Italian Indulgence

The tour was good value and lived up to what was promised. It took us to the parts of Italy that we wanted to see and there was no wasted, irrelevant, badly chosen stops. I am glad we bought the tour rather than trying to organize it ourselves.

All in all a well organised tour

Not as safe as we thought.(see above).
Reached places that were otherwise inaccessible to me.
Great historical perspective.
Fine driver and guide

The accommodations were good and I would have been prepared to pay a little more for a few more evenings meals added. We had 2 evenings that was difficult to eat.

Professional and dedicated tour leader and driver, nothing was too much trouble for either of them.
We visited so many interesting , out of the way places that the average tourist doesn’t see.. The quality of the accommodation was also excellent.

Loved the experience, the place we visited and historical knowledge of our guide.

I liked the places we visited. Accomodation was excellent and all rooms were well appointed. We stayed 2 nights at Vill Pitiana and I felt that the meal choices..2 were very limited and not great value for the price. ( perhaps a pasta option as well!) .As I previously stated this was my first tour and I had a lot of questions, that Helio dealt with very patiently. We appreciated all the work that he put for all of us on the tour…..from sightseeing and many restaurant suggestions to much information about every place we visited. I cannot praise Helio enough. Our bags were left at the hotel on the first night and Helio sorted it out promptly with much apologies. We did not consider this as a big deal as it was sorted and these things happen.

One other suggestion is that you make it very clear on your brochures that not everyone will have exactly the same views as everyone elseevery night. This may seem obvious, but we had a couple complaining on the bus to Helio and everyone else felt a bit awkward. I understand that you can’t have 9 rooms with the same view and we thought all the views were great. Helio dealt with it very professionally.

I liked the mix of sightseeing as a group and them being able to go off on our own.

Excellent trip overall. Well worth doing.

I loved the free time in different cities to explore by ourselves. There was a good balance of sightseeing and free time too - that was why we chose this tour. The accommodation was great with Tuscan villa winning by far.. Our tour guide would point out all the food and wine specialities of each region and bought local pastries for us to try for morning tea! Yummy!
This tour was exactly what we were expecting and we loved it. The only constructive criticism would be that it would have been helpful to have a map or instructions on places to see in each city when we had free time, so we could maximise our time there.
Make no mistake we will be back. ?

The tour guide and driver made for a seamless experience, any issues were solved without fuss.

It was easy to book tour.

The bus air conditioner stopped working. We got another bus which was not as comfortable and it had a problem with the back suspension, very rough and very noisy.

Great itinerary. Excellent accommodations.
Fantastic Tour Director (Helio Dacosta) and Driver (Fabio).

Great, good variety of experiences

Beautiful country, especially the back roads.

The quality of the hotels was very good. Our luggage was transferred from the bus by hotel staff and we never had lug our bags anywhere which was appreciated. The group size (18) was great and allowed everyone to get acquainted. The tour guide had an excellent knowledge and was patient and helpful. The bus driver was skilled and careful.

I think I’ve Told you thought it was all good the rest of the travelers were friendly and helpful as was our guide and driver who we r out of there way to make sure we saw and understood the history of the different cultures within Italy.
All in all a great experience.

We thought the choice of hotels needs to improve

See above for my response

Great taste of the variety Italy offers

Covered a lot of regions.

I loved the variety - from the historical cities, to the small towns , right up to the countryside and the Alps and Dolomites. The hotels (and breakfasts) were great and our luggage was all taken care of. The bus was always clean and our driver was friendly as well as being skilled as a driver.

Loved all of the locations we stopped, however I was worried after the first few days it was going to be all churches and castles. Especially enjoyed cooking class and truffle hunt. Daniele knowledge was incredible, it gave us an insight in Italian traditions and more.

The trip,was fantastic, the accommodation was great. There was nothing really that I woulld change.

I had a wonderful experience touring Italy, this July 2023, with Backroads. Our tour leader was exceptional in her knowledge of all things around us. Our driver did an amazing job under VERY difficult circumstances. Bravo Luciano.
The accommodations were fantastic. The provided meals were delicious.(not to mention the wine tasting? or the ‘two a day’ gelato rule?, so we won’t)?
The scenery as we passed through was astounding, particularly Tuscany and then up into the northern mountains. Breathtaking.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Roger.

Way too much travelling on the bus. Tour Leader spoke to the group like we were children at times which was rather irritating but overall a taste of Italy that makes me want to come back and explore more.

It was absolutely brilliant, but felt it was a little rushed, but totally understand its only a taste of Italy. Would be lovely to do 2 days at ea spot, but then cost etc accumulates. But overall it will be an experience we will treasure. Thank you all and got a taste of some wonderful places of Italy. Fantastico

Loved everything on this tour. Fantastic experience.
Our tour. guide Annalisa was exceptional.

good overall view of Italy, but didn't cover Rome which we had to do on our own.

Great accommodation meals transport and tour leader

Very happy with tour itinerary & destinations. Well presented with good tours at various locations.

