Feedback on "Sicily Life" or any other Taormina guide needed

[suezcruise]

To Bob7:

 

We are just back from our 12 night mediterranean cruise on the Liberty.

 

I have posted a review on this Europe board entitled Western Mediterranean 6/12-24/06.

 

Also, there seems to be some confusion between Sicily life and Sicily tour,

I don't know if they are one in the same or not?

 

We had our tour with Sicily Life. It was wonderful and Alessandro was our great guide.

 

Since I don't know how to cut and paste. Please look up my review if you want all the details of the day.

 

Sue Z.

[Smooth Sailing]

To Bob7:

 

We are just back from our 12 night mediterranean cruise on the Liberty.

 

I have posted a review on this Europe board entitled Western Mediterranean 6/12-24/06.

 

Also, there seems to be some confusion between Sicily life and Sicily tour,

I don't know if they are one in the same or not?

 

We had our tour with Sicily Life. It was wonderful and Alessandro was our great guide.

 

Since I don't know how to cut and paste. Please look up my review if you want all the details of the day.

 

Sue Z.

Hi Sue - Sicily Life and Sicily Tours are not the same - I remember y'all saying that you had a great tour with Sicily Life.

[suezcruise]

Hi Smooth Sailing:

 

Hope you all had a smooth trip back home! Yes, we used Sicily Life, put this original post talks about Sicily Life, if I am not mistaken.

 

Oh, well, I am sure that tours with the same company and even the same driver can work differently depending on lots of factors.

 

I miss our Aft sail aways!

 

Sue Z.

[Smooth Sailing]

Hi Smooth Sailing:

 

Hope you all had a smooth trip back home! Yes, we used Sicily Life, put this original post talks about Sicily Life, if I am not mistaken.

 

Oh, well, I am sure that tours with the same company and even the same driver can work differently depending on lots of factors.

 

I miss our Aft sail aways!

 

Sue Z.

Sue - I started a new thread to address our problems with Sicily Tours - but, the moderators moved us to this thread . We also miss the Aft sail aways - we also miss our 11pm last drink on the balcony - it was great.

[JPH814]

Sue A...what cabin were you in...we are in 7449 also an aft balcony. How was the air conditioning? My only worry is that the room will be hot from the lack of sea breeze. Any problems for you?

[Host Karen]

Smooth Sailing, as LauraS's note on the first page of this forum indicates, no reviews (positive or negative) of tour guides/drivers/companies can be posted unless they are in response to a request for information. You started a new thread for your review. Instead of deleting it, I took the time to find a thread that had discussed that tour company and merged it so others would have access to your complaint.

 

In the future, for anyone reading this thread that wants to post a review of any tour they've experienced, unless it is part of a full review of your cruise, please find an appropriate thread on which to post it.

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

[Smooth Sailing]

Smooth Sailing, as LauraS's note on the first page of this forum indicates, no reviews (positive or negative) of tour guides/drivers/companies can be posted unless they are in response to a request for information. You started a new thread for your review. Instead of deleting it, I took the time to find a thread that had discussed that tour company and merged it so others would have access to your complaint.

 

In the future, for anyone reading this thread that wants to post a review of any tour they've experienced, unless it is part of a full review of your cruise, please find an appropriate thread on which to post it.

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

Hi Karen - Thanks for the information - looks like I should have read Laura's note - I was not aware of this policy. Thanks for finding a place for my post and not deleting it.

[Host Karen]

You're welcome! When I have time and I can find an appropriate thread, that's what I prefer to do. I know that our members are thoughtful enough to share their information and experiences, and I would prefer not to delete a post that can help someone else. I try to read every new post every day, so I can usually recall an appropriate thread, but sometimes there's nothing available to match up a separate review. In those cases, I have to delete the thread.

 

Anyway, not everyone reads those notices, so you're not alone. Before I became a host, I rarely did either. (Don't tell LauraS :D)

 

Karen

[JeterCab]

Sue Z.- Thanks for getting back to us! Glad it all worked out!

