GoJumbos

Hi All,

My husband and I (we're in our late 20s) are hoping to arrange a somewhat last minute trip to Italy in late May/early June, which I know doesn't give us that much time to plan but we're going to give it a shot. We were contemplating trying to do Italy on our own, but after some consideration, we're thinking it might be better to go with an arranged tour and itinerary, especially since we don't have tons of time to plan this trip. We're hoping to visit Venice, Florence and Rome in the timespan of 13-15 days. We would ideally like a tour that caters to a wide range of age groups, etc.. We also want a tour that allows us some time to go off and explore on our own (i.e., free time). I've checked out a few companies--goaheadtours, and another place called Keytours, I believe. Goaheadtours was about 3300 per person for air from Boston, hotels, and some meals and tours; I havent yet received a quote from keytours. Ideally, Id like a tour that allowed us to fly into one location (say, Venice) and out of another (say, Rome) so that we had less time in transport. That said, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for tour companies. Ideally, we're looking to spend 2500-3000 per person on the tour package (air/hotel/etc..) and then allot some $$$ to food, excursions, etc... Also, are there any tour companies with bad reputations? Let me know, as Id like to stay away from those. Many thanks in advance, and I look forward to hearing from you! Angela

StLgrrl

My parent's leave next Friday for Italy through Trafalgar tours. I know they are going to Milan, Siena, Pisa, Verona (all stopovers) and Venice, Florence and Rome (overnighters). Probably more, but I don't have their itinerary.

Trafalgar tours have different tour packages that cater to different age groups. They have cost-save tours, tours for ages 21-35, and just regular tours. If you are looking to go in a few months, you might have to pay extra for short notice.

I've taken two tours with Trafalgar and have been impressed by them. The guides are knowledgable, and they offer "extras" not included in the package for an extra fee. I would check them out for an all inclusive tour.

nessundorma

I'm going to urge you not to do this. For $6,000 dollars you can easily book yourself into well-located hotels where the main attractions are within walking distance. And the meals you will be fed on a package tour will never compare with the meals you would find if you ask your hotel desk for a recommendation or just follow your nose.

If you are nervous about booking your own flight into one city and out of another over the internet, ask a travel agent to do it for you. You will be charged a modest fee, but that's all.

You say you don't have time to plan, but all you really need to do is to go to www.tripadvisor.com and take the recommendations you find there for hotel bookings.

Then carry with a a good guides for each city plus invest in a copy of the Michelin Green Guide for Itay. Fodor's has a very convenient "travel pack" for each city which steers you toward the major sites and has clear maps. The Green Guide will offer you more detailed explanations of the history of these places.

In all 3 cities, you needn't worry about language. English is spoken.

That's it. Don't sweat it anymore than you would a trip to San Francisco.

On a tour, you are likely to be stuck with people nowhere near your age, and you will be stuck with their timetable. The hotels will be boring and not in good locations. You will be herded into shops you don't want to go to, and instead of the joys of discovering your own favorite sights and lingering when you are tired, or just love what you're looking at, you'll be on a forced march that feels like school every day.

You really don't need a tour.

Amanda23

I agree - don't take a tour! If you want to see Florence, Rome and Venice you could so easily arrange this all yourself. I'm around your age and have taken a tour trip (Ireland) and I must tell you doing on your own is so much better. Get a travel agent to book your flight (fly into Rome and out of Venice), post questions on here about hotels and things to do, and trust me, you'll be the happiest traveller ever. You still have lots of time to plan for a May or June trip....I hope that didn't sound pushy, I'm just really opposed to organized group travel, especially in Europe. It's just not for me.

mulifat

If you are more comfortable with a tour it might be a terrific option for you. Check out Contiki Holidays, a reputable company that has been around for many years, and they specialize in 18 to 35 year olds. They are along the semi-budget style, far from deluxe, but any other company will get a much older crowd than yourself

travelworld

I agree with amanda. people here on this forum will recommend you to plan your trip and visit EUROPE on your own and trust me you have come to the right place!!! Fodorites have a wealth of information to offer on independent travel and if you ready to spend few hours online for a week or two you will be able to make all your hotel servations online.

search for hotels in ROME, Florence and venice and you should be able to find hunderds of threads giving you details on hotels.

I and my husband will also be visiting italy this may and I have got a lot of help from this site in planning our trip. Initially my husband wanted us to go with a tour company but I knew with some help from Fodors we can do much better going on our own and turst me on this one...I was right!!

we are in the same age group ( late 20s) we will be visiting all three places you mentioned.

Here is our itinerary:
London: 4 days
Italy: 9 days
Swiss alps: 5 days
Paris: 5 days

When we started out we started with a very busy itinerary but experts on this forum helped us fine tune our itinerary and we are happy with our decision now!! Even now most of them would say our itinerary is still busy and we are trying to do too much in too little and we know we can spend 1 week in each city and still feel less.

