July 4, 2023

If you are investigating Secret Dalmatia for your vacation plans to Croatia and adjoining countries, you are up for a real treat of a lifetime!
Just briefly, our journey into our recent trip this May began some 10 years ago. I contacted an agent who worked for Alan Mandic, the owner of Secret Dalmatia. At that time, it was unclear to us whether the company would be able to do a tour to Montnegro and vacation to include Slovenia. We waited until 2020 and spoke with Mariana, our recent travel agent. Due to uncertainty of the pandemic , we opted to not travel until 2023. When I contacted the agency in July 2022, Mariana recalled us and our preferences for our tour immediately and made us feel very comfortable in discussing our trip details over email as well as offering us availability to reach her via WhatsApp. Mariana is joined by Magdalena, another agent with whom we interacted. Mariana is one of the best travel designers we have had.

Based on some of the sites I mentioned, she designed an itinerary for us to avoid duplicating travel routes as well as included some other important cities such as Zadar and Rovinj. She also managed to blend in a partial itinerary for our eldest son who joined us later during the trip . She designed two separate private motor yacht charter for us to travel to Montnegro as well as along the Dalmatian Coast. Our latter part of the trip was in Slovenia in Lubljana and Lake Bled region. This part of the trip away from the coast in the Alps was breathtaking. All our hotels were superb! The breakfasts at Hvar and Rovinj were incredibly sumptuous!

Anytime that I had a question, she promptly responded and put us at ease. Using WhatsApp, she also assisted us with our payments on a secure site without charging additional for using a credit card. She checked on us again 2 weeks before travel providing us additional useful information about the countries we were visiting and packing guide. And she made sure that upon our entrance into Croatia, she messaged us on WhatsApp to make certain we were fine, particularly with plane delays out of anyone’s control. And in Split, the agency’s home, both Mariana and Magdalena visited us at our hotel to say hello, chat with us, and make certain that the trip was going well! This is incredible service!

We always had professional drivers for our private guided tours as well as our father and son skipper team for our day in Montnegro. They were more than willing to impart their love of the country to us and teach us. Mariana had planned special events which we would remember forever: truffle hunting with dogs and our forest picnic in the outskirts of Split, celebrity chef Tatiana in Trogir cooking for us and enjoying lunch with us, and our tour guide arranging a special Octopus Peka in a Tavern for us.

We have nothing but accolades for Alan Mandic’s Company and Mariana! We have already stirred up much interest in many of our friends wanting to tour with Secret Dalmatia. We would recommend them whole heartedly without reservation.

Thank you Mariana for a lifetime tour for our family of 5 and sharing your country with us!

Devang and Mona Desai
San Antonio , Texas, USA