Reviews of The Travel Mechanic-The Best luxury travel agency in the Carolinas (Travel Agency)

Kristy Carroll

Lauren booked a girls trip to Charleston SC, and it was nothing short of amazing! She went above and beyond meeting our needs and making us happy! I will be using the Travel Mechanic for all of my vacations going forward!

Heather Johnson

Prior to working with Lauren, i was sure there were extra fees and things associated with using a travel agent. To my surprise, there was not! I've worked with her twice now. The first was in July 2014 for my honeymoon. We planned a 9-night trip to London, Paris and Rome and it was a breeze! Lauren booked our flights from DC to London, train tickets to Paris, flight to Rome and back home again. I wanted to work with an agent during this trip since we were going to so many different international cities with different currencies and languages. Everything went smoothly, no issues with any of our tickets or reservations and we got a few perks along the way too! The second time was for a birthday cruise for a family member (50 & Fabulous in April 2016) for 5 people. Lauren arranged a flight to Miami, overnight in a hotel and the all-inclusive cruise to the Nassau, CocoKay and Key West. Again, no issues with reservations or tickets and it was a smooth transaction. I've recommended Lauren to a couple of others already who have had positive experiences as well. Lauren makes things easy and convenient, and typically her prices are lower too - but i'd still recommend checking prices on your own just so you have an idea of costs before you go!

Karen Campbell

Lauren went above and beyond to listen to my concerns and wishes for a dream family vacation. I was really nervous about traveling overseas with 3 children and she organized us all down to the detail so that we didn't have to worry about a thing when we arrived in bustling London after taking the red eye and no one had slept (ugh!). Our tour up to the Scottish Isle of Skye was a dream for all of us and our vacation is one of the best I've had in my lifetime (and I've traveled to 5 continents so that is really saying something!). Highly recommend, the Travel Mechanic will take care of you!!

Kim Corrigan

I would highly recommend the Travel Mechanic! Lauren Doyle of the Travel Mechanic recently booked a girls getaway trip for myself and seven of my close girlfriends. Lauren is extremely professional and knowledgable and a pleasure to work with! The resort she booked us at was fantastic and she made the whole experience so easy for us! I will definitely be using Lauren again!

Jamie Agnew

Lauren at The Travel Mechanic was great! She planned a wonderful trip to Italy for my sister and I. We had a blast! Lauren listened to all of our requests and planned the trip around what we wanted to do. Her best suggestion was the cooking class with an Italian chef. We have made several of the dishes we learned to cook at home for our family. Go with Lauren and your trip will be awesome!!

Ryan Quintero

We just booked our first family trip with our family of four as well as extended family with grandparents with Lauren and The Travel Mechanic. The experience with Lauren and the resort were amazing. Lauren was on top of every detail before the trip and followed up immediately after to hear about how our experience was abroad. We fortunately didn't have issues while traveling, but if we had I'm confident Lauren would have resolved quickly. Any future trips will be booked with Lauren and the Travel Mechanic!

Nancy Verdi

Working with Lauren from The Travel Mechanic was an eye-opener. I was always under the assumption that I would have to pay a travel agent fee, but this was not the case. I did some legwork before contacting Lauren Doyle, so I had a pretty good idea the cost of our trip. I was shocked to find out that the seven-day trip I planned to Paris for myself and daughter was 30% less, booking it through The Travel Mechanic. And the recommendations from an experienced travel professional like Lauren has left me confident that we have the best itinerary. Lauren customized every aspect of the trip and even found a new boutique style hotel in a little section of the city with the vibe we wanted. Lauren crafted an itinerary with all the sights on our wish-list. She took the headache out of planning. We cannot wait to take this trip! Thank you, Lauren.

eyescool .

We used The Travel Mechanic for a group wedding to Cancun. They made countless mistakes and were unprofessional and unapologetic when we reached out for help. Here is the short list of mistakes: - Spelled the groom’s last name wrong, causing trouble and delays for everyone in his family - Didn’t book a room for a bridesmaid and her husband who had emailed multiple times five months earlier only to find out the week of they had no room and the resort was sold out. - Were rude and unhelpful when we reached out for assistance for the room that was never booked. They even complained to our other guests about the bridesmaid. - Were unable to offer assistance for the missing room and could only offer a sister resort 30 minutes away. Luckily, we were able to have them share a room with other guests, but those guests were expecting a private romantic vacation and didn't get any financial break from the hotel for sharing. - Another bridesmaid attempted to check in only to find out The Travel Mechanics booked the wrong dates, with everything slid forward a day. So they spent hours working with the hotel upon checkin and had no room for the last night. Thankfully the hotel found a room, but switching rooms took about three hours out of their last day in the sun. - We had other issues when booking, including people's names listed as TBD when they were given multiples times. Other people had their first name listed twice with no last name, just adding more complications with checkin when they match bookings to your passport. In the age of the internet, the only reason to use a travel agent is to make sure all the details of your trip are meticulously looked over to eliminate any issues traveling in unfamiliar countries and to have someone reach out to in the case of emergency. Lauren and Jenny are not those people. If you have a choice, don’t use the Travel Mechanic. They break everything and fix nothing.

