I'm looking at various travel tour groups online and wanted to see if my family should use one. I'm confused, there are so many! Can anyone recommend one in particular? We're a family of 5 (three kids ages 12/12/14) and plan to go next summer.

Most people on Fodor's are DIY, but you will find a bit of info about tour groups with the search function.

From the little experience that I've had with group tours, I would say that they are not oriented towards children of the age you specify. There are school tours of course, but general tours are oriented predominantly toward adults.

But more generally: what do you want to see in Italy? How much time do you have? Once you have defined your interests, you might discover that you do not need a tour.

Tours are planned for adults and for adult activities. You children would be bored with sitting for hours on a bus and not having any activities geared toward children. I would seriously discourage you from taking children on a tour.

Family travel via tour is becoming a bigger part of tour company offerings. Check out Trafalgar's website to browse through their 2011 Family Experiences catalog. They offer an 11 day tour. Adrienne points out an important point - be sure to carefully analyze how much time is spent on the bus!

You can also check out Tauck Tours website. I noticed that they have special family tours. I have taken many of their tours & they do a great job. Good luck..

Hi

More info please. What countries would you like to visit? Starting/ending destinations? For what length of time on the tour? And budget? We've used Cosmos tours (3 star) and Insight (5 star) and can recommend both.

Rick Steves also offers family tours however I highly recommend doing your trip independently.
You will flexibility which is important when traveling with kids.

<< What countries would you like to visit? >>

The thread is tagged for Italy so I'm guessing that's where the OP wants to go.

I took the Cosmos tour of Italy and I do not recommend it. Hotels are really far from the city center, in fact some are not even in the city you are visiting. Like all tours it was a bit rushed and you will make stops at places where they will try to sell things to you. Of course the tour guide will get a kickback from those sales. I've taken other Cosmos tours which were good but I cannot recommend them for Italy.

I agree with the advice to do it yourself.

Most tour grups ar enot organized for teens/twens - with very early starts (on bus at 7 am) and klong days of sitting. If you are set on a tour I wuold reearch ones that are desinged to accomodate kids versus just older adults. (I took one - to russia when that was the only way to go - and at 36 was young enough to be the child of all but 2 other tour members -adult "kids" of other sneiors.)

There are some groups that have less bus time and more activitiy time - and would be beter for kids - I would look for those. (And many tours don't allow kids younter than 12 or 13.)

DIY is not for everyone. As I have gotten older, I like having someone else "schlepp" for tickets to places. If you live in a city with any travel agents still around, do visit one. Also, my husband and I mostly went on our own but got hotels and planes through American Express so we'd have a phone number to call if something went awry (nothing ever did!). You don't have to have an AE card to use their travel services.

I have done my own trips through Orbitz with great results. Stick to your guns if you want some help with this so you don't stress. Good luck!

Stumbled on this:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...aster-list.cfm

Thanks everyone! Forget the tour idea, I think we'll do the DIY again! (we always end up DIY and I think we can do this trip that way too). I don't know why I'm just a tad nervous about Italy.

I still need to read more but we want to go to Italy for 2 weeks (14 days). I want to see as much as possible but without rushing and traveling every other day. I also prefer to use trains over buses (yes, kids get very tired with those buses).

We love just walking around so we like spending time in pedestrian friendly cities and just admiring the architecture and eating lots of gelato. I love art (but the kids and hubby aren't keen on spending long days looking at naked statues, lol). Of course we have to visit a cathedral (but more than 2 can get boring). We love the outdoors (admiring the country's natural wonders). We also love Roman ruins. We also love the water.

So, I was thinking:

Fly into Rome and spend 4 days in Rome (seems like there is so much to do!) Maybe one of those days spend at the Vatican? (we're not Catholic so not sure if this is going to interest us?).

After this I have no idea.... I've read we should go to Venice, Florence, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompei, Kids want to see Pisa, and I don't know what else.

Any suggestions? I think i'll do another post for this too.

<< Maybe one of those days spend at the Vatican? (we're not Catholic so not sure if this is going to interest us?). >>

I never heard that you had to be Catholic to enjoy museums! Take a virtual tour of the Vatican museums to see what's there.

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html

I think kids would love Venice, riding the water taxis, etc.

