Escorted Tour advice

I've done 7 Rick Steves tours and 4 Road Scholar tours - 2 in the US and 2 in Europe. I have not done Gate 1 or Perillo. I would ask your travel agent if she has ever taken one of the tours, if not then ask her about what kind of commission she gets from various companies. Also ask if she has ever traveled to Europe. Your view changes on what is important when you do go! You know on this site you are probably going to get opinions from all of us who love, love, love Rick's tours! They work for me!

There are some Gate 1 reviews on the Senior forum at Trip Advisor. I haven't seen any Perillo reviews that I remember but that doesn't mean there aren't any. There is not a specific forum on Trip Advisor to review multi day tours so it's pretty difficult to get an accurate assessment.

You'll need to do some leg work on comparing tours. Set up a spreadsheet if you are computer savvy. Here are some things to know when you look at tour lingo. Compare numbers of days, knowing that the last day on a tour is usually just breakfast and go. Day 1 can vary. On Rick's tours it is the day you meet up with the guide and group for the first time. On the Road Scholar tours they count Day 1 as the day you leave the US and Day 2 as the day you arrive in your destination.

-If the itinerary says see or view it usually means a site is seen from the outside. If it says visit that means you go inside. Check to see if your entrance fees are paid and for which sights.
-Check the location of the hotels. I prefer to be in the City Center so I can walk to various sites in my free time. Some tours, especially the less expensive ones, will stay on the outskirts of a city so you are stuck there in free time.
-Tips - Are they included? Road Scholar and Rick Steves tours include all tips. If it is not mentioned, you are expected to tip a certain amount per person per day for guide and possibly bus driver.
-Meals - How many are included? Rick has about half the dinners included. Road Scholar has almost all dinners included. Frankly, I prefer to be able to go out and find my own dining options and get away from the group a bit!

One thing I love about the Rick tours is that the guides emphasize teaching tour members how to travel independently. You have a local transportation lesson, then you go somewhere, then you have some time on your own to use your skills!

I also love the balance of escorted time and free time on a Rick tour.

One thing also to consider is that you get what you pay for. A cheaper tour may get you hotels in awkward areas because they are less expensive.

Whatever you decide, do plan to get to your destination a couple of days ahead of time. You need some time to adjust to jet lag and the local time.

I've done a Perillo Italy tour. It was a new tour for them and so it was really small...15 people....they don't run that tour anymore, looking at their brochure. Most of their tour group numbers look to range from 20 - 40 now, which is quite a spread. RS tours are smaller than that generally. I've also done a RS tour of Scotland. How do I compare them? I liked the people better on the RS tour but I did enjoy most of the people on the Perillo Tour.

My Perillo Tour used higher-end hotels than my RS tour. My RS tour had a guide I really liked and a bus driver who I loved. My Perillo Tour had an okay guide.

I haven't done a Gate 1 tour but I've traveled with their direct competitor, Smartours. They are large groups...there were 48 people on my Turkey tour. But it was actually fine. Gate 1 uses more commercial tourist-type hotels. If you check their hotel list against TripAdvisor ratings for each city, you'll see that Gate 1 generally uses well-rated hotels. The big caveat for Gate 1 is that there are a lot of optional add-on excursions, which can really add up.

Which company you choose probably comes down to which tour features are most crucial for you. Can you lug your own suitcase around? Do you like smaller, centrally-located hotels? Then RS tours might be a great fit.

Are you mostly cost-focused? Then Gate 1 is a fine bet, just be aware of the add-on cost.

How old is your daughter? I took my 11-year-old on the RS Scotland and it worked out just fine. I wouldn't have wanted a child with me on the Smartours or the Perillo as there were no children whatsoever.

Valerie and Pam,
Thank you for your input. It is much appreciated.

Pam, I am spreadsheet savvy and will definitely get to work on that.

Valerie, my daughter will be 12 years old. She is excited to go and has an interest in art and history like myself. Probably because she has listened to me go on and on about it her whole life. Ha, ha. I'm glad that you mentioned your preference when a child is involved. That does make a huge difference.

I have an additional question. Since RS doesn't provide air, do you go ahead and use a travel agent for that? I saw that Rick suggests that first. I have been watching sites like Kayak, Travelocity, Hipmunk, etc. and my head spins by how much fluctuation there is.

Also, do you book tour first, then air? Or the other way around?

