Please tell me about your experience with tours.
 

I am starting to plan my first trip to Italy with a girlfriend I have known for years. Looks like it will just be the 2 of us.

My friend wants to use a tour company because she thinks it will be easier to have them do the planning and arranging reservations.... We will be going to Venice, Florence and Rome (first trip for both of us). I do understand in many ways how it would be easier (especially since I do not speak Italian) and we will be on the move, will need tickets to certain things and want to see a lot of places. But a part of me feels like it will not be totally MY preference, and being a true fodorite and an admitted hotel snob - I like to plan things myself.

What are your experiences with this? Is it best for a first timer to use a tour company? Are their any that can get me tickets to the Vatican without having to wait in very long lines? What are good ones for hotel snobs like me? I am thinking less than 20 people. I don't want to spend thousands a night by any means, but I am thinking of a $8-10,000 budget for about 10 days, including air fare. I realize this is not a lot of time for 3 cities, but we are not retired yet. Thanks as always!

/bankbabe

Are there (not their). My apologies to my English teacher. ;)

Venice/Florence/Rome Could <i>not</i> be easier on your own. Fly in to Venice, train to Florence, train to Rome, fly home from Rome . . . easy peasy.

The main problem w/ most commercial tours (though not all) is they are VERY fast paced, start out early every morning, and lots of bus time.

I agree that Venice/Florence/Rome would be pretty easy to plan for yourself. But, my ex and his wife have taken Rick Steves tours and love love love them. They wouldn't dream of planning it on their own if they can get Rick's team to do it. Plus they love spending time with the other people on their tours.

I agree with Janis, and said so on your Lounge thread. Since you say you like to plan, then make the air, train and hotel reservations. And look into city day tours, they will make the arrangements for admission to those places with long lines. That would be a good compromise to your friend wanting a tour I think, and you will be spared bus rides in the early am, and hotels out in inconvenient places.

On your other thread you mention your friend is high maintenance. If that's the case, you'd have to take a very high end tour.

No, No and No! No tour company. Even on your first visit there, and speaking no Italian, Venice, Florence and Rome are extremely easy on your own. Go where you want, when you want. Do not be at the mercy of a tour schedule!

Your budget would be truly luxurious for me, and it will go even further by planning it yourself.

You can book tours of the Vatican in Rome, the Doges' Palace in Venice, etc. on your own and they will procure tickets for you. You can book tickets to the Uffizi, the Borghese, etc. ahead to save lines.

You can do a day trip to Siena or Pisa and Lucca easily, on your own.

Trains, are fast, cheap and very, very convenient. They go city center to city center. With your budget, just grab a taxi at the train station to your hotel.

Seriously, you should choose your own hotel, your own restaurants, your own sightseeing tours.

Thanks Janis and Belinda. that's what I am thinking - how hard can it be? I did the trains in Scotland and Ireland...

Rick Steves seems to be the popular tour company, but somehow it would seem too manufactured for me. If possible, I wanted a smaller more personalized company. Just the fact that I am considering a tour instead of planning my own, says I am willing to give in a little.

Thank you everyone!! :D Sassafrass and socaltraveler, I should print out this thread and show it to her, but I have already said she is high maintenance. LOL - Like me, she does hair and make up every day too but I think I can be convinced to keep it all in a 22" suitcase with rollers. Some of these tours make it seem like you are lugging your own bags up several slights of stairs. That is where I think it would be best if I picked the hotels because no elevator just wouldn't work for us.

You can always book day tours IN the various cities to get you in to places your friend thinks are too complicated to book yourselves.

So - an independently planned trip with some guidance along the way.

Maybe you could get some references from people who have been on the tours. I see on your other thread there is a regular poster who likes the RS tours. See if you can chat with her offline.

Easy trip to plan on your own if you are willing to do a little research. We flew into Venice, train to Florence (day trip to Sienna by bus), train to Rome (day trip to Ostia Antcia.) Booked all trains on Trentalia, booked all admissions (Uffizi, Academia, Vatican, Colosseum and Forum, on line or by phone with no problems. Hired private guides for Vatican (highly recommend) and the Jewish area.

Oh, for reference, I have done several tours. They were not high end, so your experience would be somewhat different. However, basic structure and negatives are the same.

