I'm using the "old" RS evaluation format from years ago. I've been on an evaluation "strike" ever since RS changed formats as I find snippets of the new evaluations not very helpful and complete parts of the new evaluations only if I have something I really, really want to tell the company. --C of David and C.
1) most impt factors in choosing tour - We like RS b/c there's a lot of opportunity for interaction with locals, no pressure to buy extras, "buddies" are usually like-minded, responsible and considerate and guides and drivers are great.
2) favorite "wow" moment - Monreale, especially good with binoculars
3) hotels/meals/experiences - any especially good/bad
Hotels RS often picks hotels from which it’s easy to get to tour destinations by walking. This means they’re often older buildings close to the “old city.” We’re used to hauling luggage up and down stairs, small rooms and poor lighting on potentially slippery stairs, which are frankly dangerous. That said, I feel that RS really ought to use his leverage to “encourage” hotels he books to at least do something about the lighting on stairs. The edges of steps are often not visible and there are very simple things a hotel could do to make stairs less dangerous.
For this particular trip, many hotels did not provide kleenex (not unusual) or hot water pots (that is IMO, unusual for European hotels these days) - but I was prepared with an immersion heater.
My least favorite hotel was Ambasciatori in Palermo - there were many tripping hazards in (small step up to the bathroom) and out of the room (throw rugs! on hard floor hallways) and the stairs were so poorly lit I used a flashlight to navigate them. It also smelled musty. There was a razor-thin margin between a shower that was freezing and one that was scalding. Everything from closet rods to bathroom hooks was positioned for basketball players - way above my 5’4’’ reach.
My favorite hotel was La Gancia in Trapani - when our guide said it was a converted convent, I expected rooms the size of tiny cells, but the room was huge by European standards and even included a long desk away lit in such a way that I could work without disturbing my sleeping spouse.
Food on RS tours is often very dependent on the guide’s knowledge of local restaurants, e.g., how to use the allotted budget to deliver good restaurants’ specialties, and their interest in local cuisine. This was the first tour (out of ten RS tours) on which on-tour meals were better than off-tour meals. Our guide was from Sicily and believes that food is an important way to get to know a culture; he went out of his way to arrange delicious group meals that reflected the regional cuisine as he also plied us with local treats. Group lunches were especially fantastic. Incredibly, the best gelato we had in Sicily was at a bus rest stop. Our guide had the group practice Italian by ordering cups he used discretionary funds to pay for. We ourselves order lots of gelato when in Italy and know good stuff when we find it - we went back to order an extra cup on our own before our bus took off. Even if I wasn’t crazy about a particular dish or item, our guide was right in saying that you learn a lot by sampling what locals think is good.
We usually do very well finding good off-tour meals by checking Tripadvisor in the language of the country we’re in, but we batted only about 50% this time, probably b/c we kept trying Sicilian pizza, which turns out not to have been our thing. Pasta and stews, when we had them, were more to our liking. We had a fantastic meal at Macalle (has a Michelin recommendation) in Ortygia. The food was excellent and the owner a great showman. At the Palermo marketplace we tried stigghiola (grilled lamb intestines wrapped around green onions and garlic and spritzed with lemon), which was delicious and didn’t taste anything like tripe.
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