Tour companies

Your travel agent is trying to make some money off of you by having you take expensive transfers and book hotels where they get a commission. Italy is a very easy country to do yourself. You can find hotels all over the country by using sites like venere.com and hotels.com. The reviews on venere.com are done by people who have completed a stay so they can be trusted. The local trains are not dangerous in any way. There may be some pick pockets on board but if you use a money belt and keep a hand on your luggage you'll be fine. It's just like any other big city, you must use normal precautions. Violent crime is almost unheard of so you don't need to worry about your safety. The train is the cheapest and easiest way to get from Naples to Sorrento. It takes about an hour and costs less than 15 euros each. You can easily book any tours you wish to take on your own for much cheaper than through a travel agent. You can book the time and date you want and not rely on someone else to pick that for you. If you let us know your dates and interests, the cities you wish to visit and your budget we can make suggestions for you. You should grab a few guide books to determine what it is you wish to see and what's important for you. Don't let anyone tell you that you "must" visit this city or that site. Those are decisions for you to make, not some stranger. All in all, I think your travel agent has painted a bad picture of Italy in order to sell you services that are not needed. Italy is a very safe country and in all my many many visit I have never had an issue, even when traveling alone. Get a money belt, don't use a backpack and be aware of your surroundings and you'll be fine. Donna

Re: general safety, we found the rail system to be generally modern and clean, if you take the high-speed trains. That said, Naples is not known to the the safest city (especially certain areas of Naples). Re: whether to book a tour or not.......there are some really good tours and there are some tours that are not so good. Find out what you just see from a bus (drive by) vs. what you actually get to tour w/ a guide, etc. Do you get early admission, or are you herded in with crowds, etc.? Generally, I think you get what you pay for. Two reliable companies are Rick Steves' ETBD (click on the Tours icon on this site) and Tauck Tours. Tauck stays in very high-end hotels and provides dining at very fine restaurants, etc. Rick's tours stay in nice places and are more active tours....more walking, more use of mass transit, etc. Both are very good companies and both have very good guides. In our experience,Tauck tour goers tend to be about 10-15 years older than what we have experienced on Rick's tours. On a packaged tour guides help you to understand what you are seeing and put in the context of history/contemporary times. You also have the joy of traveling with other generally well-traveled people...we've always enjoyed everyone with whom we have shared journeys. That said, though, the disadvantage of group travel is that you follow a set itinerary (you can opt out of certain sights/activities,and you generally have some free time), but if you want to stay longer in one place and the bus is scheduled to leave at 3:00 to move to the next city, you don't have that flexibility. If you are not an early riser, group travel may not be for you. Just depends on what you are looking for. And, you do NOT need a travel agent to book a tour. I usually am more satisfied dealing directly with the tour companies myself, but I've never experienced a really fabulous travel agent.

Deanna,
The other thing I just realized is that those of us posting know nothing about you. If you are 95 years old and not well traveled, your travel agent may really be concerned about setting you loose to figure out the rail system on your own. But, if you are the type that usually finds her way through life w/o problem, you should be able to navigate just fine. Do learn a few phrases in Italian, and do expect a really large train station in Naples. It is not unusual for trains to be posted to be leaving one bin (platform) and then have a change at the last minute....that can be confusing to those who are not used to checking/double-checking/triple checking. On our last group trip (which went thru Naples) our Tauck guide actually hired what I think is called a train concierge to help navigate the Naples station and insure the group was exactly where it needed to be at the exact moment, without having to switch around too much. That was nice :) Also on group travel, we have experienced private after-hours viewing of the Vatican Museum (and we also previously experienced touring the same museum during regular hours with people jammed into it). It was nice to have the special after-hours with Tauck. We also visited a private sea-side villa and heard a professor speak about contemporary Italian society, then enjoyed wine and nibbles on her various terraces overlooking the sea..........we NEVER would have enjoyed that without being on a group tour. In Capri, we were met by convertible taxis in which we toured the island. So, the right group company can provide some really special, memorable travel experiences. If you go on a group tour, compare choices carefully. Find out what hotels you will stay in (check them on Trip Advisor and look up their web sites). Also find out if you will be traveling with 50 others or 20 others...makes a difference.

The only part of the train network I would avoid in Italy is around Naples. You will be fine if you stick to the more expensive but quicker Eurostar services however the 'regionale' local trains do have a problem with beggars (who can be intimidating for some). Just to be clear, IMO this is ONLY a problem on the local slow train services around the Naples area. Paying the extra for the inter-city trains is money well spent.

My agent told me the tour companies HIGHLY recommend AVOIDING LOCAL RAIL i.e. to and from naples-sorrento etc. that its dangerous, dirty, too many theives etc. Your "agent" isn't your agent - they are in it for themselves not your best interests unless you are paying them significant amounts of money to hire them. If they get paid by commission they will want to sell everything they can to you to increase said commission. This is stage one. If they can get you sufficiently scared at stage one that you believe that you can't do it yourself they can proceed to stage two. I am told to use private transfers whenever and wherever possible. That's stage two. Everything you buy at high price from them goes $$$ into their pocket. Why should they say you can easily buy €10 tickets and easily manage your own light luggage - no commission to them at all - when they can say you need a private driver that they will arrange for dozens or hundreds of dollars of which they may get 10 percent or more. - = - Then again, it may be as suggested above and you are unable to make your own decisions or have special needs which require specialist knowledge - in which case you need to hire a specialist who can look out for you and who you pay. - = - I haven't used a travel agent for years. We can help, but none of us is a travel agent (I don't think), and we're happy to share.

Deanna, I tend to agree with the others that the Travel Agent would probably much prefer selling you private transfers and other services, which they make money from. In fairness to the Agent you were dealing with, it's possible that he/she has never actually been to the area so is just repeating what they've been told by others who also want to make a few Euro's. The Hotels listed in the RS Guidebooks are all reliable and usually checked-out once a year to ensure that the standards remain the same. If you're worried about reservations getting "screwed up", there's no reason you couldn't confirm reservations yourself. That should hopefully avoid any problems. I haven't had any problems of that type with any of the RS Hotels (so far). Rail travel from Naples to Sorrento will be via the Circumvesuviana (private) train. There are no Freccia or fast trains on that route. As far as trains go, it IS a bit of an old graffiti-laden "clunker" and doesn't look too modern, but it will get you to Sorrento. There will probably be pickpockets "working" the train ("Union Rules" as Rick says), but if you exercise reasonable precautions you shouldn't have any problems. I would NOT characterize it as being "dangerous". Note that the Circumvesuviana has several routes, so it's important to use the one to Sorrento. If you're really concerned about travelling on your own, you might have a look at the RS South Italy tour. Not only would you have an incredible experience, but you'd also gain some travel skills for getting around in places like Naples. Happy travels!

Ok so now that that agent seems pissed off...I have to do my own booking hotels and I'm leaving the 24th!!! YIKES? I need a nice hotel for Sorrento. I do not like the Majestic..too business like. Does anyone have a sorrento hotel with a few of the water...nice rooms and not so huge or business hotel? I like small boutique hotels with character ... no more than $200.00 a night. I also will need one in Naples now that I've heard from a majority of you. Too worn out from rome-naples to see arch museum the same day. So we will get a room there in naples for the night to see museum in the a.m. before we leave for Sorrento. Need a hotel in Reggio Calabria.. e hotel looks cool... anyone know anything about it?? the president hotel looks just ok.