Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Hints/Recommendations - Private Tour Bookings..Cruise/Land Tours

The main reason to write this is share our experience of private bookings for transfer services, hotels, and touring.
On May 21, 2006, we got back from our dream Mediterranean tour/cruise. We booked our own air and pre/post cruise as well as some private tours at our ports of call. Our first stop was Rome for land tours from Sunday, April 30 to Thur, May 4. We boarded the Grand Princess ship in Civitavecchia, outside of Rome on May 4. Subsequent stops took us to Naples, Italy; Santorini, Greece; Rhodes, Greece; Kusadasi, Turkey; Mykonos, Greece; Athens, Greece; Katakolon, Greece; Corfu, Greece; Dubrovnik, Croatia; and Venice, Italy on May 15/16. On May 16, we rode the train from Venice to Florence where we spent till Sat, May 20. On May 20, we rode the train back to Rome to spend the rest of that day and night so that we could fly back to the states from Rome on Sunday, May 21.
We booked all of our guides through the Internet based on either Internet postings or personal recommendations. We would have no hesitation in using everyone we write about here again. The first was Roma Shuttle Service (www.romashuttle.com). We used their services for all four of our transfer needs. They were prompt and their drivers were courteous.
Our Hotel Duca d' Alba (www.hotelducadalba.com) was centrally located a few minutes walk to the Coliseum. The cost was 165E/night including a nice buffet breakfast. The staff was very helpful from recommending restaurants to calling a taxi.
The first tour service we used in Rome was Icon Tours (www.icontours.com). Sunday afternoon was Icon’s public Ancient City Tour (Forum, Coliseum, etc) with only 8 of us in the group. Evan was very personable and knew the area very well. Monday morning we used Josie from Icon for a private tour of the Catacombs.
Tuesday afternoon we met up with a world-renown expert and book writer on the Vatican for our private tour of the museum and The Vatican. Enrico Bruschini ([email protected]) was worth every penny we paid him when he was able to take the four us close to the front of the line more than three hours long. His knowledge and enthusiasm for the Vatican showed through in the four hours he spent with us. He even autographed his book for us.
The rest of the Rome visit was exploring on our own with one afternoon taking the Yellow Bus (Christian Tour) around the city even though our first thought was to take the Red Bus around. (But that's another story, LOL). It turned out OK in the end.
Now onto the ship where our first stop was Naples Italy. There, waiting for us with our name on a board was Gennaro from Sorrento Limo (www.SorrentoLimo.com). He took us on a scenic drive along the Amalfi Coast stopping at several little towns and photo moments. Gennero selected a nice local restaurant for us to have lunch with a great view. We then went to Pompeii where we had prearranged with Gennaro to have private guide for us.
We were on our own in Santorini, Greece as there were five of us for the cruise and the vehicles on the small islands do not accommodate for five. We found just walking around the island and getting the feel of the place satisfying.
Next stop is Rhodes, Greece where we ended up taking a ship excursion to Lindo Acropolis because of the size of our group.
Tues, May 9 brings us to Kusadasi, Turkey. We were met by Sammy's Travel (www.sammystravel.com) for our tour of Ephesus, Virgin Mary House, St John, and Archeological Museum. Lunch was local cuisine with a great setting. We then had an opportunity to visit a Turkish rug factory and to see how these rugs were hand woven. This was a very enjoyable outing and our guide was very personable, knowledgeable and spoke very good English. As was the case with previous private tours, we had a nice big air-conditioned van and were not stuck in a bus with 40 other people.
May 11 In Athens, I would recommend Dennis Kokkotos {www.greecetravel.com (tours link)}, [email protected] or [email protected] . We were picked up in a Mercedes Benz limousine and were escorted around the town in comfort and class. We also went to an out of the way local Greek restaurant and the food was great. Dennis took us all over town as we went to the Acropolis and many other sites around town. Unfortunately for us, we hit a day of demonstrations making traffic horrendous.
In Katakolon we went on a ship excursion that took us to the site of the Ancient Olympics.
Corfu, Greece was another ship excursion that took us to Paleokastrista and Corfu Town.
Dubrovnik, Croatia we explored on our own climbing and walking atop the old town wall. The views were wonderful. Then we explored the city within the walls.
We arrived on the ship to Venice early Mon afternoon May 15 and disembarked on Tues May 16. We decided to explore on our own with signage to the sites. Hint to those who wish to see the Doge's Secret Itineraries: Book/reserve in advance as we found out it is impossible to get in otherwise. We were upset as we were told we could sign up for this tour on site. Go to -- http://www.alata.it/eng/musei/musei.asp. We were able to see the rest of the Doge Palace w/o the Itineraries.
We used the baggage storage in the yellow building at the pier for 3E/bag. It was well worth it as we spent Tues morning in Venice before we embarked on our afternoon train ride to Florence. The transfer service in Venice that picked us up at the port terminal to take us to the train station was Limousine and Driver (www.limousineandriver.com).
Our Florence hotel was Hotel Bellettini (www.hotelbellettini.com); again centrally located and reasonably priced at 140E including breakfast. On Wed, May 17 we were picked up at our hotel by Rome in Limo (www.romeinlimo.com) for our private 1/2day outing to Pisa. On the way back we asked to be dropped off at Boboli Gardens where we took a taxi back to our hotel. Thur, we were picked up by Luca Garrapa from Hills and Roads (www.hillsandroads.com) for our full day adventure into Tuscany. We stopped at all sorts of small medieval villages and castles that are not often frequented by tourists. Lunch was as such a place and helped make for a long but enjoyable day in Chianti country.
We did take the time to travel the Red Bus around Florence. It offers two different routes for the same price. To our misfortune, there was a strike that afternoon making our ride shorter than expected.
Back to Rome on Sat May 20 via train. For that afternoon we were lucky enough have received confirmation for the Vatican Scavi tour (http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm).

Well, that’s it. We flew back to the states on Sun May 21.