Italy Tours.EU? Help please

[hancogran]

We used this company last week when we were on a 9 day Greece/Italy cruise. We docked in Naples and booked the Pompeii, Sorrento and Amalfi coast excursion. We spent two hours at Pompeii touring with an English speaking guide who really knew her history. After that we headed down to Sorrento where we had time for lunch and a bit of shopping before going to the Amalfi Coast. The scenery was absolutely amazing. I would definitely recommend this company to anybody who would be looking for a tour in Italy. They are very quick to answer emails. Our driver was at the port waiting for us holding up a sign with our name and we were returned to the ship with plenty of time to spare. The vans are spotless and very comfortable! I'm sure you'd have a great day if you decided to go with them.

[hancogran]

I am starting to gather things together and I believe I read no handbags in some of the venues. I am looking for suggestions to carry money etc. I also wondered if we carried a backpack could it be left in the van. We need to carry medication with us.

 

We left our jackets and a small backpack in the van a few times... once when we stopped for a few hours in Sorrento and there were no problems.

[Linda the Book Lover]

We left our jackets and a small backpack in the van a few times... once when we stopped for a few hours in Sorrento and there were no problems.

 

Thanks for the information. I am so excited about the tours we booked with this company. Even the DH is starting to get a tad excited.

[hancogran]

Thanks for the information. I am so excited about the tours we booked with this company. Even the DH is starting to get a tad excited.

I am sure you will have a great time! :) It was certainly one of the better tours we took and compared to the people who took the ship's excursion, we saw so much more than they did (for a much cheaper price). You are in a Mercedes van and it's very comfortable. If we ever return to Italy , we would definitely contact this company again to arrange tours wherever they are available. Have a fantastic cruise. :)

[Linda the Book Lover]

We will, thanks!

[suzyq29]

We just got home from an 11 day cruise of the Mediterranean... We took two tours from the company, ItalyTours.EU. They were both exactly what they promised to be. The first one was of Lucca and Pisa. Since we had 16 in two vans, we were able to get a free guide for Lucca. She was very knowledgable and knew more history than I can remember. Other than gray, drizzly weather (no one's fault), it was a great day. We also took the Amalfi Coast tour from Naples, and had a fun driver, who delivered us to Ravello, the town of Amalfi, and Positano. One passenger was adamant about spending more time in Positano, so he made things work for her, as well as the rest of us (who were more flexible). We had plenty of time for eating and shopping in these towns. And the drive along the coast was completely beautiful! We highly recommend this company for their cruise tours of Italy. (Btw, They were about half-price of the ship's tours, and we were back in plenty of time for both departures.)

[Nhilam]

I am starting to gather things together and I believe I read no handbags in some of the venues. I am looking for suggestions to carry money etc. I also wondered if we carried a backpack could it be left in the van. We need to carry medication with us.

Hi,

We just came back from our Mediterranean cruise, we booked 2 tours with Itialy.Tours.EU, 2 excursions with our cruise ship NCL and one with Barcelona Day Tours, in all tours, we could leave our backpack in the van, there were no incident happened during our trip in Italy, but we were advised to be careful for pickpocket, so just be cautious , but we felt very safe travelling with tour guide, in all companies, they really care about our safety.

[Linda the Book Lover]

Hi,

We just came back from our Mediterranean cruise, we booked 2 tours with Itialy.Tours.EU, 2 excursions with our cruise ship NCL and one with Barcelona Day Tours, in all tours, we could leave our backpack in the van, there were no incident happened during our trip in Italy, but we were advised to be careful for pickpocket, so just be cautious , but we felt very safe travelling with tour guide, in all companies, they really care about our safety.

 

I am so looking forward to all of these tours. My DH and I are aware of the pickpockets and will plan accordingly. It sure won't deter our great time. :D Thanks so much for sharing your good time.

