Poll: Guides & Drivers in France & Italy

[mert461]

Please give your opinion on which guide/driver you used in France and Italy. I'm trying to find who was recommended the most before I book someone.

 

Thank you.

Donna

[bec2629]

Hi,

We used the following companies and I would highly recommend them all without hesitation for service and price.

France - Michele LeGrand of Revelation-Tours.com

Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast - Salvatore of *****

Florence - PapillonService.com

Rome - Roberto Carbone (RTCarbone@yahoo.com)

Barcelona - Toni@hotmail.com (Airport transfer and/or tour)

 

If you have any questions about any of them, just ask

Enjoy!

Becky

[mixx]

Just got back yesterday from our MED cruise. We used private tours (shared with others we met here on the boards and had a fantastic time!) for all the major ports and must say that of all our driver/guides Michel was the BEST... and they all were very good! A close second was Marco with Salvatore's Drive Amalfi. Aldo was our driver with driverinrome in Rome and as I've seen posted here before he is quite the character...details provided if anyone is interested. We used Carla (abcwine.it) in Florence and she was an excellent driver and most accommodating guide.

[packerpatriot]

We used Alain from dream tours in Cannes and Normandy tours in Le Havre for tour of beaches of Normandy. Very happy with both of them.

Cristin

[dperales]

We used Daniele's company for Livorno and Rome. In Rome we had his father Remo who is a joy!

In Naples we used Marcello who was great, but don't use him if you want to shop. He would prefer not to use his day waiting for people who are shopping. If that is your goal, use another guide. We loved our day with Marcello.

Donna

[jstducky]

Aldo was our driver with driverinrome in Rome and as I've seen posted here before he is quite the character...details provided if anyone is interested.

mixx - now i'm curious. i've heard such great things about Aldo. what are the details!

 

jstducky!

[mixx]

Where does one begin? Aldo (divorced) could be summed up as an individual who has "isssues" (don't we all) but when working it's sometimes best to focus on the task at hand, particularly when driving, preferably with both hands and eyes on the road and not turning around while lecturing (more of a diatribe actually) passengers (American) on "thinking VERY carefully when voting in November", etcetera, etcetera. All this while gesticulating with BOTH hands at times! That was the first twenty minutes. Fortunately, it did get better. In a nutshell, Aldo is most informative on the history of Rome. He is also quite adept at negotiating the back streets/police/other local drivers and covering as much as possible in a day. Unfortunately, for us on this particular day, he was compelled to rush us back to the ship (had a date) with an obvious disregard to more than one passengers' request for him to slow it down, making for a rather unpleasant journey for those in the back of the van, one in particular, quite green and nauseous upon arrival at the port. So...Aldo: Great tour guide when engaged in presenting Rome. The Italian machismo, tolerable, even entertaining at times. My husband (from R.I.) felt like he was hanging out with one of the guys from Federal Hill (translation: think Tony Soprano et al) and enjoyed his personality. Again, this is the short version!

[skib]

mixx:

 

Our tour group used Aldo as well...good guide, but NOT for the thin-skinned!

 

(You NAILED him!);)

[ClaudiaF]

We have used Max Leotta before. This trip we used Claudio and can only say he is every bit as wonderful and his prices were alot less than Max or Daniels.

You should also consider another excellent driver Max of Papillions service for Italy.

http://www.papillonservice.com/index.htm

 

We used him from Livorno and he does Rome as well as other places. All use Mercedes vans so the car is the same. All have wonderful attitudes.

For France could not have had a better time. We hired

Dream Tours and had the superb Jean Marc as our driver. Had tons of email correspondense with the owner Alain ,whom we met while on tour, but glad we got to have Jean Marc - he spoke perfect English and was so informative.

http://www.dream-tours.com/

 

also for South France for the ( Provence area) consider

http://Http://www.taxidurand.com

 

 

HAve fun!

[kreemmer]

We just returned from Star Princess 8/8 cruise. Claudio was our guide in both Rome and Florence. He is a wonderful driver, very knowledgeable but also unassuming. We had a wonderful two days with him. He planned our days perfectly and we did not encounter any lines. He even set up a wonderful private guide for the Vatican- Natasha. We learned so much! Lunch both days was at non-touristy type place at our request. We highly recommend him! He truly made our days a wondrful experience.

 

We used Salvatore for an Amalfi Coast tour and he too was excellent. We loved our day and the scenery was so beautiful. He too was a wonderful safe driver and our day was memorable. Thanks to Cruise Critic and all the advise I received, our trip was fantastic. If you choose Claudio and Salvatore you cannot go wrong!