Dave- I am glad your information was posted in this thread I found it very informative. Sorry that your day wasn't what you had expected.

[Wgirl69]

I have found this very interesting. We had friends use Sicilylife and they did not recommend them. We used Angela at www.fransicile.it

 

She was wonderful from the get go. We had a tour of Mount Etna and a fantastic cooking class set up locally. We docked in Messina where ther is not much to do but she picked us up with the most enjoyable driver, who was fluent in English, and we had a wonderful day. Check out their website for other tours, she is very very good

[deb1835]

I have found this very interesting. We had friends use Sicilylife and they did not recommend them. We used Angela at www.fransicile.it

 

She was wonderful from the get go. We had a tour of Mount Etna and a fantastic cooking class set up locally. We docked in Messina where ther is not much to do but she picked us up with the most enjoyable driver, who was fluent in English, and we had a wonderful day. Check out their website for other tours, she is very very good

 

This sounds like a terrific tour - I wish we had of taken something with a cooking class built in! Not that I needed any more food! :p

[Cruisingonceagain]

We just returned last night from the June 24 Carnival Liberty sailing, and I had previously promised to pose our opinion on Sicily Life. We had a wonderful tour with Alessandro from Sicily Life. We went to Mt. Etna, and we thorougly enjoyed this. The men and boys (4 altogether) hiked a few craters while the females (3) hiked the smaller craters and shopped and ate desserts while waiting for the others. We also stopped at Zafferana before heading out to Mt. Etna (we requested to stop somewhere to use the restrooms, and Alessandro chose this town), and this ended up to be a wonderful stop; beautiful church, great views and a really nice town. I bought some prepackaged cookies at a local bakery to bring home, and we had cannolis and expresso. After Mt. Etna, we stopped at gorgeous Taormina, and had a great lunch at Terraza Angelo. Alessandro was very knowledgeable and stayed with us the entire time, except lunch since he had to stay with the van. He even hiked with the males on Mt. Etna in his leather shoes! Alessandro's English was excellent, and he definitely had a passion for the area. He answered all our questions and we had a really great day with him. He gave each of us a Sicily Life baseball hat. I think the driver makes or breaks the tour. After reading some of the negative reviews on Sicily Life, we had emailed Sebastiano and we were assured we would get either Alessandro or Sebastiano for our guide.

[mari119]

I think Michele might be a guy, not a girl--Michele is Michael in Italian!

Mari119

[BosoxDanJ]

I agree that the guide/driver can make or break the tour. We were on one of the "bad" ones earlier in the year. I think perhaps what happened is Sicily Life grew a little too fast with last years success and had to bring in less qulaified drivers. If you can get 1 of the 2 drivers mentioned then go for, if not be wary.

 

We just returned last night from the June 24 Carnival Liberty sailing, and I had previously promised to pose our opinion on Sicily Life. We had a wonderful tour with Alessandro from Sicily Life. We went to Mt. Etna, and we thorougly enjoyed this. The men and boys (4 altogether) hiked a few craters while the females (3) hiked the smaller craters and shopped and ate desserts while waiting for the others. We also stopped at Zafferana before heading out to Mt. Etna (we requested to stop somewhere to use the restrooms, and Alessandro chose this town), and this ended up to be a wonderful stop; beautiful church, great views and a really nice town. I bought some prepackaged cookies at a local bakery to bring home, and we had cannolis and expresso. After Mt. Etna, we stopped at gorgeous Taormina, and had a great lunch at Terraza Angelo. Alessandro was very knowledgeable and stayed with us the entire time, except lunch since he had to stay with the van. He even hiked with the males on Mt. Etna in his leather shoes! Alessandro's English was excellent, and he definitely had a passion for the area. He answered all our questions and we had a really great day with him. He gave each of us a Sicily Life baseball hat. I think the driver makes or breaks the tour. After reading some of the negative reviews on Sicily Life, we had emailed Sebastiano and we were assured we would get either Alessandro or Sebastiano for our guide.

