i_am_kane

Hi Everyone,

I don't know exactly why I am writing this, but I guess it's because I'm a little down in the dumps.

I love reading everyone's trip reports to Europe and it gets the juices flowing as I plan our Italy June 2006 trip with my family.

HOWEVER, every time I speak with friends or family members who have come back from Italy with a tour company, they are downright uphappy. These people are all second-generation Italians, who have waited until their 50s and 60s to finally go on their trip of a lifetime, only to come home disappointed.

The majority of them say they will never go back to Italy, some say they didn't enjoy the food, all say "we did a lot of shopping." I don't want to sound preachy, so I just mumble a few words and say to them that they didn't see the Italy I've visited.

What are your experiences with friends/family who have taken tours (in Italy)? I don't get depressed, but this last one tonight really got to me.

nytraveler

I know only two sets of folks who took a tour to Italy. One couple loved it - but they were extremely ill-educated (and so were amazed at anything they saw), had no taste in food and were aftraid to speak Italian even though he grew up in house in which only Italian was spoken. (However, I believe it was a peasant southern Italian dialect and he was afraid of being mocked in Florence and Rome).

The other people - friends of my parents - did it as their first trip to europe - and were disappointed in the food, sights and country/trip overall. They have since gone back to europe independently - including parts of italy - and loved it.

i_am_kane

nytraveler, I give those people a lot of credit for going back to Europe on their own after a disappointing first trip with a tour company. (If at first you don't succeed, try, try again??)

I must say that the people I am referring to NEVER put even a single hour into researching Italy.

Leely

i am kane,

I agree that it's disappointing to hear from people who haven't enjoyed their holidays, and I don't care whether they've been to Disneyland or Botswana. However, your trip is going to be fantastic! Italy is wonderful and all your research will pay off.

I have a friend at work who went to Italy first on a tour. She didn't have a TC to go with her, and was a little too nervous to go alone. She LOVED it and told me she'll go back, solo if necessary, as soon as she gets her pennies together.

By the way, I wouldn't call her *ill-educated.*

janeg

'extremely ill-educated'
My, my, my. The incredible disdain often expressed on this board toward those who take tours has reached new depths.

kenderina

I've gone to Italy only once, some years ago. I went on a tour with my parents. My experience was not very good but I'm a very positive person and enjoyed it to the full. I mean, when you go on a tour your time is scheduled (it doesn't matter if you slept bad, you have to wake up, for example), you go to visit the landmarks at the same time that all the tours visiting the city (so it gets too crowded and makes it difficult to enjoy anything), they take you to have lunch..where all the rest of tours go so you have a big queue...and above all, everything is too quick (example..arriving at night to a hotel 30 km far from Venice, next day visit Venice, when you are unable to feel your feet travel to the hotel again, and then next morning at 6 AM travelling again to Milano with two hours in Padova, then two hours in Milano and in the afternoon travel to Nice ..) It's very, very tiring !! So maybe that's why people with an age have a bad memory. But don't let this discourage you, Italy is really beautiful , astonishing and you will have the best of times if you take it easy and don't try to see too many things in just a few days.
And most of the time it's better to eat a pizza or pannini instead of going to restaurants where the groups of tours go !! We avoided that and eat by ourselves even when we had the dinner paid.

lyb

I did my first trip to Italy, to Europe, with a tour, Insight Tours. I went for 2 weeks and absolutely loved. I found most of the food good, perhaps not gourmet, but since I'm not a foodie, it was fine with me. We stayed 2 nights at all places and I never felt rushed. I was thrilled when I came back and didn't regret it all.

Having said that, last year, for trip # 2, I went on my own to London and this fall, I'm going to Paris/Normandy/Belgium & Amsterdam on my own. Now, that I've gotten the confidence of doing it on my own, I wouldn't go back to doing it with a tour, unless I was going to Russia or China, where I feel it would be easier to get around with an organized group.

I think tours are great for the first timer or for someone who doesn't want to have to do a lot of organizing and driving around, etc.... I had had a very stressful 1 1/2 year before my trip and I didn't have the energy to plan and research, etc... I had read up about Italy and knew where I was going, but I didn't want to have to plan everything. I wanted a trip where things were done for me and I could sit back and relax, and the tour was exactly that.

I do think that a tour is what you make of it, many tours, including the one I took, allowed you for a lot of time to explore on your own, if you wanted. I think it was a perfect combo....but next time I go, I will do it on my own.

crefloors

I think it depends on the tour. My first trip to Europe was a tour. I have since gone back on my own and like it better than the tour, more relaxing etc. I don't know what kind of tour your friends and relatives took, but we saw a huge amount of sites, countryside, etc. Our tour guide was fabulous and the local guides were mostly really good. The food was adequate. I have to say that some of it was really good, some so so. I had fabulous liver in Venice..never had any food that I would call horrible. I learned a lot on that tour, learned some of the customs that are so frequently discussed on this board and I'm glad I did. So, it just depends on the tour you take and your travel style. I have preferred to NOT tour that last several years, but depending on my destination and the circumstances, I would probably, at some point, take a tour again. So who knows what each persons expectations are.

kenderina

Forgot to say , I haven't turned back to Italy because I've gone to other places for vacation but maybe my next after london is Rome again ) And now I speak italian !!

diann

lyb, do you remember the tour name you took with Insight? I dream often of going to Italy one day, or a river cruise. DH doesn't seem enthused about a river cruise but would love to see Italy. Just wondering.

