Perillo Tours - Bad Experience
 

Sicily - S. Italy - Rome/Sepotember, 2005

My dream trip was unsatisfactory due to uncomfortable hotel rooms (no hot water/no air-conditioning/flat,lumpy mattresses and pillows/noisy locations) and repetitive, mediocre meals --- all chosen by Perillo Tours. To that, add an overcrowded bus and no tour guides provided for us at some major Greek/Roman sites.

The hotel at Taormina (3 nights) had a train rumbling past every 25 minutes from approximately 6AM until after midnight --- just between the property and the sea. I had to change rooms 6 times and what added insult to injury was that I paid Perillo a single-supplement fee of over $600, in addition to the very high cost of the tour.

I wrote a letter to Steve Perillo expressing my legitimate complaints and received, in my opinion, a response from Customer Service that was dismissive and that offered no remedy for my inconvenience and disappointment.

If you wish to have details, please write and I will be happy to provide them to you.

Topping for lynnre. There is no need to post this more than once. It merely slipped onto the "nest page" of the Forum. If you look at the bottom of the left column where titles of threads are you'll see "next 50", and if you click on that, it will take you to the set of the next 50 posts. If you want to top one of your own posts, no law against it, just search by your own name on this forum, click on one of the posts that comes up, and then click on the post you wish to top so you can top it.

BC

That's too bad, I thoguht Perillo Tours were sort of on the upper end, but I don't really know for sure. Maybe they are more mid-level. I think there should always be tour guides for major sites, but if it's more a budget trip, hotel rooms are often not deluxe.

Your single supplement makes me wonder how long this trip was, though--looks like that might be right for about two weeks extra. That really is irrelevant to your complaints, though; if you are staying in a room by yourself, there will be extra costs over the price for one person sharing a double. That's just a fact and there's no getting around it.

Christina, on their website they advertise this tour as 12 nights, air from NY, Chicago and other cities included, starting from $3199 off-season. Not cheap!!

Looks like all breakfasts and dinners with wine included, nothing said about lunches.

I went with Perillo and had a different experience. But I also did my homework ahead of time. I was given a list of all the hotels and addresses, I looked them up online first so I knew what to expect. We never waited in line for anything, Rooms/hotels were great, We had breakfast, and dinner nightly. Soft drinks, water and wine were available everyday on the bus, We were responsible for lunches but that was no problem. we Always had tour guides for all major cities, Our buses were very nice, 2 seats per person (for at least 1/2 of the bus) -- I dont mean to be rude but if you had to change your room SIX times maybe it wasn't the rooms?

It sounds awful but maybe next time you'll be more inspired to travel by yourself or with a companion. I've personally never understood the appeal of a tour and am often irritated by giant group tours at major sights when i travel. take charge! you'll get way more out of it...but that's just MHO.

We were booked on a January tour of Italy with Perillo but the trip was cancelled due to low response. We have been rebooked on a March tour which disappoints us but we are still excited to go. Perillo has waived the extra cost of the trip and is also making some concessions on airfare changes. I have never travelled with them but they are trying to make things right. It worries me about all of the bad comments I have read here but then again there are lots of good stuff too. Is it that some people would b**** if you hung them with a new rope? Some people you can't please or are these real problems? I have a lot of money riding on this and I hope I am not disappointed.

GrannyPaige - I think it's reasonable to expect any hotel room to have hot water for showers and to be quiet enough to sleep.

lynnre - This is the second Perillo complaint I've seen about their Sicily tour recently. I think with tours, it depends on the time of year you travel (and luck) as to which hotels the company uses. Another person can take the exact same tour at a different time and have a good experience (different hotels and restaurants available). Sorry your trip didn't turn out well, but there is plenty of help on this board if you decided to plan your own trips in the future.

GrannyPaige-don't let bad experiences bother you. True, they do happen, we had a much less than satisfactory trip last year with a different company going to Greece/Turkey but you just chalk it up and get past it. Sometimes I think we bring on some of our own disappointments also, at least I did, maybe expecting too much. However, I do think unsatisfactory rooms are not acceptable.

I've just booked a "spur of the moment" trip leaving in 11 days for Christmas markets along the Danube which I will be doing solo as my husband is busy with work. I too had to pay a single supplement but that's to be expected as I did not want to use their room mate matching service and would prefer to be alone. I'm also using a company that has had some bad reviews on this board and some very good, positive reviews so...! Anyhow, I hope to have a wonderful time and can't wait.

Enjoy your trip and have a wonderful time. Try not to "think it to death".

My coworker and her family have used Perillo for Italy tours several times in the past 5 years, and have been very satisfied. If there are 'tier' options for the level of hotels used, that might be something to consider. Her hotels always seemed to be 4-5* properties.

Well, I think the key words of the OP is dream trip. If we expect too much or perfection from a tour we will most likely be disappointed. After all, you are not personally chosing the restaurants, hotels, tours, etc. but letting the company do it for you.

It is a shame but it should also be a learning experience.

Friends of mine have stayed down by the tracks in Taormina and raved about how wonderful it is, being so close to the sea, etc. They booked their own hotels and probably booked a seaview room and not one near the tracks.

Sorry the trip wasn't good, lynnre.

oh I also see now that this was a year ago!

Good catch SeaUrchin - I didn't even notice the date.

SusPaul - If it's Grand Circle, they've had good and bad reviews on this board. It got to the point that they had so many people filing complaints with BBB and not being addressed that they were de-listed from the BBB. They say they are trying to earn back their listing which should be a good sign for your trip.

>>>>>
an overcrowded bus
>>>>>

what does this mean? were people standing? or did the tour operator lead you to believe that the bus would have a lot of empty seats. or were the seats too small?

Lynn, PLEASE provide details. I, too, got screwed by PERILLO.

Joseph1950,

This is a 7 y/o thread. Let it go. Quit trying to stir the pot and get people on your side. It's pretty clear, having read your thread, that those that have taken their time to look at your blog (I not being one of them) believe your complaints to be rather prima donna-ish. Tell your story and move on, but stop trying to solicit others to jump on your bandwagon. If you can't find anything positive out of your trip, maybe you should just stay home next time.

This is a 7 year old thread.

I think there is a new poster who is on quite the campaign to "destroy" Perillo tours - at this point I think we should all just ignore this post and the others.

Most of us here are not tour takers anyways - pretty all this guy is getting is "we could have told you so"!

Isnt life short enough? Let it go, chalk it up to experience and start remembering the good times you had.

Clearly, these ARE the good times!