Sincerely, your novice traveler,
Bridget

I've only taken one Perillo Tour and one Smartours and I just looked at their websites to confirm that you can take a child, which you can. But I can't somehow see a kid on either tour. Did you call their 800 numbers to ask if kids go on their tours in summer? My Perillo was in May and Smartours in October so kids were in school an unlikely to travel. My RS Scotland was in August. We had three girls on the tour: my 11-year-old, a 14 y.o girl and a 17 y.o girl. The kids did not mix AT ALL...they were just far enough apart that they did not bond a bit. My daughter didn't care though - she was happy with me, my mom and a couple of single schoolteachers she took a shine to.

Pick your tour before you pick your flights. What airport do you fly out of from the US?

One other thing, Bridget - Once you've picked your tour and flights, be sure to check in here on a couple of other things...unless you've already got them all sorted out. I traveled as a single mom with my daughter and there were two important additional hoops for us. We had to get her a passport without both parents present, which required bringing an extra form to the passport application place. Also, I traveled with a notarized consent to travel letter from my daughter's father, just to be safe. I'm happy to give you info on doing these two things:)

Valerie,
I live near Springfield IL, but I plan to fly out of Chicago, IL. I did know that we had to have both parents to get my daughter a passport and plan to do that soon. I hadn't thought of the notarized letter. You must have felt it was necessary. What would I need to do?

I agree to book the tour first and get the confirmation from RS.

I book my own airfare but I figure I know the flight schedules in and out of my small local airport better than many. Do book directly with your airline of choice instead of a 3rd party. Also be aware that some of the prices you may see on the 3rd party sites are not live so when you go to book the low, low fare it's not available.

Bridget, a number of people book flights to have a day or two before the tour and after -- sometimes can book the same hotels the tour will use.

As to the notarized letter, I was required to have one when I took my daughter on a Caribbean cruise...Princess cruise line wouldn't let me travel without one. From there onward, I carried one, just in case. It was super easy to do. We just drafted one that said I had his permission to take our daughter on xxxx trip to Europe and I had his full consent to make any medical care decisions necessary. It was about three sentences long...notarized at our bank.

And as to flights out of Chicago, Delta will sell you flights that aren't bad. I took random dates in June and you can fly into Venice (with a stopover) and nonstop home from Rome to Chicago for about $1100 per person. That is really pretty darn good for June!!!
You can book those flights on your own on Delta. There's one available with a 2 hour and 40 minute layover in Rome, which would be totally safe for getting you to Venice. And even if you somehow didn't make it, 1) you're just a 3hr 45 minute train ride from Rome to Venice and 2) there's another flight 2 hr and 20 minutes after your flight.

Your nonstop home out of Rome couldn't be easier.

Hi Bridget (hope I got that right!), one thing to keep in mind in planning for your air ticket is "multi-city" airfare, also known as "open jaws" airfare. Too many newcomers to this forum learn about this important concept AFTER they have bought their ticket, and then regret that. The concept of multi-city tickets are that if you are taking a trip where your first stop and final stop are some distance away, is that you at least consider and compare schedules and fares that arrive near your first stop, and depart near your final stop. Such as fly into Venice and fly out of Rome. That would save you the time and money required to backtrack to your starting point, if you simply had a round trip ticket. Most airlines web sites and travel sites make it easy to put in multi-city information. Sometimes you find the multi-city fares about equal to round-trip, but sometimes not. But remember, even if the multi-city fare is somewhat higher, you are saving the time and expense of traveling back to your first airport, an expense which sometimes includes a final hotel night near your initial airport, just to catch a flight. Also, my advice is to seek out schedules, when possible, that DO NOT arrive late at night, or leave very early in the morning. Remember you often need one, two or more hours before or after flight arrival or departure, in airport procedures and travel between airports and cities and hotels. So many times on this forum we have people basically saying: "my return flight leaves at 7:00 am and I am supposed to be at the airport two hours before. Where should I sleep, and then how will I get to the airport that early?" I say, avoid that if you can.

bridget,

I'm not familiar with the other two tours you mentioned, but I think you will really enjoy the RS Venice, Florence & Rome tour. They're a lot of fun and you'll learn a lot about the history, culture and foods of the cities you visit. All of the RS guides are exceptional, both the lead guides as well as local guides, and the drivers are also incredible.

One point to consider is that RS does not market tours through travel agencies, so your travel agent may be promoting the tours that pay commissions. I'd suggest trying a RS tour this time, and after one tour I think you'll be "hooked" (I've taken eight RS tours).

Depending on how much holiday time you have available, it would be easily possible to see Pompeii and Capri by scheduling some time after the tour ends. By that point you will have acquired some "Italian travel skills" and should be able to manage that part of the trip on your own. Take the train from Rome to Naples and then either a private transfer or the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento. While there you can visit both Pompeii and Capri. You can book your flight home either from Naples or Rome.

