samavarcruiser

Thank you!

 

 

You are welcome :)

Have fun

I have booked Rome in Limo for 3 tours this summer. They unfortunately only take payment in cash or traveler's check at the end of the tour. Should I be concerned with carrying around that much cash? I'll probably pay in traveler's check. I wish they took credit cards.

 

 

I would highly recommend you to use ATM's daily, you will find them allover, but first call your bank and inform them about your oversea trip.

Have fun :)

Being a former police officer I can tell busy driving. Lots of motorcycles cer drivers trying to get position. As you said, the driving is crazy, which can be dangerous. In fact we saw an accident while touring there. If you are not used to that heavy traffic it can be dangerous. People should be aware of that before they get in the middle of it.

Unfortunately I should agree with you :(

I am answering my own question after our recent return from our cruise.

 

Jump Limousine never showed up for our pick up from the Civi port. We waited for 45 minutes after our scheduled time and then made other arrangements to get us to the Vatican Museums. I have learned that it is probably in your best interest to book with a company that has been given good reviews instead of trying to get the best price. We were thankful that we were not heading to the airport for our return trip home or we may have missed our flight. Lesson learned!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us and sorry to see it was NOT a good one :(

I have customized my tours with Romeinlimo for the past 3 years. Previous Med cruises I kind of went with their standard private tours, so these past few cruises, I needed to switch it up a bit. They are very good with adapting to what you want to do.

 

The first step in customizing something with them is figuring out what you really want to see... if different that what is written in their tour description. I think if you want to change it up, you should have some idea of what you want to do.

 

For example, last time in Rome I shared the private tour with a few people I met on my Roll Call (easy easy to do) and I had been to Rome so many times that I actually had the driver leave me and my mom in front of the Pantheon and the van continued on with the other 4 people to do something I didnt' really want to do.

 

If you want to see the Vatican (which I highly suggest if you haven't been) and you would rather spend more time there instead of packing your day with other sites... just tell them the sites you are wanting to focus on. They will adapt to what you want.. IF you know what you want. Do a bit of research on the areas you are visiting and see what interests you the most.

 

If you are going to Florence, and I assume you are... I would TOTALLY suggest an appointment to see the David. Even if you aren't into museums, seeing Michelangelo's David is just incredible. And it's fast too if you have a reservation.

 

Enjoy!!!! You'll love your time with Romeinlimo.

Thank you for your report :)

We would like to share a tour in Barcelona on Oct 12, 2013 prior to our cruise. Anyone interested email me at

floinnc@hotmail.com

 

Thanks!

Tour Share type posts are not allowed on massage boards. Tour shares may be posted in ROLL CALL for your ship's sailing.

Thanks for sharing this with us, LOVED it :)

Take a taxi and don't worry about anything

I just wanted to add my voice to everyone else's about how wonderful RomeInLimo can be. We booked them for all three ports in Italy...Naples, Citiavecchia and Livorno. And as you will read...they went above and beyond what was expected of them.

 

We had two 8 passenger vans in Naples...our drivers were Tony & GIovanni and they were great. Unfortunately, one person on our tour had a major accident (fell down a flight of stairs) in Sorrento and severely broke his leg. Rome In Limo was absolutely wonderful, helping to transport his wife and friends to the hospital, taking care of the rest of us, bringing his wife back to the ship and waiting 2 1/2 hours while she packed up all their things and then bringing her all the way back to the hospital in Sorrento. They made hotel arrangements for her and I understand they visited both of them in the hospital and brought pastries. They were also going to transport them to the airport in Naples...at no cost...when he was released from the hospital. They did not have to do any of this...the man did not get hurt on their van and was off on his own in Sorrento, but these gentlemen and the company stepped up big time!

