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italytoursharing.com


HockeyRob
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Okay, after much research I have decided to use italytoursharing.com (akd Joe Banana Limo) I am going to book 3 ports to get the discount and then post on the roll call from what I am reading. The reviews are excellent for this Italy Company and I have a friend that used this company as well. He loved them.

 

My question on here, is do you ever have trouble filling the tours? I dont want to sign up and then not get "8" on each tour?

 

Thanks so much.

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I arranged a tour with italytoursharing for the Amalfi Coast in Oct,2014. We had a wonderful time and a great driver/guide. Excellent communication and assistance thru out the booking process. Looking forward to doing business with them again in the fall of this year. Btw, I had no problem filling our tour

for 8pp from our roll call.

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I am looking into doing a small group tour for stops in Rome and Livorno/ Cinque Terre. I've no idea of the discounts available except if I upgrade from a sedan to an SUV/Van. Question.... The cost of tickets is reasonable for group guided tours organized at the Vatican that you can buy tickets for ahead of time. Or you can buy tickets if you have your own tour guide. Does anyone know the difference?? TIA. :-)

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What if there are only 4 people on your roll call? Is there a way to get others on different ships to join you or people that are doing land based vaca?

 

I just asked the same thing in another thread:..... from their website:

 

5. Can parties from different cruise ships join the same tour?

Unfortunately, we require that all participants in a group be sailing on the same cruise ship. Due to the multitude of risks associated with combining guests from different ships, such as different in port times and terminal locations at ports, we are unable to accommodate groups comprised of a mix of guests from different cruise ships.

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  • 6 months later...

We arranged two tours with Italy Tour Sharing in Rome and Naples (including Amalfi Coast, Positano and Pompeii). After checking reviews online, it sounded like a good company to book with. Both tours started in very comfortable Mercedes eight passenger vans with A/C. In Rome we were able to see all the highlights incuding the Collosseum (with skip the tickets), the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon and the Vatican (with skip the line tickets) and much more. The vans are able to get much closer to the sights than the tour buses. We had an hour of free time in Positano since the van was able to go down into the city. I would definitely recommend Italy Tour Sharing for anyone visiting Italy.

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We arranged two tours with Italy Tour Sharing in Rome and Naples (including Amalfi Coast, Positano and Pompeii). After checking reviews online, it sounded like a good company to book with. Both tours started in very comfortable Mercedes eight passenger vans with A/C. In Rome we were able to see all the highlights incuding the Collosseum (with skip the tickets), the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon and the Vatican (with skip the line tickets) and much more. The vans are able to get much closer to the sights than the tour buses. We had an hour of free time in Positano since the van was able to go down into the city. I would definitely recommend Italy Tour Sharing for anyone visiting Italy.

 

 

Thanks for the report.

 

That is great that others appreciate this company like me. The great thing is too, that we support the local companies. I have used italytoursharing.com many times along with other tour companies recommended on this board. I have never been disappointed!! I am so thankful for cruise critic as the roll calls and private tours have saved a lot of money compared to doing it with the cruise lines.

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I am looking into doing a small group tour for stops in Rome and Livorno/ Cinque Terre. I've no idea of the discounts available except if I upgrade from a sedan to an SUV/Van. Question.... The cost of tickets is reasonable for group guided tours organized at the Vatican that you can buy tickets for ahead of time. Or you can buy tickets if you have your own tour guide. Does anyone know the difference?? TIA. :-)

 

I'm back!! We booked all out tours through italytoursharing.com and I can answer questions now. The tours were perfect. We contacted the company before so the guide got our tickets for us to the colleseum. You can get them on your own but the line was fairly long. If u look at the tour description, some do include tickets.

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I'm back!! We booked all out tours through italytoursharing.com and I can answer questions now. The tours were perfect. We contacted the company before so the guide got our tickets for us to the colleseum. You can get them on your own but the line was fairly long. If u look at the tour description, some do include tickets.

 

 

 

I'm back too. Since May!! [emoji1] We did Rome and Vatican tour by using train and prebuying return tickets for 44€ and an online booking for Vatican tour to bypass the line up for 128€. For 4. Easy commute and no traffic. And it was too much of a chilly wet day to do Cinque Terre so we did plan b) warmer further south and jnland to Tuscany with Sunflower Tours -a great day with Giovanni Sarabella. He is amazing and we saw many many beautiful places including San Gimignano. Id go with Giovanni again in a flash.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...
Okay, after much research I have decided to use italytoursharing.com (akd Joe Banana Limo) I am going to book 3 ports to get the discount and then post on the roll call from what I am reading. The reviews are excellent for this Italy Company and I have a friend that used this company as well. He loved them.

