Am planning a trip to Italy in early summer with my 16 yr old daughter. Is an escorted trip the best way to go? If so, recommendations please. Hoping to go for 14 days.

The answer depends on how comfortable you are with travel on your own and, in large part, on your itinerary. The trains in Italy are great and if you are able to do plenty of research before you go and perhaps take advantage of tours of specific sights while there, independent travel is more rewarding in my experience.

It probably is the commonest, and leaves many people with less anxiety on their first trip to Europe. The average age of the participants may well be old enough to be a grandparent to a sixteen year old (and there is nothing wrong with that age).

Many of "us" believe that the point of this message board is to provide you the guidance, confidence and tips to plan it all yourself.

If you mean a trip before July 1, there is a LOT to do to get this trip planning underway (like.. today is a good day to get busy!) unless saving money is not all that important to you. Taking the advice of folks here does not guarantee the lowest price, no matter when you start (few of "us" are backpack'n'hostel style travelers) - - but it can usually mean a better VALUE for whatever you choose to spend.

Best wishes,

Rex

I would say NO to the escorted trip. I've been on two tours of Europe with my church choir...these people are my friends and we had lots in common but it still drove me nuts to be in a bus with them all the time. I think your 16 year old may have different interests than the average group.

Someone suggested this and I think it is good advice. The two of you should sit down over the weekend and focus on what you really want to see and do. What excites you? Art? Museums? History? If so, what era? Architecture? Churches/religious sites? Food? Fashion/shopping? Scenery? Mountains? The sea? The cities? The countryside?

This is your trip. There is nothing you "have" to see or "have" to do, except what you two come up with.

I prefer independent travel because I can choose where I go, how long I stay in each place, and what I see. I'd rather be walking around a city and stopping in cafes than riding in a bus. I would think a 16 year old would prefer independent travel than going with a group of older folks and spending lots of time on busses.

If you don't have any opinions on what you want to see in Italy and have no interest in planning the trip then an escorted tour is the way to go.

Either way, if you're going in early summer than you'd better get moving on this trip. It's mid April and hotels will be getting booked up and inexpensive air fares will have sold out.

If you plan yourself then the 3 major cities are where you begin (Rome, Florence, Venice). My 14 year old niece loved Venice. You can travel between the cities by train quite easily and you can take day trips from each city if you don't want to spend all your time in cities.

If your choice is an escorted tour there are quite a few to choose from. Which company you choose depends on your budget.

You'll get more recommendations if you specify your budget and interests.

tennisbummum:
depends on a lot. Do you speak Italian, do you have the time to intensely preplan a trip on rather short notice? If not, and this is your first trip to Italy, spare yourself the anxiety and go on an escorted trip. Rick Steves has 'smallish' type tours
check www.ricksteves.com.
OR, a nice alternative is Idyll Untours out of Media, Pennsylvania. They book a vacation flat in a small town in your country of choice, can assist with plane arrrangements if you wish, and help you get either a trainpass OR rental car (depends on which country). Their representatives meet you at the apartment, guide you to the town, and are available in each town for questions. There is a basic orientation on the second day, and reams of info is given before the actual trip to acquaint you with area sights and timely activiites/festivals, etc. Only thing is, its a Wed to Wed apartment rental (two weeks), so this limits your travel date flexibility a bit. Check out their site at www.unours.com
I have travelled with them twice to Germany and twice to Switzerland (after both escorted trips and independent travel)--I find it a lovely alternative.
I have stayed in vacation apartments which I arrange by internet ever since.

OOpps! The site is www.untours.com !

My wife and I are about to take our second trip to Italy using a tour company. We felt we would get more for our dollar and less stress for the first trip. On this trip we are using the same company and would recommend it to anyone interested. If you want the name reply with your e-mail and I'll gladly forward it, don't want to seem like a shill for them. You get to avoid many of the lines at the various sites along the way and there is always some-one to go to in an emergency. Yes you will be led around and will have to be on a schedule but your bus will not be loaded with just one theme oriented group. The people on our trip were from all over this country plus 3 Australians. Age varied from teens to us more mature types. If you don't wish to do something included in your deal, tell the guide and then go enjoy yourselves...that is your only reason to be there anyway.

We do plan to change our way of doing things on our next trip, but the experience of our first trip is the reason we are doing this trip with the same company.

I'm taking my 16 year old son and 14 year old daughter to Italy in a couple of weeks. When I first decided to take them to Europe, I assumed a tour was the way to go, but the more I thought of my son who likes to spend hours at museums, my daughter who wants to shop, I realized being confined to the timing of a bus tour was just not going to be the best experience for them.

