Okay, here’s the situation.

We are active seniors who enjoy travel. Our adult daughters have a good friend
who has her own travel agency. Their friend Patti,(TA owner) specializes in
arrangements for travel to the Caribbean, Mexico and the South Pacific for
cruises, weddings, etc. Patti has handled our travel to the Caribbean on
numerous occasions and we’ve always been happy. We have never questioned
prices.They seemed fair and reasonable.

Now we are considering a tour of Italy, probably via motorcoach or train. In
checking the web we see a lot of online agencies offering substantial discounts.
We’re talking about trip that will probably run around $10K. First of all, are the
discounters reliable and are the discounts legitimate? All things being equal we’d
rather have Patti handle our trip, but I honestly don’t think it’s within her realm of
expertise. I wouldn’t want to work with a discounter or other TA and then go to
Patti for the same trip. We want to be fair to all parties, including ourselves. We’d
like your opinions, including any TA’s out there.

I would definitely suggest using a travel agency with experience in Italy tours over a travel agent who may never have even visited the country.

There are several posts about organized tours (usually via bus) on Fodors. I suggest entering "Guided Tour Italy", "Italy Tour Company", "Italy Travel Agent", and similar terms into the search box. Perhaps perusing the threads of others in similar situations will help you know where to begin.

Good luck!

There is absolutely nothing worse than walking into a TA only to eventually get the feeling that you know more about the destination and the various options than THEY do.

Any TA you use can probably get access to the same discounts you've seen on the web and there is nothing wrong with including that sort of input in any conversation with a TA...remember, they keep saying they want you to work "with" them and that is certainly what you would be doing.

There's also nothing worse than working with someone you know absolutely nothing about and you end up questioning things from the beginning.

But this is BUSINESS and you cannot let sentiment get in the way of success. It is your money and your overall satisfaction which should remain uppermost.

I'd look around here, and elsewhere, before making that final decision and if you find someone or some agency in which you have more confidence than the indivdiual in question I would go with that.

peejay...Thats a LOT of money....Here's what I recommend...Go to www.perillotours.com...Thay are well regarded in the travel agent community according to my TA.They have a great website.Perhaps you could do some "shopping" in your town and see if there are any TA's around you who do a lot with Perillo.Maybe you could even email their info dept for a couple of recommendations of TA's in your neck of the wooods who do a lot of business with Perillo.Best of luck!

I would go to the Slow Travel site (www.slowtrav.com) and check out Travel Consultants. You'll find Sally Watkins there, a TA with a specialty in Italy.

No WAY I'd entrust a $10,000 trip to someone who specializes in Mexico and the Caribbean!

I'll put together a phenomenal trip for you, matching anything that any TA or tour operator can offer you, beating their price by $1500 (if you're in the 10k range). And I will drive you and carry your bags. Without asking anything in return. I'll pay the same thing as you.

It's that easy to put together a phenomenally good trip, at a very good value... when you know the places (and I don't claim to have the expertise of some people who have been to Italy 20 or 30 times; I have been 10 times)... and when you are working with that kind of budget.

Motorcoach? and have your bags down on the curb at 7 am?

You can do so much better than that.

What season do you have in mind?

Best wishes,

Rex Bickers, M.D.
Floyds Knobs, Indiana

Hi Pee,

I second checking out TAs at www.slowtrav.com.

The people there know Itlay very well.

Have you considered putting together your own itinerary?

I would highly suggest not doing this on your own. Go to an agent that specializes in the area you are going to. I was an agent for 8 years with an agency that sent their agents to different areas of the world to expierence everything instead of learning via updates, books and trial and error. I can personaly recommend www.gatewaytrav.com ask for Hank he's been there and has a vast amount of knowledge of the area. Good luck and happy traveling.

BobTheNavigator specialises in Italy doesn't he? He's a beautiful writer too.. he's written a lovely log over on slowtravel that I read and I'm not all that wild about Italy! I just like his writing. He conjurs pictures in my mind.

Another endorsement of the slowtrav.com resources and Sally Watkins in particular.

I also check the websites of the various tour companies such as Tauck for ideas. Don't forget your local public library for checking a variety of tour guides.

http://tauck.com/tours/europe-tours/italy-tours

I can only answer if one internet company is reliable. I always buy my tours (so far, Cosmos, Globus, Trafalgar) through Affordable Tours and get their 10% land discount. Yes, they are reliable and easy to reach by phone and e-mail.

First time I too questioned if the internet discount is legitimate. To find an answer was extremely easy - I called Cosmos 800 phone number and asked about Affordable tours. They happily said "yes, go for it!"

Also, if you are a member of AARP you can get an additional $50 off a tour, but not every tour company. Check AARP website.

I always buy my own air - seen too many mistakes made by travel agents.

I would explain to your daughters why you want to use an internet agent - 10% discount is a lot of money! And don't try to be fare to everybody, it's impossible! I don't think you've signed a life-long agreement with a travel agent.

Mille grazie Suzie !
Which article at slowtrav do you like? I do have several.

You might want to rethink the Perillo tours.I fly internationally for an airline that flys into several cities in Italy and have had numerous people on return flights voice their disappointment on their Perillo Tours.(Check out some previous threads about Italian Tours on Fodors?)Many have complained about hotels being too far away to the meals being stingy.I agree with the others above that you should use an Italian Tour specialist as most of the travel agents I know specialize in certain things such as cruises;Las Vegas;Orlando,etc. and really wouldn't be able to help you on Italy.Have fun-wish I had $10k to spend on a trip to Italy!!Think of the great wine you can enjoy-

I, too, think you should check out Tauck if you don't want to do any planning on your own.

ttt for peejay