karrie

We are planning a tour of venice, Rome and Florence for next spring.Has anyone had any experience with Globus, Trafalgar or insight Tours? I would appreciate any pros and cons. <BR>Thanks, Karrie

Anita

Karrie, <BR> <BR>A few years ago I took the Globus Mosaic Italy tour and I had a great time. The tour director was wonderful and the hotels were better than I expected. I always travel solo, so I always get the worst rooms. This year I tried to book their Italy at Leisure tour and they were totally booke up I booked their Paris and Provence tour. When you take their more leisurely tours you usually stay at better hotels, if that is one of your concerns. I was not thrilled with their included dinners. They were very bland and had no taste. I did take two optional dinners and they were fine. This time I do NOT plan to take their included dinners and am going to venture out on my own. All in all, I thought they ran a well-run tour. If you have any specific questions, please e-mail me.

Lisa

Hi Karrie, <BR>I took a Globus tour "Spectacular Spain". It was very well run, lovely hotels (although the hotels are hardly ever in the heart of where you would want to be, like most tours) but some were. Included diners were not great in spain. But I loved the tour enough that we booked Globus again for our Italian treasures trip this November. The class of people were delightful, all went smoothly. Don't forget to see how many inside visits of monuments, churches and so forth are included. A friend looked at my brochure and felt that Globus had much more inside visits than others. I must say I would highly recommend Globus. For our Italian visit we will arrive in Rome 4 days earlier. Once you start reading about Rome one day is no where near enough. Globus wanted 100 dollars per person for the extra nights stay, which was not in the historic district. We booked our own at the Cesari between the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon and will transfer to the Globus hotel on the day the tour starts. Instead of paying 400 dollars a night we are paying around 250.00 for a quad room with four beds. We will be able to visit the major sites by foot. Good luck and have a great visit.

Dianne

I agree, Globus does seem to include more museum visits, etc. than Trafalgar. I tried to book Globus' tour of Rome, Florence, and Venice last January for mid-March and it was sold out. I ended up with Trafalgar and while I loved Italy, I wouldn't go with Trafalgar again. Too many hotel changes (to poor locations) and too many optional excursions. It is also hard to get pre-tour information from their offices. I've found it much easier dealing with Globus.

mari

Recently took the Globus tour to Italy and Sicily. We covered 2000 miles and visited most of the highlights of Italy and Sicily. My biggest complaint was the included dinners. They were cheap and not representative of the cuisine of Italy. Hotels were out of the way which made walking unlikely. Schedule was very rushed not allowing time to shop for souvenirs or browesing. Overall, I believe we saw most of Italy at a reasonable price in a reasonable timeframe.

Debbie

I just got back from Europe with trafalgar tours and loved it. The hotels were top rate hotels and the tour guide was great. They did offer many extra side tours at extra cost, but that was up to you to purchase them. I did the 6 country tour in europe. I went through triple A(AAA) <BR>

Karen

We took a Globus tour last year to Spain, Portugal and Morrocco. It was wonderful. The tour guide and bus driver were excellent. The hotels were are posted I went on the web for each hotel and was not disappointed when I saw them. Excellent tour company. The included dinners could have been better. If you take the Globus tour email me and I will give you an agency that can give you an 8% discount on your land package.

Harold

I hope I am not out of line, but I would encourage you not to take a escorted tour. You will get mediocre hotels, poor food and poor tour guides. With a little planning you can do better

Carmen

We returned from the Globus Thames to the Tiber tour two weeks ago. It was an amazing trip, and I would recommend Globus to anyone. <BR> <BR>If you like waiting in long lines and dragging your own luggage everywhere, and trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B when your French isn't that good, then by all means, plan your own trip. <BR> <BR>If you want to see and do a LOT, in a relatively short amount of time, then go with a tour. You have to do what works best for you. <BR> <BR>For us, the Globus tour was excellent. We had an excellent tour guide, an incredible driver, and an awesome itinerary. <BR> <BR>Please feel free to send me email if I can answer any other questions, or check out our pictures from the trip! <BR>http://www.carmzav.com

Philip

I have taken Globus for a few tours and I think that overall the tour was excellent. <BR> <BR>I've always had very knowledgeable guides. For the most part the people on the tour were nice people. <BR> <BR>The drawbacks were that some of the hotels were out in the middle of nowhere and the food was mediocre. But I highly recommend it just for the fact that you can see so much in a brief amount of time, you can sometimes go ahead of other people waiting in line and the tour company does all your planning so that you just sit back and enjoy it all.