European tour companies?

Gorecbrie2011 · November 2010

Hi Ladies! My fiance and I have our hearts set on doing a Mediterranean honeymoon, whether it be Italy, Greece, etc. We'd like to find a company that has package deals and can plan everything out for us (since neither of us have ever been). A friend recommended Mayflower Tours but I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions that they could pass along so we have some options. Thanks so much!

MissyCee · November 2010

I would highly recommend Globus. I know many people who have used Globus and LOVED it. They do tours all over the world.

alithebride · November 2010

i haven't gone on tours (been to italy 2x). once we took a 12 night cruisew ith 3 nights in rome first (really really fun) and in sept and oct we did 19 days in italy and sicily.
the only thing i know about tours is this: a girlfriend at work took a perillo tour. they won't tour again after it-they were really annoyed at the food situation-everything was preset on price fix menus (in other words they couldn't order from the regular restaurant menus). that's NOT the way to go and eat there.
i suggest that you do some research before assuming a tour is the right way to go. for our trip last month we did the following: 3 nights in florence (flew from JFK through rome to florence) then had a transfer to a hotel in tuscany where we spent a week. we hired private drivers for most of the week thorugh our hotel there and saw everything we wanted to see on our time. my father who's been to italy and tuscany more times than i can count suggested drivers rather than a car-it's not tricky driving, it's parking that's tricky. we also arranged a few vineyard visisits through the hotel as well as a cooking class in the hotel. exceptional.
after tuscany we flew from florence through rome to catania sicily and explored the east coast (we'd been there before on the cruise but saw more this time). we hired a private driver for that as well. for the 2nd half of the week we had a car and went over to the west coast and stayed in selinunte and explored everywhwere-we were with DH's family who lives there.

dont' assume that, just because evertthing's packaged for you, that it's the best way to go. do your research. italy's big but it's easy to get around via train or car or plane or bus.

go to the library and get a few books. many include 3 or 4 day itineraries for different areas which (putting a few together) may make a perfect vacation for you on your own time and speed.

sister2groom · November 2010

I also vote for not doing a group tour, especially on your honeymoon, maybe do something like book a cruise for a couple days and the rest of the time just wander around and that way you can get a more local flavor instead of busing around from place to place all day. There are some great travel books out there that you can plan a wonderful trip with, and it is usually MUCH cheaper to do it on your own.