Alison Shipman

We’ve been using Alison to help us with our travel needs for years. As a family of 5 it has become a more difficult task for her to suit everyone’s requirements as our three daughters have grown into young women; Alison somehow manages however to find the perfect trip to suit everyone’s wish list, so I would highly recommend her for her knowledge, attention to detail and (sometimes in our case) her patience! I couldn’t recommend her more.

Alison is a joy to work with. She is responsive, informative and helpful, always happy to make suggestions and amendments. Nothing is too much trouble and she obviously takes a lot of pride in ensuring that her clients’ needs are met.

We are not seasoned travellers and I always find booking holidays stressful, but Alison is so efficient and knowledgeable that I am always confident leaving everything in her hands. It is so easy and I find it really reassuring that she is at the end of the phone to answer any questions. I cannot recommend Alison enough

Alison is a marvel! I ask all sorts of questions , check this! Look at that ! She always comes back with an answer. Always a pleasure booking our holidays with Alison.

Absolutely brilliant service. I’ve used a lot of travel agents over the years but Alison personal attention , during a very difficult trip when we had to make changes to our itinerary in the middle of the Christmas holiday, was exemplary and above and beyond anything I’ve experienced before.

Alison makes everything so easy it is always a pleasure getting in touch with Alison as I know she will always find our perfect holiday. As always thank you Alison excellent service.

Peace of mind is what you need when booking a holiday and Alison just takes all the stress and uncertainty out of booking. She has the best recommendations, knows what she’s doing and is available to help/advise even during your trip.

Alison made the experience of booking a holiday for 9 members of our family very relaxing, Alison took over the stressful part and found us exactly what we were looking for the first time from the brief we given her :) I will continue to use Alison to book and find our perfect holidays in the future and i will definitely be recommending her to all my friend and family. Thanks Alison, you are amazing.

After submitting our requirements for the holiday, Alison replied very quickly to discuss the details. She planned everything for us, so we can relax after having such efficient and friendly service.

Efficient, attentive with focus on us being able to have the best time on holiday within the budget we can afford. Alison makes planning a holiday even more exciting. Thank you.

Alison is tireless in her efforts to deliver the best holiday possible. Without doubt the best service I've ever experienced in the travel industry and possibly the best customer service experience I've ever had.

Alison dealt with my enquiry with efficient speed, taking caring account of all my specific needs as an elderly, disabled, single traveller. I was also very impressed with the way she sorted out (at my request) extra information regarding the hotel accommodation, in order that I could make the booking with total confidence.

We have used Travel Counsellors for 20 years. We have only ever had 2 consultants (the first retired). You build a relationship and grow with them therefore they know exactly what you like in a holiday, so no time is wasted putting forward unsuitable hotels destinations and budgets when you phone. You're not pressured, Alison is knowledgeable and all in all an easy booking experience ending in a perfectly suited holiday.

Alison at Travel Counsellors went above and beyond the call of duty. She found us the right holiday and the flight's and price was very good. Nothing was too much trouble, she was efficient and on the ball. She gave us 100% commitment and dedication. I will definitely tell my friends about the service, it was second to none.

Alison was brilliant at listening to exactly what we wanted, advising on what was possible and giving us options to choose from then tweaking our chosen plan until it was just right. I will definitely be recommending her to friends and family.

I would always highly recommend Alison to anyone looking for any type of trip. Her extensive knowledge of the different counties and areas which are best to stay have always been perfect! Alison has arranged many fantastic trips for us - from work trips to luxury holidays therefore when it came to booking our honeymoon we could think of no one better for the Job. Not only does she organise ideally timed flights, and luxury accommodation (if required) but also transfers to and from hotels and airports, visas, and she even highlighted to us that because we are traveling from Singapore to a small Island in Fiji that our luggage restrictions would change for the small connecting flight therefore organised a solution whereby we leave a bag in the connecting airport to allow us to abide by the local flight restrictions - which neither of us would have even considered, and would have been confronted with a huge problem or a huge cost if we stumbled across this on the day. We are assured then every box is ticked as Alison is so thorough and professional. Alison patiently works with you emailing or calling backwards and forwards until you feel the trip is perfect for you. (even if like me you keep changing your mind on the hotel) She responds promptly and even sent over the finer details of the resorts like the cocktail menu and the Spa brochure so we knew what to expect. I can't recommend her highly enough. Thank you Alison for all your hard work.

