has anyone travelled with Italian Connection tours?
Aug 10th, 2001, 02:17 PM
#1
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has anyone travelled with Italian Connection tours?
I'm sorry this is my 3rd post on this subject... your feedback has been wonderful. I'm strongly considering a walking tour through Tuscany... although Country Walkers is my favorite, I'm still battling with the cost a little. I love that their Tuscan trip includes Sienna which isn't covered on Backroads, shorter trip. also, I found that the accommodations with CW were only 3 star in two of the locations. Backroads accommodations are much more upscale which would justify the cost a little more for me. <BR> <BR>anyway, I've continued searching and found a site for Italian Connection ... has anyone heard of it ... or travelled with them? please help me decide!!! <BR>
Jan 12th, 2003, 07:08 AM
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updating this topic in case anyone searches it:<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...earchText=tour
Jan 18th, 2003, 07:32 AM
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I've travelled with Country Walkers in Tuscany (the Tuscan Miracle) and loved the trip. Accommodations were great as was the quality of the guides and the wonderful food choices. I'm travelling with them again this spring to "Tuscany by the Sea" (aka the Maremma), which is expensive but they have discounts if you've travelled before and also if you book early. I've also travelled with ATG Oxford, which was not nearly as nice.<BR><BR>Good luck/M
Jan 18th, 2003, 08:32 AM
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-<BR>Michelle,<BR>Don't have any experience, but by their website they sure do look intriguing ~ http://www.italian-connection.com/ ~<BR>Would love to hear any personal feedback on this company.
Jan 18th, 2003, 11:13 AM
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I know some people don't like to have to paste in urls to get to another thread, so I'll paste in what I wrote on the thread I treid to cite above.<BR><BR>Author: cmt ([email protected])<BR>Date: 01/06/2003, 09:38 am<BR>Message: I took one small group tour in Sicily in Novemeber 2002 with a company called Italian Connections. It was outstanding. It's a small company founded by and carefully run by an American (USA) who now lives in Italy. The offices are based in Canada. I was very impressed with the quality of the tour that I took, and I think because the owner is not rushing to expand too fast she maintains very careful control over all her tours and therefore I'd expect they would all be very intelligently planned and skillfully carried out. Itineraries are chosen very carefully, and they do go off the beaten track and include special experiences that normally you would not have on a package tour.<BR><BR>Prices are what I consider quite "high," but definitely NOT in the extremely expensive luxury price range like Butterfield and Robinson or Smithsonian, and considering what's included, the price is reasonable. <BR><BR>
Jan 18th, 2003, 11:21 AM
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P.S. I've also taken tours with several walking tour companies, including Country Walkers. I realize that with larger companies like country walkers, or companies that are growing too fast, the quality of the tours offered can vary quite a bit. The tour I took with country Walkers in Crete was by far the worst value of any tour I have taken. Although I had a very good time and loved Crete, I have a lot of serious criticisms of the tour and the guides. On the issue of value, the price of the Crete tour was only slightly less than other CW tours. However, we stayed part of the time in a place where the rooms were about $16 for a double and each of us got just one towel (a tiny hand towel), water was not hot, and toilet couldn't be flushed. The most expensive hotel room was about $40 a night. I really didn't mind any of these places, but I do think that if we were staying in very inexpensive places and generally eating nice but very inexpensive meals, the compmnay's low ocerhead should have resulted in a more "budget" level price for the tour. But it didn't.
Jan 18th, 2003, 12:34 PM
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I have not yet gone with Wilderness Travel, but I've twice (once immediately post-9/11, the other for other reasons) cancelled my Tuscany trip with them. They couldn't have been nicer both times. I am now scheduled to go in May. My best friends are on a Wilderness Travel trip right now to Ethiopia, and their email tells me it's great and a terriifc group, which I've found on all my hiking trips. I did a Backroads trip to New Mexico about five years ago, before they got so expensive. It seems Wilderness Travel offers longer trips for about the same price as Backroads. The level of luxury may be slightly lower, although I've checked, and on some trips they stay at some of the same places. With BR, there is a very fancy dinner every night, which actually felt like too much to me after a while.
