lexie

I found traveling through Italy on a tour to be a double-edged sword.It was initially great not having to do the planning or driving and givin the size of Italy, for our initial trip there, I felt Perillo tours gave us the most for our money--we saw a LOT of Italy--more than we could have done on our own not knowing the country the way we do now. BUT- you have to get up extremely early--buses usually leave by 7:00 a.m.--the food is usually horrific and after a while we felt we could just keel over .Started to feel "dragged around". What I wouldn't have given to have spent some time in the Tuscan counryside. By the time we hit Florence,we thought we'd die from exhaustion. Also a lot of the people on our tour were not friendly at all. Thank God we were also with our close friends.Spending a lot of time with cranky strangers does grate on your nerves after a while. I hope I didn't confuse you--looking back, I'd opt to see less of a country and go independently. It's much more relaxing and train travel in Europe is excellant. You've just got to plan ahead and map out an plan that you can at least try to stick to.Never had a problem with language traveling independently--Most Europeans are extremely helpful if you don't know their language. Bring along a small phrase book to make you feel more secure. Hope this helped--just try to relax and enjoy which ever way you choose--there's no right or wrong way.

Tallulah

I think that half the fun of going on a trip is the planning - as demonstrated on this site (though I suspect that some people take it a LITTLE too far!!).

I imagine that most of the places you are going to want to go to will be fairly big cities where everything will be well set up for English speaking visitors.

You've got loads of time to plan so make the most of it, you'll enjoy the trip so much more if you've planned it yourself.

I hope that you have a lovely time!

lexie

Tallulah has got it right--as I think back to the way we traveled on tours and the way we do it now, I've realized that I truly enjoy the experiance of researching and planning our trips. My husband does not care for that end of it so I plunged right in . It's really quite a thrill to see it all come together!

bob_brown

I have taken two canned tours. One was a "big bus" tour of Ireland. Hated it the insularity of the tour and the loss of independence. We never stayed long enough at the good places but seemed to have time for commercial stops at various retail facilities where the proprietor plied the guests with liquor.

Last year, we opted for a short, small group tour of Wales with Backroads Touring Co. It was a good experience.

There were only 6 of us and we got plenty of activity packed into a short time period. We started early and went late. All day was interesting.

We stayed at a B and B near Chepstow that was very good. (Brick House was the name.) It was on a working farm, and Jack the dog was there to greet the guests, and to eat.

I had rather do my own touring. But I don't adjust well to driving on the UK side of the road.

The tour was a great compromise and relieved me of the burden of driving.
And we had the services of a whiz of a driver, Hue Walton.

If you ever get lucky and have Hue as your driver, I think you will have a first class experience.

The only drawback to going with a small tour group is that the mandatory fixed costs of any tour are shared by fewer people. Result: higher per person rates. But, I never, ever felt like I did not get full value for my money.

In fact, I thought I got more for my money on the small tour as compared with the rolling cocoon of a big tour bus.