Has anyone ever booked a Tour Package. Are the prices better than doing it all online when booking yourself?

Anyone have a company they would recommend? Looking to go to Italy the first week of September or October for 7-9 days. Thank you in advance to your answers.

Yes, I've booked tours. The price was always the same if I called or booked on line. I always called as I then had the opportunity to ask questions.

There are lots of tour companies. The one you choose would depend on where you want to go and price. There are not many tours with a duration of 9 days (that is 1 weeks in tour language as they count the day you fly out and the day you fly back).

It's best if you find a tour that meets your needs and then come back and post to see if anyone has taken the specific tour/tour company.

Taulk
Insight
Abercrombie & Kent
Collette

Hard question to answer. I personally can book a trip a cheap myself but we have been to Europe a dozen times and it is easy for us to do. A tour will always be more expensive because you are paying people to do you planning and schedule and they have to make a profit. I call that paying for convenience. And they make all the decisions which some people like a lot. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. We have said that when we hit 80 or so we may like having someone else do all the planning. Until then we will continue to do our own.

I went on two tours with my Art Goes to School group. I do not think I could have done the same tour by myself for any cheaper.

Don't go with the group we used - it was EF Tours, which is actually considered a student tour package, although adults can book their tours as well. I loved each trip - I thought the itineraries were really good, but the hotels were not centrally located.

We used Gate 1 Travel for our first trip to Italy. We did the Venice, Florence and Rome combination and were delighted with everything about the tour. Their services were quite good and we had absolutely no complaints with the agenda, accommodations or tour guides. Having everything organized for us made it considerably easier than fending for ourselves, including not having to wait in any entry lines. You'll then be comfortable enough to make any subsequent trips on your own as we do now.

Most Fodorites will tell you to do it yourself, but I have no issue with taking a guided tour your first time there.

I think the first thing to consider when looking at tours, is how much moving around are you doing. For a short trip, say a week, 2 places would be enough, or just 1 (in your case Rome) with day trips. You don;t want to spend much of your time on a bus. Does your 7-9 days include travel days, because you have to figure loosing a day to flying.

Also an important thing to research is the hotel locations and what meals are included. Frequently hotels are not central, hence appearing cheaper, but much less convenient. Most hotels include breakfast with or without a tour. Also beware if dinners are included. Tours generally take you to touristy restaurants, and in a place like Italy, where there is so many good little places to eat, it would be a real shame to miss out on very memorable meals.

You get what you pay for...no more, no less. Are tours better? Sometimes. Are tours worse? Sometimes. It depends.

If you take a first class tour and pay top dollar, you will probably have more room on the coach (assuming it's a coach tour) the hotels will be more centrally located included meals will be better, more will be included but is it worth the extra money? Personal preferences come in. You may feel you have to be pampered at all times; in other cases your personal opinion might be the same as mine i.e. the hotel is a place to sleep for a night or two, as long as it is clean, I can make do.

The more moderate tours, as noted, the hotels in the burghs will probably not be centrally located. There will almost always be some sort of evening options offered, most likely optional on a moderately priced tour as opposed to included on a higher priced tour. Is it better? Well nobody forces you to do the optionals so you can opt out and do your own thing. The optionals are often dinner type tourist places. You can do the same things slightly cheaper but then you have to get there and back. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

What you almost always get on a travelling day is an early wake up call, early breakfast and on the coach by 0800. Do you enjoy that? OTOH when you arrive in each new burgh, no worry about finding the place, no worry about where to park the car (or taxi from the train station), the bus stops in front of the hotel, you get off, get your room key and they deliver your luggage. Convenient. Yes. In the morning when you leave, all you need do is put your luggage outside your door. Convenient. Yes but then again the porterage fee is included in what you pay anyway.

In many places, they give preference to tour groups (such as the Vatican Museum)...no long queues to wait on (but gotta get there early and wait for the place to open). Duriong a travel day, no choice as to where to eat...well I sholdn't say that. Sometime you visit some small out of the way town and are given time for lunch on your own. May or may not be a good thing. Other times, it's a stop on the motorway at a standard type service facility with all sorts of dining facilities available.

Really, when you get right down to it, a lot of it is personal preference. Tours besides seeing the sites of wherever your destination is can give you a chance to meet exciting new people from difference places in the English speakng world (or whatever your language is); tours can also give you an opportunity to meet the most boring stuffy people you mjight ever wish to meet either from across the street or across the world. You just can't control that, obviously.

I will say this, however. What I have found this year is that because of the economy, tour cmpanies have been forced pretty much to hold the price and even to offer discounts for early bookings. OTOH independent travel has gone up thanks or because of the rise in cost especially of gas.

Now I am sure I haven't been helpful.

For 7-9 days (is that 6-8 nights?) you should consider just going to Rome and possibly take a day trip or two (maybe Pompeii or Ostia Antiqua and/or Florence). A Rome trip can very easily and inexpensively be done on your own - you could use a bus tour for the day trip(s) or do those on your own as well.

A week +/- doesn't really allow time for much else.

Are you traveling alone? What is your home airport? I can give you a ballpark figure on overall costs for the above trip as well as separate pricing for some day trips.

Thank you for all the responses. We are planning on 2 days for travel....7 days for actual vacation-maybe 8 (9-10 days total). We will take a couple more days off at home ro recoup before heading back to work.

Our home airport is Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW code).

If you want to use a tour, and if you can find a travel agent who knows both the area that you're traveling to <i>and</i> the types of things that interest and appeal to you, that might work out well. In that scenario, the agent would be able to evaluate various tours and offer you the ones that seem best suited to you. The problem, of course, is identifying an agent who genuinely knows what he or she is talking about.

Don

james,

A week in Rome for two people:

$1000 RT airfare X 2 people = $2000
Basic studio apt or budget hotel for 7 nights = $1000-$1500
Basic meals (pizza, bar, groceries, etc.) = $700-$1400
Each day trip (transportation + admissions) = $100-$200
Train to/from airport + buses + taxis = $100
Tourist site admissions = $100

TOTAL $ for two people = $4000-$5500 depending on # of day trips and how much you are willing to go budget for lodging (shared bath? no AC? no elevator?) and meals.

I have not considered any actual restaurants but assume pizzarias, sandwiches, bars, cafes, etc. A "regular" restaurant type meal for two is easily $100-$200, especially at dinner. Generally speaking, apartments are cheaper, not only the cost of the sleeping but also the advantage of having breakfast and other meals in.