Can anyone provide me feedback on booking with Trafalgar's? How are their tours?
I do not want to spend most of the time on a bus.

Thank you.

My parents had a wonderful vacation with Trafalgar, no complaints. But, if you don't want to spend a lot of time on a bus you may want to consider semi independant tours that just include car, hotel, & air. If you order a Trafalgar catalog every tour shows a sliding scale of how much time you'll be spending on the bus. But remember if you want to visit an entire country you will be spending a lot of time traveling to different locations. You may also want to consider city stays. My parents did a 16 day tour of Italy & Sicily, they covered a lot of ground and had the time of their lives.

We travelled with Trafalgar on a month long trip a couple of years ago and loved it - but there was a lot of 'bus time' and we travelled huge distances some days.
We had an excellent Courier on the bus and it was a joy not to have to worry about bookings, luggage etc.
It suited us to do it this way and we were prepared - but if you have any qualms I would give thought to travelling independently.

We (party of 4) went on an 8 day Trafalgar tour of Italy last November. A lot of bus time. Vivid memories of lunches at glorified truck stops most every day. You'd be much better off planning the trip yourself. We only went the Trafalgar route to because that's the way an elderly relative (82)wanted to do it. I found the routine
(bags out by 6:30; breakfast at 7; on the road by 7:30) restrictive and exhausting. Not enough time in most places. On the plus side, we covered much of the old Empire in a short time from Venice to Sorrento. We looked at it as a recon mission-overview to find out spots to return to. Summer 2004 will find us back in Florence and Venice.

Additional website to obtain info and comments are the Trafalgar Tours Bulletin Board, at http://www.trafbb.com/ttbb/ultimatebb.cgi
and the message board on http://www.affordabletours.com

My only experience with Trafalgar was a tour of France that had a lot of bus time, hotels were often in the suburbs/outskirts, and in this particular case both the guide and the driver weren't the greatest. Probably an anomaly or they would have been out of business long before now. Once I took the plunge and booked a three-week trip via the internet, e-mail, and fax, I vowed to avoid bus tours when possible...it isn't too late for YOU to consider doing the same thing, either...otherwise spend your days worrying and wondering whether the tour operator is going to be a good one or not. I know independent travel isn't for everyone but i hate to see folks avoiding it because they are afraid they can't make the arrangements on their own.