Recommendations on Alain Dream Tours or Michel of Revelation Tours

[marise]

We spent the full 9 hour with him for a very pleasant day, and decided to give him a big tip...Enjoy the Med, you can't go wrong with either of these 2 companies...

Kim-LTGL

 

Kim, thanks for the info. We are cruising on the Brilliance, Oct.5 - Med - Venice, and I was just curious what to tip tour guides who have already quoted a price for their services? We too will be using Revelation Tours in France and Limoinrome, in Livorno and Rome.

 

Thanks for any info available.

Marise

[marise]

Sorry Kim, I just read earlier posts to this thread, and you had answered my question (above), re tipping private tour guides!!!

Marise

[Leejnd4]

Hi,

 

I'm really pleased to read all the rave reviews about Michel of Revelation. I emailed him some questions yesterday, and promptly received a very nice, informative response. We are considering using him for our stop in Monte Carlo, but I haven't figured out exactly what to do yet.

 

It does seem that his prices have increased -- he quoted an 8-hour custom tour for 600 Eu. As there are only two of us, I'm now trying to figure out if we should try to drum up six other people for the van to spread the cost, or if we should see about taking one of his pre-set tours where we can pay per-person.

 

So I suppose I should ask -- If anyone out there is going to be in Monte Carlo on May 9, are ya interested in joining us?

 

LeeAnne

[Luvcrusin']

LeeAnn,

 

You will want at least 4 others to do the tour with you. There were 6 of us and it was just perfect, as his lovely van seats 6 perfectly! Go to Roll Call and find your cruise & post it there.

 

Happy cruising!!

Kathy

[suntanzi]

Six of us will be cruising with Brilliance of the Seas in early June 2005. We have never been to the Mediterranean, but have traveled quite extensively. The two tour operations for private tours in Villefranche appear to be the above I just mentioned. I would appreciate any feedback on them, as well as recommendations for private tours to:

 

Taormina, Sicily

Livorno, Italy

Barcelona, Spain

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Doc in Atlanta

Dream Tours was one of the BEST I took last week, Frederic was our driver. I would use driverinrome.com for Livorno, they were the other BEST tour of the week.

[marise]

We were just on a Med cruise on the Beautiful Brilliance of the Seas, Oct.5-17 and we had Michel of Revelation Tours in Villefranche. We decided to only take a 4 hour tour as we had my 85 yr old mother along, who didn't want an all day tour. Michel was EXCELLENT! Knowledgeable, accomodating, a comfortable air conditioned van for 6 - non-alcoholic drinks available if we were thirsty. and everyone got an information folder to boot, with maps and little writeups about the places we were at. In the short time span he showed us Monaco - Princess Grace's gravesite, Prince Rainier's Palace, Monte Carlo - the Grand Casino, and even drove us to the delightful village of Eeze where we got to explore and shop! I would like to recommend him HIGHLY to anyone who wishes to hire him. His charges were very reasonable too.

 

In Livorno and Rome we had prebooked the services of Claudio Caponera of Limoinrome. Claudio was already booked by the time I got to him, but he sent LAURA in Livorno and a huge and very comfortable van for 6 of us and our 9 hour tour. She was an excellent guide, knowledgeable and proud of her country and it showed in her guiding.

 

In Rome, Claudio sent us Carlo. Unfortunately, while this man was a gentleman, his guiding skills were next to none and his English was not very good either.....So just a warning for anyone that happens to get him in the future. He did, to his credit, get us to all the places we wanted to go, and maybe because it poured when we were at the Colisseum, we felt shafted!!

[Leejnd4]

Marise,

 

Thanks for the great review of Michel! We have him reserved for our cruise in May. I'm just praying I'll be able to find a few more people to join us, as we can't affort it on our own. I still have several months, so hopefully I'll be able to do that.

 

LeeAnne

[Guest Crazeecat5]

My DH and I also have Michel booked for August with another couple. We have also booked driverinrome for Naples with another couple and in Livorno to take us to Lucca and Pisa since we have been to Florence several times. We used driverinrome this past summer in Rome and loved them. Aldo was our driver. We enjoyed every bit of his quirkiness.

Sheryl

[Glendamcd]

Jean Marc with Dream Tours was absolutely fantastic. Best Tour Guide we had on

our Cruise. Recommend him Highly

[alcman]

We and 4 others used Alain of DreamTours in Villefranche and had the most wonderful time. I have no hesitation recommending him. He took us everywhere and was quite knowledgeable.

 

In Rome we used Max Leotta (the tour was given by his brother Fabio). He was great and he took us out of the city for a wonderful lunch (a cruise highlight for us).

 

Jerry

[Linny13]

We are back from our magical 2 weeks in Europe!!! The most absolutely amazing days were the days that we had booked private tours (all found and researched with the help of these very cruise critic boards)!!

 

We had set up a tour for 8 people with Dream Tours in Monaco/Nice/Eze/St. Paul de Vence/Monte Carlo. Our driver was Jean Marc. He was simply fabulous!!! What a nice man! We felt that we knew him as a friend for years. Not only was he knowledgable, spoke perfect English, but was passionate and relaxed. This was a day that was beyond words. We saw everything we wanted and more! We had a terrific French lunch in the amazing city of St. Paul de Vence (THE place you do NOT want to miss!) We learned so much while having so many laughs as well.

 

Again, we were 8 people on tour with driverinrome for both Pisa/Florence and Rome. We had Danielle for both tours. He was terrific. Not only did he show and tell you about the sights but he listened to you and at the slightest mention of something, he showed it to you or got it for you. For example, someone said coffee and there we were at a cafe or ice cream and there was gelato or wine and we were at a supermarket buying wine at 1/3 the price of a liquor store or Sicily and he was on the phone recommending and setting up a tour for us in Palermo!! Just a note to tell you that I left my carry-on bag (with my DH's medicine in it) in Danielle's van after the tour by mistake and he brought all the way back to the hotel in Rome that evening for us. We are very appreciative!

 

 

In Palermo, Sicily we were 8 again and we had Sylvano Lunetta www.easytoursicilia.it (recommended by Danielle of driverinrome), who was the most passionate about the incredible place where he lived and worked! Not only did we enjoy him, but I think he enjoyed us having a great experience. He was very intent on making sure we had a great tour and tried to accomodate all our requests, while still getting us back to the ship on time! A must see on this trip was a town on top of the mountain called Erice.

 

The last tour we took was from Rome (after the cruise) with driverinrome for 4 people to Positano/Pompeii/and Sorrento with Fabrizio. He is such a fun, knowledgable, yet professional guy. This was an 11 hour long tour (alot of driving) but worth every minute!! Pompeii is something everyone should experience and Positano was the most spectacular sight of the entire trip!!!!! Also, the restaurant that Fabrizio brought us to was the best food in the world accompanied by the best view overlooking Positano and the Mediterranean Sea! Fabrizio also took us to the airport in Rome for our trip home and still was pointing out things we had missed on the Rome tour!!

 

Anyone who goes to Europe and is limited by ship time constraints to see such historical and amazing places (IMHO) should try to take private tours if they can! They are a little expensive, but I think you can see twice as much as the ships tours offer in the same amount of time for close to the same price. You will not regret it and definitely will never forget it!!

 

Happy touring!

 

Linny