Review: Tour of France, Italy & the UK, Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome, Tuscany, Bike Tour

At each destination (Rome, Florence, Venice, and Paris) we were scheduled for a private introductory city tour. These tours were welcome and useful, but in general we would have preferred a bit more time between arrival at each destination and the start of the tour.  We often felt rushed with insufficient time to settle-in and have a quick meal (as we were often hungry following the fight or train journey) before starting the tour.

The quality of the introductory tours varied greatly.  We recognize this to be largely a function of the individual guide that is assigned by the agency, over which the booking agent may not have direct control.  The tour guide in Florence was particularly exceptional and conducted a tour that was engaging, informative and thoroughly enjoyable.  We were also very pleased with the quality of the tour and the guide in Venice.  By comparison, the guides in Rome and Paris were not nearly as engaging.  The Paris guide in particular seemed very distracted and we were left feeling as though she would rather have been somewhere else.

We were very disappointed in the tour which was booked at the Eiffel Tower.  The guide was late, leaving everyone in the group wondering if we were in the correct meeting location.  This was a group tour and the guide was very soft-spoken and not the least bit engaging.  It was often impossible to hear the commentary over the crowds.  Further, it was not made clear until after the official tour was over that our tickets only provided access to the second level and did not allow us to visit the top.  At that point, it was not possible to purchase a ticket to the top without going back to ground level, waiting in the ticket line, and then reentering the tower through all of the security.  Accordingly, we missed a visit to the top.  We definitely would not book this particular tour again.