I am planning a Spring '07 trip to Rome, Florence and Venice. Several tour companies offer tours that include these three cities. I am considering an 11-day Globus vacation (DIRA) which offers three nights in each city.

The cost of the tour will amount to roughly $3700 per person(including tax, surchares, travel insurance,etc.). Included is RT airfare originating in Pittsburgh, Rome(Hotel Cicerone), Florence(Hotel Albani), Venice(Starhotel Splendid Suisse) and train (Eurostar) transportation (train is preferred to bus) between the cities. The tour is described as unescorted, but does include one sightseeing tour of each city. This is appealing because I will be travelling with senior citizen mother and would prefer a slower pace. Idea is to take the city tour and then decide what we would like to take a closer look at.

I am not balking at the cost of the tour, but would like to ask seasoned travelers about the VALUE of the tour.

Brief research indicates
-RT Pit-Rome is about $975
-All hotels on Expedia are listed as 3 1/2*
-Hotel reviews on Expedia are very good for 2 of 3 hotels. (One bad rec of StarHotel in Venice, only post.)
-Cost of hotels based on Expedia are well in the $400 USD range (very surprising)
-Cost of rail tickets between cities unknown
-Only buffet breakfasts are included

I would appreciate any advice from seasoned travellers about this tour.

Thank you,
vvv352

I am not familiar with the Venice hotel that you mention, but for additional reviews you might check tripadvisor.com and also venere.com

Once you are at venere.com, you could also counter-check the hotel rates against what you found on Expedia.

Whatever you decide, do enjoy your trip and let us know how it turns out for you! Buon viaggio!

This is quite an expensive tour. You should be able to do this type of trip for far less than $7400 for two people for 9 nights in Italy. I should think it would be fairly easy to do this for $6000 or less in the spring of 2007.

My relatives stayed at the Cicerone and liked it alot. We stayed a couple of blocks from the Cicerone at the Visconti Palace. This was in 2001 though, but I doubt it's changed much. We all thought the area was nice as it's quiet yet not far to walk across the river to the historical district nor was it far to walk to the Vatican.

Train prices can be found on TrenItalia:

Rome-Florence. 47€ 1st class, 33€ 2nd.
Florence-Venice. 44€/30€.
Venice-Rome. 74€/51€.

If you go all first class, you cost is still only about $200.

US$400/night can buy you a lot of hotel rooms, especially in Rome. US$300 can buy you most 4* and some 5* hotels if you choose carefully.

If you use Priceline, people have been getting the 5* InterContinental De La Ville for <$250/night in Rome.

In each city, you can easily join a local tour for a day from your hotel.

I don't think your package is worth it.

Not sure what question you are really asking. 'Cause I am not sure what you mean by "value." Having never consider this type of trip, I cannot judge the value easily. BUT, if they are just providing transportation and housing, I think it may be a little pricey. It looks roughly $350 a day. I know I could do better on my own but you are paying for the convenience of having everything pre arranged which may have great value to you especially if this is your first trip to Europe.

I think you need to contact some prior tour participants if you can and see if they thought they received the value they expected for the trip.

Just to give you something to compare with: our trip this spring into Italy from the West Coast (with an open jaw ticket which are usually more expensive), 14 nights in hotels (our hotels all received excellent reviews but are 2 star hotels), transport from Rome to Florence to Venice costs about $5500 for 3 people (although we paid full fare for our toddler, he is free in all but one of the 3 hotels).

So I suppose your trip is not that much more than ours considering you are staying in higher rated hotels. If you don't mind the costs, its probably not a bad deal. But I think you can probably save about $500 each person if you book the trip on your own.

On the other hand your travel/tour agent can probably help you in planning a trip that will be pleasant for your mother, i.e. finding appropriate tours and hotels (since many European hotels do not have elevators). In the end, you pay for convenience.

Hi V,

>The tour is described as unescorted,...

That's a lot of money.

I suggest thta you fly into Venice and out of Rome - about $900 pp.

Check airfares for your dates at www.kayak.com

Check hotels at www.venere.com

Train schedules and tickets are at www.trenitalia.com

enter <"city name" AND "tour guide"> in the "search this forum" box.

You can set up your whole visit in 2 weeks.

It sounds like a lot of money for an unescorted tour. Try www.gotoday.com.

We have used them for unescorted tours 3 times for Italy. I tried each time to book the same Air and Hotels that they gave me and it would have been much more. You can also work with them on the selection of Hotels if you have particular Hotels in mind.

bookmarking

$3700 /person for a spring trip sounds high to me. Our family trip in June 2007 will cost $2400 per person for 11 nights in Italy and 3 nights in Amsterdam. This includes all lodging, meals, transportation, and all sights. However- we are a group staying in apartments in Venice, Rome and Cinque Terre and in a hostel(private room w bath) in Amsterdam. It took a HUGE amount of (very enjoyable)research to keep the cost down. In your case the cost of air and ground transport is about $1200 so the remaining amount of $2500 is for lodging meals and tours. That works out to be $450 a day for both of you for hotel, meals and tours. I'm assuming you are sharing a room. The room cost then works out to be close to $400/day. You should be able to find very comfortable double rooms in Venice, Florence and Rome for $250/day.

You are actually only staying 9 nights (not 11 nights)in hotels so the cost of the hotels double room per night is actually closer to $500. So with a bit of research on your part you could save $250 X 9 nights = $2250!

I have compared trips like this many times and find the difference to be about 30% for comparable level of travel. You can do this trip for $2000 less on your own--that is what you pay for the convenience of a tour group.

Thanks to all who have responded to my initial post. You have been most helpful.

After investigating all options, I have decide to book Globus Tour DIRA leaving 4/21/07 through touringforless.com. The bottom line is $2800 for air, 3 nights in each of each Rome, Venice and Florence. Also included is all transfers, 1st class rail between cities, a city tour of each city and 9 buffet breakfasts.

I will be happy to post a trip report for those who would like to hear about my experience.

vvv352