 

My question on here, is do you ever have trouble filling the tours? I dont want to sign up and then not get "8" on each tour?

 

Thanks so much.

We did a tour share this past July on the Carnival Vista using Joe Banana at the port of Livorno. We did the Pisa/Lucca/Forte dei Marmi and the tour and our driver were excellent. All the towns were amazing and the driver was friendly, knowledgeable, and courteous. Our family (2 adults and teen) joined two older couples and a single dad and we all had a great time.

 

Highly recommended.

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Hi,

I read all the comments and recommendations on this thread and contacted them for a quote.

We need just a transfer (for 8) from Rome's airport FCO to the port (Civitavecchia) and another transfer/transportation after the cruise back to FCO.

They responded very quickly ...... but their price is a lot higher than any other quote that I have received.

I am wondering why they are priced so high ? It is just a transfer...... perhaps they are not a Rome /local company.

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  • 1 month later...

We joined a group that I met on our Cruise critic roll call for the seven night Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian star oct 23-30. We visited Italy, Spain and France. I wanted an excursion from Port of Naples to tour Capri, Naples and Pompeii. I took my 21-year-old son. We did the NCL Star group tour 1090 to Capri & Pompeii on Oct 29. I had read great reviews about Joe banana and they did not disappoint. Our tour guide Carlos was fabulous, his English is great, fun enjoyable personality and patience. Carlos showed us a wonderful time and Took our group to an out of the way authentic Italian restaurant in Sorrento for our group of eight to have a terrific meal. I highly recommend.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks for the report.

 

That is great that others appreciate this company like me. The great thing is too, that we support the local companies. I have used italytoursharing.com many times along with other tour companies recommended on this board. I have never been disappointed!! I am so thankful for cruise critic as the roll calls and private tours have saved a lot of money compared to doing it with the cruise lines.

 

I booked 3 excursions in 3 different ports last year with Joe Banana limo's , they have excellent guides , very knowledgable and lots of fun, comfortable vehicles and reasonable prices , will def use them again when I can!

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I too did the 3 tours in each port. I am in the process of booking another cruise. Like others have said on here, once you cruise the mediterranean there is nothing quite like it. I am sure the pocket book will only let us cruise a couple more times in Europe because of airfare but if you get a chance, it is really outstanding.

 

I can highly recommend italytoursharing.com as we booked the 3 tours with them and they delivered a quality tour with very professional drivers.

 

I am glad you enjoyed the tours reilly4514. I did a lot of research on these boards to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. That is a lot of the fun about Europe, is the planning. Takes a lot of time.

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We arrived in Salerno on the Celebrity Equinox on October 20. The reservation was for 8 passengers, tour SAL 004 to Sorrento, Pompeii and Positano. Our group met on the ship then disembarked together. The vehicle was right there at the gangway. Everything was as expected, no surprises. At Pompeii, we were handed off to a very knowledgeable local guide, and at the end of the tour, we were handed back to our vehicle. We had plenty of time at all three stops to shop, eat, and, of course, have gelato! :)

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  • 2 months later...
Okay, after much research I have decided to use italytoursharing.com (akd Joe Banana Limo) I am going to book 3 ports to get the discount and then post on the roll call from what I am reading. The reviews are excellent for this Italy Company and I have a friend that used this company as well. He loved them.

 

My question on here, is do you ever have trouble filling the tours? I dont want to sign up and then not get "8" on each tour?

 

Thanks so much.

 

Had no trouble filling the tour at all. And the fact that you don't have to make all the confirmations, etc makes Joe Banana perfect for putting a group together. You can get the names and email addresses of all who sign on, too, so that you can make arrangements to meet onboard before disembarkation. Top notch company.

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I've booked some more tours with italytoursharing.com and an very excited about my June cruise on NCL. My roll call is very slow.. I've never experienced this before. By this time we all were looking for tours but it seems this cruise people are very slow to join. Anyone experience this before?

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Hi. We haven't done tour sharing before, but are considering it now with italytoursharing.com. My concern is, what happens if you join a tour group set up for 8, but it either doesn't get filled or people back out. Is the final price per person determined by how many show up on the day? If a family or group of 4 cancel, the costs could go up dramatically.

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I........... very excited about my June cruise on NCL. My roll call is very slow.. I've never experienced this before. By this time we all were looking for tours but it seems this cruise people are very slow to join. Anyone experience this before?

