Hello All,
Spouse and I have taken 6 RS tours including Best of Rome and Best of Italy. We've never taken any back-to-back tours. Has anyone taken the Best of South Italy along with Best of Sicily and does it make a difference which order? We are retired and in good health. We tend to add a day or so before and after tours. We like to travel in the spring or fall. Tips and suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Not been on either tour, but logistically it might be easier to get home if you end in Naples, rather than Catania. Otherwise I can think of no reason to put one 1st and the other 2nd.
If I were doing it, I would make ease of travel be the principal factor.
I’d check your flight options and see if one order works better than the other.
I took parts of both of these trips as there used South Italy and Sicily trip. We started in Sicily and finished in Rome. I flew from the U.S. to Rome, spent some time there, and then flew to Palermo from Rome.
We have not been on either RS Tours, but we did take another Southern Italy/Sicily Tour. It started in Rome (added several days) and ended in Taormina. Logistically it worked well because we wanted to spend extra days in Ortigia, Noto, Modica and Ragusa. We then took the train to Catania (overnighted) and flew home. Our tour was in September.
My wife and I took back to back RS tours in May for the first time. These are our 15th and 16th RS tours. We took a 7 Day Rome tour first and then flew to Sicily for an 11 day RS tour. Some comments: It was nice, for our first time to be able to check into a hotel on a RS tour and stay there for the whole tour (Rome). This was also our first city tour.
The day the Rome tour was over we flew to Sicily where that tour started the next day. I would never make two tours that close together again. When we flew home to SEA we flew from Sicily back to Rome and onto Paris where we spent the night so that we could catch an early day flight back home the next day. We have spent an extra night in Europe numerous times so as to avoid having to catch a VERY early flight out of our final location. We certainly enjoyed the Sicily tour and had a great female guide.
We are doing what Charlie did-Rome, then Sicily in the spring 2019. I think you could do this logistically. Much will depend on how the tour dates sync up and flights. We did back to backs last year-Portugal and London. It was great fun. As you know, once you are in Europe getting around is pretty easy. Think about one of your Italy tours combined with another tour such as Spain, Greece, Portugal.
My response is just a shout-out to 2 incredibly special tours offered by RS which I have greatly enjoyed, so thanks for your question gt and the fabulous memories it invokes! More dates offered for Sicily tours so I suspect making it tour #1 and South Italy tour #2 can be a good plan though really, isn't it dealer's choice? Snuck a look at 2019 dates for both and noted pairings that could be made quite nicely in the month of May (personal fave timeframe for Mediterranean travel), with 3-day gap between tours (last day tour 1 ends 3 days before first day tour 2). Pacing is brisk with 2-night stays on these tours but oh the places you'll be. Truly epic in scenery, experiences, food/wine, culture, art, architecture, history. Fai buon viaggio!!
I’ve taken both tours, Sicily twice. Back to back, I would start in Rome with the Southern Italy tour followed by Sicily. If the Best of South Italy tour still ends in Naples, you could probably take a ferry from there to Palermo, something I’ve always wanted to do!
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I suppose it doesn't make a major difference which order -- can't beat visiting Italy!!! Will definitely cushion a couple days between to rest up.
