Experience with driver/guides in Italy?

[topekacruiser]

Has anyone had bad a bad experience (or a really great experience) with either driverinrome or limoinrome?

 

We'll be in Livorno (Florence - Pisa), Naples, and Rome.

And also Messina, Sicily and Villefranche, France.

 

Thanks!

[Mike073]

We used Driverinrome for both Rome and the Florence/Pisa area. Good experience in both cities. We tailored the tours to what we wanted, particularly in Rome as the Vatican museums were closed on Sunday.

[seasideJL]

We used limoinrome & had a great experience with the drivers we had. I would highly recommend them. We had Carlo & Roberto for drivers. Linda

[eab]

We just got off the Grand and used the following drivers. All were excellent and I had gotten their names off this website.

 

Florence - Papillion Tours - our driver was Lisa - her English was not perfect, but almost. She was in her 20s and my kids thought she was cool.

 

Rome - Driver in Rome - our driver was Danielle and he was GREAT. Got us in the Vatican on a busy Saturday and did all the odd things my family wanted to do. We saw lots...great day.

 

Naples - Drive Amalfi - our driver was Michael - perfect English as his father is an American and his mother is from Naples. His wife is also from Naples. Although he did not recommend it, he took us to climb Vesuvius, and it was one of the highlights of the trip for my kids. I just think most of his clients might not be energetic kids that want to do this. Because this took lots of time and we wanted to do Pompeii also, we were only able to go to Ravello, but we had an excellent lunch there (another highlight of our trip) and that sufficed for all of us. So, he made the itinerary perfect for our family...which is what you want a driver to do for you.

 

Drivers were a great way to go for our family.Have fun!

[Greek50]

Hi EAB!

Which company was Michael your driver in Pompeii with? We are there in August with our two teenage sons and were hoping to visit Pompeii, Ravello, and Mr. Vesuvius as well.

Thanks,

Jane

[Greek50]

Oops! Forgot one more question please? How long did it take to climb Mt. Vesuvius? Thanks!

[eab]

I think your boys will really enjoy it. I am not sure how out of the way the drive up Vesuvius is, I am guessing about 20-30 minutes to the point where you have to walk. Then it is about a 20 minute walk to the top. The path has lots of small rocks. My eldest daughter and I had on Chacos (good strap on sandals) which were fine for the walk up, but for some reason on the walk down kept getting rocks in our shoes. The others in family all wore tennis shoes. You have to pay (forgot how much..didn't seem to be outrageous) to climb to the top. As soon as you go through the gate to go up, they hand you a walking stick to use. As you start to leave and turn in your stick, they are very adamant about a tip. Tried to get me to pay even though my husband (about 3 feet ahead of me) had already tipped them. I just pointed to him and walked on. They also asked "First trip to Vesuvius?", like you might have been last week, and suggest they you get a guide for your walk to the top. You definately do not need a guide. Believe it or not, they have concession stands at the top selling trinkets and needed water and Gatorade. This is the main thing my 17 year daughter wanted to do on the whole trip and it was worth it for us.

 

Oh, I forgot, Michael is with Drive Amalfi and their email address is: *****. I believe the owner may be Salvatore Lucibello, as that is who all our correspondence was with. Two ships were in port and they were very busy the day we were there. Hopefully they would take you to the same restuarant in Ravello. I'll try to find name... it was great. We never ordered. They just started bringing food and kept bringing it. It was outstanding.

[Greek50]

Thanks for all the great Mount Vesuvius information EAB! Should be a lot of fun for the four of us. I appreciate your reply. The restaurant in Ravello sounds fabulous.

[ucalegend]

We used Drivers in Rome for Florence/Pisa. Danielle let us customize our tour so we stopped in Pisa for about 20 minutes to get pictures. Then we went around Florence then out to a wine museum in Greve for wine tasting. Danielle was awesome. Totally worth the money.

[BurBunny]

Count me as another fan of DriverInRome. They're just wonderful to deal with! They completely made the days we spent with them on tours.

[rdcollis]

Last year, we used Driver in Rome.

 

I highly recommened them!

 

I took 3 shore excursions with them, and enjoyed every one. (much better than the ships)

[GeorgiaPeach]

We used Driver In Rome for Florence/Pisa and Rome last month. They were excellent! Easy to work with and our tour days with them were the highlights of the trip.

[Mike Andrews]

We have used Salvatore Lucibello of DriveAmalfi (*****) twice out of Naples and recommend him without hesitation and also Paola Migliorini of Florence Tour (info@florencetour.com) for Livorno.

[Chick's pal]

We used them 3-4 years ago for our first ever trip to Europe aboard Millennium. Fabrizio and Cinzia were our driver and guide in Rome. Pepe was our driver for Florence & environs. We were so pleased we are booking them for our Rome / Naples excursions later this year. A class act.

[J18ktleo]

Just got back on the Liberty and a HUGE vote of wonderful everything for Salvatore Lucibello of DriveAmalfi...we were the lucky one's who actually had Salvatore as our tour guide and it was the best tour of our trip! His narrative, organization, coordination with the other drivers (even met up with friends sailing on another ship who booked with him that day!)...it was the ONLY tour where we got everything we were promised! Everyone who did a tour with his service was thrilled!

