chipmaster

We hired Rome In Limo for our Rome day portion of our week long Italian vacation. This was just a couple of weeks ago. They were fantastic. We opted to hire a driver and a guide for a full day tour of Rome. When divided amongst our group it was not overly expensive and was worth it for us whereas we had never been to Italy. They were wonderful. Julia was our guide and Vincenzo was our driver-guide. We saw all the main attractions in a power packed day and it was amazing. We did not have to wait in the long lines at all and were escorted right to the front. I kept hearing the saying, when referring to whether or not to use a guide, "You don't know what you don't know!" Rome is boggling and would be very lovely just to wander around gawking at things, but you don't know what you don't know and I much prefer hearing the history while gawking rather that just gawking. We chose to do Florence and Pisa without a guide and I rather wish we'd done it with guides. Rome In Limo was wonderful. They were accomadating, enthusiastic, fun, and extremely knowledegable. We threw all kinds of questions at our guide Julia (my husband and I are both art majors and have had our share of art history) and I was very impressed. She harbored a wealth of info on her beautiful city. I loved this tour, our guides and would surely use them again.

You had Julia for the whole day or just the Vatican?

We had Julia for the Vatican, we really enjoyed here, highly recommended!

Please suggest a reasonably priced Private Tour Company and guide for 4 people to tour Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast as well as any suggestions. We are taking our two little children with us. Limo In Rome was 500 Euros-too much money for our budget. AP Tours was 360 Euros. How much money is it to hire a Private Guide at Pompeii? Is it easy to find a guide to hire? Please suggest anything else along the route to do, see, eat, experience.

Private licensed guide at Pompeii are available for hire ~ 100 euros. They linger around the ticket entrance. We hired such a guide in Acropolis but made the mistake of not hiring in Pompeii. The place is huge and even with a good map a guide is invaluable. We enjoyed Pompeii with our free exploring but would probably have enjoyed it more with a guide.

The price you quoted is about right for RIL for a single vehicle. If you find a couple more people it becomse less then 100Euros/perons. The AP tour price is a good one, I doubt you can find a private for much less, you can always try a freelance taxi driver with its associated risk.

If you are doing Naples on a budget Pompeii and Sorrento or Capri make a good combo and doable for likely less then 50 / person ( NO guide of course ).

Good luck

Currently, when I take photos, they all pile into one folder. Is there a way to get them to download by the date they were taken?

 

I have a Canon S3IS and a Canon SD880 (although I'm not sure if this matters when downloading).

 

 

Also, a friend is lending me her Canon XSI to take to Alaska. It only has a telephone lens (the regular lens broke) so I'm wondering would I use that for my whale trip or use both that and my regular camera?

 

Thank you.

Take your friend DSLR and telephoto. it will get far better pictures the either your S3IS or SD880. Hopefully the telephoto is the 70-300 IS, if so ever better for while pictures.

As to your ? about downloading time. It really shouldn't matter the order, why do you care? If you are interested in seeing the pictures filed in order they were taken go into window explore and open the file storing all the pictures.

If you are using Vista at the top where there is the icon select "details". Then move your mouse to the "names" label and right click and select date taken. You should now see all the files with a column with "date taken." Click the date taken will sort either ascending or descending. You can also help group your pictures by larger date order by creating new folder by date or events to help you order your pictures

If you are using XP the process is similar but you click the tab "view" to select details. Do the same thing afterwards right clicking on the name tab to find "date picture taken"

As Pilot mentioned most photoprocessing programs allow the option to select to sort files by name or date taken that should disply them in the order you like.

Enjoy Alaska

I'm booking romeinlimo for some of my pre-cruise time in Rome, thanks to the many accolades here on CC. My questions:

1-They are suggesting an 8 hour tour with a driver, and a guide for the Vatican. Do we need a guide for other sites? Or is the driver usually knowledgeable enough to provide info?