Edward2005

It seems like it should be possible to use the basic framework an organized tour provides and still have fun as a semi-independent traveler. The plus of a tour is they have arranged the accomodations and ground transportation. Seems like you should be able to utilize that portion of the package but then strike out on your own every day to see and do the things that interest you. But even that will require the traveler to do some research in advance to learn what is and is not worthwhile.

The bottom line is that some folks are lazy with their travel plans -- they don't study about the country they plan to visit or think about what their sightseeing priorities are. It's as if they don't want to think about the trip at all until it's time to go -- and then they don't want to have to do any work or take responsibility for their own enjoyment. Maybe those people should stick to cruises.

jules4je7

I had a good friend take a Rick Steves Italy tour in the earily 1990s before RS was the "household" name that he is in travel...she loved it, as she was single and traveling alone, and it helped her meet fellow travellers and see more given the expense of traveling alone vs. in a group.

My in-laws never have traveled alone on major trips, and we're taking them to Paris this fall for their first non-tour travel experience. So far they've been very enthusiastic and are enjoying the heck out of planning. The last time they were there years ago, they were told to be on the bus by 8 a.m. each morning and had lots of experiences trying to look over the heads of their 35 other tourmates. I think this time they look forward to not having to follow a herd anywhere.

That said, I think tours are great for some people -- personally, I'm a planner, and believe that HALF the fun of going is the preparing and anticipating. Those who miss out often don't have as much fun because they don't know how special some of the sights are vs. what's junk, or have their homework done enough to know the difference.

Jules

nytraveler

Janeg -

that was not disdain towards people who take tours. It was simply a fact about the people involved. I worked with him - he was an accountant and knew absolutely nothing about anything except numbers. She had a high school diploma of some sort (non-academic) and also lived in an extremely limted world.

I'm sure there are people who have perfectly respectable educations who enjoy tours for various reasons - but this couple was in fact extremely ill-educated.

jules4je7

So they are educated, only badly?

cmt

I know many people who have taken tours in Italy and loved them. None of them happened to be very uneducated people, and some were highly educated. About half of them were Italian-Americans, but most of those were not visiting the towns of their ancestry. They ranged in age from a teenager (taking a tour with her aunt as a h.s. graduation gift) to people in their late 70s, with most in between. The tour providers ranged from package tour companies that I'd never heard of to Parillo to Grand Circle to various American and British and Canadian walking/hiking tour companies.

In fact I don't know anyone who took a tour in Italy and hated it. I also don't know anyone--Italian-American or otherwise-- who traveled independently in Italy and hated it. I've traveled both independently and in small group (under 10 people) tours and enjoyed both. I can't account for why your friends' and family members' experiences were so different from mine and those of my friends and acquaintances.

xyz123

Look as with everything there are a 1001 different variables that might make a tour better or might make independent travel better.

You do an independent tour and your car is broken into; you might feel why didn't I take a tour.

You do a tour and you see someplace you want to stop but the itinerary says see such and such not visit such and such so the TD says there is such and such and if you blink you miss it...you say why didn't I rent a car and travel independently.

Or you say you're going to travel independently and take the trains to avoid problems with car break ins and guess what, there is a train strike in Italy...so you say why didn't I go on a tour.

There are things to be said both ways...I travel independently smetimes and sometimes with tours. I am about to embark on a two week tour of central Europe with Trafalger going to Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic back to Germany. We will be visiting Frankfurt, Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Prague with 2 night stops in each of those cities. Quite frankly, even though I think I'm a veteran traveller, I wouldn't feel all that comfortable driving through those countries and the tour seems the right way to do it.

OTOH at the end of the tour, instead of returns to the US, we're taking the train from Frankfurt to Paris (want to check out the German railway system) and spending a couple of days in Paris and then flying BMI to London (fares were much cheaper than one way on Eurostar even though I prefer Eurostar, flight is something like €40 as compared to £59 cheapest fare I could find on Eurostar which is a return fare but tearing up return ticket)...so I guess we'll be mixing the best of both worlds.

And I understand what goes on with a tour, the 7 AM baggage outside the room 7:30 breakfast and 8 AM departure with a mid morning rest stop etc. But to me, it's still a wonderful way to see places where I don't speak the language and not have to worry each night as we approach a new city that my hotel reservation will not be there or trying to search for the hotel...and in many of the cities while there are evening optional dinners in some cases (dinner is included in others and I am sure they will not be gourmet dinners), if I so choose we're not afraid to wander around a bit ourselves.

So, there is not one single answer to any question of whether it is better to do it independently or whether to do it with an organized tour.

JMHO

Leely

jules,
"So they are educated, only badly? "

I think it means they went to Harvard but took all the wrong classes.

i am kane, have a wonderful trip.

kenderina

I totally agree with xyz123

i_am_kane

Thanks for all your replies.

Kenderina - good for you learning Italian. I've been taking lessons now for two years, and I know the going can be tough sometimes.

cmt - At least you can conjur up a conversation with your friends and family about their trips because they enjoyed themselves. Mine all clam up on me.

I've been to Italy twice. Both times for 2 weeks, and I am so looking forward to taking my children and grandchildren next year. I've tried to contain my excitement, so that they can expeience Italy their own way. Everyone is doing lots of research and planning (including Italian lessons).

I guess if I was honest with myself, I am fearing our upcoming trip to be a disappointment for my son's and their families. I so much want them to have a wonderful trip with us.

All my "negative" friends/family do complain about the long bus rides, and, as kenderina pointed out, the grueling schedule you must keep up with. It wouldn't work for me.

i_am_kane

xyz123, Your comments were well-thought out and very helpful. Perhaps some day I will find myself in a tour group for a country that I am totally unfamiliar with.