[lbenson]

In Villefranche we used Revelation Tours; in Rome we used Driverinrome, and both were very good. I would use them again. In Naples we used giovanni (giovanni.lerusce@tin.it) and thought that he was excellent. He is a safe driver and he had lots of information to share. We were a family that included a 9 year old, and he made everyone happy.

[joan24]

Has anyone had a problem with Daniele responding to an email.It has been several days since I contacted him.

Joan

[ajpack]

He always got back to me the same day. Actually, I think it was Monia who did the correspondence.

 

Anne

[mert461]

Thanks to those who recommended Michel at Revelation Tours for Villefranche. I just booked him for October 16, 2005 (BOS). He will personally be our guide/driver. If anyone is also on this cruise and wants to share this excursion, please let me know.

 

Donna

[Rich500]

We used Claudio, he was amazing and we would use him again in a second.

 

Rich

[LINGBER]

Can someone please give us an idea of the costs of these private tours. We are a family of four (2 kids ages 6 and 9) and were thinking that private tours are probably better than structured shoe excursions.

 

Thanks!

[jstducky]

you should check out their websites. most of the websites lists prices:

 

here are a list of some driver/guides that i copied from one of Cruise Junky's earlier posts...

 

driverinrome.com (Danielle)

seesorrento.com (Marcello)

drivinguide.com (Paolo)

papillonservice.com

azur-guides-interpretes.com (Sylvie)

dream-tours.com

minibus-tours.com

provence-travel.com

 

hope this helps.

[cruisintwinsmom]

Can someone please give us an idea of the costs of these private tours. We are a family of four (2 kids ages 6 and 9) and were thinking that private tours are probably better than structured shoe excursions.

 

Thanks!

We used Claudo for our family of 4 (DDs 16 yo), and had a fabulous time. He is a driver, not a guide, but he did "guide" us in many areas of Florence and Rome. He could not go into museums with us. For us it was worth the money to have a private guide.

[wwwmarge]

Do you have the website for Claudio. And how can he be in Rome and Florence that's not exactly next door???

 

Thanks,

Marge

 

 

We just returned from Star Princess 8/8 cruise. Claudio was our guide in both Rome and Florence. He is a wonderful driver, very knowledgeable but also unassuming. We had a wonderful two days with him. He planned our days perfectly and we did not encounter any lines. He even set up a wonderful private guide for the Vatican- Natasha. We learned so much! Lunch both days was at non-touristy type place at our request. We highly recommend him! He truly made our days a wondrful experience.

 

We used Salvatore for an Amalfi Coast tour and he too was excellent. We loved our day and the scenery was so beautiful. He too was a wonderful safe driver and our day was memorable. Thanks to Cruise Critic and all the advise I received, our trip was fantastic. If you choose Claudio and Salvatore you cannot go wrong!

[ClaudiaF]

Do you have the website for Claudio. And how can he be in Rome and Florence that's not exactly next door???

 

Thanks,

Marge

 

He does tours all over.

His website is

http://www.limoinrome.com/home.htm

[cruisintwinsmom]

Do you have the website for Claudio. And how can he be in Rome and Florence that's not exactly next door???

 

Thanks,

Marge

The places aren't as far as one would think.

[Mike Andrews]

For Villefranche my vote goes to Sylvie of Azur Guides at http://WWW.azur-guides-interpretes.com and for Livorno I would recommend Paola of Florence Tour at info@florencetour .com for Florence and Pisa and Salvatore of DriveAmalfi at ***** for Naples and the Amalfi Coast

[Glendamcd]

I hope that your vote for Sylvie of Azur Guides does not leave anyone else High and Dry. I know her story about a sick driver, but she did not tell anyone she was overbooked and canceling until the last minute. She may be a great tour guide but

not a smart business person. I had an emailed confirmation from her and the only reason I knew she was not going to meet me was the cruise critic complaints about her

and when I emailed her she was not planning on meeting me but had another group

booked. I told her that she had confirmed my tour and she said she had no record, BUT

I DID???

[mert461]

Thanks to everyone who replied to my original poll and questions. We've booked Villefranche and the Amalfi Coast.

 

I'm still trying to decide for Rome and Florence. It appears driverinrome might be the one to choose?

 

Donna

[Guest Crazeecat5]

Absolutely! My DH and I enjoyed our day with driverinrome so much we booked them again for our Carnival Liberty cruise next summer.

Sheryl