Alison really goes the extra mile to ensure all your needs are catered for and gets you the best possible choice available.

Never leave home without an Alison. We already do recommend Alison to others. She is always our first call when thinking about holidays as she takes all the slog out of finding the best deals. Her knowledge, experience and friendliness provide a service which is second to none and her support does not end with the booking. When we have needed help or advice for an issue during a trip Alison has been just a click or a phone call away to sort it out. It may sound a little cheesy but my mantra is 'never leave home without an Alison'.

I cannot thank you enough for arranging our three week summer family trip to Canada. I had wasted many weekends trying to produce a workable itinerary until you produced the perfect one for us in just a couple of days. Flights, transfers and accommodation were absolutely just what we wanted and we didn't waste an hour of the three weeks. I can't recommend you highly enough!!

Alison was excellent. Really patient, happy to make lots of tweaks and changes to the itinerary, understood what we were after, gave us options, and helped us keep the costs down. She was fantastically efficient too, responding very quickly always, and her emails were always really clear and straightforward. She was very good to deal with too, nice and friendly. Would unhesitatingly recommend Alison to others.

Alison is very personable and quick to respond. She has taken all the stress out of travel planning. She offers options and seems to think for us. Great service and I will always recommend her.

Alison sorted everything out for us on our cruise and stay very efficiently and worked with us until we got everything exactly how we wanted it.

By approaching Alison we saved £550 compared to another agent on our US trip, This money will help pay for some of our meals and other costs. Alison also turned round the quotation to us in a matter of hours where previous potential agents took a couple of days and also managed to arrange accommodation in locations where others couldn't.

Alison is brilliant, she is friendly and very flexible. She listens to what your requirements are and then gives you a few options to see what you like and if its not quite what you want she will come up with some more fabulous options for you. She has extensive travel knowledge and very prompt at answering questions with easy to understand answers. I have booked twice with her now and I will definitely be returning soon to book again!

No one in the business is more helpful, knowledgeable, courteous and efficient than Alison.

After helping me plan & organise a trip to New York last year I had no hesitation in contacting Alison to help me plan another holiday to the US again. Due to the many places we want to visit in a short space of time we needed this trip to be just right. Alison not only put forward suggestions on how to best plan this trip, Alison also had to change & alter the itineraries several times to meet our requests. In addition to our own requests, Alison always takes extra time to provide information on the places we are visiting, which include guides & links to visitor attractions. Always an excellent service.

The best experience that I would recommend to anyone. Booking a family holiday with confidence. A friendly, kind and 'spot-on' approach and one I would not hesitate to recommend. This women has soooo much patience! Thank you Alison

Alison was friendly and easy to talk to and a massive help. She actually looked at what we asked for rather than trying to sell us more. I haven't got enough words to describe how brilliant she was. She's a real credit to Travel Counsellors.

Alison has always gone over and above our expectations as our Travel Counsellor. She finds us the best holidays and gives fantastic customer care. We always recommend Alison to friends and family.

I would never leave the country without Alison on board. She is my comfort blanket!

Alison has been finding us holidays, last minute hotels and making the whole process easy and stress free for a few years now. I wouldn't ever go back to a high street agent now I've got Alison. She's polite, funny and knows her job inside out.

Alison has been brilliant helping me organise a trip to New York for my girlfriend's 30th birthday. From the offset Alison helped & guided me with choosing the best options for us whilst sticking to my budget and been on hand to answer all of my questions & provided addition information to help. Alison has gone out of her way to find extra information for us which is hugely appreciated. I couldn't recommend her highly enough & I will have no hesitation in returning for Alison's help in the future.

