Perillo Tours.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..has anyone taken an trip to Italy

[scott042]

I am planning a trip to Italy through Perillo Tours. Has anyone had any experiance with this tour company?

[ginny]

I am going on one soon.. .. ..but from everyone I ask.. ..they are the best!! They charge a bit more.. ..but hear they cannot be beat.. ..I'll let you know when I get back

[farjoh]

For everyone, Club Perillo is the best. We had the greatest time and the money was well spent. My wife and I would not change a thing. Everything is first class and the hosts are excellent.
They take you to specified places, yet they also allocate enough free time for yourselves.

A+++

[Guest]

yes, we just came back from the 14 day starting in rome.. . all there optional tours were triple the price then quoted online.. ..and the tour guides moved to quickly for the seniors, few got lost.. ..italy is beautiful . ..but will not travel with perillo again . ..expected much more for what we paid.. .. . oh, in venice . .. ..do you own gondola ride for 70 euros..or they will squash 6 people in at the cost of 300 euros.. ..arrivederci.. .. .

[Guest]

[quote="ginny"]I am going on one soon.. .. ..but from everyone I ask.. ..they are the best!! They charge a bit more.. ..but hear they cannot be beat.. ..I'll let you know when I get back[/quote]So, did you get back yet? and how was it?

[Loubob]

[quote="scott042"]I am planning a trip to Italy through Perillo Tours. Has anyone had any experiance with this tour company?[/quote]

My wife and I went with them the first two weeks in september 2004. They are a first class operation from picking you up at the airport to seeing you off back home.We did the Italy North Classic and it was great.Great accomodations , excellent places to eat and first class tours and guides. We are planning to go back in the near future and would not hesitate to using them again. We had a great time

[Ralph634]

Just got back from the big 14 day Perillo Tour. A tour from hell. So many things were bad, I don't know where to start.
The Tour Director was an insensitive clod who was constantly reminding us that he expected $4.00 per day per person as his tip, and please not in dollars but in Euros.
The food was inferior in quality, and can be surpassed by Appleby. Every evening we had a little Pasta and either Veal or Salmon. They were prepared tastelessly. Breakfast consisted of runny scrambled eggs & raw bacon. How they managed this consistently in 5 different hotels is a wonder to me.
Their main function was to steer us to the next place to spend money,as the tour director knocked every competitor of the store they steered you to.
Stay away from Perillo Tours. I consider it one of my biggest errors.

Ralph A. Molaro

[Guest]

we just came back from the same tour.. ..we agree with everything you said and more . ..it was our first tour to italy and it was so disappointing..the food ,the same veal and salmon..we thought this was the normal..tour director same, sending us into over priced shops.. ..and always bring up about tips..thank you , we thought it was just us.

[Guest]

We just returned from a Sicily and southern Italy tour with Perillo. Our tour director was quite good and the hotels and meals more than adequate. However, in 1996 we did northern Italy with Trafalgar at half the price and also were quite satisfied. The main difference as I saw it was the wine with all our dinners and the farewell dinner at the Brancacchio Palace. The bus we traveled on was just as cramped and the itinerary similar.

[susan2]

We went on a Perillo tour that included Rome, Venice, Florence and Sorrento last May. We had a wonderful time and I would recommend it to anyone, especially first time European travels like us.

We saw much more than friends of ours who were also visiting Italy around the same time, but traveled on their own "to save money." The irony is, they paid as much as we did in the end and saw less. They had language barriers that we didn't experience. Some things they went to were closed when they got there.. ..our tour guide knew all of that in advance and we simply didn't waste any time. Our tickets were purchased in advance, we went to the head of the line, etc. iI was very well organized. That was the best part to me. Our time was full and well spent. No, the dinners were not the best Italy had to offer, I'd bet. But we could always eat on our own if we chose. It was a small price to pay, IMO, compared to the ease of the travel, the information we got from the tour guide and the number of things we saw. We don't expect to get to Italy anytime again, so hitting as much as we could, as thoroughly as we could, was our objective. And this tour did just that.. ..and did it well.

Again, we were very pleased with everything about the tour, except maybe the mediocre dinners. You just have to weigh what's most imporant to you.

[Sara]

Perillo has been around for awhile, but I went on a trip from tour italy now. and it was all top notch. My tour guide also did perillo tours and I asked him what the difference was and he said the sites are the same people just pay extra for the name. My tour italy now tour was great though. I went on ther eclassic italy tour. 4 start hotel the gudes were good and the people were friendly. I loved it

[Guest]

Sorry but I'm confused by your post (happens all the time to us Old Folks.. ..lol). . Are you saying you used a different tour company? If so what was the name of the tour company? Not picking on you (maybe the company name is "My Tour Italy now" and I'm too old to figure it out.. ..lol) just trying to clarify so we have another option to choose from! Thanks in advance.