[fabnfortysomething]

We just got home from an 11 day cruise of the Mediterranean... We took two tours from the company, ItalyTours.EU. They were both exactly what they promised to be. The first one was of Lucca and Pisa. Since we had 16 in two vans, we were able to get a free guide for Lucca. She was very knowledgable and knew more history than I can remember. Other than gray, drizzly weather (no one's fault), it was a great day. We also took the Amalfi Coast tour from Naples, and had a fun driver, who delivered us to Ravello, the town of Amalfi, and Positano. One passenger was adamant about spending more time in Positano, so he made things work for her, as well as the rest of us (who were more flexible). We had plenty of time for eating and shopping in these towns. And the drive along the coast was completely beautiful! We highly recommend this company for their cruise tours of Italy. (Btw, They were about half-price of the ship's tours, and we were back in plenty of time for both departures.)

 

 

pleased to hear your recommendation as we have signed up for Best of Lucca and Pisa for October

we have filled the first van and wonder how much extra value you felt the guide was and if it's worth pushing our roll call to fill 2nd van to get this

[Junebug624]

Hi,

We just came back from our Mediterranean cruise, we booked 2 tours with Itialy.Tours.EU, 2 excursions with our cruise ship NCL and one with Barcelona Day Tours, in all tours, we could leave our backpack in the van, there were no incident happened during our trip in Italy, but we were advised to be careful for pickpocket, so just be cautious , but we felt very safe travelling with tour guide, in all companies, they really care about our safety.

 

I realize you are just back from your trip and probably exhausted, but if you could, would you tell us which of the Italy Tours, NCL, and which Barcelona Day tour you took? This is exactly what we are planning and I want your brief thoughts on each. Thank you. Unfortunately, once most of us return, we forget to give back.

[suzyq29]

Hi

Looking at options for Italian ports and found Italy Tours.EU. Has anyone used them? What do you think and which tours did you do? Thanks in advance.

Jeanette

We recently arrived home and used ItalyTours.EU for two tours: Amalfi Coast (from Naples) and Lucca and Pisa (from Livorno). I would highly recommend them. Easy, on-time return, the driver guide gave us free time and tried to please everyone. (We had one passenger insist that she get more time in Positano.) And he also stopped at a pharmacy for me, because I needed a quick stop for meds. Don't hesitate. Enjoy your cruise!

Aloha,

Suzy

[carriepride]

My son and I just returned from a 7 day Mediterranean cruise on the NCL Epic and used Italy tours for two of our shore excursions - Best of Rome and Best of Florence & Pisa. Both tours were excellent - very much seen in a very compressed timeframe. You have to be prepared to move fairly quickly from site to site, but if your goal is to see as much as possible then these tours are excellent. Our driver in Rome, Joseph, was very charming, knowledgeable and and all around good guide very attentive to his passengers. The challenges with these very time intensive tours is that you need to be very respectful of the times you are asked to be back to the Van. It's a delicate balance of being given some free time to explore what you want to see and getting on to the next site. We had 2 instances in Rome where passengers did not return on time, and as a result we were not able to see one of the sites (the Pantheon). It was further complicated by the President Trump's visit to the Vatican on the same day in port, which the driver/tour company could not control. The Florence tour was also very good and we saw all the big highlights, and Pisa was also very cool. Great Tours, guides and drivers, and I highly recommend Italytours.eu.

[mistyn]

We just got back from our Mediterranean cruise yesterday. We loved our tours with Italy Tours.EU . i found them before we left, on this website and used them to our Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast tour , and a second one to Pisa and Florence. They were right outside the ship with our name on the sign when we got off. Ricardo was our guide to the Pompeii tour. He was enthusiastic, informative and helpful. Having a microphone on the minivan insured everyone heard his information. Our guide in Pompeii was very informative and we enjoyed that city very much. Ricardo took us to a special restaurant in Sorrento where you can only walk to get there, or have a very narrow car. It was a wonderful authentic Italian dinner at Dona Sofia. He drove us to the Limoncello factory which was beautiful and delicious. We bought liquor and chocolate. Our trip to Pisa also went off without a hitch. The driver was right outside the port, and was friendly and enthusiastic. Florence was really crowded but our kids had college friends there that they enjoyed meeting up with. We got back to our ship in plenty of time. i would definately use them again. Why pay 3 times the amount the ship charges and have to wait to board big busses, when you can get this personalized tour? Much better deal!!

