long2travl

My husband and I are wanting to take a very good guided tour that would include a couple of days in these cities: London, Paris and Rome in July 2009. We will purchase extra days on the front and tail ends of the tour. We have only traveled on a Tauck tour to Alaska, which was good. However, Tauck does not do the type of tour mentioned above. I would recommend any suggestions so that I don't book a disaster tour.

rogeruktm

Can't you just make arrangements with local tour companies at each city?

suec1

I think the tour company Go Ahead tours has an itinerary like this - we did an Italy tour with them quite a few years ago - it worked for us although now we prefer to travel independently. But to cover alot of ground and hit the "must sees" of each city, a tour can be a good choice. The food on the tour was mediocre - hopefully you will have alot of meals on your own - it will be easy to find restaurants in any of those cities.

long2travl

My husband believes we can relax more if we don't have to do the driving or the "thinking" about where to go next. IN reviewing the Globus tour, there is organized sightseeing on one day, and then a free day to pick up other excursions that you may with to do. I'm trying to learn if this would be a good tour company to book with.

rogeruktm

Not being a "tour" type person I shouldn't be responding, however, friends thought Globus was a bit lacking. They took it based on its price.

bratsandbeer

There are several depending upon what you want to spend.

http://www.brendanvacations.com/Fron...amp;RegionID=2

I have never been on any tours except to Russia so I can't tell you anything about the companies.

My sister has been on tours with Trafalgar and she said they were good. They have First Class tours and also cheaper tours.

ira

Hi L2,

London-Paris-Rome is a piece of cake to do by yourself.

Why pay extra for a tour company, especially if you are going to add on extra days?

There a lots of guided tours within these cities.

ira

PS,

>My husband believes we can relax more if we don't have to do the driving or the "thinking" about where to go next.<

You will fly into London - 6 nights.

You will take the Eurostar to Paris - 6 nights,.

You will fly www.myair.com to Venice - 2 nights.

You will take the train to Florence - 2 nights.

You will take the train to Rome - 4 nights.

You will fly home.

What's to think about?

If in each city, you wish to hire a guide, there are many available.

adrienne

I responded to your question on the other tour thread.

suze

If it's Globus particularly you are considering, you might want to put that in the title of your post.

The majority of people here on Fodor's are avid self-planners so there's a smaller percentage with personal experience taking organized group tours.

bozama

I get that some poeple like tours. I am not going to suggest you do otherwise if you don't want to, but do be careful which tour you choose.

My MIL took a Globus tour and found it exhausting, up very early,, and go go go,, also some of the hotels were not very central, so "free" time involved either figuring out public transport ( which, if only somewhere for a day or two can be challenging, especially with language issues) , or you take the "Optional" tours, which add up to alot .
Take a higher end tour and pay less with nickel and diming.

Have you looked at Rick Steves tours, they are very good, NO optional extras, hotels were central( except in Alps, which you are not interested in anyways) . Part of every tour includes how to use the public transport ie: in Venice they showed up how the Vaporetto works, and gave us one day passes for it for our free day.
They also use excellant local guides in major cities( as well as their own guide) .

Only problem( for some people) with RS tours, is you carry your own luggage and you will walk, lots.

cinquanta

long2travl,
This is a great site for independent travel info, but you won't find too many "Tour" people on here.
I like to do both. Take a tour for about 7-10 days and spend another week on our own. I have used Trafalgar and Globus, and liked them both. Globus is a little better for what is included in the price but it is a little more expensive than Trafalgar.
I have only done the 'leisure tours' and had a great time. It is nice to meet the other people in the tour and usually everybody is pretty nice. Globus has something called Monograms. You can take day tours with them but I don't think you have to stay with a group.
Trafalgar has a very active forum on it's website and Globus should have something similar.
Our trip next year will be on our own so I will be getting as much info from Fodor's as possible.