<p>I found some nice house on a coast with very nice view but not close to major bus station and stuff. I think it was at the southern end where you can do a day trip to Morocco. I’m just afraid of driving.</p>
<p>Oy, after an hour of painting in the hot sun, my brain finally woke up. I think in post #20 I was referred to southern coats of Spain.
For Italy, I meant the beaten path, some nice farm house in Tuscany that is a little bit out from public transportation.
I mean to want to live like Sting for a week, he has a nice house in Tuscany.</p>
<p>I would love to do the Tuscan house thing someday but this trip will be a taste of everything (or some things) I think we are leaning toward the Rick Steve’s tour. My H seems excited about the prospect of leaving the work to somebody else and everything that I see about the RS tours has been positive with the exception of a very few. RS tours are limited to 28 people so it won’t be a bus full of fifty. The bus is full sized so there is plenty of room. One of the things I like about it is that we will have one full day with nothing planned in Cinque Terre. We are also thinking of adding a day at the beginning in Rome and a day at the end in Florence.</p>
<p>My H gets soooo tense when we travel. We have never done a tour before but i sense that he is very relieved to go this route.</p>
<p>We tend to never book tours. H does not want to be bound by the schedule. I totally agreed when we were younger. However, now that I am older, I personally would prefer to not have to deal with all the planning. </p>
<p>H and I went to Spain this summer and traveled a lot of Spain. We planned it all ourselves. It worked out ok except for day 1. We booked a train from Madrid to Sevilla for 4 plus hours after we were suppose to arrive in Madrid. Plane left JFK 4 hours late for a variety of reasons. We missed our train and had to buy additional tickets. Several hundred dollars down the drain. Wouldn’t have happened if we were on a tour.</p>
<p>Having to arrange for all transportation to and from train stations, airports, etc. is a bit of a hassle. Most hotels will arrange taxis for you.</p>
<p>Going on your own is definitely freer but a lot more up front work. A tour restricts you. Have fun!</p>
<p>Just the fact that you are going with one or maybe two other couples would definitely encourage me to do a tour. Unless there was someone else who wanted to do ALL the research and planning, and was really into it. Apparently there are people like that, but not me. We took our in-laws on a trip to France and Italy, and it was so much stress that I actually lost weight. I felt that everything that went wrong was my fault. We missed a turn driving to the airport and almost missed our flight. My fault. The hotel didn’t offer they type of rooms they claimed to have. My fault. The museum we took a bus across town to was oddly closed for some unusual reason that day. My fault. My mother in law couldn’t find a laxative and I didn’t know where to tell her to go. My fault. Even though they never made a big deal about anything, there were so many little things that went wrong, that I couldn’t plan for, I felt the disappointment was my fault. Would have been no big deal if we were on our own. And not my fault if we were on a tour, the guide would know it all anyways.</p>
<p>But there is so much that can go wrong if you don’t have the time to research it. A holiday you hadn’t known about, something closed on a certain day or time, an incredibly long line, all the knowledge that you could never get learning things on your own. More pressure when other people are counting on you to get it right, and too much stress.</p>
<p>That Heart of Italy is such a great tour. Just the right amount of time, not too long, but long enough. Great mix of seeing the big cities and the smaller towns. I thought we’d be bored in the smaller towns, but Lucca and Voltaire are so beautiful, I could have spent more time there. Always spending at least two nights at places made it more relaxing. Really, that trip was just about the most fun I ever had. When I came back, I said, “When I retire, I’m just going to do nothing but go on Rick Steves trips!”</p>