[Laura90680]

We had a great time with Lucca, he's wonderful! Pompeii, Sorrento and Amalfi coast were amazing!!! Lucca made us feel so welcome in his country and it shows that he loved what he does. It was a very hectic day as per Lucca, disastrous traffic! But with his jolly personality and lively commentaries we were entertained and enjoyed every minute of our short day tour. We will definitely be back!!!! DO NOT HESITATE to book outside companies like Italy Tours EU as they offer a more personalize service than big buses use by the cruise line and value for your EUROS. What's not to like?

[Mark O]

We are sailing on the Brilliance out of Barcelona on June 18th and plan to use italytours for excursions in Rome and Florence/Pisa (Livorno). Can anyone tell me whether there was any problem meeting italytours at the meeting point by 7:40am-7:45am in these two ports considering that the ship arrives at 7am and that guests on ship excursions get to leave the ship first? How can we position ourselves to get off the ship quickly when they announce that we are permitted to leave the ship?

[Laura90680]

Make sure you have ITALYTOURS EU phone number and ready to call just in case (they all always answer). Just be ready early, leave ship (don't forget water) and head to parking lot where everyone else is going and there will be lots of people with signage & names. We have the same hesitations at first but they will be there just look for your name. The driver is also the guide and the greeter (with your name) so he/she will be there. The time is mostly a guideline and they will try as much not to leave without you. We booked all our tours not with the cruise line we didn't have any problems at all. Small groups are so much better especially for PISA because we got down the van and walked about 10 steps and the tower was right there! It was so surreal. Those who joined the big bus tour hiked to get to the Tower of Pisa up close. Hope this helps enjoy! p.s. Florence has lots of good leather shopping (check out Leather school behind Santa Croce), all churches charge entrance fees, bring the right credit card :-)

[JeannetteK]

We are sailing on the Brilliance out of Barcelona on June 18th and plan to use italytours for excursions in Rome and Florence/Pisa (Livorno). Can anyone tell me whether there was any problem meeting italytours at the meeting point by 7:40am-7:45am in these two ports considering that the ship arrives at 7am and that guests on ship excursions get to leave the ship first? How can we position ourselves to get off the ship quickly when they announce that we are permitted to leave the ship?

 

Mark, no worries, they will wait for you directly outside the gate. Just look for your name. You'll be fine.

Italytours is great!! Enjoy!

[misslou_97]

Mark, no worries, they will wait for you directly outside the gate. Just look for your name. You'll be fine.

Italytours is great!! Enjoy!

Same here, we used Italytours in Cannes and Naples on May 26 and May 30th. The driver was easy to find right out of the port terminal with our name on a paper. Both times no problems. Just make sure that you do go around to see all the drivers as they are not able to be directly in front of the entrance but they are always not far.

[CassCruise]

I would also be interested in tours people have done in Barcelona and was wondering if anyone has done one of their tours in Lisbon? All very exciting!

 

Jane

[DennisD116]

I have recently booked excursions during two port days (Florence & Naples) with them for late August. In anyone's experience about how far in advance did the tours you were on reach the minimum capacity needed for the tour to go on?

 

Right now for both, my wife and I were the first two to sign up. Each have minimums of 6 or 8 total needed to actually go out. I was curious what others experiences were regarding about how far in advance the minimums capacity were reached

 

(I am sure every situation is different, but just wanted to get a general idea of when I should start considering other options)

 

Thanks

 

 

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[hancogran]

I have recently booked excursions during two port days (Florence & Naples) with them for late August. In anyone's experience about how far in advance did the tours you were on reach the minimum capacity needed for the tour to go on?

 

Right now for both, my wife and I were the first two to sign up. Each have minimums of 6 or 8 total needed to actually go out. I was curious what others experiences were regarding about how far in advance the minimums capacity were reached

 

(I am sure every situation is different, but just wanted to get a general idea of when I should start considering other options)

 

Thanks

 

 

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Same thing happened to us.. one bus was full so we were the first two to sign up for a second bus. It was only a matter of a few weeks before we had (more than) enough ! Mention it on your roll call if you haven't already done so. Christina at Italy Tours.EU kept me posted when we were getting close. :) I wouldn't worry too much..you'll likely have reached your minimum capacity in a few weeks.

