Travel Agent for Rome and Amalfi Coast Areas?

Maybe such a thing exists, but I'd be surprised if it was more efficient or gratifying than just having each of the six adults peruse a guidebook or website and pick their top 2-3 things to see/do. It is such an easy place to travel, really!
People here will do half the work for you for free, so I would not splash out just yet.

I could not find a link or any info on this website (Rick Steves), but the Rick Steves organization used to offer travel planning advice, for a fee, through their office, not sure if they still do. You might call the tour number and inquire.

Other than that, in the US, it is hard to find a knowledgeable TA for specific areas in Europe. The focus of nearly every agency is to sell products they make money on (as you would expect). So need a package tour, an all inclusive resort, a cruise, no problem; want advice on what to see, airline tickets, a stay at a small hotel, or local tour...you're on your own. There may be travel consultants out there who are knowledgeable and can provide you their services, but I have no recommendations.

Both Rome and Sorrento are frequent topics on this forum
Reading thru those posts will likely be all you need-along with RS guide books which are chock full of practical info

Here is a great Sorrento resource to start you off
https://www.sorrentoinsider.com/

If you let us know which sights/attractions/transportation you are interested in we can point you to that info as well

Rick’s company has suspended the Travel Consulting service until 2024, so that is not available.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-help/plan-your-trip-with-our-expert-consultants

During the pandemic they had a Guide Marketplace on the website, where one could connect directly with tour guides who were offering their services to independent travelers. This no longer exists.

But somewhere—-maybe in the current RS IrLy guidebook—-maybe their is a list of recommended local guides?

As far as recommendations for what to see and prioritizing those, I am sure there are forum members who would be happy to help—-and that is free.

Here is what I would do. You need to do some homework so that your discussions with anyone on this site or elsewhere have some structure. Hit you local library and check out the travel DVDs for this area and the Steves guidebooks for Rome and Italy. You could also purchased them from the Rick Steves web site. If you cannot view the DVDs as a family, then pass them around. The DVDs will give some idea of what is available to see and how to see it. With that information now you can ask intelligent questions about what to see and do. Hard for us to answer you specifically without some idea of all of your interests.

Now we tend to make heavy use of TIs. We rarely book tours in advance because we don't like locking into a schedule and weather can be a factor or a limit on what you can do. So the first place we hit is the TI and see what is available and when. We have never had a problem doing that but others are comfortable being that loose. Works for us. Might not for you.

This site works best when you can ask specific questions and we can give specific answers based on our experiences.

Michael, you've done a great job so far booking flights and lodging. I disagree that a travel agent can give you better advice than you and your family can find on your own. Travel agents have not necessarily seen what they are selling. I had a very bad experience with a travel agent, so am not a fan of travel agents, especially when I can plan and book sights/experiences myself.

First of all, get guidebooks. Rick Steves guidebooks are good, as are others. RS guidebooks are on sale now on this website. There are all kinds of websites and blogs for ideas, including Explore Europe/Italy in the RS menu. There are many suggestions from previous forum posts and trip reports; use the search feature at the top of the page.

If you want guided tours, in Rome and the Vatican I enjoyed https://www.takewalks.com/rome-tours/ They don't have tours for Sorrento but you can find local guides for Pompeii. Food tours are fun; https://www.eatingeurope.com/rome/ is just one example. There are also free walking tours for an outdoor overview of an area.

If you can, assign each day to a family member. Keep in mind that all six of you may not want to see the same things; so break up into smaller groups during the day and regroup over dinner to share your adventures. Or if family members are as indecisive as my sister-in-law was, I'd give her a very narrow choice of what to see each day, then I'd book what she decided. (More work for me, but we saw a lot that we both wanted to see. I love the planning part.) Look at Google maps to plan where to wander to. Just don't overschedule each day so you have time to enjoy the experiences.

Keep asking questions. When you plan your itinerary, allow time for transit, food and breaks.

Mchael, I'll vote with the others above to just get some guidebooks, spend some time with the online tourism sites for both locations + this forum and make your own itinerary. Neither location is all that difficult to figure out, as far as what to see and how to do it. I'll also agree with assigning sightseeing duties to the other adults in your group. There's no reason YOU need to take it on for everyone!!!! Your group needs to determine what THEY want to see. The guidebooks and the forum can help you figure out how to do that.

Any recommendations or are there people on this forum that know those
areas well that would be open to a phone call?

There are TONS of people on the RS forums who have traveled Rome and the Amalfi so you can make a plan for FREE without paying an agency to do that. Many, many of us (including myself) have done just that. What might be a challenge is trying to book tickets for 6 people to do everything together ALL the time.

If so, you can send me a private email with your contacts details...

Revealing private contact info isn't recommended on any social media site unless someone has a long history with the site or other posters. The community can use the RS messaging function to converse with you outside of the forum without revealing their private email address or other outside contact info. Still, it's nice to keep the conversation public as it can help others trying to plan similar trips.

Michael,

These two links will give you a good overview of the most popular attractions in Rome and Naples.

https://romesite.com/attractions.html

https://naplespompeii.com/things-to-do-in-naples.html

Look them over, decide which sites you want to book then come back to get more information.

With the amount of time you have, start with 2 a day. One in the AM then one later in the day. This gives you time to experience these cities. By walking and city tours.

For train transportation between cities,
check Trenitalia.com. Train between Rome & Naples can be as fast as 1 hour 17 minutes.

There are several options between Naples & Sorrento. Private driver, Circumvesuvian
(like a metro) and ferry.

Hope this helps. Come back for more info.
This is a great resource.