 

We also used Sicily Life and it was a good tour as well as Luca with Hills and Roads in Livorno...however, what we found was that they gave us an itinerary and then were very lax on the time frame so that we (very quickly) ran out of time to do everything they had promised...except in Naples.

Just disappointed that with both these tours they said we'd have wine tastings and never got to...:(

 

Otherwise, would highly recommend!

 

Also used Stefano for pickup and return to Rome...on the return he scheduled us a tour of Rome which was amazing...

[The Traveling 4]

We used Fabrizio and he was wonderful.

 

The Traveling 4

[yardman]

I just back from the Jewel and I used Driverinrome for both Rome and Florence\Pisa. They were awesome. They were on time to meet us the morning of both tours. Both drives and tour guides were friendly. The guides were especially informative and as someone mentioned earlier they will custoimize the tour for you (at the same time making their recommendations). They were able even squeeze in some shopping for the ladies in our group.

[mandotsan]

Has anyone had bad a bad experience (or a really great experience) with either driverinrome or limoinrome?

 

We'll be in Livorno (Florence - Pisa), Naples, and Rome.

And also Messina, Sicily and Villefranche, France.

 

Thanks!

 

We were on the NCL Jewel Transatlantic crossing in April this year. We had the good fortune to have used "Rome in a limo" for both our Livorno and Rome tours. There were two groups of 8 people and used two Mercedes vans. Our group had Carlos and the other group had Dumas. Everyone was extremely happy with both tours and both guides. We were able to set our own pace and pretty much spend as much time as we wanted at each stop..and could also ask them to stop if we saw a photo op along the way. The cost was a lot less then what NCL charged and we did not have to use the tour buses that hold 50+ people. The other advantage was the van could go down streets that the buses could not go. Would I use them again or recommend them...you bet in a heart beat. :D

 

Here is the information for them.

 

Mr.Duman Kafelebasi &

Mr.Carlo Ciardi

 

Circonvallazione Ostiense 183 Scala B

Int.1 00154 Rome, Italy.

www.romeinlimo.com

info@romeinlimo.com

+39 328 652 6705 Duman

+39 340 844 6292 Carlo

+39 06 578 1399 Fax

[Dorothy]

We were on the Jewel in June/July and booked all our drivers ourselves. I wrote a review on this board for the drivers, if you care to read it. But the short version is we used a taxi in Messina, Mariano in Naples, Stefano in Rome, Guido in Florence and in Villefranche I went out on my own.

 

All of our drivers were EXCELLENT!! We couldn't say enough wonderful things about all of them. Our day in each port was spent being filled with seeing more than we dreamed in one day.

[csk47]

John Fiori who owns Top Tours in Italy is excellent. John spent a lot of time in the US and speaks perfect English. We toured Rome with him last year and have booked him for another tour this year. Very pleasant man and willing to customize your tour to please you. His web is www.******************** You can't go wrong with John.

We had some less than perfect drivers last year..one in Naples and one on Sicily. Rino in Naples from Italy Car Service spent almost the whole day on the cell phone and very little time was devoted to us, his clients...and he was highly rated by posters on Cruise Critic.

The one in Palermo was Sicily by Taxi...no personality and didn't share hardly anything with us about what we were seeing as we drove along unless we asked specific questions. I believe the guy's name was Lorenzo and he barely spoke English.

[seal498]

just returned from 7 day cruise on the NCL Jewel. We used Driverinrome.com, and they were great. Pepe for the Amalfi Coast and Andreas for Rome. Both got us everywhere they could for a 1 day tour. Even got in stops for Gelato and Espresso. You will be very happy.

[Queenk2]

As always I sing the praises of nello at info@drivesorrento. Terrific guide, driver and very nice person!

Karen

[beader]

We just returned from our wonderful 12 day med cruise. In Naples we had Salvatore from driveamalfi and he was awesome!! Highest recommendation! We also used Driver in Rome for Pisa and Rome. They were good. If you sit in the back of the vans you can hardly hear the driver over the air conditioning. They are thinking of getting a rear speaker system. Great trip. Good luck.

[daWoods]

The consensus seems to be that Driverinrome is a great service, and I'm considering using them for our day in Rome. Has anyone heard of or used Bob's Limousines & Tours? Their tours look similar, but for a bit less. Any comments?

[PennyG]

At our port day in Naples, we spent the day with Nello from Drive Sorrento which was absolutely incredible. He was the best driver we had in all of Europe. He took us to Pompeii and then to the Amalfi Coast (Ravello, Amalfi and Positano) and we even stopped high above Sorrento to see where he grew up. Next time we visit, we will use him for Capri as well. His english is excellent and my teenagers really enjoyed listening to him.

 

A telling sign that he was a really nice guy was when we bumped into several of his drivers along the way who had other tours. The commraderie between them was wonderful to see and made us feel like we were amongst friends.

 

Also, if you have any type of American gum, offer it as it is a rare commodity and Nello says it is so much better than what he can get in Italy. We gave him the rest of our pack and wish we had brought more!