Your recommendations needed? Naples tours

I have received email quotes from two different private companies for our Naples port excursions on the 15th of June. (Brilliance June 5 05 sailing). One is from Salvatore at driveamalfie and one is from Sorentolimo. They both seem to be highly recommended on this site and both seem to agree to take us where we want to go. Salvatore is 100 Euro higher for the 4 of us (or 50 Euro higher if we find another couple to join us) than Sorentolimo. I know it will be a personal "thing" but do those of you who have used the services of these companies have any pros or cons to either one? Thanks so much in advance. Laurey

We used Sorrentolimo in 2003 when we were on the Golden and visted Naples. We went to Pompeii, Herculaneum, the Museum of Archeology in Naples and also went to several scenic overlooks in Naples during our all day tour. The deal we had was a driver and a van. He told us up front he wasn't technically a guide although he did some "guiding" during our time with him. We had an excellent time, the van was clean and the A/C worked which given we were over there during the heat spell in July that summer was important. We had been going to try to see some of the Amalfi coast but the driver suggested if we wanted to see Pompeii and Herculaneum we would not have time to go very far down the coast road and we would be in heavy traffic (it was a Sunday) the whole way. He suggested instead the Museum and a tour of some of the areas around Naples instead. It worked out better for us especially since there was an accident with two buses that day on the highway leading back from the Amalfi coast that caused the ship to leave later than planned because one of the ship's tours hadn't made it back on time. I would also suggest trying to get the extra couple to share the cost no matter which service you decide on. That was how we ended up on our tour and it turned out great. We hooked up from the Cruise Critic boards.

Have a great trip.

Hi,

We used a benvenuto limos while in Naples. (Just to confuse the issue).

Their website is benvenutolimos.com. You may want to compare their

prices. We had the best full day tour with Giovanni and plan to use

him again this year in Livorno.

Sondi

PS Also from BC

We are booked with http://www.driverinrome.com for transport from Civitavecchia to Rome with full day tour. We have also booked them for Naples and have seen many recommendations for Daniele, Remo, or Aldo. They too will customize your day. All of the tour guides mentioned here sound good and you would probably be safe going with the lowest price amongst them.

Julie

If you get the opportunity to tour with Salvatore of DriveAmalfi (*****) then take it.We have used him twice and I would rate him as the best driver and guide out of Naples and being from Amalfi his local knowledge is superb.Make sure you get to visit Positano and Ravello and a village called Pontone which is a great stop for lunch.

I know a lot of folks on this board consider it blasphemous to suggest a ship-sponsored shore excursion as an option...But, I will anyway...

One thing many folks never quite learn about private guides in Italy is that they are NOT allowed to be "guides"...There is a specific license one needs to be a "guide"...So most of the private drivers folks hire can NOT go into Pompei with you and explain what you are seeing...They can only drop you off outside and allow you to pay your admission and go in and explore on your own...Or you may hire an additional guide at Pompei for an additional fee...

The other problem with private guides in Naples is that you are tied to one guy with a car...which actually limits you...If you want to go to Capri--which is an island--you need to take a hydrofoil over, leaving the car in Naples...which means you have to return via Naples to collect the car before continuing on to Pompei or Sorrento or wherever...which in turn, limits what you have time to do...

Due to these problems, and due to our desire to see both Capri and Pompei, we opted for the ship's tour of Capri, Sorrento and Pompei--something a couple of private guides had told me they'd be unable to fit into a single day...The cost through Celebrity was $177 per person and included lunch and all admissions charges, cost of the hydrofoil legs, etc.

The excursion took us first to Capri by Hydrofoil and, after a guided tour of Capri and some free time in town, by Hydrofoil directly to Sorrento...lunch there and some shopping time, then met by bus and on to Pompei where our guide led us on a very informative and interesting tour of the ruins...

The only real negatives were a worthless stop at a cameo factory on the way back to the ship and the fact that we ran about an hour over, just making it back to the ship in time to beat the clock on getting seated for our Main Seating dinner...Obviously, also, we were in a bus with about 25-30 people, it wasn't as personalized as a private guide...but, at least it was a guide and not just a driver...