 

In Citiavecchia, we had a 15 passenger bus with Alfredo driving and Serena...one of the best guides ever! We did the Highlights of Rome tour and it did not disappoint. And, unfortunately, again we had another accident. One woman took a wrong step in the Vatican Museum courtyard, fell, and landed on her face, cutting the area above her top lip. Serena immediately took charge, got the Vatican Museum guards to secure a wheelchair and went with her to the medical offices to take care of her cut. Thankfully, she didn't need to go to the hospital (though she did get stitches when she returned to the ship). Serena made sure she was well throughout the day. She took us to all the important places in Rome and made the entire trip delightful.

 

Thank goodness in Livorno we didn't have any problems, but our driver Marco and guide, Eurica, were again wonderful. They got us to Pisa early before a marathon was scheduled to begin and Eurica took us on a fabulous walking tour of Florence. All of RIL's guides are so knowledgeable and have great people skills. They were a joy to spend the day with.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend RomeInLimo to anyone and will certainly use them the next time we visit Italy.

WOW, what a great review, thanks for sharing it with us

I have used this company several times and I can highly recommend them

My experience with Rome in Limo mirrors the others. Great tour guides, comfortable transportation, lots of info, etc. Highly recommend using them over any of the ship options.

 

For the couple that have only two - RIL has a sharing website where you can see what other tours are booked and looking for participants. Not sure how you list your own tour but I'm sure RIL would help you out with that. www.romeinlimotoursharing.com/ Good luck.

 

We tipped an average of 10% of the full cost of the tour and split it between the participants, usually worked out to 5 - 10 Euros per person. I agree that 20 Euros per person seems high.

Thank for that sharing tour site link and suggestion, is very helpful :)

Are you arriving in Barcelona o Oct.26? Thats the date we arrive and are looking to book a 1/2 day tour with Barcelona day tours. We are on a wait list with with them for a tour directly from the airport or afternoon from the hotel. They need a minimum of 4 for a shared tour. Prefer it right from airport. Arriving around 10.

Check your roll call

More kudos for Romeinlimo!

 

We just returned from our LotS Mediterranean cruise with three young kids (6, 4, and 2), and I can't imagine doing shore excursions with kids of that age and not having the help of Romeinlimo. The idea of taking three little ones on large group cruise tours, having to follow a specific pre-planned itinerary and being on a big bus with a lot of people=hell to me. We wanted our kids to experience some of these ports, but also to have the flexibility to say "Yikes, this isn't working, can we do XYZ instead?" And that's exactly what happened. Giovanni (Livorno/Pisa/Florence), Claude (Civitavecchia/Rome), and Ciro (Naples) were amazing.

 

We were met at the dock in each case, with the booster seats we'd requested ready in the cars. We got wonderfully personal tours of each city/area. And the drivers/ guides were infinitely patient with our young kids and helped us customize the itineraries to our needs.

 

At the Accademia, I had thought I'd synched my phone to my laptop so I'd have the confirmation number for our reservation handy--but I didn't. Giovanni got us to the front of the reservation line nonetheless and smoothly got us in within minutes. Like others have said, I can't imagine dealing with the hassle of the long lines and just figuring out where to go without this kind of help--might have been okay with just my husband and I, but not with all five of us! He also found us the gorgeous antique carousel in the Piazza della Republica.

 

In Naples, we realized that the kids really needed some beach time, so we asked Ciro if we could skip the time wandering around Sorrento and just hit a good beach. He recommended the beach at Positano and gave us a good hour there before "pizza school" in Sorrento. We had a ball!

 

But the top accolades are reserved for Claude, in Rome. Not only did he show us the amazing Knights of Malta keyhole and St. Paul's outside the walls (which I had not seen in several prior Rome trips), but he practically became an adoptive grandfather to our little ones. After our adventures in the Colosseum and the Forum, and a stop at Torre Argentina to see the homeless cats of Rome who now live on the site where Caesar was reputedly murdered, we had lunch adjacent to the Pantheon, and Claude told my 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter tales of all the times *he*, as a boy, climbed on the many ancient walls that my kids now wanted to scale. (He grew up in that neighborhood and still lives near there.)