Melanie Smalley

Lauren booked a weekend with our girlfriends to Charleston, NC in an amazing, affordable bed and breakfast! I wanted a specific type of location to stay at and she was really knowledgeable in that area! It was right in the middle of everything..close to restaurants, stores and some fun bars. Everything was walkable which was what I wanted. I highly recommend her when booking a trip!

Kurt Rutherford

Lauren has been a pleasure to work with. I am in the process of planning a large family trip, and we have had to make two BIG changes......Lauren handled both flawlessly and professionally! Highly recommend.

Summer Runestad

Worst experience ever!!!! They are completely disorganized. I was part of a wedding Party in Mexico. We had around 75 guests and a number of their reservations, were mixed up...names were wrong or missing making it very difficult to check in as they use your passports for checking, dates were wrong forcing friends to have to move rooms in the middle of their stay, and my reservation was left off all together leaving my husband and I without a place to stay. We ended up having to crash in a room with another couple who was on their one and only trip without their kids. We felt AWFUL. When contacting them once we realized they did not have our reservation, they were RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL. They even talked bad about me to another bridesmaid who called to try to help problem solve. That is extremely bad business. Moral of the story, Find another travel agency or use the new modern method of booking it all online. You will get great deals and probably have a much smoother experience than we all had.

Tony Runestad

Absolute disaster. There were far more people in our group that were negatively impacted than helped. I'll only elaborate on the personal experience we had... Long story as short as possible, they never booked our room for the wedding we were attending. My wife, who was a bridesmaid in the wedding, sent our confirmation and credit card info TWICE, as apparently the Travel Mechanic did not receive our initial reservation. So our two confirmations were each sent in February, for a July wedding. My wife was often mistaken for another guest who had the same first name, the only similarity involved. I guess it's too much work to check last names. Friends and family didn't receive their hotel confirmations until a few days before they left for Mexico. Upon realizing we hadn't received ours, we reached out to the Travel Mechanic. To our complete surprise they had no reservation for us. Subsequently any request for assistance from the Travel Mechanic became instantly 'our fault' and met with complete rudeness. We then learned the hotel was completely booked and we would not have a room. We were fortunate enough to have some wonderful friends modify their reservation from a king bed to two queens and take us in so that my wife and I could stay at the hotel and participate in all of the wedding related events. But the manner in which Lauren's assistant Jenny, spoke to my wife on the phone and the snarky tone of her emails left my wife visibly upset when this was supposed to be a fun, carefree occasion. If you're saddled with having to use a travel agent, it is highly encouraged that you find anyone other than the Travel Mechanic.

Robin Sutton

Lauren of the Travel Mechanic helped us plan a really wonderful honeymoon to Bali. We're not ones to usually use a travel agent, but felt the convenience of one less thing to coordinate would be helpful during stressful wedding planning time. She also came highly recommended from some of our friends. She did not disappoint. Lauren was receptive to all of our specific travel requests and was able to continuously provide us scalable options to review and choose from. During the planning period, we discovered some unsavory elements about one of our destinations and that another location was struck repeatedly with earthquakes. Lauren was quick to work with us to revise our travel plan to allow us to visit safer and more appealing locations even when were just a few weeks out. The hotels, in-country travel guide and transportation were all beyond our expectations and truly made our trip carefree and unforgettable. Working with Lauren was a really great experience and we felt rest assured that our trip was thought through backwards and forwards. She gave us the authentic experience we were looking for. We can not thank her enough. The only reason I'm rating her a 4 instead of a 5 is because I found it difficult to get in touch with her at times and would have to follow up occasionally to get responses.

Cheryl Frohlich

Recommended for those who love to travel and those who never have. Jennie and Lauren at the travel mechanic booked one of my first very international trips to Australia. Everything went extremely smooth and it goes down as my second favorite trip of all time. Years later Lauren booked my trip to China. I was a very routine international traveler by then but Asia still seemed out of my comfort zone. This was the best trip I ever took. I loved the tour they picked. Saw a tremendous amount of sites with a wonderful age appropriate group.

Kara Davis

Lauren helped us choose an amazing trip to Rivera Maya! This was our first trip out of the country since we got married and we couldn’t have been happier. The shuttle service was extremely professional and friendly. The resort, Unico 2087, was considered one of the finest in the area- very clean, great food, friendly staff. We will definitely book with the Travel Mechanic again!:)

Samantha Jarsocrak

Lauren with The Travel Mechanic was fantastic! She was referred to us to assist with our honeymoon, and she did an awesome job. My husband and I were a bit scattered with the details of what we wanted for our trip but Lauren was patient, willing to adapt and able to make suggestions/changes in order to help us plan the perfect trip within our budget. We traveled for 12 days throughout Spain spending time in Madrid, Barcelona and Mallorca. We wanted to have the freedom to do a variety of activities and excursions so we had Lauren assist us with hotels and travel between cities. She created a seamless trip for us that included transportation/transfers, hotels and detailed information about each location with recommendations for restaurants, things to do and other general tips. Lauren was a pleasure to work with and even included personal touches before and during our trip to make it extra special. I look forward to planning our next trip with Lauren!