Marlin Travel

Thank you for organising such a great trip from Lisbon in Portugal up to Santiago de Campostela in Spain. It was well organised with good quality hotels serving lovely local food. It was a very friendly and interesting group and I came home with some special memories.

Excellent service!!! The team at Marlin travel provide exceptional service for an array of travel needs: corporate, group, personal, destination weddings, honeymoons, engagement trips, etc., and gift registry! Even when I have booked my own travel, usually utilizing points, or driving to the US, I always get my travel insurance through Marlin Travel. They provide great rates and fast service, because I am usually disorganized and they still work hard to meet my timelines. I also really appreciate all their support with providing information on travels when I am interested in planning a trip. Even though it is not their job to give me information outside of their travel support, they do go above and beyond to share any information that they know of, that may be helpful for me, and I really appreciate that! I have recommend numerous friends and family member to go to Marlin Travel and they have remained loyal clients for years. I have no hesitation further recommending Marlin Travel, and highly recommend Lisa and Kiki, they are very pleasant people who provide professional and exceptional support! Lastly, what I appreciate is that they listen to you and support your needs and interests. Unlike other travel agencies that I had experiences with, wherein I felt that they were just interested in pressuring me to whatever trip that they could get me to take.

DO NOT BOOK WITH Kiki Dimakis (she got Google to remove a review from one of the bride she booked for because she got a 1 star from her! How hurting is that??)Two weddings one in Jamaica in 2019 and Mexico in 2021. The couple who had their wedding in Jamaica did like working with her, **BUT** majority of their guests were very VERY unhappy with Kiki, and did NOT book with Kiki for the second couple’s wedding in Mexico!The reason we decided not to book with Kiki was because she lied about including my husband in the group email, then blamed me because of our “many exchanges”. It’s her job to be able to answer any questions regarding the trip, otherwise why book for us in the first place and collect commission?We really should have compared rates the first time because we saved a good $500-700 NOT booking with Kiki for the second wedding in Mexico!

I booked a trip to Italy with this agency on March 2017 and very much regret it. The booking was made 3 months in advance in order to give myself plenty of time to deal with any loose ends, of which there seemed to be none. Then on the day of my departure I was turned away at the airport because although my passport was valid for another 2 months, it wasn't valid for 3 months after my departure date from Italy. I had no idea there were passport restrictions traveling from Canada to Italy. The agent never mentioned a thing although we had extended e mail and phone conversations. To make matters worse this all happened on a sunday. The agent did her best to rectify the situation, but there wasnt much she could do. I incurred costs of $1200, had to re book and cancel half my trip. The owner Lisa Dimakis , was rude and dismissive when I asked to be reimbursed for the added expenses I incurred. It took her over a week to return my e mail; I never one got an apology. Horrible experience. and dealing with Lisa was like rubbing salt in a wound.

We booked as a large group for a destination wedding with their rep Kiki. A lot of us never met each other prior to the wedding. Once the group's trip itinerary was confirmed, she sent everyone's confidential information in multiple attachments under one lengthy email. Several of us addressed that this was completely unacceptable and unprofessional, and she claimed that the bride and groom gave her clearance to disclose all this information in one message. The bride and groom never gave these instructions. She just did not want to be to be held accountable for it. In addition, there were several guests on the list who booked with her, but she forgot to book them on the same trip. They had to make their own (pricier) arrangements. Some of the names were also misspelled, and she did not include my married surname on the booking - problems that could have gone terribly during check-in.Going back to the mass email with all our private information, the same message also indicated that our group had access to the airline's exclusive airport lounge, both at our point of origin and layover. It turned out that only the bride and groom had access to that, and not the rest of our party. We were beyond embarrassed after the lounge management clarified that the access excluded us albeit proof of access. Upon addressing this to Kiki, she blamed the airline for their policy change, when it was simply her ineptitude. After all, it is the travel agent's responsibility to know of any changes. A separate group that we met at the airport who also booked the same arrangements with Kiki underwent the exact issues.Kiki sent us a passive aggressive, pseudo-apologetic message almost a week into our trip (no actual apologies mentioned), and once again pointed fingers at other factors for the issues. She thanked us in advance for our understanding" because that was the last time she was planning on addressing our concerns. She knew that we were not happy about her services

We had the most wonderful Europe trip we could have imagined with detailed planning, great advice and important suggestions from a knowledgable staff at this travel agency. It saved us a great deal of time and maximized the experience and amazing memories! Thank you to the team!!

To recommend would be an understatement. I walked in wanting to fly out the following day, on a budget, during a pandemic, and if I didn't have Heather I am sure things would have went wonky. When Ecuador suddenly changed their entry requirements she was on top of it, emailed me the issue, we talked over phone, and the next day we successfully pivoted towards an alternate route.Five stars all day long, she went above and beyond, a pleasure deal with, all warmth and humor and understanding, and I am lucky I happened to walk in to that particular agency. Thank you Heather!

I used this office for an all inclusive vacation. Even though this is a pretty straight forward reservation, the agent was helpful in pointing out little differences in accommodation options and convenient flight logistics for our party that was convening from 2 different locations. I will always rely on this office for all my travel needs.

I recently booked a trip to Jamaica in April through Kiki at Marlin Travel and had an amazing trip. She not only booked the trip for me but went above and beyond to suggest some local areas to go to. Kiki was very attentive during the process of booking and during my trip making sure I was happy with everything! I will definitely use her services again as she made the whole booking process so easy, thanks again Kiki!

I was the groom and had my wedding in Cancun in November 2021. We had to postpone from November 2020. I wasn’t really involved in much of our wedding planning, but my wife made me deal with Kiki because she was so frustrated with her and I was very frustrated dealing with Kiki as well. BTW, pretty sure Kiki got my wife’s review removed somehow because it doesn’t show anymore. I was most upset about Kiki charging us a $200 fee out of nowhere after we had to postpone due to the pandemic. The borders were closed so we couldn’t travel even if we wanted to. This fee wasn’t mentioned in our contract either and our guests already paid their deposits so seems like Kiki can charge fees whenever she wants for whatever reason. Real sneaky and there were multiple other occasions of Kiki being shady like almost charging an additional $500 for our group, but we corrected her based on our contract. There was no point to us using a travel agent for our wedding because we ended up paying more than all of our Canadian guests who booked flight and hotel on their own (because they didn’t like dealing with Kiki from previous experience going to our friends’ wedding). We didn’t get any perks. Kiki told us we would get a complimentary room, but we just needed to pay first then get reimbursed later. However, we only got reimbursed 1/3 of what we paid for our room. Another scam. Way more headaches than any benefits we got from booking with Kiki! I highly recommend NOT to use Kiki as a travel agent unless you want to deal with someone who is rude and untrustworthy.