 

Then he took us to the Borghese Gardens so the kids could enjoy an old-fashioned playground--and a semi-motorized rickshaw bike through the gardens. One of the highlights of their trip (when you're that age you're not all that impressed with ruins). He found bathrooms, kept an eye on our bags, and happily toted my son up onto the jungle gyms. The whole rest of the trip they kept talking about Claude and how much they missed him.

 

I can't say enough about RiL. They really helped to make this vacation a huge success and ensured that our kids will be happy to return to Italy!

Thanks for adding your review, is a good one and very helpful

We are back from our June 22nd sailing to the Eastern Mediterranean, where we had three stops in Italy: Livorno, Rome and Naples. In each of these ports, we used RomeInLimo, and we had an outstanding time.

 

I've written an extensive trip report of our adventures here on Cruise Critic (that has over 130,000 views and counting, as we speak!). If you have five hours or so to spare (hee hee), and want to read a detailed, and yet humorous story of our family's adventures in Europe, feel free to click on this link here on Cruise Critic. Within the review, I have detailed info (and lots of photos) of our time in Italy, with information (and tips) on what we did in each port. Some things we did right; some things we...um...could have done better. :rolleyes:

 

RomeInLimo was always very courteous and informative and prompt. Our drivers were excellent, and my three kids were always impressed with them. Which, having teenagers, is saying a lot. When THEY can be impressed! :D

 

When we return to Europe - which we're determined to do, one of these days - we'll be sure to use RIL again.

What a great review sherri, thanks a lot for sharing this with us :)

Hi,

 

Each tour started with an 8:00AM ship-side pick-up lasted about 9-10 hours well in time for ship departure and long enough for young kids. For Livorno, we visited Pisa first, for the leaning tower (30 minute stop, roughly), then headed to Florence. Had a short visit at the pretty San Miniato church with a great view overlooking Florence. Had lunch (great recommendation from our driver, David)near Santa Croce church followed by visit to Accademia to see David statue. (could have done Uffizi instead but for young kids Accademia is a better bet...no time to do both museums if you visit Pisa---make sure to reserve tickets ahead of time-phone is better, website very quirky)). We had some free time to visit the Duomo cathedral but very long lines to get in so we opted instead for a walk near Palazzo Vecchio and to the old bridge Ponte Vecchio. Drive each way from/to ship is about 90 minutes. You can tailor the tour any way you like. Had it been just my wife and I we would have skipped Pisa and spent more time in Florence...but Pisa was a real treat for the kids.

 

Rome was the most intense tour, especially for our 6 year-old. We started off at the Vatican museum (must reserve a specific date and time ahead of time---RomeInlimo will suggest the time and then you can book on the very user friendly Vatican museum website beginning 60 days before your visit.) The Vatican museum is very crowded (tough on young kids with a lot of walking) , especially the Sistine chapel but the visit to St. Peter's is much easier. Both are stunning. We had about two hours. We then had lunch at an exceptional little place recommended by our driver Sergio (I forget the name) close by with superb pasta and pizza and wine, making it now difficult to eat North American versions. After lunch, visits to the Parthenon, Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain. The kids loved the fountain and throwing the coins. After a stop for gelato, we went for a one hour visit of the Colosseum (reserve on-line, need only specify date, not time) , great for kids and drove by other sights like the Forum, Circus Maximus etc., before heading back to the ship. (about 90 minutes)

 

In Naples, we drove along the Amalfi coast to Positano (stunning views), with a one hour stop, and then stopped for (another excellent) lunch in Sorrento with time to walk around the town for shopping etc. After a gelato stop, we drove to Pompeii for a two hour visit which the kids adored (the highlight of all the tours for them). Buy the "before and after guide" overlaying the original buildings on top of the current ruins.

