2 adults and 1 8 yr old will be in Italy in June. Is there a budget tour anyone knows of that will provide hotels and transportation - we don't want to be bothered driving ourselves and lugging our baggage all over. I've seen Cosmos Tours and Budget Tours - does anyone know about these or any other companies that offer guided tours of Italy?

It seems not a lot of Fodorites are taking escorted/hosted tours. I post the same question a while back and did not get any reply also. Please if anyone of you took the Go-Ahead or Central Holiday Tours, your response/feedback/comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Karen, Try Rick Steves, he has a website, I think its ricksteves.com/ and has good,fairly priced tours so I've heard and read.

Hi -- last year took Globus tour of Italy (Rome/Florance/Venice) Would NOT RECOMMEND them -- the guide was beyond dictorial; the pushing of "optionals" was offensivly strong; hotels changed without any notice, etc. etc. etc. <BR>Did use Central Holidays for tour of Spain this past summer & they were great. Guide actually helped you to do your thing during the lots of free time!!! Optionals were mentioned but never pushed & only a "show up & pay" no prior commitment needed. Food was 100 times better than Italy. Good hotels in convenient locations, even if not in the medevial center. Suggest you check them out. By the way, Branagan (spelling??) is same as Globus, Trafalgar much the same, so do check the "family" company, don't assume different name, different organization, etc. etc. <BR> <BR> <BR>

I prefer independent travel myself, but a friend of mine used Central Holiday for Italy last year. She really loved the tour. Said the tour guide was good, the accomodations fine, and the food very good as well. I did think there was a little bit of the "pass by" mentality about the tour though. For example, in Rome they only saw the outside of the Colosseum. And in Florence they saw David, and the Duomo, but never went to the Uffizi. Whatever tour you choose, make sure you read the itinerary carefully to be sure you don't skip sights that are important to you.

Thank you all for feedbacks re Central Holiday. However, did anyone use Go-Ahead already? Please do not confuse it with Go-Today. Go-Ahead is basically new in the business and seems their price is very reasonable. But, I have not hear anyone mention, so please fellow Fodorites? Thanks.

Dear Karen: <BR> <BR>Do a search of this site for Go-Ahead Vacations (Italy). I've seen negative postings about them.