⚠ Announcement

►The car you rented for us in Genoa was perfect. We were especially happy we booked with you when KLM cancelled our initial flight at 8 p.m. after we sat in the waiting area for 6.5 hours. You were able to rebook us for the next day. We lost our transfer to our hotel in Nice as a result as your vendor could not accommodate our new schedule. We are out of pocket a lot of money for transfer, food, hotels, etc.

The hotels were all good, as usually. We did have one experience that was not so good. The hotel in Como, while rated four star and very nice, did not handle things as well as they might have. We were assigned a room that had a chlorine content to the water that made it unuseable for drinking or bathing. Rather than changing our room, they allowed us to use two bottles of water from the minibar each day, and that happened only after I brought a glass of water from the tap down to reception. Their initial reaction to my problem was to say it was "safe" and just to clean the water.

Lawrence V.

Otherwise, all went well.

►Gardena Hotel in Venice - nice room, friendly service and great breakfast - highly recommend
Lirico Hotel in Rome - small but nice room, poor wifi, friendly service and great breakfast.

Elsa C.

►So appreciated having trains booked and our two hotels arranged before leaving home.

The Hotel Ginori al Duomo in Florence is in a great location. That said, it is very inconsistent. The first night (we arrived at 6 PM) we were put in the attic, room 34. Up 5 flights of very steep stairs, dark with only a paper-plastered skylight and inadequate other lighting. We were moved the next night to a very comfortable room on the 3rd floor. I've heard from others about the inconsistency of rooms, from very nice, to totally inadequate. The staff was excellent: helpful, friendly, English speaking, welcoming. The public rooms are charming/funky. I'd look at other options when returning.

The Napoleon Hotel in Rome was excellent on all counts. Location, staff, comfort, breakfast room were terrific. We had great recommendations for restaurants, events, transportation, and especially loved meeting the owner at a cocktail event. Would highly recommend even though we might try other hotels just for the experience.

September is still the height of tourist season and the crowds at major attractions were crazy. The skip the line entrances to museums in Florence was very helpful. Visiting the Vatican, even with early entry at 7:30 and a small group tour (10 people), was insane. Our guide was delightful and very knowledgeable. The day trip to Pompeii was fun. I'd suggest more time at Pompeii and less at lunch (which was surprisingly good.) The crowds at Pompeii were overwhelming and truly affected our ability to enjoy it or to even hear our guide through the headsets.

Overall, Veronica was very helpful in planning our trip. I'd suggest trying to figure out a way to limit the duplication on suggested guided tours. I found it very difficult to distinguish between them (there is probably not any difference) and we ended up using three different tour companies while in Rome.

By the way, this is Chris Coleman writing the review. I also booked the entire trip. My husband, James Coleman, was a happy traveler but had nothing to do with arranging this trip with Veronica through Tripmasters. Your company might note that we women are making the travel plans.

Chris C.