Modern Romance Travel

I've known Melissa for several years and I can't imagine having trusted anyone else to organize our honeymoon trip. My husband and I chose Mexico and a budget for our honeymoon and Melissa sent us three options for our trip the next day with her thoughts about how each resort would fit our needs. It is extremely helpful that she personally visits these locations and can give you a first hand opinion of the resorts feel and service. Melissa also made sure to let the resort know that we were honeymooning, which privileged us to honeymooner perks throughout the week. We had a great time at Secrets in Cabo and would love to go back at some point for an anniversary.

We definitely had a great experience with Melissa Varela from Modern Romance Travel. Although she was always busy traveling and we received her out of office, her replies were very prompt and in a timely manner. There were no questions left unanswered and she always had great suggestions. We never spoke on the phone, but her emails were very professional and replied in a happy tone. Overall, she made our wedding planning experience nice and smooth for our destination wedding. We're both glad she helped us through every step of the way.

Melissa and her team at Modern Romance were fantastic to work with. They were responsive to our needs from start to finish, including getting us the best rates based on the number of rooms we thought we needed and getting extra or different room categories as our guest list developed. We had an issue when we arrived at our hotel. Both Melissa and Aimee jumped immediately to our assistance, and it was resolved immediately, and I know Melissa was out of the country. Melissa also provided us with several great options and recommendations for a second resort for our honeymoon. I do not hesitate to recommend Modern Romance and will certainly use them again.

Our experience with Melissa can be summed up with one word, FABULOUS! She is a dream to work with and is completely in tune with your wants and expectations. Even when we weren't quite sure what we were first looking for, she was immediately able to pinpoint what she thought we would like based on just a few ideas that we threw out at her. If you don't know where to start for your wedding, or even if you do, she will make the process a breeze. You won't have to become a bridezilla as you will feel so at peace knowing Melissa is taking care of all the tedious wedding tasks. She is always prompt and anything we needed, she provided. We will have to have multiple vowel renewals just so we can work with her again!! =D LOVE HER!!!

Melissa and her team at Modern Romance Travel were great every step of the way. She was helpful in choosing a venue, securing a contract with discounts that helped lower our overall costs, and assisted all our guests with their reservations and travel accommodations. She made traveling on our big day easy and stress free. I definitely recommend her to any future brides!

Second time using Modern Romance for a destination wedding! Beautiful resorts with wonderful service. Always good suggestions on excursions and how to get the best pricing for them. Would definitely use again. Transportation to and from the airport were easy even in another country. Had a wonderful time!!

Had our destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico! Melissa with Modern Romance Travel recommended the Hyatt Ziva and we loved it. Melissa was amazing with organizing all of our guest's travel arrangements. We had a large wedding as far as guests and everything went totally smooth. A bus was waiting for us at the airport and everyone was satisfied with the service. Our guests were also very pleased at the fact that they were able to book their room and make payments to the room, vice paying it all at once.

Melissa and Modern Romance Travel are absolutely amazing. Melissa made our honeymoon to Tahiti so easy! We spent two nights on Moorea and four nights on Bora Bora. Everything from our flights, car to/from the hotel and Catamaran were all squared away and made easy for us. One of our connecting flights was delayed and Melissa immediately emailed us letting us know. Melissa gave us suggestions for activities to do on both of the islands and how to book the activities. She also recommending we stay at the Thalasso while on Bora Bora and the hotel was breathtakingly beautiful! We will continue to book with Melissa and Modern Romance Travel!

