Italian journey
Wanderful Holidays was the tour company that offered us a trip to Italy during the one week that we had available to travel this spring. My family of eight (husband, two kids, in-laws, mom,and grandmom) ranging in ages from 15 to 91 had a fantastic time on this week-long speedy tour of Italian highlights. The perks of using Wanderful Holidays was their handling of reserving high quality hotels in Rome, Florence, and Venice for our group. They even arranged the airport/train station transfers to hotels so that was one less thing for our group to worry about. Wanderful Holidays also helped secure early check ins at several hotels so we did not need to wander around cities with our luggage prior to stated check in times. This was a lifesaver! One of the most amazing things about each of these hotels, besides their close proximity to train stations and walkability to the city center were their amazing breakfasts offered daily. It was one thing we could count on each day, enjoying a fabulous, fruit, danish, egg/sausage and coffee filled breakfast together.
Wanderful Holidays also scheduled several local tours in each of the cities visited. While in Rome, we were able to experience an in-depth tour of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. While in Florence, we took a day trip out of town to see Cinque Terra and Pisa. Though this day's tour driver wasn’t our favorite, it was amazing to see the gorgeous and quaint beachfront towns and travel between two of them by a local train. Unfortunately, due to our short timeline, we were not able to hike the trails between the Cinque Terra towns. (This is an adventure that we will save for a future return trip to Italy). Hands down the most excitement during this trip came from our time in Venice. After arriving at the Venice train station and taking a water taxi to our hotel, luggage and all, we were hooked. Venice living, sights, and transportation are nothing like anything we’ve experienced before. While in Venice we had two tours arranged, one a walking/gondola tour around one Venice neighborhood and the other a 6 hour day trip to the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Both were fantastic and I’d recommend either to any looking for supreme Venice adventures.
The Italy tour designed by Wanderful Holidays was great and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a well-priced tour of Italy on a short timeline.
Specific feedback for Wanderful Holidays:
A few recommendations that I would give to Wanderful Holidays is to share additional details related to all of the arranged tours including summary and approximate length of tour. We were caught off guard on a few adventures when we learned at tour check in the true length of tour. Knowledge of tour duration would help groups better plan for food, water, and clothing based on current weather situations. Secondly, we struggled with knowing when we should and should not be expected to tip. Tour guides yes, but what about taxis during hotel/train station/airport transfers? Are we expected to tip during dinners? Our tour book information and the internet had different philosophies on this. We were always unsure what was the “correct” amount to give throughout the trip. I don’t expect you all to have the answer, but perhaps you could provide written guidance on this topic at the time of reserving tours so this additional cost is considered.