Poll: Guides & Drivers in France & Italy

[JMTtor]

With Salvatore's assistance, it appears we've filled two vans of six each for the Amalfi drive on 5/19 - very much looking forward to it, as all CC reviews have been excellent for DriveAmalfi!

[Easycruiser]

Last year while cruising on the Splendour of the Seas we used an absolutley wonderful driver/guide in Marseille/ Provence. Her name was Catherine D'Antuono [email="tour.designer@provence-travel.com"]tour.designer@provence-travel.com[/email]. She was an excellent guide and she is thoroughly knowledgeable in the art and history of the Provence region. Her driving skills were wonderful and we always felt safe driving with her. You will see the real Provence with Catherine! This tour was the best tour we had in Europe!

[supernaturalblonde]

I contacted Papillon tours for a Florence/Pisa tour because of a positive recommendation on these boards. A rep promptly responded with an offer for a tour and the price. I emailed immediately and tried to book the tour. After 9 days and 6 emails, they have yet to respond.
Luckily, things have worked out with another company, but I just wanted to warn potential customers to not waste their time with Papillon.

[LINGBER]

Supernaturalblonde,

That is so strange! I booked Papillon for a Florence tour late last year. Lina was very responsive. We are going in June so I emailed her a few weeks ago just to touch base and she was very prompt in her reply. We have even had several emails back and forth over what we will be seeing on our tour. I booked them because of the reviews I read and because they were more competively priced at the time. I hope they come through with flying colors. I will post when we return and let everyone know how they did. We also have tours with Spiros in Athens, Claudio of limoinrome, Salvatore of Drive Amalfi and Michel of Revelation. It will be interesting to see if they all live up to the great reviews found on these boards.

[supernaturalblonde]

I was surprised that she never responded after her offer. I'm guessing that she has enough business maybe with larger groups and can't accomodate us. I just think it's unprofessional to simply ignore the requests.

[Florida_cruisers]

I have read numerous reviews on this board about Revelation Tours in Villefranche, and recently contacted them to organize a group for our upcoming cruise. I am sure I won't be disappointed.

[LINGBER]

[quote name='supernaturalblonde']I was surprised that she never responded after her offer. I'm guessing that she has enough business maybe with larger groups and can't accomodate us. I just think it's unprofessional to simply ignore the requests.[/QUOTE]

No question, it's bad business. I can't say it doesn't give me reason to pause and worry whether they will honor our reservation. Good luck with with your planning. I'm sure your trip will be wonderful!

[josiem]

I too contacted (about 9 days ago) Papillion for availability and never received a response. I have now made contact with driverinrome and received a response back immediately from someone named "Monia". Can anyone tell me if this is another driver (in addition to Daniele) or just someone who does the initial response to emails. Also, what is opinion of driverinrome over limoinrome? Which would you recommend?

[JMTtor]

[COLOR=Navy][FONT=Palatino Linotype] Monia is Daniele's fiancee (see the home page of the website) and the person who handles all of the e-mail correspondence.

We're on the 5/14 sailing of Speldour of the Seas and have booked driverinrome for the Rome tour (eight of us from the ship are going) and limoinrome for Pisa/Florence (six of us going on that one). I guess we'll find out who we like better in a couple of weeks! We've also booked with Salvatore of DriveAmalfi for a Pompeii/Amalfi coast trip from Naples.

I'll post to the boards when we return after 5/21 to do our reviews.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[josiem]

Thanks JMTtor. I guess I missed that piece of information about Monia when I was checking out their website. From what I can determine from all the information posted on this site about both DriverinRome and LimoinRome, I believe both will be excellent tour guides/drivers. Look forward to your reviews.