An overall good tour but too long spent in some places but not enough in places we were staying

Enjoyed it all,exited one star as a few places we visited too long and could have got to our destination earlier ECT santa Marqueritas Ligure

Just loved seeing Italy country side. Townships Guide was warm approachable, enjoyed fellow people on tour friendship , whole tour was excellent. Would do tour with Back Roads again to Different Country most certainly highly recommend to friends.

Places visited were amazing, varied and beautiful. Bit too much time spent on bus.

A great tour taking us through many wonderful sites and areas in northern Italy, however, throughout the entire trip, there was only one licensed guided tour and based on my previous four trips with Backroads this was woefully inadequate. There were many sites that demanded an informed guide to take the group, I think this was a great failing. In addition, the ferry trips from Camoglio to San Fruttuoso to Portofino to St Margherita on the one day was very inefficient and a wasted day. It would have been best to have gone straight to Santa Margherita which is a lovely town, or to have stayed Portofino.

A tour that captured the essence of Italy

Some places the stopped was a little to long,

For the reasons above. Exceeded expectations.

Would highly recommend Back Roads as we saw the most incredible cities and countryside in the comfort of our bus, with a very experienced guide and driver with so much local knowledge.

We loved our tour. There were no early starts, 8am bag drop was the earliest, the bus driver was friendly and kept the bus immaculate as well as being a great driver, we went to places I had never heard of and loved them the most and the tour gave us ample time to explore on our own. The only disappointing aspect was the knowledge of our tour leader. I know there is a difference betwen tour guide and leader but thought he would have known more of the history and given more commentary as we were driving. Saying that he was very organised and friendly.

great service from the tour guide and driver.

Great choice of activities and places to visit on the tour. Details of each day provided on the day, which created an element of surprise. Tour leader was people focused.

The towns and villages we visited were lovely, very picturesque.

The tour was very fast- paced. Too many places in one day in some cases. Eg, the visits from Lake Maggiore were too rushed. Everything up until Lucca was great!

Would have liked to have more tour guides rather than just a tour leader

The Italian Indulgence tour was great from start to finish.

Sites visited, boutique hotels and tour guide all excellent.

Off the beaten track, amazing experiences with our fellow travellers, tour guide and driver.

Great Tour Guide, variety in places we visited, really good accommodation, our bus ws newish and very comforatble.

Small tour group allowed for a relaxed trip

Good choice of destinations and accommodation. The tour leader put in some real effort to make it all special for us.

This rating is for the day were we endured of 3 stops from public ferries long the coast. There was very little of interest at each stop and packed with people trying to 'push' their way on board. I would much rather have travelled to the next overnight stop and wandered around the town.

Itinerary was almost perfect. Places visited were representative.

I WAS NOT HAPPY WITH THE CHANGE OF HOTELS. WERE NOT "SIMILAR " TO THE ONES LISTED ON THE ITINAERARY.
AS A TRAVEL AGENT MY CLIENTS WOULD BE EXTREMELY UPSET WITH ME.

We loved the experience of the smaller less known towns and cities . It reflected what smaller towns were like and met our expectations. The hotels were all very good except for the Hotel in Trento called the American which was not as good as other hotels on the tour. The dinner in Trento at the restaurant was also not great. Probably the worst food of the tour .

great pace - we not rushed at all and had plenty of time juts to wander and relax. We did not spend too much time on the bus which was excellent but when we did our tour guide was so informative that it made the time go quickly.

So many different experiences from cooking wine tasting truffle hunting as well as amazing sights

Huge variety of things to see and do, tastes, cooking day was good fun.

This was the perfect balance of on and off bus time as well as group time and solo time. The backroads experience was wonderful. We saw places we never would have gone to. Scenery was incredible!

Easy booking and reasonably priced.

The cost for the experience was excellent.

Good price for the experience.

Couldn’t fault the whole trip . The guide and driver were very professional and pleasant to deal with

Really great itinerary, wonderful country, would have liked more time

Everyday was different. A very clever itinerary.

Great service, great hotels, great locations visited.

Great accommodation including a monastery.

The cost of the tour was fair and reasonable. We stayed at some lovely places. I liked the combination mix of different accommodations. The locations selected were remarkable. The Italian Indulgence gives a "taste" of Italy. I'm going back next year to spend more time in some of the favourite locations eg: Lucca, Verona, Venice.

Excellent & well organised

Great value for money, excellent

A great mixture of sights and things to experience.

Very professional. Amazing holiday of a lifetime. Annalise and driver couldn't do enough for us. Food and accomadation excellent

Great guide and careful driver, both gave us a fabulous trip. Visited wonderful places, saw great scenery and enjoyed a truly intimate experience.

The itinerary included extras not mentioned at the time of booking that made the tour even better than I expected

Annalisa and Luciano were always making us laugh. Lot's of great accomadation. Great day trips.

I bought beautiful leather goods in tuscanny, and shoes and clohing along the way. Love them

Mostly amazing. Guide was very young and moved a little quickly for middle aged people but on the whole a great experience.

Accomodation & towns visited