I took a Globus Tour to Italy this year. Returned the middle of May. I would give it a "C Grade." The guide was very knowledgable and the other guides we picked up at the various stops were excellent. The hotels were very marginal. The included dinners were not very good - the Italian food here is better and more varied. We drove from Rome to Pisa one day - big mistake since we got there so late the cathedral, etc., were closing within 45-mins. after we checked in to our hotel. We should have gone straight to Florence.
The extra dinners we purchased were also just okay. We almost felt compelled to take these since several of our hotels were on the outskirts of the cities and if we didn't we would be stuck at our hotel restaurants. The trip to the Pope's summer residence was just silly. We sat in traffic for a couple of hours and when we got there they just waved towards some gates and said that was it and also there was a lake which was hundreds of feet below the coach and we never saw it up close.
On the plus side the transfers to and from the airport were well handled.

I enjoyed reading your note. Since I have only been on one tour, it is easy to assume that all tours would be like mine.

On ours, the hotels were well-located and (in my opinion) very nice. The bus was great. I liked the itinerary. The local guides were very good - except I had trouble hearing the one in Florence as the speaker system kept cutting out. However I didn't care for our tour guide.

The Globus guide that I picked from did have a list of hotels so I suppose, with some work, we could figure out their locations before picking a tour.

Debbie

Hi Shirley,

What Italy Globus tour did you go on and what hotels did you stay at?

Very curious.. .. ..I will be traveling to Italy in the end of the month and the only thing I know about the hotels I am staying in is their names.

Thanks
Candygirl

Hi Debbie,

I have read other messages you previously posted and I see you are knowledgeable concerning some of the Globus tours.

Do you know anything concerning the following hotels.. .. .

1) Albani Hotel-Rome
2) Raffaello Hotel-Florence
3) Grand Carlton-Venice

Are these locations worthwhile?
Please advise

Thanks
Candygirl

Well disclaimer - I've only been to Europe once so I only really know at the ones we stayed about on that trip.

You can look up hotels on Google which is what I did for pfessor. The hard part of doing that is that you get bunches of hotel reservation sites and have to weed through them to get info on the hotels themselves. I had a minute so tried to look up the Venice one. I figured that at least I'd have a clue if it was in Old Venice or in Mestre where we were. (What we think of as Venice with the canals and all is what they sometimes call Old Venice.)

Anyway this is all I found for the Grand Carlton. However I'm not sure it is the same one you are talking about. If it is, it sounds pretty cool.

The rest of my note is copied from a website. I listed the site. You can see a photo at the site. ("via" means street)
Debbie (scroll down)

HOTEL CARLTON & GRAND CANAL
VIA SANTA CROCE 578 - Venice, Italy

http://tinyurl.com/47ot8

The Hotel Carlton And Grand Canal, An Ideal Oasis For An Unforgettable Venice Experience, Is A Deluxe Hotel Situated Eight Kilometers From The Venice Marco Polo Airport. The Carlton Represents A Perfect Union Of Modern Comforts And Classic Elegance. This Hotel Boasts A Private Access For Gondola And Water Taxi. Just A Few Steps From The Hotel Is Magical Labyrinth Of Venice. Explore The Maze Of Nearby Streets To Discover The Scuola Di S. Rocco, Frari Cathedral And The Rialto Bridge. Across The Rialto Bridge You Will Find St. Mark's Square.


The Distinguished Elegance Of The Hotel Will Satisfy All Your Expectations. The 150 Rooms Were Completely Renovated In 2000 In 18th Century Venetian Style. Each Guest Room Provides You With A Décor Typical To The Most Prestigious And Noble Palaces Of Venice With The Added Advantage Of The Most Up-to-date Facilities. All The Rooms Have Complete Bathroom Accessories, Hair Dryer, Direct-line Telephone, Color Tv With Satellite Connection, Fridge/Bar, Safe, And Air Conditioning. The Characteristic Winter Garden And The Rendezvous Piano Bar Provide A Perfect Backdrop To A Memorable Venetian Dream. The Hotel Carlton And Grand Canal Is Easily Accessible To Area Dining, Shopping And Entertainment Venues.

Well I hit it lucky with the Florence one. I found the hotel's website.

Hotel Raffaello Florence - Official Web Site

Hotel Raffaello Florence
Viale Morgagni, 19
50134 FIRENZE

http://www.hotel-florence-raffaello.com/

The Hotel Raffaello Florence is situated in an ideal position allowing quick and easy access to the city center of Florence, the railway station and Fortezza da Basso Florence Exhibition Centre. The Hotel Raffaello is a quality 4 star hotel Firenze and offers the maximum in comfort together with impeccable service. In 2002 all of the Hotels 141 rooms were renovated to maintain the high standards for which the Hotel Raffaello is reknowned.

This page of their website has some neat "virtual tours" of Florence. Click on some of the photos to get 360 degree shots.

http://www.hotel-florence-raffaello.com/duomo.htm

It says that it is only 10-15 minutes away from the Duomo by bus. The Duomo is one of Florence's main attractions and everything we saw in Florence was walking distance from there. However I'm not quite sure how far away 10-15 minutes by bus is.

The hotel in Florence that we stayed at was the only one that we stayed at that we weren't close (as far as we could tell) to public transportation. However the tour was such that we were only there one night and not long enough to go out and explore on our own anyway.

Debbie

I tried to find some info on the Rome one too. I think these web addresses are for it. (There is a Hotel Albani in Florence too I found so make sure these say Rome.)

http://www.italy-hotels-discount.com/al . .. .. . _rome.html

http://www.simplehotels.com/es/part-1-8 . .. .. . hotel.html

Here is a scrapbook of some people who stayed there.

http://honeymoon.webpicturebook.com/Rome2.htm


OK - enough hotel searching. If anyone else wants to find out more about their hotels, just do a Google advanced search on them.

http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

Put the city name in the top line and the hotel name in the second line. If you know anything else about it, you can try narrowing it down further. Like I said, you'll get a LOT of sites for general hotel reservation places but you can often find more info on the hotel on some of them and if you are lucky you can look at the URLs and see that one is a site for the hotel itself.

Debbie

Debbie,

I did some research on my own and I also looked up the hotels on the tripadvisor website. I just wanted to know more about the location and what the website states is not much to go on.

Thanks for all the information Debbie

Candygirl