which tour company is best
 

Looking for a good tour for Venice, Rome and Florence in Spring 2007. Any suggestions? Experiences? Anyone try Perillo?

I did all of the tour company research last year - ended up with Globus. They have all sorts of Italy tours. We liked the Best of Italy because it maximized our time, fast paced, & we saw more of Italy om 12 days than we could do on our own. Then this year we are going back on our own to the places of which we want more!

Globus was great - bus new; busmates wonderful - still in contact with some - they made the trip!; tour guide & local guides were very knowledgable; at all sites we had the "whispers headsets" so did not have to "hang around" the guide - could walk around & still hear; having someone haul our bags all around was great - will miss that this time!; lots of meals included, some great, some OK, a couple were awful; all included breakfasts were great; most tours were included - only spent about $100 pp for extra excursions (Tuscan dinner & gondola ride); had enough time at each site; hotels were not centrally located but we didn't have time for that to matter - just slept there!; for what little free time we had, easy transporation was available from the hotel; hotels ranged from luxury (2) to days inn type (2), rest were midlevel; all hotels were clean, safe, & no bugs (that's all we required); price was good - from affordabletours.com = about $1600pp + airfare.

suggest you go to affordabletours.com & slowtrav.com message boards to compare companies.

Globus is a middle level company; if you like more luxury, try Taulk & there are others.

We chose Globus over Trafalger because there were complaints that Trafalger was cancelling trips and/or sites.

Considered Perillo, but saw too many complaints on the boards.

We liked the idea of learning where to go, how to get around, etc. in a foreign country before we traveled on our own. Some folks don't like that. Next fall, we are taking Globus again, to Greece - with some of our Italy bus mates!

Happy traveling, Julie

I really like Insight, used them on my first trip to Europe and was very satisfied. So much so that my parents will be using them for their first trip ever to Europe at 78 & 79 years old. If I reccomend them to my parents, you know I was very happy with them. :)

We just got back from Italian Escapade with Insight and it was fantastic. We like Insight because they only have 40 seats on the bus so more legroom for my tall husband and it makes getting on and off the bus faster. I also think more things are included.

Sara,

Italian Escapade is the tour I did with Insight in 2003, it is a terrific tour!! Who was your tour guide? I hope you were lucky enough to get Ernesta, she was WONDERFUL!

Many people like Insight Vacations, a London-based company.

www.insightvacations.com

lyb - Our tour guide was Andie and she was great! She was knowledgable, interesting, enthusiastic and she ran the tour very smoothly. We got into the major sights when they opened and left when it got crowded. Of course, the price we paid for that was the 6 or 6:30 wake-up calls every day! :) I think the latest wakeup call we had was 7:30 or 8. We took almost every excursion so we had very little free time. It was not relaxing but it was a wonderful trip! We might try the Easy Pace Tour to Spain and Portugal in 2008...There are 3 night stays in each city and one whole day is free in each city. Of course, I am sure there are excursions!! Ciao!

Glad to see the positives about Insight, but would like to have some specific info about it. Is it the same grade level as Trafalger & Globus, regarding hotels, included food, included sites visited (not just driven by), etc; or is it higher or lower graded?

Is it usually higher or lower in price than Globus & Trafalger?

Are there a lot of "extra" excursions that one needs to buy in order to see everything that is included in other tours? If so, what ends up being the total price?

Also, did you folks buy direct from Insight or via an online discounter - if so, which one & how was the service?

As I posted before, we plan on a tour to Greece next fall & I am open to any good option - but do want the "best" tour at the "best" price in the mid-level line of companies.

Thanks, Julie

You get what you pay for. Insight has two "levels" of tours, for example.

There are far too many options & variables to discuss here -- visit the websites or, better yet, talk to your travel agent.

We just did our first Grand Circle Tour (Slovenia and Croatia) and we were more than pleased. Most of our travel mates were senior citizens but not all. What we especially liked was the four night stays in three of the four hotels. No complaints at all about the tour.
We also did Globus in 89 in Eastern Europe and were pleased with that company but we moved around more.

Insight is owned by the same company that owns Trafalgar. They have Supersaver tours and Premium tours. The Premium is one we went on and it is higher priced than Trafalgar or Globus. The hotels are generally centrally located (except for Florence)
We bought through Affordable Tours and were very pleased with the price and the service. I have heard that prices on Insight went up quite a bit for next year. Don't know if that is true of all tours but imagine it may be in view of gas, cost of security, etc, etc....

My extended family has been on Globus tours to Egypt, Spain, and Greece. All were a good value and well thought-out. We travel independently most of the time, but found an escorted tour nice when sites were outside major cities and no one wanted to be the driver.

In general, Insight is an upper scale Trafalgar. Same parent company. Check out the hotels that they stay in in Venice. The first time with Trafalgar we were in some industrial district. The second time in Italy with Insight we were right on the island.
We took Tauck this year on the Danube. The trip and food were excellent. I don't know if they do Italy but check them out also.