Rick's 17 days in Italy Tour

Check elsewhere on this RS web site for tours - members comments - lots of input about all of his tours.

I've also been wondering about others experiences on one of Rick's tours and have not really found the link that the previous poster is referring to as helpful. I think this is the only forum for travelers to ask questions of others

I have been on the 17 day tour. Best trip of my life. A great, if not quick, overview of Northern Italy. I certainly know where I will go back (Cinque Terre, Venice) and don't need to again (Pisa). Fast paced, but plenty of free time. It's lovely having someone drive and make your hotel arrangements so you can focus on having a good time. Great group, truly no grumps, excellent guide (Robin Dority). I went in late April/early May and had only one day of bad weather.

I think the prior poster was referring to the "tour member feedback" section of this site (not the graffiti wall). Click on Tours, then "tour member feedback" on the right hand side. They really do print what you submit so the reviews are honest.

Cath (and Chris),

Here is the link for the tour feedback, uncensored and candid. I'm giving you the link for the main page, not just Italy, in case you are interested in other tours as well (or for other viewers who might be interested).

http://tours.ricksteves.com/evaluation/publicevals/

Thanks for giving me that great website. I access rickssteves.com often but never knew about the reviews. I read them all! Really looking forward to our trip even more now than ever.

Wow...thanks for that link..I must have missed this link and it is helpful. We are taking the 10 day Venice, Florence and Rome tour in October but are arriving 15 days ahead of time. This is my first trip to Italy and I have devoured most of the info in RS' guides. I was most surprised to learn of unscheduled surprises like vineyard stops and gondola rides which seems to have added more whip cream to the cake! Very impressive.

One of the questions I had was about using the free time for some of the sights that are not included but may reguire reservations i.e. Campanile in Venice, a tour of Underground Rome and/or the Catacombs or the Borghese. We are bypassing the cities on our first 15 days, instead heading to Assisi, Siena and CT before meeting in Venice.

I have been on 2 Rick Steves city tours, and they were fabulous. I'm sure yours will be too if you go on one. Worth every penny.

A friend of mine took one of Rick's tours and loved it. I thought she was crazy to take an escorted tour but then she showed me her itinerary. I like the fact that there is free time on the tours to do as you please. I think it is important that people explore on their own as well as seeing main sights. It makes sense that Rick's tour would offer this as when it comes down to it Rick is all about independent travel.

Re: bag size - the only enforcement is your ability to haul, carry, or drag your bag. The guideline is intended to protect you from yourself, since you do all your own luggage hauling. You do stay in small hotels, centrally located, with many stairs - the smaller the bag, the easier it will be for you to lug it up, around, and over. That said, plenty of people on my trip had bags bigger than the recommended size and they were fine.

Re: reserveable locations/free time. Depending on what you're trying to see and when, you can ask your guide on day 1 or 2 what they envision the schedule to be and whether they can tell you what times for reservations may be best. In some cases, I would suspect they'll even help you make the arrangements. I made several reservations (eg Borghese Gallery/Rome) from internet cafes on the road.

We are taking a wheeled bag each. We are spending time with family in London before we start the 17 days in Italy tour. We will be checking our bags. Mine is the 'Rick Steves' bag on wheels style, but my husband's is slightly larger. Are they really rigid on how big your bag is? Is the 14 x 22" measurements (as they say in the Pre-Tour Handbook) really enforced?
Thanks for any info on this.