Tours

[Barry@Preston]

Can anyone please recommend a honest and reliable tour company to take us to Rome and Florence on the Explorer of the Seas cruise on the 21st September 2019?

 

Many thanks

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, Stpetersberg said:

Can anyone please recommend a honest and reliable tour company to take us to Rome and Florence on the Explorer of the Seas cruise on the 21st September 2019?

 

Many thanks

We just recently (May 21st) used italytours.eu...for our Rome port stop....amazing....and they do Florence as well. Highly recommended by many on these boards and I absolutely now agree.

[cruisemom42]

There are several frequently recommended companies on the Italy ports of call forum here on CC:   https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/464-italy-ports/

[slidergirl]

3 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

There are several frequently recommended companies on the Italy ports of call forum here on CC:   https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/464-italy-ports/

 

there are also several excellent threads on "doing" Rome and Florence on your own.  Depends on your comfort level of being in a foreign country, and if you want brief stops at "must see" things or want more in-depth stops at a few "must see" things.  

[GottaKnowWhen]

6 hours ago, slidergirl said:

 

there are also several excellent threads on "doing" Rome and Florence on your own.  Depends on your comfort level of being in a foreign country, and if you want brief stops at "must see" things or want more in-depth stops at a few "must see" things.  

Also note, both Rome and Florence are a long drive from the port. An issue I have with private tours for these two sites is that you are really paying to have somebody ride on the bus with you, you only get tour-guide value when you are onsite. So look for something like a ship’s Rome-on-your-own tour. They’ll drive you, drop you off, pick you up, take you back to the ship. While onsite either do your own thing, rent a taxi for the day to shuttle you around, or pre-arrange with Tours by Locals or other group to have a guide waiting for you to spend the day with you.

Full disclosure: we have never nor will we ever take that long of a van or bus ride for a few short hours in Florence or Rome or Paris. Those cities deserve at least a few days, not a flyby. From Livorno we’ve gone into the hill country, we are headed this fall for Pisa. Civitavechia is a nice town in its own right, again also a jump off spot to go to one or two hill towns. If you MUST go to Rome and/or Florence, pick the one or max two sites you feel you must see, buy tickets ahead, focus on quality experience rather than quantity.

Stan

[Barry@Preston]

Thank you. Everything you say makes sense.The problem with a taxi is the cost, plus we do't want to have to stand in lines for hours. At least with most tours they have "beat the line" tours. 

[slidergirl]

13 hours ago, Stpetersberg said:

Thank you. Everything you say makes sense.The problem with a taxi is the cost, plus we do't want to have to stand in lines for hours. At least with most tours they have "beat the line" tours. 

You can purchase your own timed tickets without having to go through a tour guide.   There are threads on this group on how to do it.  I've booked my own time for the Vatican Museums, others have for the Colosseum, I've done the Uffizi museum in Florence, etc.  And, you are buying direct, so no added "middleman" cost.   

For the taxi, you really wouldn't have to hire one for the whole time.  There are taxi ranks at all the big sites so you can hire from one place to the next.  In Florence, there really wouldn't be a need for a taxi, as things are very, very close together in the center of town.  For Rome, you really would only need the taxi to get to/from Vatican City and then maybe to the train station if you took the train into town.  

[George C]

We just loved papillon for a tour of Florence and Pisa and also a vineyard for wine tasting, guide was great , reasonably priced. Best tour ever. Also prebought tickets so we could see museum with David with skip the line.

Also liked Rome in limo for Rome. 

[Barry@Preston]

How have you booked your own time in the Vatican. Will you not have to wait in line for hours?

[cruisemom42]

16 minutes ago, Stpetersberg said:

How have you booked your own time in the Vatican. Will you not have to wait in line for hours?

 

Again, I highly recommend you go to the Italy ports of call board. Lots and lots of info there.

 

You can book your own ticket for the Vatican museum via the Vatican website. You have to select a time. If you do this in advance, you will be able to go in with very little wait time. It's very easy....  You can also book one of a number of official tours offered by the Vatican which also eliminates a long wait.

[keywest1]

We used Joe Banana Limos to book shared shore excursions (Italy Tour Sharing) for three of our Mediterranean ports.  I highly recommend them.  They were prompt and courteous--no worries about getting back to ship on time.

[Barry@Preston]

Sounds a bit expensive?

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, Stpetersberg said:

Sounds a bit expensive?

For our private group tour with italytours.eu that included a private guide at the Vatican and skip the line option...we thought 246 Euros for the two of us wasn't a bad deal.

[DarrenM]

On 7/6/2019 at 5:03 AM, Stpetersberg said:

Can anyone please recommend a honest and reliable tour company to take us to Rome and Florence on the Explorer of the Seas cruise on the 21st September 2019?

 

Many thanks

We used cruisingexcursions.com this year to go to florence and pisa. And Pompeii.

 

They were brilliant and a few others on our cruise did the same. 

 

Couldn't fault them and their guides were superb.

 

And far cheaper than using the ships own which are just daylight robbery.

[Barry@Preston]

7 hours ago, Ashland said:

For our private group tour with italytours.eu that included a private guide at the Vatican and skip the line option...we thought 246 Euros for the two of us wasn't a bad deal.

Not bad at all thanks.