We have booked holidays with Alison for years now, and I probably wouldn't go to a high-street shop ever again. She is patient and understanding when it comes to budgets and leave constraints...and general awkwardness! Alison will draw on a wealth of knowledge to ensure you have the option of quality resorts and hotels, she'll never put you somewhere she wouldn't stay herself. The whole experience is a pleasure, from the initial booking to leaving the UK and then returning is managed perfectly. The service doesn’t stop when you leave the airport, it stops when you return. One example would be a trip to New York in 2009. There had been a snow storm, and although we were fine Alison contacted us to make sure we were ok, she also checked on delayed flights and alternatives on our behalf – we didn’t even have to ask.

I would definitely recommend Alison to friends and family . Alison has just booked our holiday to America and Hawaii - she gives so much time and effort into finding the correct holiday for you . It takes all the worries out of booking holidays away . Many thanks to Alison.

We have been using Alison for many years, we have recommended her services to lots of our friends and family. She is very helpful and goes above and beyond to help you find the perfect holiday. Thank you Alison.

Alison has organised my holidays for the last 4 years and I can't recommend her highly enough. Always creative and thorough in the choices she gives me, I'm usually so spoilt for choice I struggle to pick one. Incredibly knowledgable on most parts of the world but if she's ever stuck she always has a contact whose and expert in a new area. Lastly and as importantly Alison is a lovely person with a fab sense of humour so working with her is always great fun. 10 out of 10!

I was recommended Alison and I have to say at first I was unsure if to contact. I'm so glad I did! Alison took all the hassle out of searching for/booking our holiday. The service Alison provided has been excellent and I have already recommended Alison to family and friends. I will be in touch again for all our future holidays.

Having Alison arrange our travel is a joy and the peace of mind she affords us once we are away is like having a favourite comfort blanket with us. She is worth her weight in gold!

Alison always listens to what we want and gives us lots of choice and is very knowledgeable and honest about resorts and accommodation. We always have great holidays in great locations thanks to Alison's expertise! Would never book with anyone else!

As always, Alison provided an excellent service. She listens carefully to our requirements and comes up with a whole range of alternatives which might fit our needs, if they don't, she comes back again with more suggestions -patient and persistent until she gets it right. Thank you- really looking forward to our holiday!

It's not very often you can put your complete trust in someone and know that they only have your best interest in mind and not what they can get from you. I would not hesitate to recommend Alison, she is worth her weight in gold.

I have been booking holidays with Alison since 2007. Since then I have had some amazing holidays. Alison takes out the stress and confusion of booking holidays and she provides excellent value for money. I honestly don’t bother with high street shops anymore, I don’t find them as helpful or experienced as Alison. I have and will continue to recommend Alison to friends, family and business associates.

Booking our holidays with Alison Shipman has been as good as having our very own private travel agent. Everything is dealt with speedily and efficiently and Alison is always available to deal with any queries - no waiting for some unknown person to phone back later. Many thanks Alison for all your help and expertise.

Without doubt I would recommend Sue. She gave us stress free holiday advice, options and booking. Every time we contact her it is a pleasure.

Using Alison's knowledge and expertise has taken the doubts and what-if's out of the laborious process of booking a holiday with young kids for the first time. It's incredibly helpful to have someone like Alison tailoring a holiday around our dates and needs and making sure all our bases are covered. All that's left to do now is pack and catch that plane.

Totally satisfied. Within a couple of days of contacting Alison I was given a number of suitable holiday options to consider and the holiday was booked. Great friendly efficient service received. Many thanks.

We would recommend Alison to anyone! No problem was too big or too small and she helped us every step of the way. Alison's honesty and opinion was invaluable.

Always very helpful and accommodating. excellent customer service. I would definitely recommend to others and I often do.

As a new customer I have been impressed by the speed, helpfulness and care to meet my requests. I have already talked to friends about the service.