[FELICECB]

WE TOOK A WONDERFUL TRIP TO ITALY ON PERILLO AND WAS THE BEST TOUR YOU WILL EVER BE ON. A LIL MORE EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH IT.. . THE HOTELS WERE EXCELLENT AND LOCATIONS WERE GREAT.. .. . WE HAVE BEEN ON A FEW OTHER TOURS.. .. . TAKE IT . ..YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .

[SB]

BEST TOURS IN THE MARKET.. ..I WOULD NOT GO WITH ANYBODY ELSE.
GREAT VALUE,GREAT HOTELS,GREAT RESTAURANTS AND GREAT FOOD.
WINE AND MINERAL WATER ALWAYS INCLUDED WITH ALL YOUR MEALS.
BEST FEATURES : HOTELS LOCATION,AND QUALITY OF TOUR ESCORTS.

[KatieJ]

My husband and I took the 14 day Italy tour with another couple last October. It was our first "tour" experience.. ..and will probably be our last. We DID see alot.. .. ..but, also saw numerous places not listed in the brochure.. ..such as the cameo factory, the tour director's relatives jewelry store, etc! What a waste of our precious time. The hotel in Venice was dirty and the rooms dark and dingy.. .. ..although in a good location. Best bet---sign up for the tour WITHOUT DINNERS! Go on your own - just do your homework beforehand. Oh, almost forgot the coup de grace -- bus broke down in Padua - tour groups ended up pushing the bus to get it started!

[SFLib]

We went on a Perillo tour in October and would never use this company again. Our tour guide and driver were GREAT.. ..no complaints there, BUT.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .

Our biggest problem was the HORRIBLY cramped "luxury" (???) coach. I came home with brush burns on both knees, I kid you not. It was appalling. Perhaps it would not have been so bad had we not covered so many miles.

Our second big complaint is the rip-off "extras". . The fee we paid for the gondola ride, we later found out, was six TIMES that which is set by the city of Venice. It cost 45 euros for each person and there were 6 of us squeezed into a gondola. The city of Venice has set 61 euros as the upper LIMIT to be charged per gondola! So Perillo made a lot of money on this.

The Michelangelo Tour -- The places where we went on this 3-hour optional tour in Rome should have been included in the regular itinerary. Perillo squeezed 53 of us on a bus that seated 47, by bringing in people from other tours and our poor guide, bless her heart, spent half of her time trying to keep everyone together.

The food was passable, but boring, day after day, night after night. Our dinners ended too late for us to do anything else in the ciites which we visited.Breakfasts were minimally acceptable.

Hotels were very good and clean. Skinny single beds in Rome and Sorrento, but that was okay.

SF

[Guest]

globus tours is better than Perillo for the money. Plus you go inside everything on Globus with no extra cost.

[mimitravels]

I toured once some years ago with Perillo. For what they are they are GREAT! but, that was before I discovered what my own personal travel style was. The hotels were beautiful, but I don't spend enough time in them to really care or remember much about them. Turns out safe and clean is all I need. They are more money than some others but they do include a lot. That was our problem with this certain touring style. We wandered around and found so many great restaurants to try and really hated the feeling that we had to get back for "dinner at our hotel" so we found we spent double for food. If I were the type of traveler who really loved great hotels, sharing experiences with the same people for most of a tour and liked the comfort of worry free travel, I would use perillo often. It was a beautiful tour - but darn it, I didnt get lost once!!! Happy and many travels. mimi

[Ralph634]

[b]Stay away from Perillo Tours[/b]. . They overcharge for every little extra. The food is boring and mediocre. Even though they say all gratuities are paid, they constantly remind you that they expect more. They only take you to places that give them a commission. If you decide not to go on one of their extra tours, which are quite expensive, they have a knack of making you feel cheap. Incidentally, they charge more than the regular price for extra tours.

[maximagxe]

Ralph, I guess you are not sold on Perillo Tours

[Culinaryquest]

Perillo tours is a great company, check out this website for tour resource information www.italylandtours.com

[maximagxe]

I compared a Perillo tour of Italy to a comparable tour on Globus which we took in October 2005. The cost was about $2,200 more for the land only tours (same month). . What really does Perillo do that is worth the considerable extra money?