allisonrebecca

Has anyone used a travel group/tour to travel Greece or Italy?
Pros/Cons?
I will be traveling alone, so was thinking this would be a good icebreaker to solo travel abroad.
Thanks in advance 🙂

Moderator3

Moved to Europe board and tagged for Greece and Italy.

suze

I have traveled solo in Europe. But I just went by myself. Italy is pretty easy to plan. So sorry no, I don't have any group tour ideas, but if those don't work out, don't feel intimidated to just go on your own. Keep it simple. Just one city or two. Central hotel so you can walk everywhere. Book the best flights you can afford. That's really all there is to it suze

dreamon

The first time I faced travelling solo in Italy (apart from a few days here and there) I was nervous so I booked a trip with Intrepid Travel. So not solo in the end. On the first night I had real reservations but ended up having a brilliant time. It was 15 days staring in Rome and ending in Venice. I would travel again with them and have recommended them to others, but you do need to keep in mind that any tour is likely to be more expensive than you can arrange for yourself. If you take a tour, I recommend setting some clear criteria for what you'd like and what you'd hate (e.g. size of group, hotel location, free time, etc). For me, any tour group of more than a dozen people is too big, I want to stay centrally and I want plenty of free time and flexibility. I don't want to eat dinner at my hotel or walk around following an umbrella with something stuck in my ears. You get the drift. (btw, the Intrepid trip was quite a few years ago so things may possibly have changed)

Reading54

Check with Rick Steves' tours,
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/index
His tours are smaller in size (26? 28?, please double check yourself), and is solo-friendly as I read.

Travel_Nerd

As a solo (female) traveler myself, what I usually do, if I feel I want a little extra somewhere is to book a small walking tour (or food/wine tour, bike tour, etc.) at a particular destination. I use Viator as a guide but book directly with the actual agency running the tour (cheaper and goes directly to the agency, not thewholesaler) or I look up the local tourist office (either ahead of time or when I arrive) for additional suggestions/arrangements.

I have not been to Greece but I am in Croatia right now, solo, and just came from Italy. Personally, I find Italy easy enough to navigate even if one is somewhat inexperienced with planning and solo travel. I would suspect Greece would be similar.

If you still would rather take a group tour similar to what others have already suggested, I agree smaller tours (15 people or less). But really scrutinize the verbiage of the itinerary. Words like "stop" mean just that, a stop for a photo break. "Visit" usually means going inside/to the site. See if you can get details from the agency if they do not specify a time (same as if you do a small tour like I mentioned above). Some tours may mean you're sitting on a bus all day from one point to another, too.

I and others on here will be happy to assist you if you decide to go the independent route.

KTtravel

We stayed in a hotel with a Rick Steves tour group in Switzerland and they seemed to be having a great time. I have not taken one of his tours.

I have, however, taken two Road Scholars tours and really enjoyed them although they were not to Greece or Italy (one was to the Middle East and the other to Vietnam & Cambodia.) We had a mix of singles and couples on both tours and everyone seemed to mix well together.

thursdaysd

I mostly travel solo, but I have occasionally taken a tour, Rick Steves for Europe and Intrepid for Asia. You do need to be in good shape for both companies. I would pick RS for Europe if I thought I could keep up. You will find lots of reports on his tours on his website: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks

Intrepid's groups are about half the size, but RS's are small enough everyone can have a double seat to themselves on the bus. The guides have almost always been excellent (one last minute replacement was the only exception), hotels are central and usually family run, food is good, and there will be info on how to manage on your own.

I did the RS Greek tour way back in 2006, and the Sicily tour in 2008. (For my Greece scrapbook see: Kathy Wilhelm's Scrapbook for Rick Steves' Heart of Greece 2006 )