 

Our roll call for the cruise on Jewel in first part of July is also very slow ..... with very few participants ....... so different than our last roll call for a TA cruise. It is our first cruise from Civitavecchia so I am learning from all of the posts in this section. Some of the posters are very helpful with the information that they provide.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Livorno was our second port of call and again we decided to take a private tour. This time with Joe Banana Limo. Pisa and Florence were part of our private tour this time. We spent a long day with another wonderful guide, Roberto. He picked us up at the Port of Livorno which is more of an industrial area. Roberto pointed out historic port sites as we made our way to Pisa. Roberto was totally at ease conversing and answering questions, being fluent in English and Spanish. He was amazing and did a wonderful job switching between English and Spanish. He was also patient enough to follow my conversations with my limited Italian anytime I felt brave enough to test my linguistic skills. Roberto took us through hidden countryside roads, where we experienced miles and miles of green fields bursting with either olive trees or vineyards. We made a quick stop along the way to take a few pictures where we got mud on our shoes. It seemed we all loved it, with everybody having an opportunity to take balls of mud as a souvenir. Roberto succeeded in entertaining everybody, starting with my sixty-five year old mother as well as my teenage nieces. It was the best experience ever! About 40 minutes later we arrived in Pisa. We walked to the Leaning Tower, it was almost a dream to be there. Roberto drove us around town, showing us ancient city walls, public baths, and churches. To our surprise many other areas in the city are sinking and leaning as well. It was absolutely beautiful! A bit more driving and we found ourselves in Florence. Our first stop was at La Academia Gallery, where we could not miss a chance to see the original David by Michelangelo (where we found ourselves grateful to have purchased skip the line tickets through Joe Banana). There were many other places of note that we visited or passed by as we were touring. We then drove back through the countryside arriving with time to spare to reboard our cruise ship. Everybody had a great time and absolutely loved Roberto! We highly recommend this company. If we go back, we will absolutely book with Joe Bananas Limo again.

 

Rome was our third stop at the port of Civitavecchia. We decided to book The Best of Rome tour with Joe Banana again based on several positive reviews. Our private guide, this time around was Marcus. We were once again a group of six with only limited Italian where he did a great job as a guide speaking in English. Marcus picked us up in a comfortable Mercedes Van. He was very knowledgeable and professional throughout the day. It took about an hour and twenty minutes to drive from the port to Rome. Marcus took us to several famous sites where we wandered at our leisure. We walked to the Spanish steps, Piazza Navona, and Trevi Fountain. Though it was crowded, we managed to throw a coin into the fountain ensuring our return to Rome. It was quite magical. We visited the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill and Circus Maximus. Marcus then shared his favorite lunch stop where we had awesome pizza. We then moved on to a stop for gelato which was as good as the pizza. We also made a stop in the Vatican City where we were once again very grateful to have purchased skip the line tickets through Joe Banana. We found the Vatican to be well beyond crowded. We did not have a great experience visiting the Sistine Chapel because of the overwhelming number of people. At the end of the day, none of our group had a positive experience while there. We do need to emphasize that was no fault to Marcus and the extreme crowds allowed by Vatican staff. Our overall experience of Rome was very positive and for sure unforgettable. No doubt we recommend Joe Banana Limo for the second time for a private tour.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We have used Joe Bananas Limo service several times for our tours in Italy and they are indeed as many have stated, great. The drivers are very knowledgeable and courteous. Nothing but the best. We are using them again for our upcoming HAL cruise in June of 2018. They have lots of choices and options for the size of a tour group. We actually are going to do a 2-person tour with them in 2018 and looking forward to it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

If anyone is considering using Joe Bananas for a private tour, I can highly recommend them. The drivers and guides they use are excellent. The simple touches like water and candies in the car were much appreciated. Being somewhat limited in how far I can walk, I really enjoyed being taken literally to within footsteps of most sights.

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Hi. We haven't done tour sharing before, but are considering it now with italytoursharing.com. My concern is, what happens if you join a tour group set up for 8, but it either doesn't get filled or people back out. Is the final price per person determined by how many show up on the day? If a family or group of 4 cancel, the costs could go up dramatically.

 

Your tour will happen without it being filled up to 8; you will just pay for the number of people that do go

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If anyone is considering using Joe Bananas for a private tour, I can highly recommend them. The drivers and guides they use are excellent. The simple touches like water and candies in the car were much appreciated. Being somewhat limited in how far I can walk, I really enjoyed being taken literally to within footsteps of most sights.

 

 

I agree. They are the best in my opinion. We parked right next to the Pantheon in Rome while we toured it. They stopped and bought us lemon ice in Naples and provided excellent narrations for all our tours. We used them several times in Rome, Florence, Pisa, and the entire Naples area.

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