I have one caveat for you. A previous poster mentioned free tours. If that was what I think it is, I consider it to be close to a scam. Those tours aren’t free. They are labeled as such to lure in customers. You are expected to tip handsomely, with a big part of that money going to the company that does some minimal organizing. I also prefer to deal with enterprises that have employees, not “independent contractors.”
All that being said, your instinct to want some guidance for Rome is sound. Rome is massive, with all kinds of attractions. There have been a number of posting on this site about walking tours people have taken. Do a search here and find ones that appeal to you.

Thank you everyone. I have ordered the new RS Italy Guidebook and will work with my crew to narrow down the list of sites that we want to see in advance. There are so many tour companies that it can be a bit overwhelming to know which ones are best so any advice on tour companies in both areas that you've used with success would be appreciated. I'm told by one experienced traveler that walksofitaly.com is good and reputable.

Michael, tours are not the most frequently mentioned topic on this board, but I do suggest that you use the Search box top center for some research. The function works well, and you can even filter Newsboard posts down to "the last two years" if you think older posts might have obsolete info on tours. I do think that "do you need a guide for X" is a frequent topic.

Even in the old days, when travel agents could make a living off airline commissions, without charging for advice, it's always hit or miss whether someone really knows the topic you want to learn more about. But like a fee-only Financial Planner, travel agent advice is not often free anymore.

I'm told by one experienced traveler that walksofitaly.com is good and
reputable.

On our first visit to Rome we did 3 tours with Walks of Italy and all 3 were excellent. (Pristine Sistine, Colosseum/Forum and the Crypts/Catacombs tour)
They used to offer a RS discount- not sure if they still do but you can email them and ask. They had some issues during the pandemic- as did other tour companies- but I believe those have all been resolved. Read the recent reviews.
www.walksofitaly.com

Other companies with good reviews on this forum are
www.theromanguy.com
www.througheternity.com

I would highly recommend an early entry tour for Sistine Chapel.

On our 2nd visit we visited the Colosseum and Forum on our own using RS guidebook. For a first visit I highly recommend a tour especially of the Forum which can be a bit confusing.

Food tours are always fun- we have enjoyed every tour we have done with
www.eatingeurope.com
Use EATWELL10 for a discount

For Sorrento/Amalfi area we did 2 tours with MondoGuides- RS recommended- Capri and Pompeii
www.sharedtours.com
Both were excellent- especially the Capri boat tour. They are fun, informative and very affordable. Their day trip along Amalfi Coast would be a nice way to see the coastal towns and avoid the overcrowded nausea inducing buses! Since you have 6 in your party once you sign up the tours will likely be a go and you may be the only participants.

@ChristineH - thank you, very helpful!!

I can recommend Devour Tours in Rome. I went on the Testaccio Food & Market tour last October and it was great. They have other food-based tours as well.

Michael,

Planning a trip for 6 people is a bit more challenging, but you have done a lot of the hard work getting the flights and your lodging. In 2018, I organized a trip for 6 people, our friends and college-aged daughters.

A couple of lessons we learned in Rome that might help you.

• Start the trip with a food tour. We took the Eating Europe Trastevere food tour at the end of our time in Rome. It was one of the favorite things we did and our girls were so disappointed that they didn't have the opportunity to revisit some of the sites, especially the Suppli and vegan bakery. Not only are the tours fun and delicious, the guides can give you great tips on other places to eat that have a more local feel.

• Vatican advice. We took a tour with a private guide that visited the Colosseum and the Vatican on the same day. It was too much to do in a day. We rushed through the Colosseum to get to the Vatican mid-morning. The crowds were unbearable and everyone was disappointed. I am going back this May with my husband and another set of friends who have not visited Rome before and we are going to do an early entry tour.

• Transportation. We walked almost everywhere in Rome and used taxi services. My hotel arranged to have a 6 passenger mini-van and it was a convenient way to keep all of us together.

• Borghese Gallery was one of the highlights. With 6 people, you need to buy tickets early. They have a lovely tour at the museum. My friend and husband are not big museum fans and they loved this museum, so much so that they actually wanted to visit again on the same trip. The park next to the Borghese is fun with a lot of families, people walking their dogs. We actually walked through the park, had a coffee and then walked to the Spanish Steps and walked down the steps, had lunch and shopped. It was a lovely morning and afternoon.

• Carve out alone time. After 3 weeks together, we all needed some time to explore our favorites in Rome. It is a very easy city for the people in your party to do their own thing and then get together in the evening to share stories.

One thing that we have run into in planning our trip this year are the major national holidays on the 25th April and 1 May. If you are in Italy on those days make sure you know what is closed and transportation restrictions (holidays schedules for example on trains). Also, be on the look out for any fun celebrations on those days.

We are planning our Amalfi coast portion of our Spring 2023 trip now and using the forum and RS guides to help us plan our itinerary.

If you have any further questions, you can also PM.

Sandy

Also, take a look at Viator and Trip Advisor for tours. You don't have to book with them, but it will give you an idea on pricing, timing etc. Definitely, schedule some free time to go back and see some of the sites etc. that really interested you in a lot more detail. Most of our trips now we schedule such a day to see things that our guides or tours did not cover in detail. Usually, on those days we find an outdoor cafe and enjoy a glass of wine, cup of coffee or both and people watch.

If the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel are of interest, this evening tour on Friday or Saturday will free up daylight hours for other sites.

https://www.walksofitaly.com/vatican-tours/vatican-night-tour/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-NWzi_H--wIVFYdbCh27RASwEAAYAiAAEgJlXPD_BwE