This is also our frist trip to europe and we have travelling in other countries too and since we are still young we think we can do this trip!!

here are some hotels we are staying during our stay in ITALY, just giving some info so you will get an idea of what to expect if we want to go on your own!!

Rome: Daphne Inn vento

www.daphne-rome.com

( we got it for 144E or 172$ per night if paid in cash)

Florence: La residenza proconsolo

http://www.proconsolo.com/rooms.asp

(140E per night, very good reviews and very nice people to communicate, this I am saying out of experience)

Venice: casa cosmo



If you can give your lodging budget, people will be able to suggest you names of decent hotels in you price range and you can check out the reviews in trip advior and in this forum before deciding on a hotel.

Also since its already march, try to make hotel reservations ASAP as its hard to get hotel later for decent rates!!


I am not being pushy here, yes its not too late, you can still plan this trip on your own and you will be happy you did independent travel and not group once you get back from ITALY!!

good luck with your planning!!!

mv_rd

I wouldn't recommend a Contiki Tour. I, along with my sister and cousin, took one of their tours in 2001.

The hotels are located in the outskirts of the cities you visit, the food was horrible, and the hotels were not nice. Our tour was also considered a "superior" tour, I can imagine what the budget tours are like.

At the time, I was 26, my sis' 27, and my cousin had just turned 18. I think they cater more to a party crowd. There were three couples out of about 50 of us. Most of the people wanted to party and hook up, so unless that's what you're looking for, don't do it.

I also agree that you should plan the trip on your own. With a $6K budget, as someone else mentioned, you can stay in nice hotels.

I'd start off by looking for airfare at these websites:
kayak.com
mobissimo.com
sidestep.com

It's really helpful to use the search box for this forum. Enter the name of the city you're interested in going to (like Venice hotels). A list of previous threads will populate.

Other sites for hotels are:
Italyby.com
Venere.com

I just remembered that I had started a list from this board for Rome hotels for future reference:

Rome Hotels
http://www.daphne-rome.com/
http://www.palazzo-olivia.it/inglese...zzo_index.html
http://www.banchivecchi115.com/inglese/index.html
http://www.hotelparlamento.it/eng.htm
http://www.hotelsancarloroma.com/index.htm
http://www.hotelmontecitorio.com/
http://www.nicolasinn.com/
http://www.albergodelsenato.it/welcome.htm
http://www.romeby.com/santachia/pages/booking.htm
http://www.hotelportoghesiroma.com/e.../homepage.html
www.hotelteatrodipompeo.it
www.albergocesari.it
http://www.hotelduetorriroma.com/English.htm


Here are a few for Venice
Venice:
http://www.lacalcina.com/

http://www.hotelflora.it/en/rooms.htm

http://www.locandaorseolo.com/en/rooms.htm

suze

Angela, Please realize that Fodor's is mostly a forum of self-planners, so our replies are heavily in favor of not going with organized tour companies. But that doesn't mean it isn't the right thing for you. Take what you read here with a grain of salt. Plenty of people enjoy tour groups and wouldn't even think to travel on their own.

Timlin

We took a Trafalgar Tour last October and we loved it but next time we go we will go on our own.

The tour has you up and on the road by 8 a.m. at the very latest each day, some days your up, had breakfast and on the road by 7 am. If your an early bird this is great but if you'd rather a more relaxed trip don't take a tour.

The group here can tell you everything you might need to know. We have searched for a tour that would give us 3 or 4 nights in each city so we could slow down and appreciate the area but the most you get is 2 nights and you always get in late afternoon of the first day, sleep over, sight see, sleep over and up and off at dawn the next day so even on a 2 night stop over you only have one rushed day to see the sights.

I say go to two or three cities, relax and enjoy 3 or 4 days in each city and you'll be much happier with the end results.

We are going back to Italy and this time we will take in the sites on a much more relaxed pace.

So if your looking for a rush rush pace take a tour. If you want to relax and enjoy ....... go alone. It's a cinch, the trains, subways etc are easy to deal with and you'll have a blast.

kswl

The best site I know for hotels in Rome is

http://www.romaturismo.com/v2/en/main.asp
You can choose the location, price, and type of hotel as filters and the list is extensive---basically all of the places registered as lodging in the entire city. You can check out sites such as venere.com with the hotels you preselect through the Romaturismo site, then see if you can do better by booking directly by email.

You will be bored to tears on a tour. The other travelers will be much older than you (your parents' age)and the price of all the "add ons" will dismay you. We planned a trip to Japan last May on 7 days' notice with the help of some very generous spirits on the Asia board and had a fabulous time. I, too, would urge you to go your own way, especially since you're only planning for three cities---that is very doable as it means, at the most, four hotels (city of arrival, city #2, city #3, back to city #1 for departure) and train trips.

ps not quite sure how the hot links work, except that the one on the right seems to be the one that takes you to the site.

wliwl

No tours! You're too young to be dragged all over. Plan something quick and wing it when you get there. HAVE FUN!!!

nytraveler

PLEASE reconsider doing a tour. Unless you're idea of fun is getting up at 6am for a 7am start, catering to the slowest (not to be ageist but there will be some slow 70+s in your group) and spending a lot of "free' time on "optional" shopping - you will be much better off on your own.