However, I've been planning this trip for three years, started the nitty gritty a year ago, I'd be a bit nervous about planning on my own this summer. but I'm a planner.

Joelle

It would be easier to answer this in a useful manner if we knew more about your concerns, if there are any, and what your interests are.
I am sorry but I think that the other some of "us" feel one of other purposes of this board is to help you make an informed decision about the mode of travel. To that end, you say you are "planning a trip" but you don;t tell us anything about those plans that might help us determine whether or not a non-independent travel experience is the right one for you.
I can go on and on about MY OWN experiences till the cows come home but without any idea if those might relate to you, what good is that?????
YOUR return comments would be appreciated.

Although I have now become a fan of independent travel I still think for a first visit to Italy a tour is a good idea. On my first visit to Italy I wanted to see the major sites so I went on a 12 day trip that covered most of the "must sees". It was hurried sometimes, there was quite a bit of time on the bus (good for sleeping), but at the end I felt I had seen most of the major sites and know where I wanted to go next time at a more relaxed pace. I would not have wanted to covef that much ground on my own via the trains on my first visit. Also I think traveling with a teen on tour is not a bad idea - there will be some structure so sleeping late every morning will not be an option. I get along very well and often travel with my two daughters (we actually used to all go on school tours)but sometimes it helps to have another adult and a schedule to help provide some of the plans for the day. My suggestion - take the tour this time, next time go on your on to the Amalfi Coast! SueC1

If you want to do a tour company I would recommend a quality student tour company such as acis or cha instead of a regular tour company that will be mostly older people. This will let your daughter do things with other students/teens. Most of the student tour companies require you sign up and pay 90 days in advance. I find there is usually 1/3 adults to 2/3 teens. I don't recommend the budget student tour companies such as EF or Explorica.

Hi bum,

We really need more data.

Especially, how many days?

My children hated a thought of joining an organized group at the same age as your daughter. But I have boys, with the girls it may be different. Talk it over with your daughter, maybe spending a day on a city tour and the rest on your own, or hiring a guide would be a better option? Or a shorter tour, if you can find one, 1 week with a tour, 1 on your own?

To Tennisbummum, good luck with your decision. I had the same decision to make for our family's first tour to Italy. A couple months ago, I started out thinking we would take a fully escorted tour for our first time. Then, the more I went on travel message boards and talked to other travellers, I decided to either do it on our own or else take a more independent type of tour, such as Itailiatours Independent packages, which are NOT fully escorted...

Then I finally decided we would go completely on our own, and I'm really glad about that decision. However, I have been working practically day and night on the details fo the trip for a couple months...Wow, I just looked it up and I bought our plane tickets in January, so I've been working on this trip for 3 months!

But I have also learned a lot about Italy and the trip will mean more, and we can do what we want, I have planned a trip tailor-made just for us.

HOWEVER, I feel confident in going on our own because I have my whole family along, including my husband and 21-year-old son. But my friend, Ellen, and I are planning to go to France someday, just the two of us, and when we do that, we will take a 1st class fully-escorted Tauck tour, because with just the 2 of us and no "family man" along, neither of us is feeling quite so adventurous.

So the answer depends on how much time you have to plan the trip, how much time you want to spend on it, how adventurous you are, etc. Rick Steve's tours sound wonderful but I wouldn't be able to keep up with the amount of walking as I'm out of shape. There is also Untours, which sounds interesting to me. I think somebody else mentioned it.

There's no wrong answer. As long as you research your choices well, you'll have a good time!

I've never been on an escorted trip anywhere, but I began to see the usefulness of them when I was informally escorting a small group around Rome last October. You can do a lot on your own, but there's also a lot you might miss without local expertise (I have lived in Italy since 1991, and speak the language well). For example, many restaurants in Rome provide translated (well, sort of) menus, but don't have translations for the daily or seasonal specials - which are often the best thing on the menu! Without me, these ladies would have missed out on funghi porcini (wild mushrooms), because they wouldn't have known what they were. And that would have been a pity - they LOVED the porcini and kept ordering them at every subsequent opportunity.

Of course, if you're willing to try things without knowing what they are, you don't need anyone to translate for you. <grin>


best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

http://www.straughan.com

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Am looking everything over & researching as much as I can in the short time I have left. Will look at the tours recommended. Maxnth946: my e-mail is [email protected], so please let me know the tour operator you mentioned.