Tour companies in Italy
 

My 70 year-old mom and her friend are planning a trip to Italy this Fall and are studying brochures from several different tour companies. Since I have experience with traveling throughout Italy, but independently and not through a tour company, I offered to look at her various itineraries to try to offer some insight and suggestions. Does anyone have any experience with or recommendations on Globus, Cosmos, Trafalgar, or Grand European Tours? (i.e. quality of tour guides, size of groups, trips being cancelled if not filled, etc.) They are planning on doing the basic Venice, Tuscany, Rome trip. Thanks so much!

I did this tour last year
http://www.cosmos.com/Default.aspx?t...p;source=Italy

One thing with the cosmos tours is the hotels are not always close to the city centre or sights. On this tour, they dropped us off at the sights on the free days and picked us up later, at an organised time. So basically if your mom has had enough for the day, she won't be able to retreat back to her hotel room if she feels like it, without payinf a hefty cab fare.
If your mom is fit for her age , then this may not be a consideration. I enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to others. It was well organised and the tour guide was excellant. To keep the costs down , cosmos offer additional activites , like dinners and extra day trips etc, with costs for these activities in addition to the cost of the tour itself.

My mother has traveled several times with Globus and has had nothing but good experiences with them.

just to add, Globus and Cosmos are the same company, with Globus being to more expensive option. If you look on their websites, tours with guaranteed departures are indicated.

I haven't been on a Globus tour, but from what I recall, the Hotels are of better quality and more centrally located than those of Cosmos tours. The Cosmos hotel we stayed at while visiting Venice was actually on the mainland and about 50 mins from Venice itself.

Thanks very much navgator and lucy-d! I need to get on their websites for further details, but thought I'd start on this forum first. Didn't realize the relationship between Globus and Cosmos, so that's great to know!

If there are any other comments, I'd love to hear them as well. Ironicaly, Grand European Tours appears to be in my backyard (Portland, OR), but it was the one company we'd never heard of. Thanks again.

Just to add some info about the visit to venice with cosmos. Although the hotel was not in Venice, the experience was good and indicated as per the Itinery. The bus took us to an Optional dinner in Venice upon arrival, which gave us a look at the city under lights, and the second day we had a full day to ourselves. I also Opted for the extra trip to the island of Burano which was pieceful in comparison to Venice.