Hello

I'm considering doing Road to Rome (12 days) or one of the Italy tours, possibly EPI. Has anyone done an escorted tour with a child ? I have no doubt he will enjoy most of it (especially all that gelato)!

Looking for some honest feedback, tips. Is this too fast paced for a child, considering the early starts?

Is anyone doing a similar tour with their child/children in Oct 2008?

Cheers

PC

In September 2007, my husband and I took the 17 day tour of Great Britain and Ireland. We took along our (nearly) 9 year old grandson. In our opinion, he did very well on the tour. He had a few items along (no electronics) to keep him occupied on the coach, such as books, paper and pencil, and little action figures. He was very interested in all the sites. We had spent a lot of time prepping him for the places we were going to see. (It was a repeat trip for my husband and myself.) In choosing the optionals, we always considered how he would behave and whether or not he would interfere with someone else's enjoyment of an activity. We, therefore, did not choose to go on dinners at night, except for the medieval dinner the last night, in Wales. He is very comfortable around adults and is very well-mannered. On rest stops, several on the fellow travellers, who were retired teachers/professors, spent time with him explaining/teaching/telling jokes, etc. One of the people still sends him emails. We were very conscious to limit his time with the other travellers, so that he would not become a nuisance. That said, we would not have taken him if it was this year. This year he has started the pre-teen attitude/mood swings and he would not be nearly so enjoyable a fellow traveller. Only you can tell if your child will enjoy the tour and be an enjoyable fellow traveller. It is always good to consider the others on the coach when making your decision.
Myra

Grandma M has made excellent points and I applaud her for her consideration of the other passengers. Her grandson is a lucky young man.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the tour keeps to a very rigid schedule. If it is slated to leave at the hotel at 8:30 a.m. for the next destination, it leaves at 8:30 a.m.! That means getting up and dressed, preparing luggage to be left outside your room door, having breakfast, all starting around 6:00 a.m.

You might want to try some sort of "dress rehearsal" before booking the tour.

Buongiorno Pina Colada,
I just finished Road to Rome with an intelligent, outgoing, and curious 15 year old great-nephew. There were 7 other young people on the coach ranging from 11 to 21, and I thought they were all delightful.
That being said, the Road to Rome felt quite long, and by the time we actually reached Rome, our 15 yr old's eyes were sort glazed over from cultural overload. Sadly, much of the wonder of Rome was lost to him due to sheer fatigue. There were several LONG days on the road with not much to see or do.
You know your 10 yr old best, but Road to Rome taxed even me and I'm no newbie.

It depends what you want out of the holiday!
For me personally... I won't be touring with my kids. We'll go on our own in a few years. I want to go slow and explore with them, so they get the most out of it all. I was on overload at a few points with all the historical discussions, so I know they'd be tuning a lot out.

Each to their own though.

Hi Pina Colada, We had a young boy on our tour of Italy in April and he was a delight. He chatted to the older tourists and coped well withall of the day to day grind of a tour such as early starts and late nights. His parents had done a great job preparing him and he was a credit to them. And the tour guides LOVED him! I am sure he learned an awful lot more than he would have in school.

Hi Pina Colada,
we did the Best of Italy tour in July with our 3 children. their ages were 9, 10 and 13. It was a brilliant experience and I would highly recommend it to you. The tour only went for 10 days which was long enough. We were all quite exhausted at the end of it, but still enjoying every minute of it. We did lots of preparation before we went and laid down the law to our children as we were very conscious of not ruining everyone else's holiday as quite a lot of people had said quite negative things about having children on a tour. I made up a book about Italy that included many things to look for and we had also researched the tour stops so that they would have some basic knowledge when we arrived anywhere. At first our tour guide was less than impressed that we had our children but by the end of our tour they had won him over and had a fabulous relationship with him. We found the optional tours to be quite expensive and not really appropriate for the children so we would do our own thing with some great suggestions from our guide. We were never disappointed and after talking to other tour members who had done the optional tours we were extremely happy with our choices.
The early starts were never a problem for our kids, in fact we were usually one of the first ready to leave each morning as were the other families who were also on the tour.
The tour was a great way to see a lot very quickly and being on the tour eliminated lots of waiting around in queues.
Since coming back to Australia the children have been able to demonstrate their new knowledge in many different situations. My 10 year old was a class winner in the public speaking with a speech about Pompeii with information he had gained while visiting there.
You should definitely do the tour it was awesome.

Cated: If you’re looking for any spectular tour for 2009 that would be perfect for your children – Look at “Highlights of Eastern Europe” for several reasons. When the kids go back to school in the fall, everything they see will be in their social studies and history classes. In Vienna not only the Roman History, but they have one of the oldest Amusements parks (Prater), catacombs under St Stephens Church and the music. Berlin has check-point Charley and another kid friendly city. You have the wonderful Clock in Old Town Prague, the little town of Cesky Krumlov etc etc. The entire tour is so rich in history and the best part Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic are still using the old money ( 2009 will be the last year before they change to the Euro in 2010) and with a family you can stretch your travel dollar

Thanks for the advice Frank1610 but I think we will be paying off our Best of Italy for some time to come!!!!

cated, I can understand the cost of your last trip, but don't forget when you do travel with Insight again you should recieve a 5% discount for prior travel and another 5% discount for a family of 5, which should give you 10% of the cost of the land per person. Check with your travel agent and happy travels - memories last a life time.