Tours FAQ

What are guided tours and escorted tours in Italy like, which are right for you, and what questions you should ask before taking a tour

Should I travel alone in Italy or join an Italian tour?

Or do you like it somewhere in between, with some of the travel details planned for you so you can devote your energies to planning your daily sightseeing?

The answers to these questions will determine whether you should choose a guided tour or a package tour or travel à la carte under your own steam and ambition.

The escorted tour (or, "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Parma")

Some people love escorted tours. They free you from figuring out complicated train schedules in a foreign language or spending lots of time behind the wheel; they take care of all the details of booking hotels, (often) choosing restaurants, and deciding where to go and how long to stay, and they walk you through—or bus you past—every attraction with an accompanying monologue on its history and importance.

You know your costs up front, and there aren't many surprises. Escorted tours take you to the maximum number of sights in the minimum amount of time with the least amount of hassle.

TIP
If you do choose an escorted tour, think strongly about purchasing travel insurance, especially if the tour operator asks to you pay up front. But don't buy insurance from the tour operator!

If the operator doesn't fulfill its obligation to provide you with the vacation you've paid for, there's no reason to think it will honor the insurance either.

Get travel insurance through an independent agency. Reputable third party insurers such as Travel Guard (www.travelguard.com) are surveyed by the comparison site InsureMyTrip.com (www.insuremytrip.com).Other people need more freedom and spontaneity; they can't stand escorted tours. They prefer to discover a destination by themselves, and don't mind getting caught in a thunderstorm without an umbrella or finding that a recommended restaurant in the guidebook is no longer in business. For them, that's just the adventure of travel. And For them, the rest of this site is chock full of travel tips and advice (plus easy-to-follow itineraries for do-it-yourselfers).

Escorted tours tend to ride comfortably and unimaginatively in the deepest ruts of the beaten path, eschewing anything novel and treating the bulk of Italy like so many living postcards to be ogled from the tinted windows of an air-conditioned bus. Big bus tours tend to write off even the most interesting sights if a big parking lot is not nearby. » more

The specialty tour

Specialty tours are often an exception to the "deepest-rut" rule that plagues plain-vanilla escorted tours.

A specialty tour is any tour with a theme or focus: could be cooking classes and culinary highlights of Sicily or a bike tour through Tuscany, a walking trip in the Italian Alps or a religious tour of Italy's pilgrimage sites, a week of language classes in Rome or simply a tour group packed with like-minded or otherwise similar travelers (whether brainiacs or lesbians or the handicapped or families or seniors...).

I break out lists of these groups and the tour companies that serve them on this page. » more

Some questions to ask before you book any tour

Before you sign up for any kind of tour, you need to ask some questions.

• What is the cancellation policy? Do you have to put a deposit down? Can the company cancel the trip if they don't get enough people? How late can you cancel if you are unable to go? When do you pay? Do you get a refund if you cancel? How about if they cancel?
• How jam-packed is the schedule? Do they try to fit 25 hours' worth of activities into one day, or is there ample time for relaxing by the pool or shopping? If you don't enjoy getting up at 7am every day and not returning to your hotel until 6 or 7pm at night, certain whirlwind escorted tours may not be for you.
• How big is the group? The smaller the group, the more flexible the schedule, and the less time you'll spend waiting for people to get on and off the bus. Also, the larger the group, the more some quaint little village will treat you like an invading barbarian horde to be fended off by throwing large amounts of overpriced souvenirs in your general direction. Tour operators may be evasive about group size until they know how many people have signed on, but they should be able to give you a rough estimate. Some tours have a minimum group size and may cancel the tour if they come up short. The best tours have a maximum group size—and a low one at that.
• What is included in the tour? Don't assume anything. You may have to pay to get yourself to and from the airport (in tour lingo, this is called the "airport transfer"). Daily sightseeing might be included, or might be an "optional tour" (see below). A box lunch may be included in an excursion, but drinks might cost extra. Beer might be included but not wine. How much choice do you have? Can you opt out of certain activities, or are you committed for a full day? Are all your meals planned in advance? Can you choose your entree at dinner, or does everybody get the same chicken cutlet?
• How much is "optional?" Many tours look cheap but are larded with the phrases "optional excursion" and "optional tour." That's brochure-speak for "you have to pay more if you want to do this." The brochures will make it out like they're giving you more choices so you can custom-tailor your trip; what they're actually doing is milking you for more and more money.

The case for being your own guide

If you think an escorted tour or specialty tour is right for you, you can go right to the links to operators. However, first let me make a plea for traveling solo instead.

The bulk of this site is designed to help you get a handle on going it alone and loving it. There are literally hundreds of pages here filled with all the hints, tips, and tools you'll need to plan your own Italian odyssey and explain how to cope with any difficulties (think of them as adventure) you'll encounter along the way.

Travelers who take their entire trip into their own hands have to spend more time planning and troubleshooting, but they almost invariably have the most fun. They see exactly what they want to see, choose lodgings and restaurants that fit their own tastes and budget, dally when they feel like it, or speed up the itinerary if necessary. Best of all, they get an entirely unique experience and take on Italy.

You could be encased in a climate-controlled bus, trundling from city to city in the company of 58 other Americans and learning more than you ever wanted to know about the hometown of the person sitting next to you. Or you could be learning about Rome in a second-class train couchette as you share your picnic lunch with a motley group of local young soldiers, middle-aged nuns, and ancient farmers.

On your own, you have the freedom to say to blazes with the Medici Chapels or that folklore show, and instead spend the day hiking in the countryside, shopping in boutiques, or whatever catches your fancy. You can spend the whole day inside the Uffizi instead of being hustled through in an hour.

Of course, when things go wrong, you're the one that has to fix them, and often you must do so in Italian (though, honestly, just about everyone over there understands enough English to help you get by—or they know someone who does). But treat every dilemma as an adventure, and memories about any crisis can prove to be the highlight of your trip—a humorous tale with which to regale your jealous friends back home.

Traveling on your own forces you to get in touch with Italy and learn more about the locals and their culture. You go from being part of a tour bus crowd to being a single guy or gal, a little lost and in need of help. Smile wide, say grazie ("thank you") a lot, and rely on the kindness of strangers.

It's the lone explorer and her family who are more likely to be invited into the cellar to sample a cup of the family's Chianti straight from the barrel or be let into the museum for a quick look around, even though it closes in half an hour.

OK, Lecture over. If you'd still feel more comfortable in the the hands of an experienced guide, below are links to some of the tour companies that run the best-regarded tours to Italy.

Tips & links

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