antoinettenania

I have only travelled with Insight and would recommend them because being centrally located was very important to us. For example in Venice we stayed on Venice Island. The tour was definitely not perfect (average tour guide, occasional average hotel or not centrally located) however for the most part, we did not have to do those very expensive optional extras because we were so close to the action. If you do a cheap tour, you will be further out. Ultimately if you are a person who always does all the optional extras then go with the cheaper tour, but if you prefer more independent travel go with Insight or equiv.

crefloors

My first trip to Europe was with Globus. It was very good, and I really enjoyed myself. On our tour we were two and three nights each place except Florence. That was the only one nighter and I'm glad. I would NOT do any of those tours that are constantly one night here, one night there. Our tour was quite "relaxed" by comparison with a lot of them. We actually would have had a LOT of free time if we hadn't purchased some of the extras. I think it was about 400.00 for the extra tours we took. It was good, because you could kind of suit yourself on how you wanted to do things. There was one young single guy and after our morning tour he was gone all the time out on his own. Most of the included city tours were in the morning and then the optionals or free time was in the afternoons and evenings.

Amy

I know this wasn't one of your choices, but I have to recommend Overseas Adventure Travel ( www.oattravel.com ) as a really nice alternative to the more traditional tours. They have small groups and interesting itineraries. I usually travel on my own, but OAT is a nice option for a quite decent price.

Another great option is Untours ( www.untours.com ) but that's for staying in one or two locations; it's lovely, but not if you're trying to cover a lot of area.

sumreknot

We are going Globus to Italy and Greece in less than two weeks. I have looked at all of the hotels online and read reviews of them..most of them are pretty new... and I am impressed..will provide feedback when we return...We are going to Greece on an overnight ferry, which I had envisioned to be just that..however, when I looked it up online I found that it's more like a cruise ship, with a casino, restaurants etc...It took me many hours to organize the information in a way that I was comfortable with..that is..each day what optional trips were offered and at what cost, where we would be and what we would be doing on our own. I'm glad I did because now I am very familiar with the itinerary...I typed it up and gave each of our kids the info...

Bobmrg

mscarls, our Rick Steves' tour hotel in Venice was a hop, skip, and jump from the Rialto Bridge. Of course, we didn't get the cushy treatment that you get with Tauck, et al, but you get a lot closer to the people. That's one of Rick's strong points...staying away from the four- and five-star hotels.

jersey

I also have taken an OAT tour and highly recommend then. I dislike large groups and the feeling of being herded cattle. There were seventeen people on our tour. This is the norm. I would take a tour with them in a heartbeat.

kp

I have taken several OAT tours and they have been very good. If you are considering an OAT trip one thing I've found is that the office you call for information and reservations is pretty disorganized and the operators not as well informed as they should be.
I also have taken a Globus tour and the trip was OK--the guide was terrible, downright rude to clients.

ladystack

Does anyone have experience with small tour companies that specialize in Italy?

crefloors

The tour director on the Globus Tour I took, was just fabulous. She was like a "mother hen", very knowledgeable, and knew how to be friendly without being familiar. Our driver was just amazing, he could thread that bus through the eye of a needle.

Granted, Globus has many tour directors and I'm sure some's better than others. We had to leave our hotel in Rome at 4:00 a.m., and our director was up and waiting in the lobby to see us all off even though she was picking up a tour that afternoon and backtracking our route. We stopped at another hotel to pick up another group on the way to the airport and their director was no where in site. Didn't mean he didn't do a good tour, but just not that "extra touch".

If I had a bad director, I would have written or faxed the main office in Lugano and complained about him/her.