 

To sum up, all the tours and drivers were outstanding and they were all very flexible. They were great with our daughters as well. With our kids, the long waits and standing around (e.g. Vatican museum) are the most frustrating while the ability to run around (e..g Pompeii) are welcome as are the gelato breaks (for the parents as well)! Within the broad time constraint you can tailor the tour as you wish. For example, instead of a sit down lunch you can opt for a sandwich on the go but with our young kids, we preferred the sit down lunch...service was nonetheless very quick at all three places---just go early, 11:30 or 11:45 The Rick Steves guide to Mediterranean cruise ports is fantastic for these and other ports as were his free audio guides (e.g. Vatican, Colosseum, Pompeii etc.) For ports like Villefranche (we travelled to Nice but if we were to return we would have spent the day in Villefranche, a very charming little town), Kotor, Split, and Venice, you can easily do these independently, although in Kotor we took the ship shore excursion up the mountain (over 25 switch backs,,,a bit scary but great views) and for the second day in Venice we did the ship shore excursion to Murano and Burano. Both ship excursions were of excellent quality but are overpriced. Certainly, for the three Italian ports served by RomeInLimo), it makes no sense to use ship tours (for a family of four). RomeInlimo will provide a private tour for much less than the total cost of a ship bus tour. It is amazing how much we did see in the limited time (lots of travel time for each port) Of course, the downside with visiting these beautiful places on a cruise is you really need days to do them justice, not hours...so it is all a bit of a flash.. Remember to take lots of photos which will help recreate the moments.

 

I have also reviewed the Solstice under Happy Farmer and was overall very pleased, the best of 15 cruises Feel free if you have any questions. Hope this helps. Have fun!

Thanks for sharing your exprince with us :)

Glad to hear the good reviews. We are doing the 1/2 day Barcelona Tour on Sept 19, coming off Carnival Breeze.

You will have a great time :)

I have used this company twice and highly recommend them :)

We were fortunate to be on three of the Romeinlimo tours with Steph's group. All of them were top notch quality in every respect. I would give two of the tour guides we had our highest rating if we did such a thing. They were among the best we have ever had. The other one was very good, but two of them were exceptional due to their knowledge, passion for the area and desire to show us as much of the beauty as possible. We will definitely use and recommend Rome in Limo in the future.

I spend couple of our on your site, which I think is really a great site and full of informations, thanks for sharing your experience with all of us :)

We have used them several times and always pleased with their service

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us, hope more will come :)

I used them for our party of 3 last October. Our guy, Christian, was at the port first thing and went above and beyond the entire day. He was informative, pleasant and ready to please. The day we were there they were having a TV thing for kids and the city was swamped with families. Roads were blocked off. It took him some challenging detours to get us where we wanted to go but he did it. I would use them again in a heartbeat.

Do you have any review under Ocean Princess? I would love to hear more about your trip

We used Private Greece Tours both last September for our Athens tour and again in early May this year. Both experiences were excellent. Last year was our first visit to Athens and our driver Alex, along with our guide Villeas did a wonderful job of showing us the city. They both were very knowledgeable and made the trip so much better than if we had been on our own.

 

This year, since we had already been to Athens, Nikos, the owner of the company took 8 of us to Mycenae and Corinth and it was truly one of the highlights of our 11 night cruise. Mycenae was amazing. Nikos also took us to an excellent restaurant for lunch in Corinth that overlooked the sea with wonderful breezes and great food! Nikos did a wonderful job of telling us about the Greece countryside, which is also quite beautiful. If we are lucky enough to go back to Greece we will definitely contract with Private Greece Tours again, I highly recommend this company. :)

Thanks for sharing your experience with us :)

Wanted to share our touring experience from Livorno to Florence/Pisa. As my parents said, only about an hour into the trip, “It’s worth every penny!”

 

Rome in Limo was extremely responsive by email before our trip and we decided to skip the Uffizi/Accademia museums and use the time to see more of Florence.

 

Our driver, Gianmaria (goes by Gian, pronounced John to us) met us right at the ship at 8am with a sign in hand. He escorted us to the giant Mercedes passenger van that had very high ceilings, a microphone/speaker system so that we could all hear what he was saying, and A/C. On the way to Pisa, Gian gave us background on Livorno and the surrounding area. His knowledge about all the places we visited is really astounding!

