amyl5

Planning a trip to Italy and am overwhelmed with it all. Thinking a tour group might be the way to go for our first time in Europe, but worried that the tour group might not be the right fit age wise. Does anyone have suggestions on tour groups that cater more to the 30-50 year old age range? Definitely don't want a bunch of single 20 year olds or a group of mature 60-80 year olds. Not that there is anything wrong with the more mature traveler or the young traveler, just looking for a tour with similar aged people around. Thanks in advance.

PalenQ

I think rick Steves' tours may be better in that regard.

Christina

yeah, you might look at Rick Steves. I took a couple tours when I was early 30s, actually, that was back in the old days pre-internet and I was from a family that never traveled, so I never would have done it first time on my own. It worked out well and I really enjoyed it, actually. That company doesn't exist any more, unfortunately, it was very good (it was the company TWA used, if you remember them).
There was a wide age range on that trip, actually, although I suppose at least half were retiree age, but that was all. Nobody much in 20s, of course. There were actually some teens on it, going with their parents (single parents, way to do something together). The group wasn't super-huge, which is what I wanted, so I'm thinking it was maybe only a couple dozen.

BUT I'd say given my experience and what I observed, look out for these things:
1) cheaper tours tend to attract a wider variety of type of people on them. The tours I took were in the "budget" category (not rock bottom, of course, but they were targeted as the budget category of the tour company).
2) pick a tour that gives you a lot of free time, or at least options. I deliberately chose tours that had very few included meals, as I wanted to go out to restaurants on my own and in the locality. I think breakfasts were included, but other than that, only a couple dinners when we were in places that were kind of remote, actually, so it was convenient (ie, we stayed one night in a country inn in the Lake District). The tour did have some of these evenings out that included dinner and maybe some type of entertainment, and I did some, but those were optional, not mandatory.

So those are my tips for not getting tours solely for older wealthy retirees. Go for a more budget type tour and not one that includes everything in it. Mine was above the package level (which is only hotels and a couple transfers), but below the level of some I see that include all meals and all excursions in the tour and you have to do them (or at least pay for them).

Of course there are activity-based tours but those are a different story and I don't think you want those (ie, Sierra CLub type outings).

dreamon

I would look for a tour with a smaller group (e.g. no more than 14 people), where all hotels are centrally located and there is lots of free time. There are many available but perhaps start with looking at Intrepid, Explore, and Imaginative Traveller.

bvlenci

One of the advantages of a group tour is that all the logistics are taken care of for you. This can be especially useful for visiting out-of-the-way places, where planning how to get there and back can be complicated. This is also one of the disadvantages, though, because organized tours don't visit many out-of-the-way places. If you think you'd like to visit some little-known castles or abbeys, or a really non-touristy village, you'll be hard put to find an organized tour that includes such places.

There are several other disadvantages of most tours. They usually get on the road very early, so any thoughts of lazy mornings drinking cappuccinos in the piazza are are not going to be realized, unless you choose a tour that spends multiple days in one place, and (as Cristina suggests) have lots of free time.

Another disadvantage is that they are almost always, even the budget tours, much more expensive than doing it on your own.

If you're not 100% convinced you want a tour, I can assure you that it's not very difficult to do a self-guided tour, perhaps in addition to some organized day tours along the way.

You can organize your flights using www.expedia.com, skyscanner.net, or a similar travel site. It's a good idea to fly into one city and fly home from a different city, to avoid excessive travel during your trip. For instance, you could fly into Venice and home from Rome. On most travel websites, this is called a multi-city trip, instead of round trip. Pay attention to little inconveniences on the proposed itineraries, like departures at ungodly early hours, arrivals very late at night, and very long layovers. Sometimes these are the price you pay for a cheap ticket, but just be aware of what you're willing to put up with.

I use www.booking.com to choose my hotels in Italy; even though this is where I live, I find excellent lodgings at very convenient prices, better than what I can find by other means. In cities, I always specify "center city" in my search term, for instance, "Florence center city" instead of just "Florence". Staying out in the boondocks may sometimes save a little money, but usually local transportation is spotty there, and good restaurants scarce. You can specify the kind of lodging you want (hotel, B&B, apartment, etc.) You can also choose other filters, such as "air conditioning". When you've chosen all your filters, you can sort the list by price or by guest rating. I often sort by price and then go down the list until I find a high enough guest rating (not much below 8). I don't consider places with a very low number of ratings (places that have been rated by fewer than 20 people.) Many hotels offer a lower price if you choose to pay in advance with no possibility of free cancellation. I choose to pay more to be able to cancel up until a few days before the stay. I consider it a form of trip insurance.

