Guided tours to Italy

Group tours, bus tours, and escorted trips to Italy

Tours & Activities

Context Travel

Intrepid Travel

Gap Adventures

Viator


A tour guide leading his charges through the streets of Rome.
A tour guide leading his charges through the streets of Rome. I hesitate even to talk about fully escorted tours because I believe that, in general, they detract from the travel experience, insulate you from the culture and people, provide only a superficial view from the deepest rut of the beaten path, and feed you the lowest common denominator vacation.

However, I also realize they help some people feel far more comfortable with the idea of visiting a foreign country, especially for the first time.

So, in the spirit of "to each his own," I have created a FAQ (on a separate page) of just what guided tours are like, whether they are right for you, and questions you should ask a prospective tour company. Full story

I have also compiled a list of some of the best tour companies in the business you can can pick the best guided tour out there for you.

I'm going to start with the Italy specialists, but in truth, if I had to recommend the three tour companies that will give you the best Italy experience, they would be the first three listed under "generalists": Rick Steves and, for the slightly more adventurous, G Adventures and Intrepid.

Tours to Italy—The Italy specialists

Tourcrafters (www.tourcrafters.com) - Great values on everything from fully escorted tours to simple vacation packages. Just be sure to read the fine print. The prices are great, but not always quite as amazing as they seem at first, since Tourcrafters often stuffs all the fees, taxes, and fuel surcharges into the fine print. Annoying.

Perillo (www.perillotours.com) - If you haven't seen their commercials you haven't been watching TV for the past 20 years. Family travel firm founded in 1945 and now in its third generation, with an enormous focus on Italy (though they've added Hawaii and Israel in recent years).

Donna Franca Tours (www.donnafranca.com) - Italy specialist, offering independent vacations, escorted tours, and he ability to put together your own, personalized touring program. Not the cheapest, but of impeccable quality. Donna Franca and her team really know their stuff.

Italiatours (www.italiatourusa.com) - Former vacations branch of Alitalia (the Italian state airline), now run by TourPackagers.com. Everything from escorted bus trips to active adventures to learning vacations to day trips and half-day experiences.

Central Holidays (www.centralholidays.com) - Long-established tour company specializing in Europe with Italy as its signature product—nearly 50 different trips, tours, and cruises, many with made-to-order themes like "Florence Cooking" or "Honeymoon in Venice & The Amalfi Coast."

Tours to Italy - The generalists

PartnerIntrepid Travel (www.intrepidtravel.comPartner) - One of only two only major tour outfits I know of that makes a concerted effort to travel like real independent travelers—small groups (max of 12 people), staying in mom-and-pop accommodations and getting around by public transport (trains, local buses, bikes, feet) rather than a big tour bus.

Aimed at a slightly more adventurous, slightly younger crowd than Rick Steves, and even closer to true, independent travel. Intrepid is all about the cultural experiences.

Intrepid has a larger than usual commitment to sustainable tourism, and travels in tiny groups, often limited to 8-12.

There are usually around 30–35 Italy trips on tap each year (see the box on the right)—though half of those will be longer overland treks across Europe and/or the Middle East (with Italy making up just a slice of the two– or three-week trip), and a handful are self-guided walks (no group to follow, just you, your itinerary, and your pre-booked accommodations).

Intrepid really does run a different breed of group tour. Let me put it this way: When my parents—who travel widely and on their own and normally would never have even considered taking a group tour—suddenly found themselves with airfare to Japan but no time to plan a trip, I suggested they try booking with Intrepid. They did—and they have raved about it every since. Nearly seven years later, they still keep in touch with their guide via email.

One drawback: no airfare.

PartnerG Adventures (www.gadventures.comG Adventures) - The other major outfitter with small group sizes and a devotion to seeing its destinations more like an independent traveler. G Adventures trip range from the more tour-like Comfort and Original trips to the gnarlier Active and Overland ones.

Drawbacks: no airfare (yet), and quoted prices are not as inclusive as some others (read the fine print to find out about lots of on-the-ground costs, often including most meals).

They offer between 15 and 20 Italy trips each year (see box on the right)—some focused more on sightseeing; others more physical and active (lots of hiking and biking), and a few include Italy as part of grander overland treks across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Partner

iExplore (www.iExplore.com) - The number one–ranked website for adventure and experiential travel—and it provides the adventure tour booking engine for everyone from Expedia to the Travel Channel to Frommer's and Lonely Planet's websites. (Given its excellent catalog, it's also a ReidsItaly.com partner; 2011 Italy trips listed in the box on the right.)

