First Trip to Italy for 2 Senior Citizens
 

My husband and I would love to visit Italy. We are young at heart senior citizens who can do just a limited amount of walking. Do you have any recommendations as to travel groups/companies that would handle the details of a trip for us?

You'll find that most people here are independent travelers but some have taken the occasional tour.

You would need to give a bit more information such as budget, amount of time, are you interested in cities, countryside.

There are lots of tour companies at all different prices, offering many different options. Once you have a list of companies please look at their brochures carefully to see what the extras are, where the hotels are located, how many nights in each hotel (this is important as some tours have you moving every day or every other day).

One company that friends have taken and love is Elder Hostel. They are educational tours where you have professors giving lectures and then seeing the sights so you're not on the move all the time. Here is their web site so you can look on line and order a brochure or call and ask questions. I did a one-day NYC tour of MOMA with them last year and it was an excellent tour. We had 2 lecture in a room plus a gallery tour and a delicious lunch.

Another company I have used twice and think highly of is Grand Circle Travel. Friends also have used them and liked their trips. They are a moderately-priced group and the average age is in the 70s. They do leisurely tours where you don't move around much from hotel to hotel. I really liked this aspect since who wants to keep packing and unpacking. The guides on both trips were very knowledgeable and they also use local guides for special sights. One of the things that is included is the home hosted meal (usually dinner) where you break into small groups (about 10 people) and have dinner in a local home eating local foods. You get to understand a bit more about the country and customs and have a wonderful time. Although the people are getting paid to give the group a meal, Grand Circle chooses families who definitely enjoy people and aren't doing this solely for the money.

Here's a list of tour companies I would recommend in addition to the above, based on their reputations and advice of friends.

Tauck
Collette
Abercrombie & Kent (very expensive)

Good luck with your tour choice and your trip!

Sorry - I was so busy typing that I forgot the links to the web sites. You can click on the addresses and go directly to the sites.

Elderhostel:

http://www.elderhostel.org/

Grand Circle Travel:

http://www.gct.com/gcc/general/

My 86-year-old mother has been on a few Tauck Tours and enjoyed them. However, although the groups are smallish and the hotels are nice, the pace can be tough. No time to recover from jet lag and not much down time anywhere.

I would look for a tour that doesn't try to cover too much geography and includes some time outside the big cities. Also, I recommend against going to Italy between mid-June and mid-September. (Too hot and too crowded.) Earlier or later would be even better.

Another option is to book the hotels and transportation yourself and then book tours in each place for the things you want to see at the pace you can handle. You can get lots of good info here about these types tours.

Another possibility is Untours, which rent you an apartment and offer optional tours from the town where you stay, and a couple of "meet the locals" opportunities.

Elderhostel posts a difficulty degree for each tour, I think 1 to 5, 1 like a painting class, 5 would be an all-day bike tour.

European tours all start from 3, check if this will work for you. They have a detailed description of each degree of difficulty.

My friend is 78 and she and I go to Europe, but at her pace. We stay in a city and walk or ride the public transportation and take tours if we feel like it. You can fly into Rome and out of Venice and take the train from Rome to Florence, Florence to Venice, or any other options, depending where you have to fly out of in the states. The last trip to Paris, she had a bad back and walked around with an ice pack on her back, but we had a wonderful time. I think this is better than a tour, we took a tour to Russia and my other friend had a bad foot. They told us she could skip some of the day tours, but it never seemed to work out and she took lots of pain pills. They always drop you off in one spot and pick you up in another and this means you have to walk the tour schedule. Don't stay at home, you can get lots of advice here and you will have a great time.

Elderhostel is a great group. But their tours are really not made for people with limited mobility; rather most are quite active.

A couple of years ago my husband and I did an Elderhostel tour in Tuscany, based in Siena. There were several people in our group -- my husband included -- with limited walking ability. There was no problem; our brilliant guide was able to make arrangements for the limited walkers to have transportation to wherever they needed to be, and the rest of us walked/trotted/jogged/whatever, as we wished. As FainaAgain has noted, the Elderhostel catalog indicates the degree of difficulty for each of their trips.

I can't say enough good things about Elderhostel. They seem to attract an interested, enthusiastic group of travelers. There never seem to be any of those cranky, high-maintenance tourists you get on some group tours.

I ditto all the good things said about Elderhostels. My husband and I almost always rent a car and drive around Europe independently. (we're "alert and young at heart" early 70's) /
We have,however,taken two Elderhostels BOTH in Italy. One was in Sorrento (wonderful!!!) and one in Tuscany (Siena, very nice). The Italian Eldehostels are run VERY well.... Four star hotels, good food, always a wonderful group of people, good lectures , and great day trips! )
I had a knee which was badly in need of replacement in Sorrento..but nevertheless did fine (with moderation a couple of times)
I don't think you would be disappointed with Elderhostel...especially in gorgeous, intersting Italy.

We have taken several tours with Grand Circle Travel, and they do an excellent job with more leisurely trips. We tend to skip most of their optionals in order to have lots of time to do things on our own. They use first class hotels that are usually very central. Most people who travel with them are also young at heart senior citizens. Grand Circle offers excellent value for your money also. But for us, the most important part of a tour is the tour director, and this is where Grand Circle (and their sister company OAT) excel. All of our tour directors have been absolutely fantastic.
If you have any questions about traveling with Grand Circle, feel free to email me at: [email protected].

Hi 47,

Italy is very easy to do on your own.

How many nights will you have?

((I))

Hi travel472:

The first time we went to Italy, we used a travel agent to make our flight reservation, hotels, and train reservations from city to city. We are independent travelers, but it was nice not having to worry the first time about all the reservations. Then you can use public transporation when you get to the cities or walk. You
can also take tours of different sites, if you like, when you get there.

Next time I made all the reservations. So you might want to call a travel agent in your town.

Just another thought, be sure and have a hotel close to the city center and close to site etc. you want to see. We had a hotel far from the center when we were in Rome and it was ALOT of extra walking.

I'm with Ira. Italy is easy and as a solo traveler in my 60's I can attest that it is wonderful to go at your own pace, not someone else's. I love traveling with my daughters and my friends but never get worn out when I travel with just Sally!

Let us help you plan....

sal

Before anybody else takes time and effort on this thread, have you noticed that the original poster, travel472, posted on 9/18 - and HAS NOT RETURNED SINCE.

Either she has taken notes and not bothered to acknowledge your good help, or she's woolgathering and completely forgot she even posted.

So -- lay off unless she comes back!

travelerjan - this information could be helpful to others, perhaps someone searching for info on Elderhostel, etc.

I find that many posters do not return to the threads they started to give any sort of acknowledgement. It doesn't mean the information goes unused by others.

To all who took the time to answer my request: First, my apologies for not getting back to you sooner but circumstances here were such that I was unable to. However, all is well and back on track now.
Thank you so much for your information on a much considered trip to Italy. We have decided to head to Hawaii this winter for three months and put our Italy trip on hold for the time being. However, it will be a definite trip for us in the future, to be sure. I will take the time to look into the suggestions and advice all of you have been kind enough to share.
Sincere thanks once again, one and all.