When you've got your air tickets and hotels lined up, you can choose your transportation. For visits to major cities, and even many smaller cities, the train is the best way to go. The Italian high-speed trains travel at over 200 mph (333 km per hour), and are much faster than cars or buses (which is what organized tours use).Probably the best way to get tickets is to use www.trainline.eu which sells tickets for both the major train operators in Italy, at prices that are practically the same as those available directly from the companies. High speed trains have great discounts if you buy early (up to four months in advance), but the heavily discounted tickets can't be changed or canceled. If you're not sure of your travel dates, it's better to pay more for a "base" ticket, which can be changed or canceled free of charge up to the day of travel.

For travel to small villages or rural areas, it's often better to rent a car. Driving in Italy is not difficult, but fuel and tolls are very costly, almost all towns have restrictions on vehicles (sometimes hard to decipher, even for an Italian), and heavy fines, enforced by cameras, for any infraction. Plus the rental company will also add a hefty charge for helping the police find you. If you want to visit a rural area, it's often best to look for day tours from the city where you're staying.

Don't try to do too much. Your vacation will be a lot more enjoyable if you build in plenty of rest time, or time for spur-of-the-moment ideas, or for weather-related change of plans. In the major cities, resist the temptation to see all the famous sights, especially if your visit is short. For example, in Rome, the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, as well as the Colosseum are absolute nightmares of crowds in high season. If you'll only be in Rome for two days, I would choose one or the other and spend most of your time seeking out hidden gems and quiet spots. If you decide on the Colosseum, you can still at least visit St. Peter's Square. If you decide on the Sistine Chapel, you can still admire the Colosseum from the outside, which is maybe more beautiful than the inside.

amyl5

Great information! Thank you for taking the time to reply. Much appreciated!

KTtravel

A first trip to any new area of the world can be intimidating. If you are still considering trying to do this on your own, I recommend picking up a copy of Rick Steves' Italy tour book. He has lots of practical advice and recommendations for first time travelers. You can always come back here for suggestions and advice. When are you thinking of going and for how long? Do you have any "must see" locations in mind?

PalenQ

As bourbon says easy to arrange own hotels, flights and transportation by train (best for visiting cities mainly) - check out these sites for help planning a rail trip and booking own trains, often at a discount: www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Use bourbon's easy to use train booking site - www.trainline.eu - lowest prices possible. Now a tour is great if feel daunted by doing own as yes everything done for you and you have others to socialize with but you often face early reveilles (many tours try to advertise as many places as possible) and long days on a full bus - trains are superb and can be very cheap. But again taking a tour is fine too just you are more like a casual tourist carted around rather than being a traveler making own way - which is again very easy to do in Italy and you set your own itinerary.

historytraveler

Regarding Rick Steves tours. there are two options for a number of his tours.One is the usual fully guided tour and the other offers more freedom to explore on your own but provide room bookings and transportation along with a guide to help with anything that might come up a d suggestions. There is some socializing with other participants.A good compromise between the usual guided tours and independent travel.

suze

I'm not sure why you are feeling overwhelmed, so it's hard to address that part. But planning a single country trip to Europe, even your first time, is very easy. Unless you want the company of traveling in a group (there is never going to be a guarantee about ages on any organized tour)... there's no reason you couldn't plan it yourself

It doesn't have to be even as complicated or in depth as some of the good advice here. Buy a plane ticket into Rome and out of Venice (or the other way around), use the train to change cities, make hotel reservations in Rome, Florence, and Venice. That's really all you need to do. Buy a guidebook, read it on the plane ride over to figure out your daily itineraries.