Believe me, you don't have to be Catholic to be blown away by the Vatican. I'm not Catholic, but I've been to the Vatican museums twice and there's no way I will miss it the next time I'm in Rome.

See I told you I had more to read--- I was thinking the Vatican was all church stuff... didn't realize it had so many museums!

Just an observation with some misc comments:

There's nothing wrong with doing the "Big Three" in two weeks: Venice, Florence, and Rome (and this is coming from a mom who tends to do ONE CITY/ONE WEEK!).

Your kids' ages are good; they can certainly assist in the travel planning. My kids watched a lot of Hollywood movies in preparation for what they wanted to see I always had my kids pick some person from history to follow and read a children's version biography or watch a video. They were expected to be the trip "expert" on the person. One chose Galileo and the other Michelangelo, both of which worked well for our Italian trips.

One BIG general tip
--Rick Steves has many FREE mp3 tours with maps that the kids can download into their ipods, making them very independent at any site: http://www.ricksteves.com/news/trave..._downloads.htm
The list of what's available can actually help steer you towards what you might want to see in each city without any sort of kid agony. Rick Steves isn't exactly my favorite authority, but he does have an ear for making the boring interesting and the interesting more accessible. (Note: I didn't have an ipod in Venice, but I brought earphones and a splitter and listened to the St. Mark's tour "in tandem" with my daughter via her iphone).

And I don't know if you have a kid in the family who just LOVES to read aloud, but I have one who at age 20 acts the same as when she was 9--she loves to grab a guide book and read outloud a walking tour for all of us. Lots of those in many guide books.

Where to go in each city? My kids were strange in that they both liked hanging in museums, and as long as we took food breaks, they had no problem seeing three museums per day. So, duh, I don't think I can say "do as we did". However, I've recommended the following to friends with kids who hate museums and was pleased that the kids themselves told me how much they liked our recs:

City Tour Recs--

Florence--see the David even if you don't like any other art; climb the Duomo plus its tower and then do extensive comparative gelato tasting (this remains my favorite gelato city in Italy and locating all the best "secret" gelato places was probably my kids' favorite Florence memory). Listen to the echo of the violinists at the Uffizi at night. Sidetrip to Pisa EASY from here (WE LOVED IT). Siena/Lucca also fun.

Rome--Vatican Sistine Chapel a must--just make sure they bring pocket mirrors and maybe one pair of family binoculars to see the ceiling better. Ditto visit Colosseum and Forum (there are free tour guides at the Forum who use that tour to pump up business for their other tours--take advantage of it!). My kids liked "Roman Holiday" and wanted to see ANYTHING that was in that film. Daytrip that is a big hit: Pompeii. Worth any aggravation. We went on a blistering hot day, got off at the wrong stop, you name it. My kids griped (and they are not whiners). Back home, heard over and over again; "I'll never forget Pompeii, coolest thing ever."

Venice--This is the easiest city. You don't have to visit anything. You can just ride vaporettos or get lost in alleys all day and enjoy. St. Mark's cathedral is neat (Rick Steve's free mp3 tour really helped me out there) and the square at night is absolute magic.

Anyway, as far as tours--we ran into a family of four while we were in Venice who were on a tour. I'll look up in my notes to see if I wrote down which one. It was a pretty good deal--it was a three-city tour with a fly-in to one, fly-out the other transport, travel via train between all three, very central and very good hotels with breakfast, tour guides in the morning and then lots of free time.

Being a DYI-fer when not perched on a bike, I was pretty impressed. They didn't feel as though they were on any forced march, and I know the pricing hit me as a good value. I'll get back if I find anything concrete in my notes.

It appears that church visiting is not high on your list but you've never seen the churches in Rome. They are incredible, even the simple ones. The frescoes, painted ceilings, sculpture, and inlaid marble are over the top. You don't have to be Catholic, Christian, or religious to appreciate these marvelous buildings.

If you have little interest in churches I will still advise you to see a few of them. Start with St. Peter's Basilica (Vatican City), Santa Maria Maggiore (near Termini), Pantheon, Santa Maria Supra Minerva (very close to the Pantheon). If you don't fall in love with Roman (or Italian) churches you will still be very impressed.