Since we had an ample opportunity to visit all three sites...and we had an excellent guide--and I mean a real, licensed guide...and we had the comfort and convenience of doing it all through the ship, we were extremely satisfied...and therefore, I recommend you at leeast consider it...

Steve,

Another important thing to mention here is that had you been an hour late back with a private driver, there wouldn't have been any ship waiting for you.

In 2003 the ship left 2 couples in Rome and 1 couple in Naples.

We used Gennaro at Sorrentolimo and were extremely happy with his services. He took us on a spectacular tour of the Amalfi Coast and got us a reservation in a spectacular restaurant overlooking the water at Ravello. We also did a lot of little things like stop at the Emerald Grotto and a beautiful villa. Fabulous trip and fabulous driver. You will love it. Would use him again if we went back.

I totally appreciate your input here. My husband is a firm and staunch supporter of cruise line excursions for the exact reason set out in Andym's post ... but RCI wants US$182. now for the tour you took or US$120 just for the Amalfi Drive and Pompeii. With the Canuck buck against the Euro against the US $ the exchange is killing me here. LOL Last time we were in the Caribbean we tried a taxi on our own (4 of us) and found that we could see more, do more and enjoy more without 38 other people to worry about. There is always that someone who is on their own timetable and insists on making everyone else wait. When we are finished seeing what interests us, we go ... not wait for the rest. I am still mulling this all over and may take your suggestion in the end. Thanks Laurey

One thing you may want to consider is that during crowded periods the big tour buses are not allowed to stop in some of the smaller towns along the Amalfi Coast. It is an incredibly crowded place and finding a place to stop and park big buses can be a very challenging thing. I think the Amalfi area is one of the places where I found a private tour to be most justified. That said, Amalfi Coast would be beautiful no matter when or how you went. Be sure and go to Ravello and Villa Cimbrone, if you get a chance.

I am also toying with the idea of using private excusions as I am also getting a double whammy with the Canadian dollar. We are on the Brilliance on August 16/05. I have tried starting a thread for that cruise a couple of times thinking that we might find someone to share an excursion with, however it would appear that we have the ship to ourselves based on the number of responses. lol.

I would like to hear how you decide as we are on your cruise and have just joined M and M Roll Call. We are a family but would probably do this tour as a couple so if you need an extra couple maybe we could 'fit the bill'. Check my posting on the Brilliance Roll Call.

We also used Gennaro with Sorrento limo and he was wonderful. We were six in total and the ship's prices were prohibitive. We had a wonderful day seeing Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast with a wonderful lunch in Ravello, that two years later my children still talk about. It was a very magical day in an incredibly beautiful location. We loved th ability to tailor the time to our needs. By the way, we used Sorrento Limo for tours in Florence and Rome and were as equally pleased. I owuld highly recommend them. In each instance we had no problems returning on time.

We're also booked with Salvatore ***** and can't wait for our trip and especially interested in Pompei and Ravello and the coast towns.

We also booked with Salvatore of Drive Amalfi.

We are on the Grand Princess ~ June 19, 2005 cruise.

We will be docked in Naples on Wednesday, June 22.

If anyone is interested in joining us on our private

full day tour of the Amalfi Coast, kindly leave us a

message on the thread.

Laurey:

Hi. We are on your same cruise and were originally booked with driveamalfi also. Salvatore couldnt be our driver because he was booked with someone else. Although they were willing to share the tour they wanted to go to Herculaneum rather than Pompeii. I thought that I booked my private tours early, but believe it or not most of the top drivers recommended here are booked really early, so its important that you ask whos going to be your driver and that way you wont be disappointed if you dont get the one that you asked for. The cost for the two of us was 400Euros so we decided to do the Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii tour thru RCCL, the same Bruin Steve took. This is our first time on Naples, and really want to see Capri.

See you on our roll call, have a good day. And Steve thanks again for your help with the RCCL tour.

Lydia

Hi. Has anyone out there used Marcello of seesorrento.com? He is also recommended on the boards very highly? My concern (not with him but with any of these guides) is that I've also read people have booked and then found they did not have the driver they heard so much about. Any negative comments about any of the guides or companies? Also, does anyone know if there is a difference in touring from different ports, i.e. Naples versus, Amalfi versus Sorrento? Thank you!