If you were going to a less safe place or place that was difficult geographically, or with sights spread far apart, a tour would be fine, perhaps better.

You, however, are going to world centers of art and architecture, history, culture and food, all with great transportation and lots to see in one small location. Venice and Florence are actually very, very small. You can walk absolutely everywhere in only a few minutes. Even the center of Rome is not huge. We walk nearly everywhere there too.

The idea of a tour will never be popular here, but a friend of mine just did the Venice-Florence Rome trip with a small group tour and loved it.
http://www.discovermyitaly.com
I have no personal experience with it, but she was very pleased, and, based on her Instagram, the accommodations looked lovely. The group was composed entirely of women over 50--don't know if that was planned or accidental! My friend said the pace was fine.

The big drawback to self-planning this trip that I see is that bankbabe's friend says she'd prefer a tour. If bankbabe does all the planning, would she be the one hearing complaints if something is not ideal?

I second what NewbE just said as far as if you do not do a tour, your HM friend may be giving you alot of flak. If you do not do a tour, you will need to do quite a bit of planning and making arrangements for entrances to the venues you want to see.

Take a look at Rick Steves' My Way Tour of Italy.

Sass, once more.
You did Ireland on your own. Italy will be a breeze. The only difference is schedules in Italian and all you need to know are names of days. LOL.

Don't worry about keeping your suitcase to 22". I am small and still do 24" sometimes. I would rather have a 24" with space to put my tote inside when I land, and not have two things to bother with. There are always discussions about checking and carryon. I don't want the hassle of dealing with luggage on flights, or pulling it through the airport, so I check it in and relax. Then, except for the train, size does not matter. If you can lift it onto the train and put it on a rack, you will be fine. You only have to do that a couple of times anyway. You can always buy a new piece of very light, inexpensive luggage just for this trip. I saw a new 24" last week that is only 5 lbs. Probably silly to some, but I have no problem paying $60 or $70 for something extra to make an expensive trip easier or more fun.

Your friend is lucky to be going with you.

I am very much in the plan-it-yourself camp. That said, based on accounts from friends who've travelled with friends of longstanding (and experienced previously unknown sides of those friends), I'd proceed with caution. There can be definite downsides e.g. winding up feeling resentful for doing all the planning, differences in temperament (more/less adventurous) that impact enjoyment. With a tour there would be minimal back-and-forth re schedules, money, where to go for dinner, etc.

My sister who who was a first time traveler to Italy, went with a friend, is a fussy eater, likes touristy things, liked their Gate 1 tour with an identical agenda.

This is a trivial end of DYI tours of Italy. However, if you book expensive non-refundable items, such as air, without making sure the rest can be aligned to them, you can obliviously throw away 10% of your time in Italy. Many first timers do this. This would put avoidable time pressure into your itinerary which probably does not go well with your high maintenance friend :-)

>>> she thinks it will be easier to have them do the planning and arranging reservations

may I add "in their favor" to this statement. If your friend is picky in addition to high maintenance, incompatible tour is a bad match. Also, I don't know your age group, but tours tend to cater to "older" people. If you plan your own, you decide what to add and subtract depending on how the trip is going. With tour, someone else makes this decision - taking out what you care and adding things you rather not spend time on.

>>> Are their any that can get me tickets to the Vatican without having to wait in very long lines?

There are many parts of Vatican requiring different strategy.

The St. Peters Basilica itself requires no ticket. However, what bogs you down is the security check. If you only have a passing interest, the simplest way to avoid crowd is to enter well before 9am, preferably even earlier, when the first wave of mass tour groups arrive. The Basilica is generally open from 7am, however, there are many events modifying the schedule. Be sure to check their official site to make sure it is open to the public unless you are there to worship. Also, special events can change the visiting hours with a short notice. If you want to climb the Dome, it opens at 8am. It is very very popular and requires a separate ticket. The elevator only takes you up half-way. The remainder of more than 300 steps to the top requires walking up claustrophobic and sometimes steep stairs.

The Vatican Museum, from which you access the Sistine Chapel, requires reserved time slot. You can do this online. Otherwise you wait and wait or rely on hawkers who claim to get you in without wait with major cost adder.

There are numerous tours combining visits to different part of the Vatican.