Esp Italy - you will want to stay out late for dinner - and maybe dancing later and get up at 10am, sit in cafes as you choose and not rush back to the bus, and drive past things that you would really like to see in order to keep to the "schedule". (Never mind the delays associated with the usual least common denominator who has lost something vital or doesn;t feel well and lets everyone know about it at great length, or is late for every start - and oblivious to the glares of 30 other people.)

LoveItaly

Hello GoJumbos, if you fly into one city in Italy and fly home from another city in Italy you will not do any backtracking. That type of flight is called "Open Jaws" or "MultiCities".

You say you want to visit Venice, Florence and Rome. That trip can be done by travelling by train. I would suggest that you make reservations to fly into Venice and home from Rome. Unless you really want to join a tour group it is not the least bit necessary as so many here have stated.

If you want tours you can arrange for day tours..probably the only city you would want to do that is in Rome.

It is just March 9th..you have time to plan and make reservations for seeing Italy in late May or early June.

As someone said here, if you are not comfortable making your own flight arrangements have a Travel Agency do this for you..they will charge a fee. I would imagine since you are here on Fodor's you are computor savy enough to do this yourself. And you can call the airline direct to make reservations. Again, they will charge a small fee to book via phone with them, but that might make you more comfortable and could be worth the few dollars.

If you have questions, after doing some reading here on Fodor's write back and you will no doubt receive a wealth of information..and of course you already have to get you started. Best wishes to you.

Mycuppajava

Hello...
A friend and I, 60, have considered using RickSteve's 17-day tour of Italy. From reading here, I take it that it is fairly easy to get around ourselves. Sorta makes me nervous thinking about that.

If we wanted to do this, would your do the tour (probably not would be your recommendations) or get your air reservations through a travel agent and get hotel ideas here. When I get the dates, etc..could we get us through the Italy and a short trip to Switzerland without getting really lost?

genoajim

If after all of this discussion you decide that you still want to go with a tour, I would recommend a Rick Steves tour (www.ricksteves.com). The average age of the people will be somewhat lower since he requires a certain level of physcial fittness, e.g. you carry your own luggage and possibly do so for a distance to get to your hotel in places where the bus can't drop you off (the reward is a much more local experience).
If you decide to go on your own I would recommend the Rick Steves Italy 2006 tour book as a very good guide. Maybe the previous posts mentioned it already and I missed it, but you could probably get by without a rental car by making use of the excellent train system within Italy.
Have fun, but hurry with the planning. I made hotel reservations in Rome about a week ago and about 20% of the places I contacted (many via internet at venere.com) were already booked for the days we needed in early June).

suze

YES! If you're going to do a tour, one from Rick Steves or Untours or someone like that would be much more enjoyable, in my opinion.

The deal-breaker for me regarding tours is NO WAY am I getting up at the crack of dawn every day on my vacation.

Mycuppajava

I feel the same way about the set hours AND I will look at some of the sites mentioned about hotels and transportation after there. I have not had that much experience with trains but maybe I could figure it all out. What is the best method? Thanks for all of your input.

nwtraveler

I also recommend the Rick Steve's tour company based on personal experience. Most days you leave the hotel between 8:30 and 9:00am. Some days are packed with activities from morning to late afternoon and other days the scheduled activities are over by noon. But you are free to go off on your own at any time or not participate in an activity and meet with the group later. The guides just ask that you keep them informed so the whole group is not waiting for you. All excursions are included, there are no "extras" once you hit the ground. Some of the included meals are so big that I ended up spending less on food than I planned.

Luisah

A late twenties couple seeing Venice for the first time with a tour group? It's one of the most romantic cities in the world and so easy to discover on your own.

Maybe you could combine time on your own with a short group tour. My twenties are way, way in my past and I got around Italy easily solo for a week taking trains and buses and then met with a group in Florence for to tour the Florence area and Rome. There were definitely some advantages, but I got really tired of "on the bus" "dinner at 7:00" "be back here in an hour and half" "we leave right after breakfast" etc. I enjoy exploring on my own and hate having to keep an eye on my watch and rushing past places that appeal to me.

Someone suggested using a travel agent if you don't have time to plan.If you're a AAA member, they can help. Another mentioned Untours, which would give you some structure but plenty of free time.

Italy is beautiful and I hope you have a wonderful trip no matter what you decide.

wally34949

Many of these tour companies make a lot of money because your hotel is not downtown but out in the sticks, and they bus you into town for an extra dinner which is between $40 and $75 and that doesn't include the wine. They need to put a cork in that plan.