<p>Bus, that’s a lot of faults. I usually like to do research. But we took it easy, I didn’t want to see everything all at once. I still never been to Stonehege despite many trips to uk eventhough I passed by it many times. It’s like Disneyland in Southern California. You don’t go there unless relatives come and visit.</p>
<p>I have never been to Stonehenge either, but my only trips to England have been to the airport and military bases. Whoopee.</p>
<p>I really researched that trip with my in laws, but I just couldn’t figure out everything, and of course nothing goes as planned. But since I was the one who had done all the planning and researched everything possible…it was…all my fault. They said they had a great time, but the person planning takes all the responsibility. I really don’t like doing that for other people. I want everyone to be happy.</p>
<p>I will research the RS MY way trips that scout suggested. I had just written that off, and maybe that would be an enjoyable way to travel, especially if you knew what you wanted to see.</p>
<p>Luckily I never travelled with anybody except my own family so no blame from every one except accommodations need to be in top notch otherwise they don’t sleep well.</p>
<p>busdriver - your description of your trip with your in-laws made me laugh (sympathetically, of course!!) I felt much the same way when I planned our family’s trip to Great Britain. So much went right but whenever something went wrong, I felt like it was my fault, even though no one else blamed me for anything. Too much pressure for a worrier like me!</p>
<p>I went to Italy last Oct 2013 with a group of 6 friends (2 couples + 2 singles). We rented a farmhouse in Tuscany just outside Cortona, and used it as a base for exploration. It was fabulous! We also rented 2 cars because one couple + friend arrived a week earlier than the other 3. Driving in the Tuscan countryside to the small hill towns (Cortona, Volterra, San Gmignano, Montepulciano, Montalcino, etc.) was scenic and easy. However, driving a car in the major cities - Florence and Rome - and dodging Vespas while hunting for parking was a nightmare, and not something I care to repeat. When I returned in April with my DH, we took the train to Bologna, Florence, and Rome. You don’t need a car in the major cities, but you do need one to get around the countryside.</p>
<p>After reading the earlier posts, I would be tempted to go with a group tour, just because I spent a LOT of time researching and planning the trips. I love the flexibility of independent travel and I don’t mind trip planning, but there is a certain appeal to having a guide who can tell the little anecdotes that put history into perspective and make a place come alive. And as much as I like planning, there is also part of me that would like to have someone else plan an itinerary FOR me.</p>
<p>We don’t usually do tours but they are a great option. I love having the freedom to spend as much time as I want in places we discover. But planning can drive you nuts trying to second guess yourself. We’ve been pretty lucky.
We (4 adults, 5 kids) went to Italy on our own and it was a fabulous time. We’ve traveled together a lot (we did France also) so are used to “glitches” so nobody loses it when things go haywire (as they are bound to do–even on tours) </p>
<p>Driving wasn’t bad at all (we had 2 cars and walkie-talkies) but getting out of Rome was a nightmare and parking in Florence was another. We planned our trip with the Rick Steve’s books and itineraries and it was great. We made reservations for museums we wanted to see before leaving. In Rome we hooked up with a tour guide (there were plenty outside the Colosseum taking groups in) and then signed up with him for the next day to the Vatican. Planning our own trip allowed us to hit much more than going on a tour (and much less expensive).</p>
<p>So much of a tour is based on your group–if you have a good one you’ll have a ton of fun no matter what. We went with Go Ahead tours in Greece (just my family that time) and made some life long friends whom we still communicate with.
