Italian Elegance Reviews

The Italian Elegance tour was a great experience. The areas visited are extremely diverse so there was always something different to see, experience and enjoy – cities, medieval towns, Tuscan country, coast, lakes and mountains. The tour was all-inclusive so there were no options to be discussed (sold), decided on or paid for during the tour. There ...read more were 36 people on the coach but it never felt crowded and was very comfortable due to the generous amount of space between the seats.

Our accommodation was always in the very good to excellent range and the variety of the locations where we stayed was amazing; a converted farm building in a resort in Tuscany, overlooking the sea in Santa Margherita, on the lake in Baveno with mountain views, in the Dolomites and very close to St Mark’s in Venice. The “flourishes” along the way included gelato in San Gimignano and Strudel in the Dolomites which were both highlights. Our tour director, Jackie, was very well organised and willing to assist when required.

The only thing that didn’t work well was in Rome as we travelled to the Vatican twice - St Peter’s Basilica early morning then Sistine Chapel and dinner later in the afternoon – with Colosseum tour in between. It would be much better if both Vatican visits could be done together. The Vatican dinner was average so could be removed from the itinerary to allow the visits to be completed in the morning.

We have travelled with Insight before and would have no hesitation in recommending them. As always, Georgie at Global Journeys was extremely efficient and helpful during our planning and booking of the tour.

I had a good time, but was somewhat disappointed with a couple of the hotels. The Hotel Regina Elena Santa Margherita Ligure had a single bed & did not have the air conditioning operating & we were told to open the windows. My window was a sliding door that was shared with an adjoining room & opening that did not make me feel safe. At the Hotel Ancora ...read more Cortina I had a very small single bed that was quite high & made me feel as if I was going to fall out. After paying for a single supplement I think that I was entitled to have a room similar in size as to a shared room & this opinion was shared by others on the trip in similar circumstances. I may be a bit judgmental but after my trip last year with Trafalgar to the USA & Canada where the hotels were fantastic some of the accommodation made me feel a bit 2nd class. I do realise that this was Italy and not the USA & that hotels themselves make room allocation, but maybe they could be reminded that travelers do expect something for their single supplement payment. Otherwise the hotel in Rome & Venice were very nice & I very much enjoyed Italy especially the scenery in the Dolomite Mountains they are spectacular.

This was a really excellent tour experience. Hotel accommodations were uniformly brilliant in location, and usually in hotel quality - of particular the Tuscany and Venice accommodations. As always, the pace of a tour seeing so many extraordinary things was too fast to really process, but what was done was exceptional and rich experiences, very well ...read more coordinated by our marvelous guide, Daniele. I felt that probably the Sienna and Cortina excursions were a bit pricey and could have been an inclusion, even if an extra cost had been included. Loved the Tuscan winery and Burano excursions, although the wonderful seafood meal was too big to be followed by a final dinner! The modified bus with extra seat room is a huge selling point, coming from a family of 6' 4" men, and the extra seat width option was brilliant. I cannot speak highly enough of both Insight and Global Journeys!

Absolutely fantastic tour - Ernesta our tour guide was unbelievable! Everything was perfect. Cannot wait to book another tour! Insight accommodation was more than we expected! Loved it loved it loved it. So many amazing highlights. Everyday was more amazing than the previous. Thank you Emily Cran for looking after our booking - very efficient and ...read more professional. Definitely book with you again.

Except for Cinque Terre, we'd previously been to all the destinations on this tour, some many years ago, others more recently and several times over in the case of Venice. The tour presented an unrivalled chance to see them all again in a level of comfort we'd never previously enjoyed. For instance, we'd never indulged in an expensive gondola ride nor ...read more cruised in comfort at night up the Grand Canal in Venice, let alone drunk coffee, eaten gelati and listened to the music in St Mark's Square without paying the fortune that we did 45 years ago in celebration of a personal milestone in our lives. On the other hand, the least enjoyable part of the whole trip was the location of the Venice hotel in the tourist crush around San Marco. Conditions are inevitably like that in that most famous area, but Venice is so small that it's easier to stay in much quieter areas enjoying experiences as disparate as shopping and church visits and yet walk within minutes to the big tourist spots. Fortunately we'd booked to stay on for another three days in just such an area, rounding off a great holiday in an appropriately memorable way.

The Insight 'Italian Elegance' Tour was an excellent tour. We were impressed with the standard of accommodation and the centrality to most of the major attractions. The optional tours were also very good although we found that there was a little more hard sell to take up these tours than there was on the Avalon River Cruise we did afterwards. All the ...read more little add ons, e.g. ice-creams, coffees etc were always first class. The dinners provided at the hotels varied from fair to very good. Some establishments provided good options, others did not. The restaurants we went to were excellent. Our Tour Director, Brad, was excellent no issue was a problem to him and he was very approachable. Again, too much information is provided, when on tour and when on the coach. We just found ourselves losing concentration at times. On some days we did not take the optional tours, we did our own thing, just to break up the information overload. Overall we loved this tour with The Italian Lakes and the Dolomites being the highlights, Tuscany was not far behind.

An excellent tour of Italy. It was nicely paced and Jackie, the tour director was brilliant. We did all the side trips bar one and thought they added greatly to the holiday.

Italian Elegance Tour was an excellent initiation to organized coach tours. Plenty of variation in places visited and daily activities. Quality of hotels were generally far superior than what we were expecting. Our tour guide Karen Gower was extremely knowledgeable on 'all things' Italian and had the perfect personality for the job. Her organizational ...read more skills were excellent and she managed to make it all look so easy! Only criticism would be only one choice of meal on offer for the included dinners and some of the optional tours were a bit over priced.

The Italian Elegance tour covers just about everything for everyone who wants to see Italy in different perspectives. Cities with their hustle and bustle, the peace and serenity of the Tuscan Hills (surrounded by fields of sunflowers), amazing historic villages, well known places such as the Square in Siena, Portofino, and the Cinque Terre towns, rice ...read more paddies (who knew) and of course the many vines that Italy is so well known for. We road the bus, cable car, train, boat, horse and carriage, gondola and a valparetto (water taxi). We stood inside the amazing Colosseum, saw the lights of Rome. We were serenaded whilst floating in a Gondola in Venice and experienced the beauty of the mighty Dolomites - so from mountains to the valleys, from the countryside to the sea it was fabulous and highly recommended. Accommodation was fantastic especially the nights spent at our villa in the Tuscan countryside and culminating in a very centrally located 5 star hotel tucked away canal-side in a lane-way in Venice. WOW!

Thank you Georgie for your professional and diligent approach to our initial enquiry, to our other additional enquiries and the the prompt and efficient delivery of our travel documentation. We had a fabulous trip and would recommend highly others to consider the Italian Elegance Tour as a great way to experience the many facets of the Italian way of ...read more life. So many places, so many things, so many great experiences. Loved it all and would love to go and do it all again (come on Lotto). Our sincere thanks - job done well.

The Italian Elegance tour was excellent. It was really good to visit Italy from a roman city, the beautiful hills, the coastline, mountains and Venice.

Thoroughly enjoyed the trip despite 45 degree heat on some days. Tour leader was excellent, informative and very well organised. Met some fabulous people and saw a great deal of Italy. My only constructive comments would be perhaps to be careful that at breakfasts and some dinners that are arranged that the members of the tour aren't made to feel like ...read more second class citizens by putting them at back tables (this happened quite a lot to us). Felt like feeding time at the zoo on some occasions. Secondly we stayed at one hotel in Bolzano (Aldi) which was really sub- standard with a dinner that could be barely eaten. Other than that brilliant! Would go again and recommend it to friends!