[JMTtor]

[FONT=Palatino Linotype][COLOR=Navy]No problem - if you're intent on getting to the "good stuff" (trip details), you have no reason to check out the other things! ;)

Monia has been great in getting back to us immediately with details, especially since we added people to our tour three times since the first time we contacted her (went from the two of us to a full van of eight). One note: apparently driverinrome had a hard drive crash and lost all backup information for trips booked between April 10th and 14th :eek: - so if anyone booked tours through that company in that time period and hasn't corresponded since then, you should probably reconfirm your reservations. Just to let you know - [/COLOR] [/FONT]

[johnfas]

Josie, last year we used driverinrome on two occassions. The first time we had Pepe. He was excellent, very freindly and talkative. He got us in to some sights without waiting. Good driver and informative. The second tour was with Daniels father Remo. He was VERY excellent. He was funny, talkative, informative, a very good singer and did I say he was funny? You will love him if you do get him. You may even request with Monia, she was just as great with our reservations. Make sure you ask him to play for you.
Our other tour was in Naples with Salvatore from driveamalphi. This was probably our best tour. All around I just cannot say enough about Salvatore and the tour through Amalphi and surrounding villages.
Hope you have a great trip and many memories. John

[2forTravelin]

Based on your comments, I contacted driverinrome to reconfirm our reservation and ours was among those that had been lost. It's all corrected now, thanks to you. I'm so glad you posted the problem.
cindy

[JMTtor]

[COLOR=Navy][FONT=Palatino Linotype] Glad I could helpl Cindy - I posted this to as many topics as I could find that were related to trips in the Med - since I've looked through nearly all of the boards in getting ready for our trip - in only two weeks - YAAY!!!!! I'd want someone to do the same for me if I was in the same situation.

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL time!! :D [/FONT] [/COLOR]

[citoman]

Trying to book a private tour for my family in Naples. Wrote to Salvatore from Drive Amalfi- but he is already booked. He is recommending Roberto from his company. Would like to know if anyone can tell me how is he as a driver/guide?

Thank you

[Dr. Pam]

I, too have tried to book Salvatore for our day. He is personally booked, but he has given us the name of Adriano. Has anyone had any past experiences...good or bad? I am especially concerned with driving abilities of our driver as our children are accompanying us. Thank you!

[LINGBER]

Does Claudio of Limoinrome have additional drivers in Rome? Has anyone ever booked him and had another driver show up at the pier for their tour. By way of these boards it looks like he double booked with another party on the day of my excursion.

Dr. Pam - While i was emailing Salvatore about my booking last fall another party confirmed with him so he offered me Adriano as well. He assured me that he is his number one driver, but I too would be interested to see if anyone else has toured with him. I'm sorry that its not Salvatore himself but we are really looking forward to the Amalfi coast.

[Debbierpof]

We're on the Splendour (July 23) and are looking for a tour to Florence and quick stop in Pisa. It sounds like driverinrome is reliable. JMTtor I'd be very interested in how your cruise and tour in Florence goes since we'll be doing the same later on.

[joeyanddavid]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on the European boards.

We have booked a 12 night Mediterranean Cruise (10/29/06) from Barcelona to Venice. Let me say upfront I am JUST BEGINNING my research ..so if this topic has been beaten to death I appologise.
There are a few ports that I would like to hire a private tour guide. Is there a list of websites.. where you can choose or compare different guides or tour companys.

Thanks for any and all..

always

[mari10]

[quote name='joeyanddavid']Hi everyone, this is my first post on the European boards.

We have booked a 12 night Mediterranean Cruise (10/29/06) from Barcelona to Venice. Let me say upfront I am JUST BEGINNING my research ..so if this topic has been beaten to death I appologise.
There are a few ports that I would like to hire a private tour guide. Is there a list of websites.. where you can choose or compare different guides or tour companys.

Thanks for any and all..

always[/QUOTE]
Hi Joey,
I'm just starting my research too. We're going on the same itinerary as you and David, but on 5/14/06. We are a group of nine, and want to hire private tour guides. The nine or ten hour ship excursions are too long, and not what we have in mind.
Maybe we can share ideas and information as they come along.
Mari

[joeyanddavid]

[quote name='mari10']Hi Joey,
I'm just starting my research too. We're going on the same itinerary as you and David, but on 5/14/06. We are a group of nine, and want to hire private tour guides. The nine or ten hour ship excursions are too long, and not what we have in mind.
Maybe we can share ideas and information as they come along.
Mari[/QUOTE]
Hi Mari, Cool I have been doing internet searches for tour guides.. It looks like they run anywhere between 55 and 100 an hour on average with the varibles...

go to my profile and drop me an email..and we will compare links......

always

[CAPinBoynton]

In Rome, it's Danielle! [img]http://www.thepreismans.com/Daniele%20&%20Carol%201.jpg[/img] Need I say more.

