Heart of Italy tour in 9 days

I suggest you review some tour reports posted by others who have taken this tour. Also, check out tour scrapbooks to get an idea of what a Rick Steves tour is like. You will have a great time!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/heart-of-italy-general-report

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/trip-report-heart-of-italy

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/heart-of-italy-trip-report-june-16-25-2023

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks

I took this tour a few years ago. I really enjoyed it, but I must warn you that it might be a bit heavy on museums for your children. You know them and their interests best, but based on my knowledge of teens from teaching high school for many years, I would have a slight concern on this issue.

You will get a nice introduction to Italy both in the two cities and then in two more rural areas. RS is a master of logistics and the tour guides add a great deal to the experience. I added up the cost of taking 7 people on one tour and I realized that you must be feeling quite stressed on the planning to be considering this. The tour is great, but you may want to consider getting help in planning a more personalized trip for your family.

I've been on three RS tours, and I can't imagine taking kids of those ages on the tour that you are looking at. I know that some people have taken their kids on tours, but mainly the demographics skew much older. And, yes, you'll be doing a lot of standing around in museums, which could get real boring real fast.

Have you looked at the Family Tours or the My Way Tours that Rick offers?

Thanks for the helpful replies. I wanted to find someone to help customize the trip but that is what I am having a hard time doing. There is so much information out there and so many different companies. Any recommendations? Where to look for one?

I echo the suggestion that you explore a My Way tour. You'll have someone drive you and arrange your hotels, which is SO helpful, but also more flexibility on how you spend your time. Your younger kids will love you for that. If you've used RS guidebooks you know his sensibility about hotel type and location, so you know what type of place you'll be staying. Have a wonderful adventure!

If you post what you’d like your itinerary to be you’ll get a lot of help and advice here

It really sounds like this may be a case where an experienced travel agent would be helpful. The challenge would be to find the right one.

Are you actually 4 adults and 3 children/teens?

And planning may not be so overwhelming if you go step by step. For example, you could start researching online by booking flight and a hotel for your group in your first city on a resource such as Expedia or Booking.com. or find an apartment large enough fo your group, then add airfare. That would give you a basis. Then add hotels for additional cities.

But obviously you need to focus first on where you want to go - you could use the RS tour itineraries as templates. For a large group, you should perhaps focus on major cities, which you can connect via train. You say you often travel, so you probably have the skills to pull this off.

Here is the link to the my way tour for Italy
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy/my-way-italy

We are a family of 7. Husband and myself with 5 kids ages 22, 19, 17, 15, 13. I looked at the my way Italy trip. It looks great but we cannot be gone for 13 days. We were looking at 10. I just need some hand holding with transportation between locations and hotels/vrbo. I would rather pay for some help than stress and do it myself.

We have never traveled to Europe. A lot of beach vacations where we just relax at resorts. So the planning involved with this is so much more.

Basically we want to do Rome, Cinque Terra, and either Venice or Florence. Maybe a day trip to Pompeii?

I understand where you are coming from. The idea of trip planning for 7 seems a bit overwhelming to me and I have planned several European vacations. My challenge is that I don't know any agencies that do this either. I'm sure there are some out there so maybe someone else will know one. RS Europe used to offer trip planning consultations but has not done that since the covid shut-down. I wonder if you could call and see if one of their staff might be willing to take this on for you anyway?

If you don't find someone, we can try to help here. These are some of the things we would need to know to try to help.
Where are you traveling from? What are your priorities for this trip? What types of lodging situations are you looking for. An Apartment big enough for all? Two or Three hotel rooms? What types of transportation are you envisioning.? Rental Car (might be a challenge for that size group), train/bus? Does that 10 days include travel days to and from Europe or is it 10 days on the ground?

There are a lot of kind people on this forum and I know that they will do their best to help.

If non of you have ever traveled to Europe, maybe a Rick Steve's tour makes sense. You could do a lot worse. You will learn how to manage travel logistics and enjoy Italy.
Heart of Italy was my first Italian tour, and it was a really good taste of Italy.

If you can afford it, I say go!

I get it not wanting to plan out the logistics of transportation and lodging and where to eat. The tour relieves you of those responsibilities. And planning for 7 folks is more than planning for one or two. Consider giving the RS tour office a call and sharing your concerns. Your kids don't seem that young to me, and there are enough of them to hang out together if they want to escape adults - and any seniors like me. I have been on 10 tours, teenagers were on maybe half of them. What do your kids think? How do they want to spend time?

BTW, there is an oldie but maybe goodie video in the RS archives of him travelling with his teens and how they and the adults split their time so as to give each other space.