Melissa and her team at Modern Travel did a great job at making our wedding such an amazing experience. We are very thankful for all the hard work and wholeheartedly recommend her to any wedding couple planning their destination wedding to make sure their guests are taken care of. Thanks Maryam and Chris

I was so excited about doing a destination wedding and had no idea where to start! We had picked the Dominican Republic as our destination and Hard Rock Hotel to host our wedding. So, while looking through the website I came across Modern Romance Travel and their partnership with the hotel. I came in contact with Melissa Varela in California. She made it simple and stress-free to book for me and my guests. It was a great experience to sit back and let her do work! I always imagined being so stressed in planning the wedding, but it was the complete opposite. I would highly recommend it to anyone who decides to do a destination wedding to do it through modern romance. I was always involved, the constant back and forth emailing with quick responses, always. Cant complain. Had a great time overall! Excellent! 10/10

Melissa is great! She made everything very easy as far as planning and booking for our trip. She was on top of it!! The wedding and vacation were awesome! Definitely recommend their services!

Melissa was AMAZING. She was very genuine, kind, and organized. You can tell she has a passion for and enjoys what she does. Our best friend's wedding in Riviera Maya, Mexico was the wedding of the century for all of us. We wish we could go back. Thank you to Melissa for making us feel so supported, taken care of, and safe the entire time. We had a blast, the entire trip, ceremony, and reception was beautiful, a dream come true. There was nothing to worry about-everything ran smoothly and all our questions were answered. We miss it so much already. Thank you so much!!!

The Modern Romance Travel Agency is definitely the best option any bride and groom should contact if they want to do a destination wedding. I was very impressed with our travel agent Melissa Varela. Her dedication and easy means of communication were essential to making our destination wedding dreams come true. Melissa has done countless destination weddings, and it definitely was proven to us through this whole process. She was able to provide detailed information about every question we had. She was extremely knowledgeable about each resort she presented to us and matched the perfect resort with the services and amenities we had on our wedding list. She kept close communication with us as well as the resort we had chosen; if we were not being answered by the resort she made sure they would contact us within the next day. She also took care of accommodating all our wedding guests and ensuring that they all had ground transportation from the airport to the resort as well as transportation back to the airport. Each of our guests could not stop talking about how friendly and professional she was. They mentioned that she was very flexible regarding payments and punctual with deadlines she provided. In addition, she provided every guest with an itinerary of their trip a couple weeks before their departure. In that package, she provided some helpful tips on how to plan your stay in the resort and suggested items to bring. Overall, Modern Romance Travel Agency has surpassed my expectations for a destination wedding. More specifically, Melissa has gone above and beyond to ensure the gratification of the bride/groom and their wedding guests. I cannot thank her enough for making our wedding dreams a reality. I definitely recommend them to any bride and groom that wish to inquire about a destination wedding. You won't regret it!

Melissa was amazing! She exceeded all my expectations. She helped from start to finish. She was knowledgable and prompt. She did offer me the best rate possible, she even beat the hotels group rate! She helped every single one of my guests which saved me a headache! She even helped us schedule a private tour to do some sightseeing.

Melissa is patient, organized, informative, and truly so helpful. She is authentically kind and caring. Several of our guests came up to us at our wedding and said how helpful she was and how pleasant it was to deal with her. She is very comprehensive and thorough and can help the most indecisive couple make the perfect choice. I would recommend her to anyone planning a destination wedding!

So glad we chose Modern Romance Travel for our destination wedding. I found Melissa from a list of Wow Specialists on Hard Rock Vallarta's website. After meeting Melissa for the first time I knew we were in good hands. Planning a destination wedding may seem overwhelming, but after working with her I highly recommend it. Melissa took care of all the travel stress for us. She answered any and all questions our wedding guests had. She updated us on the travel details and kept us on track up until our wedding day. I am truly thankful for having Melissa by my side. She lifted a huge amount of work off of my plate. If you have any reservations about planning a destination wedding...keep calm and call Melissa!