2-Have you ever just gotten a guide at the Vatican rather than scheduled one in advance? If so, how did that work out? Did you still have to stand in line for tickets? Can you just visit the "church" on your own without tickets? (I obviously have lots more research to do! I visited Rome years ago, but I was on a tour and they took care of everything.)

3-Do you tip on top of the fee for the driver, or is it included?

 

4- Not a romeinlimo question, but has anyone ever done a day trip from Rome to Pompeii? Is that possible?

 

Thanks in advance for answers to my questions!

1) Our drivers were very good; chatterbox all the way in. Gave us the 2000 year history of Rome/Italy. During the drive between the stops and at each stop told us a bit of history and trivia of each, of course YMMV. To be honest beside the colosseum where we explored on our own for 45' there really isn't anywhere else a guide would add value as you simply aren't at any attraction for long enough. Even at the colosseum the second floor displays have lots of self explanatory displays that I don't think it would be worth spending more euros.

2) I'd recommend you use the Romeinlimo guide/reservation. Nothing could be easier, yes a bit more money. Lunch across the street, then meet up with your guide and larger group and simply walk to the reservation line. Unless you are going to seperately make reservations I can't see how you'd schedule this busy day. To be honest the whole affair is going to be a bit rushed. The guide is talking and walking continuously. If you go during the summer the place will just be jammed packed. During the tour you'll stop in about 5 or 6 points before the Sistine Chapel, but clearly not the most ideal way to tour one of the great museums but when you only got a couple hours that will be the compromise. If all you want to see is the Church and Sistine then you can likely skip the guide, but then you need to figure out how to avoid what could easily be a two hour line to get in.

3) We tipped our drivers and guide in all 3 ports. In Livorno they were so grateful, in Rome/Naples seemed more like they had come to expected it. Our guide at the Vatican, Julia, was very appreciative and really deserved it too. Call us generous or foolish but I recalled we ended up tipping about 5 euros/person for the driver and a similar amount to Julia.

You can search the threads here as last year there were a few on tipping. We tipped not because we had to but simply because we had an enjoyable time and they really did make it extra special.

Enjoy Rome,

I have always heard rave reviews of Air NZ compared to Qantas. I just meant that I felt safe with Qantas. I would do Air NZ too, but it is $$$$.

 

My neighbor is a pilot, and he said Singapore Airlines is great.

 

Thanks for the clothing advice. I don't have a lot of light clothing except shorts, and I know that you really aren't suppose to wear shorts except in Hong Kong, so I will shop for some extremely light casual dresses that go below the knee.

Their is several types of safety.

The training and experience of the pilots. Nothing in my mind results in a safer pilot then combination of experience and a culture of safety first.

The other type of safety is mechanical safety. In some ways if the corporate culture has safety up there then both pilots and mechanical will be there. If a airline isn't making money, and many aren't I would suspect that mechanical maintenance will be one thing examined for cost opportunity. Not saying cut to the bone, but you know what I'm saying ;)

Having flown Singapore, Cathay, JAL, Northwest, American, United, China, and EVA to the far east my preference order is as listed. Between service, security and safety I'll take the Tier1 asian over ANY US based carrier.

"However, I've emailed a couple of tour and/or taxi companies that were recommended on CC for Rhodes and Athens/Cape Sounion and found their prices were higher than the ship's tours. If a person is only looking at cost, they need to find another couple who they can rely on to share the cost so that they're not stuck paying double. Hank, I wonder if prices have gone up in Europe, despite what's going on in the world? " (see full message above)

 

Hank,

Are you there?

