hi SRM,

welcome to the conversation! always fun to talk to other travellers. we have done three insight tours (all first class) and one trafalgar (cost saver) and there can be an amazing difference in some instances where the hotels are situated - more generally in places like venice, florence etc but in britain we found the cost saver group stayed at most of the same hotels as friends of ours who were doing the insight 1st class at the same time so go figure! i must say we choose to go insight on recommendation from our travel agent and also on the advice of many people we have talked travel with but we have not tried globus or ****** yet and have been told globus (which is also 1st class) is also excellent but we notice they do not include as many extras as insight. which italy trip are you looking at doing?

regards di d

Don't you just love travelling? It's such a great break from work. Thanks for taking the time to answer. The tour we did was Trafalgar�s first class Best of Europe. Now, we are thinking about the grand tour of Italy and Sicily too. However, if it is more bus then tour, we�ll switch to another. I�ve just started the research into all the travel destinations offered. What made you decide on Insights Italy tour? We really loved all the scenery in BOE, but more time to explore the cities would have been great. So-since this is only one country (although big) will we experience more time to visit sites, especially if the hotels are in the cities? I know Insight is more expensive�why? How it is better? Any comments would be sooo much appreciated.

Hi SRM,
The reasons my family chose Insight's Grand Tour of Italy and Sicily are:
1. According to my travel agent, the hotels are more centrally located. She also said with three of us travelling together with Insight we may get larger rooms.
2. This is an extra Leisure tour, which means more time in each place. The reason we are doing one country is to see everything, and spend a little more time everywhere.
I think the longest time on the bus is 3-4 hours. If anyone knows any different than this can you post a reply?
It was a hard decision which tour to take. But in the end we decided to one country "well" rather than just see little bits of it.
AND we are hoping to go back to Europe again and again!

Did it live up to your expectations? What was the good and bad about this trip? (Bad is such a strong word--how about instead listing the not-so-good things!) SRM

I did the Italy/Sicily tour in 2000 and loved every minute of it. I'm thinking about doing it again one of these days. We didn't seem to be on the bus much longer than any other tour. There was an overnight ferry ride to Sicily, which was fun. The food everywhere was great. We really saw alot. Some of the hotels were pretty fancy, some were so-so, but none of them were bad. All in all, we had a great time. You'll love it.
Linda

Thanks for posting Linda. When you say you didn't seem to be on the bus much longer than any other tour, how long did you mean? I haven't been on a tour yet so I have no idea!!
Also, can anyone tell me about clothing to pack? Did you need any "nice" outfits for evening wear, or was casual the way to go?

The longest we were ever on the bus was about two hours at a time, making stops for lunch, sightseeing, breaks, or picture taking. They have to stop so the driver can rest, so it's never more than 2 hours at a time, on any tour I've been on. As for dressing up, some people dressed up a little, like maybe a fancy scarf and dress slacks, but it was mostly casual.
Linda

In travelling from one hotel to another�how much time did you have to visit places of interest. In Trafalgar�s BOE-generally, they gave us about two hours at each place�so it was a mad dash through town. Is it the same for Insight? I know of the two-hour break for �potty stops and food� (a good feature) but it doesn�t allow much time for sightseeing. I�m still trying to figure out the difference between these two companies. Would you categories the Grand Tour of Italy and Sicily as a bus trip or a sightseeing trip? I would still like to hear �the good� and the �opportunities for improvement� (is that a better phrase then asking for �the bad� parts of this tour?) Thanks--SM

SRM, from what my travel agent tells me, Trafalgar tours and Insight are owned by the same company, and Insight is higher end than
Trafalgar, using nicer hotels that are better situated.
I'd like to know about the sightseeing stops as well if anyone has any answers!

SRM,
I am far from experienced, having taken just one tour with each of Trafalgar and with Insight, and I think the sightseeing time probably varies a bit depending on the particular tour, but I didn't find the stops on my recent Insight tour to be longer than on the Trafalgar. We often had just over an hour in which to eat & do any sightseeing. In order to make the most of our limited time at each stop, I had done extensive research ahead of time about what we might want to see at each stop, and we usually grabbed bread and fruit at a shop and ate as we walked. I do believe the Insight tours stops were more frequent, but again that was probably the result of the particular tours rather than the companies. I agree with whoever suggested that a rating such as the one Globus uses would be helpful in identifying the probable rate of travel. I did a lot of mileage checking and guessing about length of visits ahead of time, but there are so many variables involved it wasn't possible to be too accurate in my estimates. About the best one could hope for is to find someone on the bulletin board who has recently taken the particular tour you are contemplating and asking for specifics of that tour from them! Mary