Hi,

How many people can join? What is the itinerary and how much would it cost? We are 5 adults.

We also booked with Salvatore of Drive Amalfi.

 

We are on the Grand Princess ~ June 19, 2005 cruise.

 

We will be docked in Naples on Wednesday, June 22.

 

If anyone is interested in joining us on our private

 

full day tour of the Amalfi Coast, kindly leave us a

 

message on the thread.

We used Salvatore last year during on our stop in Naples. We had started with just four of us, and had advertised for another 2-3 persons to fill the van. By the time word got around the ship that we were taking a "private tour" that would cover much more territory than any of the ship's tours were offering, we had about a dozen people anxious to join us. I e-mailed Salvatore as we were enroute to Naples, asking him if he could provide a mini-bus. He offered a second van to be driven by an associate, which we gladly accepted.

The associate was nothing like Salvatore. Admittedly, both were drivers and not licensed "guides," but Salvatore took the time to point out areas of interest to us and to answer any questions we had (to his credit, he handed us off to a tourguide when he dropped us off at Pompeii). The other driver followed our van, and we didn't find out until we got to Positano that he took his guide restrictions far too seriously - he didn't talk to the passengers on his van, and when he felt they had asked too many questions, he turned on the radio! One might say this was for ambiance, but it wasn't Dean Martin, Perry Como, or Tony Bennett they were listening to.

If reserve a van, make sure you know who the driver will be, and that the driver will communicate with the passengers - otherwise, you might be advised to read up on Rick Steves before getting into the vehicle to know what you're looking at!

Hi "drwong",

Do you remember the name of the associate.

Thanks.

Hi "drwong",

Do you remember the name of the associate.

Thanks.

I think his name was Salvatore also. Given how little he spoke, however, it really wasn't critical to the persons in van.

When you book, get the proper assurances from Salvatore or whomever you book with that the driver will provide narration during the tour - Sal did give us the disclaimer that they're all "drivers" (as opposed to "guides"), but based on what we picked up on these boards, we expected a little more treatment.

If you're unhappy with the driver, I suppose your only recourse is to give the driver a de minimus tip, and to request a price adjustment from the operator afterwards. Does anyone know of any dissatisfied cruisers who have tried this method and what was the result?

I posted before on this site mentioning that we used Benvenuto Limos

when in Naples and in Rome. Both of the drivers we had were very

knowledgeable about the area and gave us a great deal of information

on the area. In Naples, the price of the tour also included our own

guide in Pompeii who was with us for two hours while we toured and

she was very informative.

Sondi

We (family of 4) have booked the Salvatore who is owner/senior guide of DriveAmalfi for August 4th for the Pompeii/Amalfi Coast tour - after reading the previous posts, I'm glad he was still personally available. Do I need to do anything more to ensure I actually get him that day?

P.S. If anyone from Splendour or Galaxy would like to share the tour on August 4th, please post our Galaxy 7/25/05 Roll Call thread.

We (family of 4) have booked the Salvatore who is owner/senior guide of DriveAmalfi for August 4th for the Pompeii/Amalfi Coast tour - after reading the previous posts, I'm glad he was still personally available. Do I need to do anything more to ensure I actually get him that day?

His verbal commitment is probably the best that you can get. Most of them are pretty good about keeping their word, knowing that these kinds of boards exist.

Note that your "tour" probably doesn't include the admission fees to Pompeii or the Emerald Grotto (a poor substitute for the Blue Grotto). You'll need to pay separately for those attractions, and lunch is on your own as well. Salvatore offered a restaurant option - other CC members have enjoyed it, but we wanted to see as much of the region as possible so we grabbed some focaccia and fresh-squeezed orange juice from a roadside stand and ate as he drove.

Speaking of oranges, I noticed a distinct lack of fresh citrus onboard our ship - I should have had Salvatore stop at a roadside stand and bought a big bag of fresh juicy oranges for 5 euros to pass out to our room stewards!

We are really only interested in Pompeii and the Museaum of Archeology in Naples with maybe an authentic pizza opportunity. We have planned on just taking the train to Pompeii. How hard is it to get to the museum on your own?