Private tour/cars for the $ only are competitive when you fill the vehicle. For many operators if you can find 4 people for a car, 6 for a van or 10+ for a mini bus the $ per/person cost drops well below the most extravagant of the ship meg bus 40+ tours and you see so much more with a better overall experience. Private tours have the advantage of smaller group so you aren't waiting for the last of the 40 people to make the walk etc. Most important the vehicle in most European cities can drop you off much closer to all the attractions then any of the bus tours, also being private you pick the attractions and how long you stay at each. Given all the advantages it really makes sense to go Private to get the most out of your limited time in Port. DIY saves money, allows you to experience European mass transit ( sorry that isn't one of my personal must see's on a whirlwind 10 port/12 day cruise :rolleyes: ). For people that might be going to a city/port for the xth time maybe DIY makes sense as they've already seen most of the sights and they just want that leisure and cost efficient visit to hit their favorites, no question walking the back streets is a unique experience in every foreign city I've had the time to do it in. But on a cruise tour, walking back streets and experiencing mass transit seems to be the odd must do, no?

If it is a first visit, you've spent thousands on the ship, thousands on your air fare, why would a person short change Rome for example to DIY to save 100 euros? Just a counter opinion ;) :D

:)Hello :)

Cruising in June calling at Corfu, Koper(Slovenia), Venice, Split & Dubrovnik(Croatia) and Kotor(Montenegro).

Would welcome any advice on what is good to do and what is not worth seeing.

Thanks in advance...

This might be a good site for you to browse at the interests in each port: http://www.europeportreviews.com/

Exactly! If you like it and want to keep it, buy it.

 

To those who buy and then get home and "appraise" it on the internet, try and sell the piece and you will receive a true appraisal.:D

 

Mike:)

Everyday I walk by what we bought; enjoy the pictures and the memories it brings back of a special vacation. I for one have NEVER checked what I could have bought it for or what it would be worth now as I know what I might find:eek:

Come on if they weren't making a fancy $ why would they be doing actions daily and offering free champagne ;)

We have been going to the art auctions for 10 years now and have always loved them. This last cruise we ended up buying quite a bit of art (about 19 pieces) and they have all been delivered. We were very happy with the condition of the frames/paintings and love them dearly. We bought some to serve as investments. I would love to hear from some of you who bought art from Princess and how your experience was. Also, have you found them to be a good way to buy...prices? Have your paintings gone up in value? Just curious. We bought an original by Godard and an original by Behrens. We bought a Nechita Lithograph and some other lithographs and Giclees. I love Godards stuff and I think we will buy another on our next cruise. Any tips?

We attend the auctions on ever cruise, more so to learn and maybe if we find something we fall in love. On our alaskan cruise we bought a few pieces in the hundred dollar range. They were pumping the crowd on a signature picasso. They really worked the crowd "imagine you could have a picasso hanging in your house" almost got me thinking. On every ship they've pulled this one, how due to their volume buying they got some deal with some up and coming or newely established artist, then they pull out the book of the artist. Makes great show, I learn some new names, enjoy the show, and have bought because I like it and as a good souvenior but NEVER for investment.

Seriously, art has NO intrinsic value. Some poster made the comment they are better then stocks, really? Stocks at least you are in principle buying a portion of a company. In the end if you do your homework you can in principle value the company and figure out if you might be overpaying. Art is only worth what some one else will buy it from you.

I'm not saying they are selling junk, but to think they are an investment is a bit over the top. Think of how much art is being sold and imagine trying to unload your dime a dozen artist. Might be different you actually go to one of the Princess special art auction events where they bring the really expensive stuff on board.

This is a good read: http://fineartregistry.com/articles/far_art/art-auction-cruises.php

It seems like when it comes to cruises, people love them or hate them. I've read on the board why people are head over heels over cruises, but why do you think that some people hate cruises and refuse to go?

So, do you love them or do you hate them.

I enjoy them enough that we do it every so often, but with so much other wonderfuly and fun things to do on vacation its always going to be once every couple years at best.

I've had this discussion with one of my very best friends whom I've vacationed numerous times and was sure he'd enjoy it. He and his family HATED it. If I told you why it'd throw the lovers into well.. I will just leave it at its simply not for everyone ;)