Are private tours worth the extra money?

We're in Livorno in June and have a son who needs a wheelchair for long distance walking. The excursion from the ship is £78 and involves a lot of walking but I've seen some private tours with guides that take you to the sights in car. However they are double the price pp and my hubby is extremely reluctant to pay the extra, his attitude is, "Is it really worth it". I know you can get the price down by sharing but I have no idea how to get people to share and if I did and couldn't get enough what happens then? I know we can DIY on the train but how easy is it with a wheelchair?

I would first see if your cruise has just the transportation into Florence; usually called something like "Florence on your own." This would give your family bus transportation into Florence, then on your own, then bus back to the ship.

Florence is really a walking town and the usual tourist sites are pretty close to each other. I honestly have never seen those nasty black cars/minivans running around the historic part of Florence like I see in Rome.

With the need for the wheelchair, I would pick out one or two things that you must see, then spend time in between just relaxing so you can walk about as much as your son can do, stop when needed, etc.

I am a believer in picking the tour that works best for your situation and where you are visiting.

Sometimes that is ships tours. Other times private tours or private shared tours and other times doing the place on our own.

Given what you said, I would go with the private tour. It will really make the touring easier for the three of you. I realize it all comes down to your budget and priorities but I think it is worth the extra money.

If you do want to look at sharing the tour with others than the place to attempt to do that is the roll call for your cruise.

Keith

As Keith has said, being "worth it" al depends on your personal priorities. Frequently private tours are less expensive than ships' tours, but this seems to not be the case in this instance. In addition to your roll call, some tour companies now have a "Tour Share" option directly on their website. It may be worth shopping around a bit.

I think private tours are well worth the extra money because you maximize your time. I am in a wheelchair and we used a private driver to take us to Pisa and Florence.

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I think they are worth it. You can see what you want and spend as much or as little at each place. We did a tour of Rome, and as we ran out of time, we did some fast stops....our driver dropped us off at the top of the Spanish Steps and picked us up at the bottom! It was a lot of fun and we got to do more than "drive by".

You can also ask this question on the disabled cruise forum here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=190

We just came back a 12 day Med cruise and did all private tours for our family of 4. We "met" people on our roll call and arranged to share these private tours but if they hadn't shown up, I'd have been in the hook for the full amount. For us, the private tours were HALF of the ships tours and we did the things we wanted to do. Granted our situation didn't include a wheelchair but I'd certainly look into private tour sharing and ask the companies how they handle folks with wheelchairs.