’s the internet, right? I can do it myself and get it cheaper. Right? Wrong.
You can do it yourself. Or you can work with these folks and get WAY better deals, insider info, and have concierge type service before you even take off. They can even handle your local car reservations, flights, and all other kinds of local travel, not just your trip to Mexico, Bali, Puerto Rico, or other exotic locales.
Super helpful, resourceful, communicative, and very pleasant to work with. Definitely recommend using them for all your travel needs.
My only regret? Not using them sooner.

We have the worst possible seats on a plane going out of Oakland to Kona this week.
We were told by Liezel at Going Places that we could not book the seats when we booked the flight with them– that we had to book the seats 24 hours before the flight. Unusual for Alaska Airlines, we thought. Well, two days before the flight we call and Steve gets us two seats together– the last two together– on this flight. We do not have reserved seats for the flight back– we have to get to the Kona airport hours before the flight to have any chance of sitting together.
I am NOT impressed. The whole idea of a travel agency is to take care of everything.

STEVE IS AWESOME!!!
Just got back from an amazing trip to Hawaii! Steve is awesome because:
1) Patient
2) Nice and Understanding
3) Finds you the best deals and gives you a lot of options to your liking. And did I say he’s VERY patient with you?!
For one month notice, he found us a deal that was $ 845/​person for 3 night stay from SFO to Honolulu, Oahu with the Aqua Waikiki Wave and partial oceanfront view. This was done through Pleasant Holidays, including free breakfast orientation, airfaire, hotel, and transportation from airport to hotel, all for only $ 845 a person! I thought it’d be around a thousand to HI for airfare & hotel, but I told him our budget and he was able to find us a deal! He also gave us options if we wanted to save money and stay in San Diego instead. What an awesome travel agent.
One thing that really stood out was because even though it was only a month’s notice, something personal happened and we wanted to try and cancel the trip. Yes, I know, very dumb of us, but things happen. He said since it was booked last minute, didn’t buy insurance, and it’s during spring break season, we weren’t able to cancel. It’s either you use it or lose it, unfortunately. However, he still tried his best to see what he could do and spent a lot of time with Pleasant Holidays, and was able to give us $ 300 back if we were to cancel. I thought that was extremely nice of him to go through the trouble of helping us out and accommodating when plans changed, which is why I’m giving him 5 stars. Over the top and outstanding customer service. He told us we can have the weekend to think it through before finalizing the cancellation, and we fixed the personal problem and kept the trip booked. We felt extremely bad for all this trouble we’ve caused him, but he said he was just happy that we were able to solve the problem and continue with the trip, wishing us a great time. What a great guy. We did have an amazing time, all thanks to Steve.
Thanks Steve! For being SO understanding, patient, and finding us the best deals for our vacation. I’ll be calling you again next time I plan another vacation and will plan it in advance from now on :) There needs to be more awesome people like Steve!

Just hung up the phone with Going Places Travel, needless to say after giving them 1 star but I am NOT impressed. Planning a last minute business trip and called with a very simple question. The woman who answered the phone was very rude, informed me that she was «right in the middle of something else when I called» and then basically snapped «I don’t know!!» in the response to my question. She had zero information that is not readily available on the web, so I gotta wonder why would anyone use this agent?

Hmm. That about sums up my experience with this agency. After calling in with a couple questions, my boyfriend and I stopped into their office to try to book some flights within Argentina. The woman who helped us told us right off the bat she did not have experience with that but that she would go get us some brochures to look at, which was… I think more for her learning benefit than ours. After 20 minutes of discussing what we wanted, she told us she would need to do research and get back to us. She then proceeded to tell us how behind she was on her work and that she had 150 emails in her box she had not yet even read. Hmm. We left feeling less than confident in her ability and professionalism and that was the last we heard from her. She never even followed up with me. I have since booked my flights with a different agency.

I’ve used theses guys and gals a number of times and I am always amazed at how much money I save. Seriously. They just saved me $ 1,300. on an out of country round trip ticket !!! All the stuff on the internet is B.S.- go through this travel agency and they will knock it out of the park for you.

Tula is an amazing agent, and always sorts out the best flight, with the shortest layover for the best price. I use her often for travel, and am always happy and relieved that she can get me what I want for a great price. Highly recommended.

We wanted to take a last minute trip in a sunny destination. After a bit of time on the net looking for deals, we finally called Going places. I thank Tulle for the job she did. She had been really dedicated to us. At the end, we left the day after our phone call to Mexico. The hotel she recommended was great (large and clean room, view on the Pacific Ocean and its whales, massive swimming pools and really close to the city center but still quiet :)). We had a free transportation to the hotel and the price she gave us included everything.
Briefly, the REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CONTACT GOING PLACES INSTEAD OF BOOKING YOUR HOLIDAYS ON EXPEDIA/​ORBITZ/​… :
— You won’t have the hassle of spending 12 hours on the net to book your next trip, Going places will do it for you faster than you can and if they know your destination they will get you the best deal you can have (in terms of price, hotel and location).
— The price they give you is the price you pay. No additional fees at additional steps. As a funny fact, more it takes time to book holidays on a travel website more it costs… and still if you use their sites, you do their job!
— They will not force you to take a fake travel insurance like they use to do on some travel websites (Orbitz is an excellent example if you need proof)
— They have good advices, are helpful and basically know their job. You can trust them.
— If you are shy, you can book your holidays by phone.
— Over all, the time you don’t look on the net can be used for something else, you keep a small business running and you don’t work for hours to pay a big business on internet. I could almost say that by choosing Going places you make a better world but that will be a wee bit too much. ;)

I’m not the sort of person to contact a travel agency — there’s the internet, right? But Holiday Travel Panic sent me to Unilocal and Steven answered the phone. He said come on over. He tick-​tacked on the computer for a while and quietly and diplomatically pointed out all the holes in my silly plans suggesting there may be a way around a 400 mile car trip … we could ski AND see family. He said, «Sure I can get you a one-​way car rental for $ 84»…and…“maybe your husband wouldn’t enjoy an overnight flight so much… and the clincher… «I can save you some money.» What people forget is that travel agents still have a lock on real time fares… not just the published ones on orbitz and are better at logistics than mere mortals. Going Places… is not just for the international travel… it’s for people like me.

Highly recommend the services of Tulle Watson here, she is consistently able to help sort out complicated flight plans to Asia for myself and family, have been using her help for a few years now, and everything always works out with her assistance.

Tahiti was the destination,
honeymoon the plan
but how to find hotels and flights?
Well, Steve was just the man.
We met in person, told him
just how much we planned to pay
and two months later had a lovely
Raiatea stay.
My one regret, if anything, is that it cost so much
– not Going Places, but the cost of living became such
a drain on funds, I wish they’d warned us of the exchange rate;
we might have chosen somewhere else. Still, this trip was great.