Other times you can hit people who will slow the entire group down and turn it into a frustrating experience. And the “you have 1 hour here then back on the bus” is really frustrating to me. I hadn’t heard of the “My Way” tours but that sounds like a super option to me (I need to go look that up).</p>
<p>My SIL is currently on the 9 day Rick Steves Tour: Venice, Florence, Rome and Cinque Terre. They went 2 days early to Venice to overcome jet lag, as they won’t be spending as much time there. If I were you, i would do that, especially going with other couples. We are going next September, but I am planning my own simply because I want to do something a little different and can’t find a tour company for this. I want 2 nights Venice, 4 nights Rome (plus day tour to Orvieto), 3 nights Amalfi Coast (Positano) and 1 night naples before we leave (just want to be close by).</p>
<p>I think RS might be nice because you are free to do what you want much of the time, the day isn’t jam packed with the other tourists. If it wasn’t for the fact that I REALLY want to go to Positano, then I would have seriously considered this. </p>
<p>I was even thinking of looking into something like this that is a shortened version up north, then when it’s over we could head to Positano ourselves. Haven’t found one yet, thought. I still have a year. I"m a little nervous in planning all the trains, etc…but I’d do it. I also plan on hiring Tours of Italy when I arrive in Rome for private tours.</p>
<p>commama, you might be interested in the RS South Italy tour, but it doesn’t go north of Rome and is pretty long (13 days). We signed up for that one year and ended up cancelling it because we couldn’t get the time off. I really want to see the Amalfi coast too. I think we might attempt to do it next year, end of Mar/early April. Thinking the weather might be decent at that time. We’re just looking at a week, and maybe basing in Positano would be a good place to explore. I want to see Pompeii, go on a great Amalfi coast hike, take the bus around it, go to Capri, Sorrento, and maybe a few other places. Naples, yuck. But it’s convenient to the airport. I’d go to Naples on a tour group but not on my own. Someone also told me it wasn’t too much of a pain to just fly in and out of Rome for the Amalfi coast. I will not drive. The coast sounds treacherous, and those Italian drivers. My God. We took a taxi into Rome, and through crowded areas, the taxi driver would just floor it. Pedestrians scattered, and even my kids were horrified. What an experience.</p>
<p>@busdriver11, I did see that RS tour, but it’s a little too long, but thank you for mentioning it. What I plan on doing is taking the train from Rome to Salerna, then the ferry from there to Positano! Won’t that be a beatiful journey…take about 90 minutes I think on the ferry. We won’t be driving at all, no way! The only reason I will go to Naples is I won’t want to be fooling around with trying to get there from Positano the day of our flight. I plan on leaving Positano the day before and THEN doing our Pompeii tour on our way to Naples. Will only be in Naples the evening before…just enough to have dinner, etc.</p>
<p>Interesting conmama, looks like the train ride is only 2-3 hours, with a beautiful ferry ride. I hope the ferries are running often the time we would be there. Didn’t realize that Rome was that close. It is not as easy for us to fly out of Naples as it is to Rome. And convenient to go to Pompeii on the way back. Sounds like you’ve already thought this through. I would love to snag some of your good ideas, because I really don’t like researching things. I end up just giving up. I want to make it convenient, not a huge or expensive hassle, especially since we wouldn’t be there too long.We will probably do what a friend did, look at the RS itineraries and visit the sights that they do.</p>
<p>@busdriver11…are you just wanting to do the Amalfi Coast on this trip? I love research and have picked the brains of my Tripadvisor buddies to get all these tips.</p>
<p>I’m thinking that may be all we have time to do. If we’re planning a week, inclusive of the flights, it’s only five days. Want to maximize it without scrambling around too much, and thinking perhaps basing in Positano or Sorrento might be a good plan. We’ve already spent a lot of time in Rome, and we know we aren’t going to have much time to see a whole lot, but we’ve always wanted to go to the Amalfi coast and Pompeii. We like hiking and are hoping that’s a decent time to go. I love tripadvisor, they are great. Any advice you can give me would be great, and I think what you’ve given me already sounds like a perfect way to do it.</p>
<p>If only I had all the time and the money in the world, it would be so easy. Just go to Italy for a month, stay at all four star hotels and do a couple of RS trips while we’re there!</p>
<p>Will you be flying into Rome or Naples. I agree the train to Salermo, then ferry to Positano is a good way to start out on the Amalfi Coast…but that’s only if you are coming from Rome. If you tell me what city you are landing in, I can only give you my opinion on how i would do it.</p>
<p>We are planning 3 weeks next year for Italy and Spain. I won’t book yet until I know where kid #2 land her summer internship. Most likely Aug-Sep time frame.</p>