 

We started the day by driving to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower right away, before it became too crowded. We had 45 minutes to look around the area, which wasn’t that big. I didn’t realize the Leaning Tower is only one of 3 buildings – the other 2 being the Baptistery and Cathedral right next to it. We found it fascinating to see the Leaning Tower up-close and took the requisite “tourist holding up the tower” pictures. There were also many souvenir stands in the area with reasonably-priced items. Right across from the tower is also a very nice café, where I had my first Italian coffee – an espresso macchiato that was delicious! It’s also a good place to use the restroom if you need.

 

Just as we got ready to leave, the tour groups started coming in, so we felt very lucky to have avoided the large groups. From there, it was off to Florence, with a quick stop at an olive oil producer along the way. Gian walked us through the machinery to show how olive oil was made and it was very interesting. We sampled some wines and olive oils at the attached gift shop and made some souvenir purchases. It was a really fun stop. Gian continued to narrate the drive and our first stop in Florence – Piazza Michelangelo, which is situated above Florence and provides fantastic views. There is also a reproduction of the David statue in copper that has since developed a green patina and Gian called “Alien David.” There were, of course, more souvenir stands to browse there as well.

 

After mentioning that we wanted to try an authentic Italian trattoria for lunch, Gian made reservations for us at a restaurant near Santa Croce church. We drove there and he gave us a quick overview of the area, but we chose not to enter the church, which had an admission fee. Instead, we used the time to enjoy a sit-down lunch. There was a 3-course lunch option for 15 euros that included bruschetta, pasta course, and meat course that was a good deal and enough food to split between 2 people. We again found out that there is no free tap water in Italy, so split a large bottle of water for 2 euros and were surprised when the bill included a 2 euro charge for a bread basket, something we think of as complimentary in the US. However, the food was very good and we couldn’t complain.

 

After lunch, my sister tried to buy a leather purse in the Santa Croce church area and got lost for a bit, but after we found her, Gian drove us to the Duomo, which was my favorite site on the trip. The Duomo cathedral is free to enter and don’t be deterred if if looks like a long line – it moves quickly and they let batches of people in at a time. We only waited about 5 minutes. The painted inside of the Duomo is fantastic and completely unexpected. You can also go downstairs where there is a small gift shop and additional tour options to be purchased.

 

Finally, Gian dropped us off near the Uffizi museum where there is another David reproduction in plaster and other outdoor statues. From there, it’s a quick walk to the Ponte Vecchio bridge and back to an outdoor market. The stalls mostly had similar items, but my sister and mom enjoyed looking through all the leather goods and purses.

 

Gian asked if we enjoyed gelato and took us to an excellent gelato shop called Carraia that gave very large portions for 1.50 euros. He also showed me a nearby café to grab an espresso as I was dragging a bit. Apparently, so was everyone else because the van was silent as everyone slept on the ride back to Livorno! Our total tour took 9 hours and 15 minutes.

 

The Rome in Limo tour was fantastic and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them and Gian to anyone! My mom spoke with an exhausted-looking passenger as we got back on the ship and she complained that the NCL tour she had taken required a ton of walking and not much time at each site for $199 per person! In contrast, we were driven right up to each site, so minimized our walking while taking a more leisurely pace as well. I know that people are worried about getting back to the ship in time and all that, but Rome in Limo is so professional and well-established, that it really shouldn’t be a concern. They’ve definitely earned their great reputation!

 

(If you want to read the full cruise review, with pictures, it's located here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1638422

Thanks a lot for adding your review, loved all those pictures :)

I have used them several times and can highly recommend them, have fun :)

Any idea of how much the Nikos Loukas tour costs? I'm trying to establish a budget for this trip and whether it would worth putting together a shared grop tour or doing the ship tour.

I guess is depend in which tour/itinerary and the duration, why you just don't email and ask? nikosloukas@privategreecetours.com