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Booking a tour guide

grannyfranny

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grabbit97

grabbit97

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Has anyone hired a guide when in port or is it advisable to hire a guide in advance?

This is our first cruise to the Mediterranean and we have received mixed opinions about guides.

Thanks for your advice,

Fran

 

Millenium 10/12/04

 

WE BOOKED A TOUR GUIDE OFF THE INTERNET.. AND HAD NO TROUBLE AT ALL, ONE IN BARCELONA AND ONE IN ROME. THERE ARE MANY THAT ARE SUGGESTED, READ THE BOARDS, AND FIND ONE IN THE AREA THAT YOU WANT TO GO TO. MANY OF THE PORTS CAN BE DONE ON YOUR OWN.. WE JUST HAD A GUIDE IN ROME, BUT THE OTHER STOPS WE DID ON OUR OWN, TAKING LOCAL BUSES AND TRAINS, MORE FUN THAN SPENDING A DAY IN A CAR... THE AMALFI COAST YOU SHOULD GET A GUIDE IF YOU ARE GOING TO NAPLES, FOR THE FIRST TIME, DO POMPEII AND THE AMALFI COAST WITH A GUIDE, IT'S A LONG DAY, AND WELL WORTH THE MONEY FOR A GUIDE.

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ClaudiaF

ClaudiaF

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Has anyone hired a guide when in port or is it advisable to hire a guide in advance?

This is our first cruise to the Mediterranean and we have received mixed opinions about guides.

Thanks for your advice,

Fran

 

Millenium 10/12/04

 

You can get taxis in some ports.. but if you want a "guide" you should hire in advance. Alot of the drivers we recommend on this board speak perfect English, are great with emailing so you almost get to know them before you meet on the dock and can plan what type of day you want -in advance. You will decide on prices in advance and how to pay them ( some only accept cash Euros or dollars some take credit cards) and if you can hook up with another couple ( or even 2) from your cruise via these boards you can split costs. All the drivers are different in their touring..

some of them give more "info" than others.. and in some places like Pompei for example, they can only take you there and can not be a guide

( by law, if you want a tour w/ guide in Pompei you have to hire one at the gate)..

Many of the taxi drivers have limited English.

I do not recall any port in Europe where there are "guides" lined up at the port to hire... taxis yes, guides no and in some ports very limited taxis. So it depends where you are going too.

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joan24

joan24

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Claudia,

Is Claudio a driver or guide or a little of both? We have booked him for a day out of Civitavecchia to Orvieto and Viterbo. He has assured me that the stores will be open even though it's a Monday. Definitely have to get my priorities in order.

Thank you for all the help you generously give to everyone on Cruise Critic and Yahoo. It is truly appreciated.

Joan

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DocfromATL

DocfromATL

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Franny, email me at worldwideangling@aol.com I am going next June but, after reading this board for a month, have made contact with the top private tour guides. Email me and I will give you their contact info.

 

Doc

 

Has anyone hired a guide when in port or is it advisable to hire a guide in advance?

This is our first cruise to the Mediterranean and we have received mixed opinions about guides.

Thanks for your advice,

Fran

 

Millenium 10/12/04

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zebra

zebra

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Joan, Claudio is a bit of both. We had him in Rome and Florence - he was awesome, such a gentleman. He's extremely knowlegable and goes out of his way to give you the best tour. He has a very comfortable Mercedes Minivan - there were 6 of us on our tours and we saw everything. He even prebooked tickets at the Accedemia in Florence for us. He's a gem. We had him last week on our cruise on the Millenium and if we return to the area will definately use him again!!!!

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Aussie Gal

Aussie Gal

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Joan,

 

You will love Orvieto.The shops will all be open, it is usually the museums that are closed on a Monday. The shops with the pottery are just fabulous. You will not know where to begin and when to stop. Have fun. We spent a night in Orvieto in 1994 and loved the village.

 

Jennie

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ClaudiaF

ClaudiaF

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Claudia,

Is Claudio a driver or guide or a little of both? We have booked him for a day out of Civitavecchia to Orvieto and Viterbo. He has assured me that the stores will be open even though it's a Monday. Definitely have to get my priorities in order.

Thank you for all the help you generously give to everyone on Cruise Critic and Yahoo. It is truly appreciated.

Joan

He is a little bit of both.. He accompanied us to everywhere we were going.. to wine tastings to make sure we were taken care of.. but quietly disappeared when we were going for lunch, to avoid that ackward should we invite him deal? He is a gentleman and we had a great day..

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ClaudiaF

ClaudiaF

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Joan, Claudio is a bit of both. We had him in Rome and Florence - he was awesome, such a gentleman. He's extremely knowlegable and goes out of his way to give you the best tour. He has a very comfortable Mercedes Minivan - there were 6 of us on our tours and we saw everything. He even prebooked tickets at the Accedemia in Florence for us. He's a gem. We had him last week on our cruise on the Millenium and if we return to the area will definately use him again!!!!

This is so funny because I just answered the exact same thing and had not read your post.. so yes he was a wonderful guide/driver/caretaker of all of us

and all of us love being taken care of...and yes he will love for you to tell him we must shop..it's your vacation.. just tell him to takew you to the cute towns where there is great shopping... LUCCA! comes to mind...

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gizmodog

gizmodog

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Just make sure if booking a tour on your own that it is understood if the ship cannot dock for some reason that your money is refundable. I am just off the Constellation and our ship was unable to dock in Iceland where I had a private tour guide lined up and I was charged $300. I e-mailed him two days before our scheduled arrival in Iceland telling him that the Captain had made an announcement that we were not going to Iceland due to bad weather we were going to Spain instead. He refuses to refund any portion of my money claiming I did not give him enough cancellation time.

So get something in writing if you can when booking a private tour about refunding your money for that reason.

By the way the tour company in Iceland is VALTOURS, I would be very wary of booking with them should you ever be going to Reykjavik, Iceland.

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zebra

zebra

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Joan,

 

Claudio took us to the leather market in Florence (great) and gave us as much time as we wanted - then met with us back at the van at a given time. He also took us to his friends' wine/olive oil store in Florence, excellent prices on local wines.

We ate at another friends' restaurant in Rome - and insisted that Claudio join us for lunch - great food.

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  • 2 months later...
zebra

zebra

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Claudio's email is: claudio@limoinrome.com

 

Yes he leaves home early, early in the morning so that he gets to Livorno in time to meet your ship - sometimes he says he stays over in Florence. He's always there ready to meet you when you arrive!!! The distance between Rome and Livorno takes about 2 hours to drive, dependant upon traffic - then of course it's over an hour to drive to Florence from the port. He then does this in the reverse order once he's dropped you off, and he was at the Civitavecchia port bright and early the very next day to meet us for our Rome tour. That is why you will see the cost for Livorno/Florence is a little higher than Civitavecchia/Rome - because he used a whole lot more gas to get to Florence. Hope this helps.

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Francine

Francine

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We used Benvenuto Limos for Naples, Rome and Florence. The price for Naples included a guide for Pompeii. We had different drivers in each port and they were all very helpful. We were so pleased with all of their services.

 

An advantage of using the private guides is that they can take you inside the city, close to the sites. We were told that the big busses from the ships cannot go in as close.

 

Whatever you decide to do, you are going to love this itinerary. It was a wonderful cruise.

 

Fran

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  • 2 months later...
trvlnliz

trvlnliz

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We used Catherine of Provence Tours and she was great. Another couple was looking for a guide and I hade Louisettes email info with us and they emailed her a couple of days before and she was there to meet them. When they returned they said she was OK, more of a driver than a guide. Remember this is not a 1st hand opinion since we did not use her.

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