As this is your first trip "across the pond", you might find it helpful to read Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip. If you sign up for the tour, you can use your tour credit to buy that as well as the Italy 2016 guidebook.

Have taken half a dozen RS tours and will take more. Can't say a bad thing about any of them. Have not taken tours with the other companies you mentioned, but have seen many other tour groups during both our guided and independent travels. No thanks! We will stay with RS tours -- smaller, big bus with enough room to move around and have some personal space, excellent food, NO extra tipping, NO shopping, NO meeting the bus at 6:30 a.m., and really interesting people. With regard to cost, the no extra tipping and not having to pay extra for group events add up so in the end the RS tours are not that much more. We never deal with third party booking sites. If you have a problem you are pretty much on your own. We simply use a travel agent we've used for years just so we don't have to deal with the small hassles that come up. If something goes awry (and it does on occasion) she goes to bat for us to resolve the problem.

I looked into Gate 1 and noticed that there are a lot of extra tours where you have to pay extra for tours so read their tour information carefully and see what is included also not many lunch/dinners so that will add up in time spent looking for places to eat and extra $$ so make sure if you are going to do any tour you know what is and is not included. I think Gate 1 is cheaper than other tours but they don't offer as much in return so you may end up spending the same $$ and another tour. For a first time traveler to Italy you may want to do a tour as you will not have the stress of planning it and will see much more than you would on your own just know what you are getting for the price.

Depending on how much holiday time you have available, it would be
easily possible to see Pompeii and Capri by scheduling some time after
the tour ends. By that point you will have acquired some "Italian
travel skills" and should be able to manage that part of the trip on
your own

I was thinking the same thing, Ken. Travelers on this forum have frequently mentioned having added days for independent travel before or after a tour, and much of Italy is easy to get around on one's own. Definitely something to consider, and we can help with the fine points of doing that?

Bridgetriedel - I sent to an email with my experiences with several tour companies.
Frances

"I would ask your travel agent if she has ever taken one of the tours, if not then ask her about what kind of commission she gets from various companies. Also ask if she has ever traveled to Europe."

Unfortunately, before you put any stock in what a travel agent says, you must get the answers to these questions. You'd be surprised (or maybe just disappointed) at how many agents have no shame about recommending things (or dissuading you from things) they have no personal knowledge about, just because of commissions.

Sure some travel agents are great. But others...

As you have already been told, when thinking of prices, be sure to include EVERYTHING. If admission to a sight is not included and you want to see it, you have to add that cost. And heed the warning about "see" vs. "visit." Most tours (not RS) will spend several hours in each city on a bus, where you whiz by numerous attractions but just see them from the moving bus window. They list all these attractions in their brochure as an enticement, but if you really want to see them without glass between you and the sight, you have to go on your own later - if there's time.

Larry's very comprehensive post about airfares omitted one thing. To find the open jaw flights he is talking about, you use the "multi city" or "multiple destinations" option on websites; for some reason, they don't use the term "open jaw" on those sites.

Your first purchase should be Rick Steves Europe Through The Back Door. The first half will have all these tips we are giving you, and thousands more. He even has a section on "bus tour survival."

I really, really, really, appreciate everyone's suggestions and help! I feel a bit more travel savvy already!

If you do take the RS "Venezia, Firenze, Roma" ten day tour, then I would advise you to arrive in Venice a day or two before the tour convenes at the hotel.

Arriving in Venice is quite a magical experience. Exit the airport, walk ten minutes to the ferry (Alilaguna) dock, buy a ticket (about 16 euro) and relax as you cross the lagoon. Alight at San Marco, walk into the Piazza, you've just entered what Napoleon was pleased to call "the drawing of Europe".

Venice punches way above her weight in terms of art and culture. Think of the Venice film festival, the Arts and Architecture Biennales, essentially the Olympics for artists and architects. An extra day or two would give you a chance to see some of the second string, sort of "off Broadway" things in Venice. Maybe the Fortuny museum, the Querini Stampalia Foundation, the Frari church, the sacristy of the Church of San Polo. All venues and places where you will never see a tour group.

I have never taken a tour but my observations of tour groups are that the RS tour members seem happier than the others. Smaller groups and more engaged guides, too.

I don't know if there are "family" tours from RS, but those might include children. On the other hand, your daughter sounds like her interests are pretty sophisticated, so maybe she doesn't need other children for companionship.

Finally, I do suggest getting into Venezia a day or two early and staying a couple of days after the tour to see some things on your own.