PalenQ

Something that seems easy to veteran travelers may not to novices who may be worried about language issues (really none to worry about as many folks you meet as tourist in hotels, train stations, etc speak some English, often a lot) and just getting to their hotel from train stations (taxis always easy) so easy to say do it on your own but I think that for first-time tourists abroad a tour can be good and relieve worries but as suze and others say really easy to do on own. But OP wants info on tours in her OP so enough about going on own.

amyl5

I appreciate all the replies, thank you. The overwhelmed feeling comes from never having traveled out of the country before; which cities to choose (9 days of total travel time), where to stay, how to get around, etc. All the replies have given me pause to using a group tour guide. I definitely want a more laid back approach to this trip and not make it so structured, which I fear will be the case if I use a tour group company.
Can anyone suggest which three cities are a must visit in the 9 days we have? I'm leaning towards Rome, Florence, and Venice, but any recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for taking the time to reply.

suze

so enough about going on own - Since when are you in charge of the forum PalQ and what are YOUR suggestions?

Here's mine for tour groups, although no guarantee there might not be younger or older people on them:
Untour Italy - https://www.untours.com/italy
Rick Steves - https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy
Road Scholar - https://www.roadscholar.org/collections/italy/
Perillo Tours - https://www.perillotours.com/italy/escorted-tours

PalenQ

Yes land in Venice - stay 3 nights- take train to Florence in a few hours - 2 nights and Rome - 4 nights. Rather rushed be nice if could wrangle a few extra days and many will say just do two cities but for a taste three would be OK - take trains and easy to book them yourselves as mentioned above. All those cities are very walkable - especially Florence and Venice - Rome bigger but easy to use metro and you can always get guided tours around any of them but again get a good guidebook and set your own pace. Fly out of Rome.

suze

Can anyone suggest which three cities are a must visit in the 9 days we have? I'm leaning towards Rome, Florence, and Venice,

Yes, that works... it's pretty much the classic "Big 3" many first timers to Italy do.

I'd split it 4-5 days Rome (allowing to get over jet lag), train to Florence for 1-2 days, then train to Venice for the last 2-3 days. I choose these because all three have so much to see and do and they are easily connected using the train. No car rental needed for this itinerary.

PalenQ

Not sure why but repeatedly folks who know suggest flying into Venice instead of out of it - something to do with plane times but check each and see but flying 'open jaw' - into one city and out of another negates backtracking which OP does not have time for. (suze that comment was not meant to you - my apologies if seemed so - I too advised above to go on own and did recommend Rick Steves tours as a possible for what OP wanted.)

suze

Some people don't like leaving from Venice because the flights are very very early in the morning (is the reason I've seen mentioned, PalQ).

But for me I'd rather do the busier cities first (Rome, Florence) and leave Venice as "dessert" at the end of the trip.

tuscanlifeedit

In your latest post, you mention "we." If you are traveling with someone, you can most definitely easily plan a self-guided tour, and it will be much less expensive that paying for two people on an arranged tour.

Don't know if money is an object to you, but it always is to me.

People here are extremely helpful and will give all the advice and websites you need.

Rome, Florence and Venice are quite popular for first time visitors to Italy.

dreamon

I agree that Rome/Florence/Venice is a great introduction to Italy. They are each very different and offer much to the visitor. Personally I would split the time evenly between them (i.e. 3 nights each if you have 9 nights available). If, however, you prefer to stay in only two places (Rome and Venice), it is possible to take an early train to Florence, store your luggage at the train station and take a late train to Venice. If not familiar with Venice though, I would plan to arrive there in daylight.

If you prefer places more off the beaten path, there are a zillion alternatives. Plenty of advice available if that's the case.

In case you're not aware, you should book a multi-city flight ticket (arriving one city, departing another), not two one way tickets (which will generally be more expensive).

janisj

Whoa -- you say 9 days 'total travel time'. That will only net you 6.5 days on-the-ground. The first day is spent flying to Europe overnight. The last day is spent flying home. Your arrival day will net maybe half a usable day and that may be jet lagged.

So 6 really usable days -- which is not enough for three cities - it will eat up anoth half a day each time you move from one city to another. So pick ONE city or at most two. If you do decide on two cities - fly in to one and home from the other because otherwise you'd lose another night/morning traveling back to the first city before flying home. So Just Rome, or just Venice, or just Florence . . . or any two of the above. but 6--ish days is not enough for three.