[CAC104]

Thank you so much for giving us the latest info. We think we will try to book a tour if we can have the guides mentioned prearranged.

[slgjhg]

Hi All,

 

We used Sicily Life in March and they were wonderful. We had scheduled them to meet our ferry in Contania and transport us to our hotel in Taormina. They were there when we get off the ferry. It was a delightful drive, and we made a couple of stops on our way, learning about the eruptions and lava flows as well as mytholigy. On our last day March 21, we arranged for Sicily Life to pick us up about 11:00AM and take us to Agrigento for the day and ultimately drop us off at our ferry back to Napoli. It worked beautifully. I would recommend them withour hesitation.

 

Regards,

 

Shannon

[cutecr]

We just used Sicily Life for a tour of Mt. Etna & Taormina last week. Allessandro was our guide. He was absolutely wonderful. I would highly recommend him.

[ama22]

I've read so many reports on Sicily Life and Sicily Tours, I'm not sure which is which. Have both been a problem, or which one? I'm trying to tie down private tours, and it seems I need help.

 

Mary Lou

[lucietta]

Sicily Life and Sicily Tour are two completely separate organizations.

 

one can be reached on www.sicilylife.com

the other on www.sicily-tour.com

[GABluescruiser]

While I rarely post, I had used this site quite often in preparation for our Carnival Liberty cruise (July 6, which was outstanding.)

 

Obviously Sebastiano from Sicily Life reads it too. I sent him an email a few days ago telling him how much we enjoyed our tour and he mentioned some of the negative feedback from this thread. I can't speak for other's experiences, but here was mine (and my wife and 2 daughters)

 

We had a wonderful day with Antoninio on a "custom" tour we requested when the ship was in Messina. My wife's grandparents were born in the small town of Tusa, near Cefalu on the northern coast of the island and we wanted to visit it as we had heard so much about it from relatives. I had found the Sicily Life company from this board many months ago and Sebastiano was quite helpful in planning the day. Tusa was a 2 hr drive, so we were limited in what we could see and still get back in time, but Antoninio was prompt, had a sign with our name, spoke good enough English and actually seemed interested in our visit. While we wandering the streets of Tusa looking for a street address of a distant relative (who we found and met!) he picked up some brochures on the town & area from city hall for us. Nice touch. We also visited and had lunch in Cefalu, a charming beach resort town with a terrific Norman-era cathederal which doubled as a fortress. All in all it was a wonderful day and a highlight of our trip as we found the "motherland".

 

I believe in telling someone when they do good, and Sicily Life did good by me. I would definately use them again.

 

DON

[CAC104]

Don..thank you for posting about your good experience, and it must have been so exciting to go back to see some of the "roots" of the family. We are trying to arrange a tour with the company and told them we would post a good review if the tour was well done.

[BCHappyGal]

Do not trust "Sicily Tours" they will cancel your reservation if it suits them - in other words if they get a better deal from someone else.

 

Owners are Stephen & Lucia Davies & Douglas Kenning. They are very arrogant and will not stand behind their committments.

[Bob7]

We used Sicily Life a couple weeks ago, Alessandro was our driver, and he was great, on time, spoke decent English, very helpful, great attitude. 2 other SL drivers who got good reviews were Antonino (Antonio?) and Luka. Others were reviewed as not very good, so we requested and got one of those 3.

-Bob

[JPH814]

Sicily LIFE - Good

Sicily TOUR - Bad

 

Had a great LIFE tour with Alesandro and met Sebastiano on the way. Both were cool guys and very knowledgable about Setna, wine and the area.

[lucietta]

If you went with Sicily Life how can you tell that Sicily Tour is bad?Try first and then criticize.

On the whole, those that have a good time do not need to winge on a message board