Rick Steves Tour of Southern Italy and the Amalfi Coast

Hello, and welcome to the Forum.

My husband and I took this tour a few years ago, and enjoyed it very much. It's a great mix of places you've heard of before, and places that were new to us.

It's hard to say "Oh, the hotels were great," not knowing what your own experiences, expectations, and requirements are. But I just went back through the notes I made during the tour, and evidently, I was impressed with the hotels. The least positive thing I noted about any of the rooms was "small, but fine, with a balcony." All were clean, well-kept, with great staff and good breakfasts.

The bus was large enough that there were two seats per person, which is usual on Rick Steves tours.

Should you sign up for the tour, you will told within a couple of days what the first and last hotels are, allowing you to make reservations for pre- and post-tour stays well in advance.

I did post a trip report; here's the link. Let me know if you have any other questions. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/best-of-south-italy-may-23-june-4-2022-tour-report

I have gone on 11 RS tours, including South Italy in 2024. It was one of my favorites, in no small part because of our amazing tour leader. All of the RS guides have been terrific. This one was really fun and lively on top of being knowledgeable and organized. Having wonderful guides adds so much to these trips.

Right after you sign up for a trip, you will be given the names of the first and last hotels so that you can make arrangements if you want to add extra days. The names of the rest of the hotels are sent about one month before the tour begins. In the case of the South Italy tour, our first hotel was Hotel Smeraldo in Rome, very well-located and often recommended on this discussion board. The final hotel in Naples was Grand Hotel Oriente. This was one of the”fanciest” hotels I’ve experienced on a RS tour, again very well-located.

That said, RS does not always use the same hotels on every tour because he favors smaller, often family-run hotels. I have found virtually all of them quite comfortable, sometimes a bit “quirky,” with friendly and helpful staff. He warns that some hotels do not have elevators or air conditioning , but I have only experienced that a handful of times. The locations are always quite central so that it’s easy to explore during your free time. By the way, this is another aspect of the tours that I like. - a good balance of organized and free time.

Yes, you travel on a large bus. It’s full size and could hold perhaps 50 or more people. Since the tours are limited to 28 (my experience has been more in the range of 22-25), there’s plenty of room to spread out and have a window seat if you want. The rides on this trip are not particularly long, but even then, the guide makes this a part of the trip, speaking about culture, history, geography and more during the ride. Stops are made at least every couple hours (Europe mandates a rest stop for the driver), sometimes just to stretch legs and other times to see a sight along the way.

Rick uses full-sized tour buses. Very comfortable and with a maximum of 28 people on the tour plenty of room to spread out. There are a couple of long travel days on the tour so this was appreciated. Buses are modern and air conditioned. You never go more than a couple of hours without break on long travel days. The drivers are amazing coping with insane traffic in Rome, narrow twisting roads in Puglia and keeping us supplied with refrigerated water on long trips.

You will get the name of your first hotel when you sign up so you can see if it’s a good location for your own time in Rome. We were near the Vatican Museum which was not my preferred location but it worked for us as the museum was at that time included in the tour. On our tour everone’s favourite hotel was the one built into the caves of the Sassi in Matera. All the hotels on my tour were comfortable and some had interesting histories.

Would you mind letting us know the name of the hotel in Matera?

Several years ago on the RS tour we stayed at Locanda di San Martino Hotel in Matera. Of course, RS doesn’t necessarily use the same hotels in any given spot.

After 11 years and 12 tours I can tell you that the hotels in my opinion have gotten better. They are not 5 Star although a few such as the agritourism spa on the Best of Italy tour and one in the vineyards on the Village Italy tour were both very nice. Normally, they’re small, family run, close to the center of town and clean.

@mlgutt One useful tool that will give you a better idea of Risk Steves tours is the tour alumni scrapbooks. I see that there are two entries from 2024. Entries for 2025 tours are trickling in slowly. https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks

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

@ekscrunchy We also stayed at Locanda San Martino Thermae in Matera in 2023.

Thank you!! I stayed at that hotel on my first visit to Matera, about 15 years ago!! It was lovely!!