As to itinerary - well, read closely. There is quite a bit of free time. In addition, if you don't like a certain planned activity, or even dinner, tell the guide you are taking time out on your own. The real obligations are to be on the bus and not hold others up when moving from town to town. Always make sure you tell the guide if you are not participating in something. It's easy.

Another Italy tour to consider is the Venice, Florence, Rome tour in 10 days. You trade off a bit of countryside for three nights in each location, which gives a certain kind of leisure/freedom. And, you have two bus rides vs three - less bus time, more you time.

I like to minimize the stress of travel - each trip is different. If I have been working extra hard, maybe I don't have the energy to plan too much. Sometimes I add time before or after a tour on my own, but it is often when I get on the bus or meet the group, that the vacation starts.

Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy yourselves.

Thanks so much. All great responses and giving me a lot to think about. I am gonna sleep on it and keep doing some research. I will definitely give them a call tomorrow and see what advice they have for me.

This is a surprise for our kids. A Christmas gift to them for our 25th wedding anniversary. 🤔

I too was very overwhelmed by the idea of planning my first European trip. To the point that I considered a cruise…and that is really not my travel style at all! I browsed around online for itineraries that included the areas i wanted to go until I found something that inspired me and made it seem not so hard to figure out. I used one I found on a travel blog as a starting point.

My daughter and I are planning to go to Switzerland and Italy in June for her high school graduation trip. Once I had the “bare bones” I picked up the RS guidebooks and read them all the way through. Then I gave my rough idea to my daughter and got her involved in planning as much as possible. The hard part about planning a group trip is being the only one responsible for all the choices made. Assign tasks to your family members. Maybe you all have a meeting and agree on about 3 locations to visit in your 10 days. Then either divide it up by location, or assign one person (or teams of 2) all lodging, another all tours, another restaurants etc. Find some way to get everyone involved and invested in the planning so everyone knows what is going on when you get there (and no one person gets blamed for something that goes sideways-which it inevitably will).

I think your hardest thing will be finding lodging for your group of 7, especially since all are pretty much adult-sized. You can do this! But don’t take it all on by yourself.

One more thought: Be sure to ask the RS office about sleeping accommodations. Usually most of their hotel rooms hold two people max.

Rough Guides, mainly known for their excellent travel guidebooks, offers a personalized trip planning service. According to their website, there is an option to get a personalized trip plan where you make all the arrangements yourself, and one where they make the bookings for you and offer 24/7 support. I do not know anyone who has used them or what it costs, but it might be something to investigate.

Once you've told your kids, assign each one a day to plan with deadline of mid January so you can arrange for tickets to attractions. If you have time when you're together during the holidays, watch some of RS videos on those destinations. Florence is by far my favorite European city because I love Renaissance art and it's an easy city for walking and I'm not a fan of Venice, but I suspect your kids would prefer Venice. If so, you might want to fly to Venice and then work your way South to leave from Rome.

...cannot be gone for 13 days...looking at 10 days...we want to do Rome, Cinque Terra, and either Venice or Florence.

With your limited amount of time, I would suggest flying into Venice, then going to Florence, and then to Rome and flying back from there. Forget the CT and Pompeii. Just not enough time, in my opinion.

Steves has a tour that goes to those three cities. Reading the itenerary for that tour should give you a good idea how to plan a visit to them. And his guide books for those cities are excellent. Additional research on this site may lead you to some local guides if you aren't comfortable guiding it yourself. I have mixed feeling about using a travel agent to just do the hotel part of the trip, but it might be worth considering.

The folks on this forum have a wealth of knowledge, and they are willing to share it. You can pull this off!

Be sure to get all the kids involved in the planning. The more they are invested, the less likely you'll have unhappy campers.

I have not taken any Rick Steves tours, so i can't comment on how it will fit for your family. I have however planned a trip to Italy for 6 people and I can say it was a lot of work. I like the idea on this forum of considering a My Way Tour of Italy. That way your lodging and transportation is handled and you only have to plan for the fun stuff :).

One note on transportation. Tuscany is best explored by car. We were able to rent a mini-van for 6 people with only 20" and 21" inch suitcases and backpacks. My niece had to have luggage on her lap to fit us all in. With 7, you are likely going to need two cars and while it is fairly easy to drive in Tuscany, it is something that you will need to be comfortable with.

Train transport is easy in italy as well. The thing you will have to think of here is getting everyone on and off the train. With six people, for me at times it was like herding cats.

We were looking at 10.( days)
Basically we want to do Rome, Cinque Terra, and either Venice or Florence. Maybe a day trip to Pompeii?

If you find a travel agent who gives you all of this in just 10 days is one you should run away from.

Here is an RS tour that hits "the big 3" and is 10 days
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy/venice-florence-rome

Your wish list is too scattered and numerous to do in 10 days and be enjoyable ( vs "we survived")