I'm thinking about taking 14-day Italy tour with Insight, Globus, or Tralfagar in late October. Has anyone done the 14-day tour with Insight? How's the quality of the tour and hotels?

My family and I took the 14 day Italian Escaped a couple of years ago. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. Insight is a great company and babied us the entire time. We had a wonderful guide (Debra) and we loved her. Everything was times perfectly and we got into places before anyone else. We were at the Vatican and a line was twisted down the street for blocks and we got in in front of all of those people. It was great. I have to say that on any of the tours that I've been on , the "included" dinners are not all that great but Insight is much better than Trafalgar. I wouldn't let my dog travel with that company.
We went on a multi country tour with them last year and it was awful. If there brochure says "visit.. . this place" WEll, you may stop for 15 minutes or wiz by it going 60 miles and hour. With Insight we stayed at a hotel IN Venice.. ..with Trafalgar, it said that you stayed in Venice but it was Venice mainland, not VENICE. It took an hour to get to the island. Trafalgar treated us like we were a pain. On our Insight tour our guide pointed out special things we were looking for and took us to a shop in Florence that sold 100 year old Balsamic Vinegar. She didn't have to but she did.
Our guide with Trafalgar all he wanted to do was get off the bus and smoke and ignore us. I would recommend Insight. Try them, you will have a fabulous time.

I took this tour, Italian Escapade, last year through Insight and loved it. Great if your age is 30-and up Not many younger people. All of the excursions that included dinner were fabulous. The hotels were great except Florence we stayed at a Sheraton outside the city but the rest were fabulous and within walking distance to shops etc.

I agree with EVERYTHING astaggs said about Insight and also Debra. She was out tour director and we can ntot saay enough good things about her. Our trip was the latter part of 2003 and we are still talking about it. Hoping to go Austria, Switzerland, Bavaria with Insight this spring. Trying to reconcile using Insight air or booking or own. Take the trip and enjoy, enjoy.

[quote="california"]I took this tour, Italian Escapade, last year through Insight and loved it. Great if your age is 30-and up Not many younger people. All of the excursions that included dinner were fabulous. The hotels were great except Florence we stayed at a Sheraton outside the city but the rest were fabulous and within walking distance to shops etc.[/quote]

We have taken this tour last June 2005 with Insight and we can tell you that it is worth for your money. All the coach trips had 54 seats and Insight was the only company stating a 40-seat coach and plenty of comfort and legroom. The cost was higher but after experiencing the trip worth every cent. The tour Director Annelies was very knowledgeable, she had a great personality and showed us so many interesting places off the beaten track. We all paid extra for these optional excursions and I highly recommend the extras to everyone and allow extra monies for that purpose, we had budgeted for such an event. The coach had plenty of room and I had at least 20cm in front of my knees before the next seat and a footrest. Great windows, lighting and air-conditioning. I am very glad to have chosen to travel with the Insight Vacations because it has given me an opportunity to meet with fellow travellers from other parts of the world such as Australia and New Zealand.  Overall, the tour members were friendly, disciplined & very punctual.  Thus, the trip was pleasant and memorable. Toilet stops were always a good laugh and it did cost some coin to use them. Above all, we were thankful to have a good & knowledgeable Tour Director - Annelies Zwijns who tried his best to make sure that every arrangements gone on smoothly without a hitch. I can only say that if you are considering a coach trip with comfort, legs room, fantastic tour leader, a good clean bed every night, good food,
a lot of laughs and luxury accommodation except the one in Assisi(anyway we had sumitted our comments to change the hotel after the trip), then there is only one choice Insight Vacations