Review: Italy Tour, Sicily, Rome, Pompeii, Fine Dining, Wine, Cooking Class

I decided to go with this travel company because of the number of good reviews posted about the company and the fact that they let you design your our itinerary. I was looking for a tour that would include everything and where I could just relax and not have any worries. There were a few things that I would mention about this agency's services:

- Airfare is not included - the company does not provide airfare bookings - neither from your home country to Italy nor any domestic flights that are needed while in Italy. Just something to know.

- Transfers - when I booked with the company they told me all transfers would be included however this was not the case. It seems that if the transfer was under 10 miles, then I was responsible for transfer. This was not conveyed and only discovered when reviewing the itinerary. If you are comfortable with public transportation in a foreign country, be it train, taxi, bus or subway, or are up for a little walking this is not a problem however I found it misleading on the part of the company to say that all transfers were included. This included getting to and from train stations and excursions.

- Itinerary - the itinerary was not very detailed. I received a day-by-day itinerary with items listed for excursions and check-ins for hotels, however it didn't include time, location and whether transfer was included. Perhaps this is picky but I explicitly stated that I wanted this to be an easy, stress free trip to the company and was constantly carrying a stack of papers or searching through emails for where to be and when. 

- Hotels - the hotels that we stayed in were for the most part well situated and of decent quality. There were however a few issues. When I arrived at the first hotel it was overbooked and they sent us to another hotel for one night and then we had to return to the other hotel for the next two nights. Our travel agency offered to pay any expenses however expenses were not the issue. It was the inconvenience of the situation and the fact that it was a confirmed hotel reservation. Also, since there were no transfers to excursions, I had mapped everything from the hotel we were supposed to be in. At another hotel I was greeted with the smell of sewage. The hotel sent up a maintenance man with a spray bottle. While the smell got better it was never fully resolved and we were never offered a different room. When I contacted our travel agency, I received no response. 

- Excursions - all-in-all the excursions were very good and we had some great guides. In many instances it was a private tour so that it was just our party. In one instance however the tour was shorter than it should have been and we had to buy our own tickets to the sites that were visited. These should have been included in the cost of the excursion.

All in all I would not do another tour with this company. While they did create a tour that was what I asked for, the cost of the tour - $3200 for 8 nights which did not include airfare - was high for the services that were provided and it wasn't the "no thought required" tour that I was looking for. A simple search of Trip Adviser would have provided the same tour companies used in the excursions and I could have easily done the hotels and transfers myself and for cheaper. That is not to say that this isn't a good tour company for others  - it just didn't match my needs for this trip.