We're a mother(52yrs old)/daughter (26 yrs old) from Halifax, NS, Canada, looking to book this tour from May 14-25, 2006.

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations (people that have done it before) about this tour and what we should be expecting as "extra's or optional choices" once we join the tour. We're planning to possibly arrive in Rome a day or two early before joining the tour. Any recommendations on what we should go see while we have the chance???

Also - does anyone know if 1 day would be enough time to go from Rome to Cinque Terre and back???? We were thinking on May 13th??

Thanks for your help!!!

Hi, my husband and I did this same tour with Cosmos last Sept and really enjoyed it. It was our first trip to Europe and we saw a lot of wonderful sights and came back with many fond memories. In addition to the tour, we spent extra time in Rome, Paris, and London on our own. Biggest complaint was that we had only half a day to see Florence - which was so beautiful, I was dying to see more!

I would definitely recommend arriving in Rome early before the tour starts. At least 2 days early is ideal, even more if possible. I loved Rome and want to go back and take more time to just soak everything in since I was such a rush to see all the major sights. I can't help with your questions about travel from Rome to CT, but my advice would be to stay in Rome and enjoy the city. You will feel too rushed if you don't leave yourself some time to enjoy leisurely meals and see all that the city has to offer. One tip - I would definitely book your own hotel in Rome if you arrive early and not stay at the Pineta Palace. Although the rooms are fine, the hotel is located pretty far from the city and will require long taxi rides (I think the cost each way was around 20 euros). . In addition, there are very few restaurants around the Pineta Palace. The day in Rome with Cosmos includes an optional to the Vatican museums (53usd/pp) and a visit to the forum and colosseum. Some attractions you will want to see in Rome on your own are St Peters Church (make sure to go to the top), the Pantheon, Borghese Gallery (must reserve in advance & pay for the self-guided audio tour)- to name a few. Once you join the tour, there is an excursion on the first night where you get to see a few of the piazzas and fountains and includes dinner $61usd pp. Arrive at the hotel mid-afternoon if you want to do the optional on the first night. We did not do that excursion and instead strolled on foot on our own to see the Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, and others.

There are many, many excursions offered throughout the tour - to give you an idea, my tour included 14 which totalled close to $800usd pp if we had chosen to do them all. You really have to be selective if you want any free time to explore on your own. Most nights we did not do dinner with the group so that we could see some of the sights open late and make our own restaurant choices. The only optionals we did were the lucerne boat trip (26usd/pp); mount titlis in lucerne (77usd/pp); and the paris farewell dinner (72usd/pp). . We did not do the Vatican optional (53usd/pp) because we had already seen the museums on our own before the tour started, but the people in the group seemed to like it. Everyone loved the tuscan dinner in florence (61usd/pp) and I would not miss the farewell dinner in paris (72usd/pp) just because it is fun to hang out with the group on the last night. The optional Venice dinner would be a good idea if you are not willing to find your own way into the city (you have to take a bus and a water taxi). . Many (not us) did the Versailles optional (69usd/pp) and enjoyed it. Just realize that if you go to Versailles you will have very little free time in Paris. We chose to go to the Louvre instead. Instead of the cabaret optional in Paris on the first evening, we went to the Eiffel tower and took the lift to the top. You can count on being offered an optional dinner for any night of the tour when dinner is not included. My husband and I are adventurous and independent and don't mind asking questions and trying to find our way around - so we opted out of most of the optionals so we could explore on our own. I also brought along some guidebooks and restaurant recommendations to help us. If you don't want to have to worry about any advance planning or finding transportation - you will probably end up doing many of the optionals, especially the dinners, since many of the hotels are located a bit out of the city.

A couple of other ideas- You will want to spend an extra day or 2 in London to see the sights and see a show. We actually wanted more time in Paris, so we broke off from the tour when they departed to London, stayed in Paris an extra night and booked Eurostar tickets to get to London. Hope that info is helpful. I would be happy to provide more info if needed.

Jennifer

Jennifer,

Your information was very interesting. Could you please provide some of your restaurant recommendations?

Thanks,
Karen

Hi! You might want to read my review of this trip that I just reviewed last week. There is hotel and excursion information but not many restaurant reviews as we either took the excursions or ate the included meals. Happy travels! Jenice