It's been around for more than a decade now and was recently acquired by TUI, which owns more than 30 major travel brands. That means iExplore incorporates all the tours from sister company Adventure Center, a major player able to maintain low prices on hundreds of adventures on all seven continents by contracting with expert local outfitters and other specialist operators.

Usually around 55 Italy trips each year, with a nice spread of styles, from group tours to wine tours to many excellent active vacations: biking, hiking, and even cross-country skiing in Italy.

Interestingly, unlike most tour companies, which stick to cookie-cutter chain hotels, iExplore's city trips tend to use trendy boutique hotels. Not included: Airfare, meals in cities (except on wine trips).

Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) - PBS superstar Rick Steves runs a highly-successful tour company that really tries to highlight all the best of the independent travel style espoused in his guidebooks and TV show in a group format. I've bumped into several of his tour groups over the years, and the participants always gush about what a great time they're having.

He also keeps his groups smaller than most (24 to 28 travelers versus the 40 to 60 many big companies cram onto the bus), and the smaller the group, the more authentic the experiences each member is going to have (to say nothing of more room on the bus).

Partner

InfoHub (www.infohub.com) - Not a tour company, rather a kind of aggregator of trips offered by tour companies. it casts one of the largest nets over the industry, listing some 14,000 tours offered by 4,000 operators in more than 100 categories—everything from artists' workshop to llama trekking, nudist resorts to biblical tours, language schools to personal guide services.

InfoHub's search engine returns results listed by trip rather than by company (for example, it lists nearly 100 bike tours in Italy, but those are offered by just 15 companies). Still, I guess if you could care less the name of the outfitter and are just looking for a selection of 10-day bike tours across Tuscany and Umbria, this is the best way to do it. You don't book trips directly. You are essentially sending away for a brochure (or a contact) from the actual tour companies.

Go-Today.com (www.go-today.com) - The price champ on air-hotel packages also sells escorted tours. They seem to operate under a "we will not be undersold" attitude on such packages. Tour prices are also very competitive—though I've never heard any feedback about quality, so I can't speak to it.

Sceptre Tours (www.sceptretours.com) - Famous for its package vacations, Sceptre also now runs nearly a dozen escorted motorcoach tours of Italy at amazingly low prices.

Brendan (www.brendanvacations.com) - Well-established and highly regarded general tour company with loads and loads of Italy trips lasting from 6 to 16 days. There are 43 itineraries of just Italy alone, and another 25 European ones that include Italy as part of a wider-ranging trip. Note that tours listed as "Escorted" are just that—fully escorted bus tours. Those listed as "Locally Guided" are more of air-hotel-transport packages with a local tour in each city—though these are the generic kind of city tours you could book on your own.

PartnerFriendly Planet Travel (www.friendlyplanet.com) - Popular low-cost tour company. Stronger in exotic locales (Asia, Africa, etc.), but there is usually an Italy itinerary in there as well.

Grand Circle (www.gct.com) - Top tour company for the senior set, aimed squarely at the over-50 market (though skewing older than that—and no, I'm not implying that over 50s are seniors; I'm just trying to provide a sense of the typical tour participants). Usually the full soup-to-nuts tours, including nearly nearly all meals, sightseeing, etc., and paced reasonably—you see a lot, but not a a whirlwind clip. Prices are guaranteed (no surprise fuel surcharges or anything). Usually a handful (3–4) Italy tours, plus another handful of cruises that include Italy.

Liberty Travel (ww2.libertytravel.com) - One of the biggest old school travel agencies, with offices across the country. The kind of place where you still call up and arrange everything in person. May not be the cheapest, but impeccable quality and pretty much guaranteed to run smoothly.

Gate1 Travel (www.gate1travel.com) - One of the consistently cheapest tour providers around. They cover the entire world and offer a range of travel "products" from about a dozen escorted tours of Italy to several air-hotel packages. Also, they're based in Fort Washington, PA, a few miles from where I live (that's just a coincidence, but I think it's cool).

Globus/Cosmos (www.globusandcosmos.com) - The kings of the escorted bus tour (generally, Cosmos is the cheaper option, Globus aims for "first-class" travel).

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This material was last updated January 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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