Question about private tours Italy, Greek Islands

[corsies]

My dad will be sailing on the Emerald princess June 17th with the following ports:Rome, Monte Carlo, Florence/Pisa, Naples/Capri, Santorini, Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey, Mykonos, Athens, Katakolon, Corfu and Venice. Can anyone who have been to these ports recommend a company that does private driving tours etc in any of these ports. He has heard that it is recommended to book them in advance.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Corrie

[Toto2Kansas]

Corrie, you may still be able to find a recommended tour guide, but I can tell you that 'in advance' means months for the best of the private tours. Ours were booked almost 6 months prior to our sailing to get the highly recommended guides. Have you also checked the ports of call boards? That is where you will get numerous responses for private tours in each port. Have you also checked the roll call for this sailing? Some may still have room on private tours booked for your father to join in. Best of luck!

[Ranger]

We had a great experience with the folks at Benvenuto Limos in Rome, Naples and Livorno (Florence/Piza). http://www.benvenutolimos.com/

[davejohn]

We used RomeInLimo in Rome and Naples. They were excellent. June 17th is pretty close....do something now if you want a chance on booking a private tour.

[Andee]

Naples/Capri: Along with two other couples, we hired Giovanni, from http://www.tourofitaly.com for a day along the Amalfi Coast, with stops in Amalfi, Sorrento, Ravello, and Positano. Great day.

 

Santorini, Mykonos, Corfu, and Venice were very easy walking ports. I copied self-guided walking tours from a guide book, and we had a wonderful time. In Corfu, there is a little trolley that looks like a train, which takes you to areas a little too far for walking, and provides interesting narration. It was a nice break in the middle of the day.

 

Athens was our disembarkation port: We hired Spiros from athens taxi dot net to pick us up at the ship, drive us to Athens, take us on a half day tour, and deposit us at our hotel. Wonderful.

[chipmaster]

My dad will be sailing on the Emerald princess June 17th with the following ports:Rome, Monte Carlo, Florence/Pisa, Naples/Capri, Santorini, Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey, Mykonos, Athens, Katakolon, Corfu and Venice. Can anyone who have been to these ports recommend a company that does private driving tours etc in any of these ports. He has heard that it is recommended to book them in advance.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Corrie

 

Search the ports of call and you can find a lot more info, but it looks like your cruise is right around the corner

 

For Naples/Capri, Florence/Pisa, and Rome we used Romeinlimo

In Athens I used Greektaxi, and for Kusadasi and Istanbul went with EKOL. These are all pretty big outfits with much good feedback.

 

The default could be to use the ship tours but they are pricey and less flexible if not convenient

 

Your other option may be to solicit anyone with space in roll calls.

 

Happy planning

[vacapam]

We just got off the Emerald. We used Ekol Travel for Turkey and All Around Italy for Naples, Florence and Rome (Fabrizio, the owner, was our guide for all three ports.) Highly recommend Fabrizio and Ekol.

 

http://www.allarounditaly.net

http://www.ekoltravel.com

 

If you can get a group together, you can't beat the service or the prices.

[turbo46032]

Can be done far easier on your own using the subway. Many of the interesting places in a one day stop are along the way.

[jesse]

go on the Europe section of the cruise boards, to the Mediterranean section, and you will find all the info you need on private tours in the cities you are looking for. I forget the tour company we had in Monte Carlo, but they were good, and the tour company we used in Italy was Romeinlimo, which was fantastic.

 

You will find all the info you need there--and you will find many many excellent comments for Romeinlimo for Italy

 

Good luck

[bellagirl]

We,too,used romeinlimo for our excursion through Rome and as everyone has stated, you can't go wrong with them. June 17th is cutting it pretty close,but you can always try. Jany is very good at coming up with solutions!

Good luck! Shelly

[sandinmyshoes]

I'm with bellagirl. Romeinlimo.com can't be beat. If anyone can fit your father and his group in, it will be them. Just go to their website and send them an email of interest. Jany is the person in charge of answering emails and keeping up with scheduling. She is amazing!

 

We used Romeinlimo.com for our tours in Rome, Naples (for Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano), and Livorno (for Pisa, Tuscany, and Florence) and all of our tours were fantastic! Private tours are so much better than ship sponsored tours or even trying to do it on your own via the rail system. First of all they are private. You can get a group together to cut costs if you want, but 6 - 10 people is a lot better than 40 -50 crammed into a bus and wasting time in each stop waiting on those who just couldn't pull themselves away to meet the group ontime. The drivers with Rome in Limo make the most of your touring time by driving you directly to the location (musuem, church, other place of interest) and also picking you up there. You save valuable time this way that is used to see more of the sights you want to see. Their tours are completely customizable to your wishes. All of their drivers and guides are fantastic! We used them for our cruise last Oct. and will be using them again in 2009 when we return.

 

I've written all the specifics from our tours in other threads if you are interested in reading about the details. You can just click on my login name and it should direct you to the other posts I've made. Most are in the Med. forum, but this is a good place too considering some of the Princess ports are different than other cruise lines and you want as much info as possible.

 

One more thing...the prices with Rome in Limo are very reasonable and they treated us like VIPs. Their customer service is outstanding and their drivers and guides have love for their cities they can't help but pass along to you! The owner, Duman, is a fantastic man and is committed to running an honest company that delivers the best service possible. He won't be dissappointed if your father chooses RomeinLimo!

[boating girl]

We also had really wonderful experiences with Bob's limo service in Italy. He is from NY and has been in Italy 20+ years. Each and everyone of his drivers in different ports were wonderful. Services were much less expensive than buying excursions from the ship (if you have 4 people).