RCCL Rome small group tour vs private car tour

My husband I are trying to decide between booking the Rome small group tour through Royal Caribbean that only has 28 people and hiring a car with our own private driver from an outside company. We will have over $1000.00 on board credit and we're in a suite that includes the gratuities, beverage package, and all of the restaurants so we won't need the onboard credit for any of these. The small group tour is actually more expensive than the private car but it would be "free" with the onboard credit. Would you recommend this tour or is there a review of it anywhere on Cruise Critic?

I guess 28 is not as big as 40-45...but not by much. Just out of curiosity, does RCI offer a truly small group (2-8) "private" tour? If so, take that. 28 really isn't small.

While I agree with cruiser Bruce that a 28-person tour is not equivalent to a small 6-8 person private tour, there are a lot of variables to consider.

Is this your first of what you hope will be many trips to Rome, or is this a once-in-a-lifetime trip? If it's the latter, I'd be more likely to recommend the private tour.

On my first Med cruise, I went with my mother who was terrified of private tours. We ended up taking several of the "smaller group" ship tours and I would say they seemed better than the larger bus tours in some respects (particularly in terms of having fewer "forced shopping" stops....). But on the other hand, the one we took in Istanbul was terrible and pretty much convinced me to avoid ALL ship tours in future.

If you're looking for a review of the specific tour you have in mind, you may have better luck posting the question on the RCL board here, with the specific tour name and itinerary.

Would there be another place that you could do a tour instead.

If it was me I would rather be on a private tour of Rome to get the most out of it.

I am not sure how much you have in Rome but if only the day then the private will allow you to see more sites and travel more quickly.

Are there no other places on your cruise where you might tour?

Keith

Thank you so much to your advice. I'm going with a private tour just the two of us.