Most of the posters on this board are independent travelers.

Have you looked for info on tripadvisor.com? Or googled for info?

Thanks nytraveler, my husband and I have never used a group tour before and I emailed on the chance that someone had heard of them.

We traveled with them in 2006 when they were called Backroad Tuscany Tours. It's the same company but they have expanded and now do more than just Tuscany and Umbria. We were disappointed in our tour guide, Lucca. At the time, I believe, he was their only tour guide since it was a smaller company then. Lucca was very personable but didn't have any knowledge of the history of the area and didn't seem interested in learning. The hotels used were nice except for the 1st one, which most people complained about. The itinerary was good. In hindsight, we wish we had gone with another company to get a better guide.

We had a wonderful vacation touring Tuscany and Umbria with the Backroads of Tuscany in 2006 and again this year under their new Company name of Amber Road Tours. On our Amalfi Coast Tour during the past two weeks, we were accompanied by fellow travellers who were also on their second and third vacations with Amber Road Tours. Repeat tour bookings with this Tour Company speaks for itself. We were fortunate enough to have Lucca again as our Tour Manager. Lucca ensured that all our travelling needs were catered and was very proficient in his knowledge of the areas we were traveling through. When we visited specific historic sites, we were furnished with excellent local guides to explain specific historical information in detail. We can highly recommend Amber Road as a small Tour Company as they take you to vastly interesting sites and accommodate you in good quality Hotels, and the services that they provide far surpass any others we have encountered with other Tour Companies.

The Tour Bus was new and always kept in clean condition and the small group of travellers soon became like family and one always felt secure with our wonderful bus driver.

The feedback from jrjcollins on Feb. 21/09, who was also on our 2006 Tuscany Tour relating to Lucca must involve a personal beef, as Lucca proved himself to be the best Tour Manager we have ever encountered, and we intend to travel again with Amber Road Tours on our trip to Sicily in 2011.

We can personally highly recommend Amber Road Tours and you can be assured that you will find none better.
The positive comments on Amber Road's Web Site speaks for themselves.

Gee - and you joined fodors and made you first nd onypost be resurrecting an ancient thread to give a rave review to a tour company.

Looks like advertising to me - and the editors have been informed. (No real tourist is ever that happy with anything!)

jmumford: Okaaaay(?) - you registered and immediately topped an old/moldy thread to post a glowing review of this tour company/guide -- and the whole post is just full of 'tour brochure speak'.

Call me a skeptic but . . .

Yes.. a glowing review is what it is. And they deserve it. As for joining Fodors, that was to stick up for their tour manager Lucca who was bad-mouthed in a previous review. He did not deserve that. Sorry if it sounds like advertising to you, but if you are considering a small group tour, then it's your loss if you pass this one by.

I did not originate this post about Amber Tours. I was just replying to a question. This board is, I believe, a good place for giving feedback on travel experiences, both good and bad. Just because our experience with the guide was negative doesn't necessarily mean we had a "personal beef" or were "bad-mouthing" him. Since 2006 when we took the tour, we've traveled independently a lot but also gone on other tours with other companies so we have a means of comparison of what makes, in our opinion, a good tour guide. I think the problem here is that different people have different expectations . We've had experiences with other guides who were "walking encyclopedias" of information on the history and culture of the country. That's what we enjoy and seek out. For others, that's "information overload". I could give you specific examples of questions we asked Lucca relating to the history of Italy and found that he wasn't well-informed. But I don't think this board is even remotely interested in that. In summary, we were just giving our honest opinion on a travel experience....no "personal beef" involved.

My wife & I have gone on 7 amberroad tours. You can not go wrong. All there tour leaders are very good but if you get Mariaelena you will be blessed. Call my wife at 603/352/7057

The people who did not like Lucca are most likely critical of everything. He is an Italian an most knowage of his counrty. You must remember some people are never happy

owen - you do realize that the person asked about the tours 3.5 years ago and hasn't posted since that time. And you really shouldn't put your wife's phone number on the internet.

Owen is another first-time poster - who mysteriously found this obscure thread. And I've never seen a US phone number written like that - and if not the US what is hte country code?

It's a NH phone number.