His father Remo is also wonderful. [img]http://www.thepreismans.com/Daniele%20&%20Remo.jpg[/img]

Our review and pictures of our Med cruise are on our website, including contact info for guides and drivers. The link is below my signature.

[sydney777]

I'm doing the private tours on my cruise. Do I need Euro's or can I pay with American dollars or American Travelers checks? Anyone who has just returned from doing any tours in Villefranche, Florence etc. Please let me know how you paid your driver? Is there a extra charge if I pay in Travelers checks? Please write to [email="Sydneyalice@aol.com"]Sydneyalice@aol.com[/email]

[BethIRC]

How much do you tip a guide for the day? We are using Michel in Monte Carlo and Paolo in Florence with both being full day tours. Thanks\

Beth

[JMTtor]

[COLOR=Navy][FONT=Palatino Linotype]A few notes, since I am still going to post my review of our trip (work has been a bear since we got back, and I'll be posting things piecemeal both on these boards and on a separate website I'm building over the next few weeks - stay tuned):

[B]Tipping: [/B] I had read on these boards that a standard tip is about ten percent of the tour price. We tipped more in general, since all of our tour guides were very good, with three of the four being exceptional. Hand the cash tip directly to your driver at the end of the trip, preferably in Euros.

[B]Payment:[/B] There is no uniform rule; contact your tour company and ask! Dream Tours accepts credit cards; we paid our other drivers in Euros at the end of the trip. A BIG hint: take your ATM card and use it!!! You'll get the best exchange rate possible, and you won't have to carry huge amounts of cash with you. Check with your bank or credit union about the system you're on. Our credit union is both PLUS and CIRRUS, both of which most European banks accept.

Another hint: Barcelona's cab drivers take credit cards - if you can pay by credit, you also get an excellent exchange rate.

Now the capsule summary. In order of ports, our driver/guides were:

Frederic of Dream Tours ([url]www.dream-tours.com[/url]) gave us an unbelievable day from Villefranche - we saw and did more than I ever could have hoped for, and Frederic was a true delight! Nice, Antibes (don't miss the open-air farmers' market), Cannes, St.Paul de Vence, La Turbie, Eze, Monaco, and Monte Carlo. The little tour of the candymaker in Nice, Confiserie Florian ([url]http://www.confiserieflorian.com/visitus.htm[/url]) was charming (specialty chocolates, candied fruits, and candied flowers ar3 the products). We happened into the evening changing of the guard at the palace in Monaco; the area was deserted (in the daytime it is apparently impossible to get a good view).

Paolo, our driver/guide provided through Claudio ([url]www.limoinrome.com[/url]) for Florence and Pisa, was extremely knowledgeable and a complete gentleman in every way. He knew how and when to bypass the crowds for the best access to most places in the city, and he brings an added benefit: a visit to a beautiful castle connected to his family on the way to Florence was an unexoected highlight of the day! The incredible restaurant he suggested for lunch, Il Latini, is another experience not to be missed!

Daniele* for Rome ([url]www.driverinrome.com[/url] - note he's cut his hair since the website photos, but he's still very recognizable from the pictures!) showed us more of Rome in one day than I saw on a three-week visit when I was much younger; he knew the best times to visit everything and the best places to buy everything from souvenirs to gelato (and the most incredible pizza in town!). He was a fount of historical information, and his sense of humor kept us laughing most of the day, too!

Marco was our driver from Naples for Pompeii and the Amalfi coast. He was a wonderful driver and very amiable, and he also displayed a wealth of knowledge about the area. He was a bit difficult to understand at times, but he was very eager to please everyone. Our day was turned around a bit by one of Italy's ubiquitous transportation strikes, which made Pompei our funal destination rather than the starting point, but we were still able to see Sorrento, Positano, Ravello, and Amalfi, plus many beautiful points between them, and still have two hours in Pompeii.

If you have half as wonderful an experience as we did, you will have great memories to last a lifetime!

*"Daniele" is the Italian masculine for "Daniel"; "Danielle" is the French feminine!![/FONT][/COLOR] ;)