I just wanted to let you know we had a lovely holiday in Saalbach. The hotel was excellent, definitely one to be recommended. The room was lovely, overlooking the slopes, the facilities were super and the food was excellent. There was a very friendly atmosphere in the hotel and the staff were very accommodating. Jon and Cameron really enjoyed the skiing and I had a lovely relaxing time. I particularly enjoyed the indoor to outdoor pool! The Flybe flights were fine too, very friendly staff, on the way out particularly, and a surprisingly spacious seat for a charter airline! Thank you again for your help in organising the holiday and we may well be in touch again as summer approaches!

Alison always goes that 'extra mile' to provide excellent customer service and over the years has found us excellent holidays that exactly match our (very demanding!) requirements.

Alison has been incredibly helpful, very informative and knowledgeable. She has made the booking of our honeymoon an extremely pleasant experience and I will definitely recommend her to anyone who is looking to book a holiday in the future. Thank you.

Despite the number of obstacles and details that have been put in Alison's path, nothing ever seems to be a problem and she has always come up with solutions and alternatives. Basically she takes all the hassle away from the stressful process of organising a holiday so that all we have to do is enjoy. Perfect!

Alison is polite and efficient and provides an excellent service. In a world where generally, no-one is interested in doing anything more than the bare minimum, it is hugely refreshing to find someone in business who cares greatly about her clients and has a genuine desire to ensure that their needs are met in full. Alison, it seems to me, goes that extra mile to give customer satisfaction. I approached Alison following a recommendation. I will certainly employ her services again and recommend her to anyone who is planning any sort of trip. If more companies had staff of Alison's calibre, the world would be a much happier and less stressed place.

We used Alison to book our honeymoon last year. She was excellent. We weren't 100% sure what we were after so gave her a brief outline and she came back with some amazing ideas and the one we chose was absolutely perfect! We have also used Alison to help us book a trip to Disneyland Paris and again we got lots of help from her. She has such patience too, replying to any query we had, no matter how small and silly. Completely recommend Alison to anyone!

We have taken holidays arranged by Alison for a few years now. These have ranged from sunshine breaks in and around the Mediterranean to North America. We have always found the resorts, accommodation etc to be of a high standard and representing good value. Alison has always been very professional but, more importantly, very friendly. She is always our first port of call if we wish to arrange a holiday to a destination that involves a flight.

The first time I used Alison, I was seeking info on a possible trip to a friends wedding in America earlier this year. She put in a great amount of time and effort sorting plane times and possible accomodation etc. Unfortunatley I decided it was not going to be a viable trip, there was no charge made. I have used her since to book air travel to Jersey. Her communication skills and the vast amount of holiday destinations available from her business are excellent. Not expensive, and fully recommended.

Alison is an absolute pleasure to work with. She has organised several holidays for us in the past and more recently organised my brother's wedding in Cyprus. Nothing is too much trouble for Alison, you know she will always do the best for you, she's a diamond!!

We have been booking our holidays with Alison for a number of years now. She provides a professional and personalised service and is able to tailor holidays to our (very specific!) needs and budget. We discovered just how helpful she could be when we had to cancel a holiday because our daughter had chicken pox. Alison sorted everything out for us, guiding us through the process and helped to reduce the stress of the situation. I would recommend her without hesitation.

I first heard of Alison through my son who had previously booked a very enjoyable holiday with her. Now seven years later we have booked nearly three holidays a year. Alison is not only very professional in how she handles your enquiry but is the most friendly and caring person when dealing with your holiday requests. I will carry on using Alison in the future and continue to sing her praises.

I have used the service offered by Alison Shipman from Travel Counsellors for many years. All I need to do is float an idea of where I would like to go, what I would like to see and what I have to spend and Alison does all of the hard work. She then comes up with a variety of options. I can then choose what I want and she arranges it. She always tries to get the best price and she is open to suggestions. She is also very knowledgeable and if she doesn't know something she will find out. Nothing is too much trouble and Travel Counsellors offer excellent protection so I have peace of mind if thing were to go wrong.

Alison was very efficient in coming back to us to make sure she had covered all our requirements for the holiday. She helped with the arrangements for the airport parking and the whole package offered good value for money and was dealt with incredibly well. Thanks!!