[putnam]

I highly recommend italytours.eu. On a recent Mediterranean cruise on NCL Epic I booked their tours within Italy and France. They are very responsive when you contact them with questions and always tried to share information with their clients. This was especially important since our one day in Rome was the same day that Trump was scheduled to meet with the Pope. Christina of italytours kept us informed with ever changing news as soon as she learned it. At one point we were told that St. Peter’s would be closed because of the visit. We were disappointed but reassured that we would still have a great tour in Rome. The day turned out to be much better than we had hoped. Italytours switched the schedule around so that we were able to tour the Colosseum and Palatine Hill area, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps in the morning and the Vatican in the afternoon. By then St. Peter’s was opened again and we were able to tour it as well. Our driver Joseph and our Vatican guide Isabel were great.

After our stop in Rome the ship moved on to Livorno where italytours took us to Florence and Pisa. In Florence our guide Demetria was well informed and obviously loved her job and the city. Gilberto, our driver, was constantly pointing out scenic and historic places. Tuscany and especially Florence were my favorite places on this cruise.

When we stopped in Cannes the Film Festival was going on so our driver Walter scooted around the main roads and brought us through beautiful, scenic roads to avoid the traffic when exiting Cannes. Another complication to our tour was the fact that Monte Carlo was closed because of the Grand Prix. The tour needed to be changed because of this but it was still amazing. We went to Nice, St. Paul de Vence, Eze and a scenic overview of Monte Carlo. Although we were disappointed that we couldn’t make it into Monte Carlo, the tour was beautiful.

We also had a great day when our cruise stopped in Naples. We had arranged for a tour to Pompeii, Sorrento, Positano and a drive along the Amalfi Coast. Our driver Salvatore was entertaining and accommodating. We had free time to walk around Sorrento and have lunch. You really need a guide while in Pompeii and Marguerita shared so many interesting facts with us that it made the whole experience more personal.

These great tours were so much better than booking with the cruise line. The tours have smaller, more personal groups and much more reasonable prices. Their smaller vehicles makes it possible to drive on the narrow, winding roads in the area and get closer to the sites. You don’t even need to have a group before booking. If you contact italytours, they’ll organize the tour and as soon as there are enough people signed up for the tour, they send you a confirmation. I would definitely use them again and recommend them to anyone.

[POhlott]

Same thing happened to us.. one bus was full so we were the first two to sign up for a second bus. It was only a matter of a few weeks before we had (more than) enough ! Mention it on your roll call if you haven't already done so. Christina at Italy Tours.EU kept me posted when we were getting close. :) I wouldn't worry too much..you'll likely have reached your minimum capacity in a few weeks.

 

Good luck! We just had our tour cancelled (French Riviera) because not enough people signed up (10 days before cruise leaves). We had 5 people and needed 6. Cristina was very nice about it though. Thankfully we do have tours in 2 other cities confirmed with them. I had really been looking forward to this one though. Can't really find anything comparable with availability now. :(

[Linda the Book Lover]

Good luck! We just had our tour cancelled (French Riviera) because not enough people signed up (10 days before cruise leaves). We had 5 people and needed 6. Cristina was very nice about it though. Thankfully we do have tours in 2 other cities confirmed with them. I had really been looking forward to this one though. Can't really find anything comparable with availability now. :(

 

We booked France through Viator with 20% discount. All the rest in Italy through Italyeu are confirmed. Price not bad.

[Robin B.]

I have recently booked excursions during two port days (Florence & Naples) with them for late August. In anyone's experience about how far in advance did the tours you were on reach the minimum capacity needed for the tour to go on?

 

Right now for both, my wife and I were the first two to sign up. Each have minimums of 6 or 8 total needed to actually go out. I was curious what others experiences were regarding about how far in advance the minimums capacity were reached

 

(I am sure every situation is different, but just wanted to get a general idea of when I should start considering other options)

 

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I'm sure you will be fine. We started our planning much later than others--we are 25 days out now and we just booked 3 tours with ItalyTours.eu about 10 days ago--but as of Wednesday all 3 tours met the minimums. As another poster suggested, it's a good idea to post some info about your tours with a link to the company's website on your ship's roll call. Have a great trip!