We booked our all-inclusive trip to Cancun, Mexico with Melissa. She helped us find the best deals for our family getaway and provided us with excellent service. Thank you so much for answering all of our questions and making everything so easy. We cannot wait to work with you again in the future. -Emmanuel & Fritzie

We met Melissa Varela of Modern Romance Travel by chance while waiting in line for customs coming back from a vacation in Mexico when we were still dating. We both wanted a destination wedding, so several months later, once we were engaged, we contacted Melissa to enlist her help in planning our wedding. Melissa was simply AMAZING to work with from the beginning of planning the wedding to several weeks after the wedding. She helped us decide on a location for our wedding by providing us with numerous options for resorts including what was offered and the cost of the different wedding packages at each of the resorts, what promotions were available for the bride and groom and the guests, and what dates, times, and locales were available. Since Melissa had personally visited all of the resorts we were looking at, she was able to give us her candid impression of the resorts, which we found very helpful. We, and our guests, had a ton of questions throughout this whole process and Melissa always answered not only our inquires and concerns, but those of our family and friends, quickly and thoroughly. We never had to worry about any of the details of the wedding because Melissa served as a liaison between us and the travel company (who handled all of the guests accommodations and travel to and from the airport) and the resort (who managed all of the specific details of our wedding). We truly felt that Melissa had our best interests at hand and wanted our wedding experience to be special. Melissa facilitated resolving any issues we experienced even after the wedding. We would undoubtedly recommend Melissa Varela to anyone planning a destination wedding or family vacation! Stacy and Shane Winkelman

Modern Romance Travel did an amazing job with helping us plan our destination wedding. She exceeded all of our expectations! Planning a destination wedding can be difficult and sometimes overwhelming, but Melissa is very knowledgeable and willing to help with all situations. She helped me narrow down the resorts and we ultimately chose the Hard Rock Riviera Maya. We really enjoyed the Hard Rock and so did our guests. She handled all of our guests and their questions. She also booked our guests’ rooms for them and contacted the guests directly. Modern Romance Travel was great about getting back to me and providing whatever information I needed. When Modern Romance Travel takes care of your wedding, you won’t have to worry about one single detail. Melissa did a phenomenal job and made sure our wedding day was much better than we could have ever dreamed of. Our day was perfect. We would recommended Modern Romance Travel to anyone even slightly considering a destination wedding in fact even to couples that aren’t even engaged yet. From the minute we started working with Modern Romance Travel, she made wedding planning completely stress free and I cannot thank her enough for going above and beyond! We are grateful for Melissa and Modern Romance Travel!

We had the pleasure of using Modern Romance Travel for our destination wedding and I am so happy we did- they are absolutely fantastic! From the first day Melissa Varela (owner of Modern Romance Travel) was there to answer all our questions (and we had many!) plus went above and beyond with not only travel knowledge but with her professionalism, patience and ability to make us feel valued. Melissa is very sweet and knows her trade from the inside out; everything from assisting us in choosing our location, suggesting dates that were cohesive to the time of the year (a hurricane is definitely not ideal during a wedding ceremony) as well as suggesting resorts that fit us best. Melissa took the time to explain each location (such as theme & style, resort credits offered, what’s included / not included, etc.) and also offered us her experience based on her personal travels to Mexico; she is a seasoned traveler and will provide you with location tips and perspective regarding each property. My spouse and I chose the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya (approximately one hour south of Cancun) in July 2015 and we were not disappointed. The resort was amazing; the atmosphere was fun & modern, the customer service was attentive & friendly and the food quality & variety surpassed our expectations- our guests were extremely impressed. Modern Romance Travel's dedication to a job well done and making their clients happy is an evident priority. Throughout the whole booking process Melissa remained in constant contact with us by providing guest updates, a detailed explanation of the total cost, as well as flight suggestions, just to name a few. Even when our travel arrangements had been finalized, Melissa would reach out to us and inquire if there was anything else she could assist us with- you rarely find that level of customer service anymore. If you are looking for a remarkable travel coordinator, look no further. As a matter of fact the newly established Garcia family will be reaching out to her again for our romantic anniversary trip in 2016. Thank you Modern Romance Travel for making our special day even more wonderful and cheers to your continued success! XOXO, Michelle & Ten Garcia

Melissa is a Godsend! She found us the greatest deals for our cruise and excursions. Very responsive, friendly, and easy to work with.