I've traveled with both EST and Nirvana. Nirvana seems to have a near death grip on races organized under Ironman Europe; and I'm wondering if their growth is why EST's overseas portfolio has shrunken over the past few years. Anyway, Nirvana is every bit as professional and reliable; although Ken Glah is a little more friendly/personable. Nirvana's services can be purchased on a more a-la-cart fashion than Ken's. If you just want airport pick-up they can do it. If you want a course tour, they will offer it. If you want lodging options they will generally have 3 or 4. They also negotiate with the host hotels to ensure breakfast is offered early on race day. Etc.

I have only had one experience with Nirvana. I did IM Wales a few years ago and they had a strangle hold on the hotels within walking distance of the race start (5+ hotels). Considering we wanted to stay close to transition, we had limited options and chose to book through Nirvana.

I do not remember exact specifics of the situation, but they changed our booking without informing us and we were forced to move hotels and hotel rooms multiple times. After working directly with one of the hotels, we were able to stay in our second hotel but Nirvana wanted us to move to a third hotel. I am assuming this is not a normal event however. Nirvana did not want to initiatlly make things right but after we returned home, we were able to settle the disagreement. After discussions with the manager of one of the hotels, they would definitely prefer you work directly with them (but who wouldn't as I'm sure Nirvana books the entire hotel at some discounted rate and jacks up the prices for athletes).

This has been just my experience. Obviously, Nirvana is a service and they should be paid appropriately. I assume I was an exception to the general experience. I'm not sure I would book again through them although I would say they did make things right in the end so there's something to say about that.

good luck,
-nate

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http://www.natemillertri.com/

Nirvana are owned by Ironman. That's why they always have the late entry slots. I've used them when I had to and they are ok but you'll end up paying top dollar for pretty average hotels in my experience. They have things pretty well stitched up!

They do not always lock up all the rooms at the hotels they use. Although I did not use Nirvana for IM Switzerland, but I did book at one of the hotels that was on their list without going through Nirvana just to make sure I was at one that would have early breakfast (and sure enough they did).

Also, they are the official travel partner for the IM European tour. If Ironman owned them they would be providing similar services at all IMs not just those organized by IM Europe. EST often has late entry slots too ... doesn't mean they are owned by Ironman.