Well where to start? At the beginning I first met Alison on email in 2007 when she very kindly assisted me on sorting out the honeymoon June 2008 for my son. We had many changes to that arrangement and she is always the professional with help and understanding. Now I count her as a friend and have shared many interesting holidays situations for her to arrange specially for my daughter's honeymoon a safari in Kenya. We have had many holidays to arrange as we go with friends twice a year and always enlist her help. Nothing is too much trouble and she always finds the place for us and we have just come back from a visit to Normandy - excellent as ever. I cannot recommend Alison highly enough and I always pass on her details to my friends. Excellent keep up the good work. Thank you

Alison has always taken care of our needs when we have had a problem, such as when we visited Thailand during the riots in 2010, she took care of it arranged for us to stay where we were and kept us informed at all times, which was also lucky for other people who were not aware of the problems and had to make their own arrangements. I always feel confident when I book through Alison as she is always at the end of the phone and you can speak to her in person to sort any issues that may arise. Thank you Alison

Alison is superb to deal with. Simply let her know where you are thinking of going and she sorts the rest. We have travelled to Dubai, Turkey and soon to Florida and it has been fantastic. She covers every detail and can even book airport parking to obtain the best value. This saves you not only valuable time in trying to navigate difficult websites but also saves you a lot of money. I cannot recommend her services enough. I will certainly be booking our next holiday with Alison and regularly pass on her details to friends without hesitation. Well done Alison and keep up the great work.

Well, what can I say about our trip; fantastic, breathtaking, awesome, exceeded expectations, I could go on! We've had the most spectacular honeymoon we could ever have imagined and all thanks go to you and Travel Counsellors. All of the accommodations we stayed at far exceeded our expectations, superb quality absolutely no faults with any of them and the owners couldn't do enough for us. All of them provided us with a honeymoon welcome gift of either Champagne and/or chocolates/cake and flowers. The highlight of the whole trip was definitely the Safari, seeing so many beautiful animals in their natural environment was truly a privilege, Once again, thank you so much from both of us.

We just want to say thank you SO much for helping us to arrange our honeymoon at the El Dorado Casitas Royale in Mexico. Your service was fantastic, we found you to be very friendly and helpful, not to mention patient with us changing our minds a lot and asking lots of questions! Our tickets and pre-holiday info all came through to us in plenty of time and was good quality. The resort you found for us was idyllic with great service and food. The honeymoon extras of champagne and a candlelit meal on the beach that were thrown in were undoubtedly down to you contacting the resort in advance so thank you! We would definitely use your fantastic service again and would recommend Travel Counsellors to all! Thanks, Matt and Angela Cuff x

Thank you so much for all the work you did on our surprise holiday to Kiruna and the Ice Hotel - it was a very memorable and fantastic experience. I was so thrilled that my husband had dreamt up such a wonderful surprise and enjoyed every minute of the build up - after the meal on Valentines Day, the journey to Heathrow and the trip itself - I will never forget it and highly recommend it to anyone who wants something completely different.... the Husky Dog sled trip through the forests and across the frozen lakes was just incredible, and the overnight stay at the Ice Hotel awesome.... the Snowmobile Safari through the wilderness at nights was like being in a James Bond movie - even calling in at the log cabin in the forest for reindeer stew cooked on an open fire..... I still can't believe we did it........Thank you!

We have booked our last two holidays with Alison because she provides an excellent efficient service. She searched long and hard and found a perfect holiday for our family at a great price. She is friendly, helpful and honest about hotels and destinations. Will and do recommend her to friends and would not book a holiday or any travel arrangements through anyone else now. Thanks Alison!

Alison booked our summer holiday to France. One week in keycamp and one in an apartment. She sorted it all out so it co ordinated with the ferries. It went like clockwork. We hadn't been abroad with the kids before and she thought of everything we would need with a young family so it was hassle free. She always got straight back to us with any queries we had. She was always easy to get hold of.